My solar panels were a little warped but nothing that was a dealbreaker or worth the hassle of correcting.
Yep, my inner cockpit ball was warped as well. Just CA'd one part at a time and used a few clamps to get it together.I just got one of these for Xmas - great looking kit but one half of the cockpit inner ball was warped quite badly - front top corner was 1/4" out of alignment when bottom & back corners were clipped together - anyone else have this?
Thankfully after soaking in near boiling water for a couple of minutes and a bit of manual encouragement got it back into shape...
I did something similar with mine minus the pilot.I too got one of these kits for Christmas and so far it's great. My favorite detail -- and I'm so pleasantly surprised by this -- is the accurate recreation of the Kool Shade. The spoke lines (for lack of a better term) recreate the braided texture of the shade and the shade texture has some nice irregularities that catch the light unevenly as the model moves. Nice!
On my kit, I'm recreating the studio model cockpit rather than the studio set. If anyone knows where I can find an accurate 3D file of the modified Harrier pilot, let me know.
I did something similar with mine minus the pilot.
Fake baby! PVC pipe with 3/8” threaded insert for the stand mount. Does the trick to communicate the idea. If it was truly SS I’d figure out a way to get one made.Nice! It looks like you added the metal armature inside too. Is it actual metal or is it fake?
Fake baby! PVC pipe with 3/8” threaded insert for the stand mount. Does the trick to communicate the idea. If it was truly SS I’d figure out a way to get one made.
I too got one of these kits for Christmas and so far it's great. My favorite detail -- and I'm so pleasantly surprised by this -- is the accurate recreation of the Kool Shade. The spoke lines (for lack of a better term) recreate the braided texture of the shade and the shade texture has some nice irregularities that catch the light unevenly as the model moves. Nice!
Absolutely brilliant. Such a nice surprise to see when I opened the kit.I went to great effort to accurately recreate that in 3D. I have some vintage KoolShade in my hand that's the same material that was used on the filming models. I not only measured it with calipers, but also did a 2D flatbed scan at ultra-high resolution so I could get the dimensions and layout just right.
It's possible the factory might have had to fill in some undercuts, but I modeled the "braid" as you call it exactly as it was in the actual material. The louvers, of course, had to be at least somewhat compromised for injection molding as they would have presented severe undercuts.
Yeah, I noticed that too. It looks like some of the solar panel arm supports got cut up for the wings too. My only hesitation in starting a conversion is that I know R2 will announce a kit as soon as I'm halfway finished.They not only reused the "ball" from the "ball and arms" but also a portion of two wing stars. They cut them up and rotated them. In theory, you could build a matching Vader's TIE from scratch using parts from this AMT kit.
Incredible
Other than the "modesty panel" (as I call it) I didn't study the interior of the filming model that much as I had no intention of recreating any of it.
As for the armature, I think it might have been 1 1/4" OD aluminum tube. But, don't quote me on that!