AT-ST: Between two logs (FINISHED)

[JediMichael]

Got a coat of primer, and see the need to sand edges a little.

For all the white parts, mostly cutting out the shapes from the thinnest styrene I have, and keeping parts in groups so I don't get them all mixed up.

The plan is to spray the main piece all black and the small peices all white, and using clear elmers glue, put them on very carefully.
I hope it works, as a lot of these pieces are extremely small and easy to drop.

 

[JediMichael]

So I finally got all the tiny white area cut out. Just over 60 of them. Didn't realize that until I started. I was afraid painting them would blow them all away, so I put them on painters tape and kept the coloring lables.

So my next thought was, once hre main peice is painted black, then glue all these white parts on, then clear coat it with gloss.
But I got thinking, that even with clear elmers glue, some is bound to get on the black area and be seen...so would it show up even with the clear gloss coat?
Testing time....
Using that piece I cut out the little parts, first primed it, waited a few hours. Then flat black. Wait few more hours.
Decided to try clear tacky glue on the top, and the elmers on bottom.
It definitely dhowed up once dry.
Once clear coated, which I totally forgot to take a pic, and once dry, I think all the glue spots showed up even more.
So thats not good.

Another test. I painted on a thick amount of elmers glue with a brush. I'll let it dry overnight and see if it looks good that way, as when dry, the glue had more of a gloss look than the clear gloss spray.
My worry is that it will leave brush marks...but I can do another test mixing the glue with a little water to thin it, then try painting it on.
Sure rather do all these tests then mess up the real piece.

 

[JediMichael]

Checking it, and the elmers glue painted on actually turned out really good. I still will test it with some water mixed in.
But now hoping the final piece will turn out that good.
The very top and bottom were not coated with the glue, only the clear coat.

 

[JediMichael]

Almost done with the main piece.

Without flash and trying to get my shadow out of the way.

 

[Snow Builder]

That’s looking fantastic.

 

[JediMichael]

Other then the letters, I'm finished for now. Here with the flash. I think because I added the clear coat more heavy than the test, it ended up looking good (better in person than this pic) so I didn't risk covering it with elmers glue for another coat, even if it would look more shiny.

Angled with no shine.

Cut out these little pegs, so its raised up, not quite half an inch..

On the wall for now. I also think I need to add some kind of black boarder around it, as it looks like normal piece of white paper and not stryene.

Black boarder will also match al the rest of the pictures.

So I contacted an old coworker who has a decal making machine about the lettering. If he isn't able to do it, guess I'll just print them out on photopaper and add that to another slightly raised piece under the main logo.
So for now.....back to the main topic of this whole thread.
But Hey, I got this basically done in 8 days.....EIGHT DAYS. Thats like a world record....well, at least a record for me with actually finishing it all up, minus the letters.....

 

[JediMichael]

AND.....back to the log smashing....or, smashing the AT-ST WITH the logs.

I had already given it a coat of super flat spray.
So I first started around the burnt area, fixing it up, and then continued with weathering the whole thing.
I now want to go give it another flat coat, so by tomorrow, I can keep going.
I noticed, that my own burning was more on the right side, and in the movie, its also the right side that has more fire and burning....so that worked out good, and therefore I added more burnt parts on that right side.

 

[JediMichael]

Getting there...
I attached the logs, and while they look good, I feel its missing something...and realize, its that idea that the logs need to look like they are in motion, even though its frozen in time.
So, if someone had never seen Return of the Jedi...well, I might just have to end everything for them right there....I mean, would they know that the logs are suppose to be crushing it?
So ideas start sparking....technically literally...
I aleady thought of adding a bit of the explosion, but looking at the scene, a lot of sparks were flying out as well.
I really do not want to mess with lights, so how to do that in another way.
Cotton balls are usually the best form of an explosion. I wanted to see if I could make them a bit harder/stiffer than just a cotton ball painted.
I know they sell spray glue, but now, on such a tight budget, thought, maybe hairspray would work...but I have none.
I found some hair gel my brother had left over 5 years ago. So I mixed that into one of the balls, along with the clear elmers glue, and then clear tacky glue, jist as tests to see how it turns out.
The hair gel looks best here...hope it dries and turns out correct. And then paint it.

So then sparks fly out. I have some thin styrene strips. A few in some places could work...but I wanted even thinner.
Maybe fishing string, all painted correctly, and around an inch sticking out might work.
Added 3 strands between these empty tissue boxes, and after taking the pic, sprayed them with white primer to begin.

This all might work out how I want it to....or all completely fail.
Thats the fun experimenting part of it and hope that the idea in my head actually works.

 

[JediMichael]

Took this scene and slowed it WAY down with the Topaz AI video. 8x slower at 120fps.
Its not perfect and frames start fading into each other, but still kinda neat to see how it works.

And mine laying down on my super dirty mouse pad.

 

[JediMichael]

Got the base primed and first coat of brown painted on. I'm glad it actually holds the whole thing pretty well. Little wobbly if you touch it. Might still add a bit of weights underneath.

For the FF6 logo, made the border. Because the pieces of styrene were not long enough, I then cut out squares to cover that.

For now, looks like this.
That old coworker isn't able to do the decals for me, so I'll just have to print it and glue that on and hope it looks alright.

 

[JediMichael]

Totally finished with this one, so now I can focus on the log smashing, which is coming out pretty good. Hope I can get some pics soon.

 

[JediMichael]

For the guns on each side, if you watch the movie frame by frame, they seem to fly off, just the motion blurr makes it hard to tell.
The logs technically smash a little lower than mine, it was just more convenient to add the holes where the guns would have gone.
So I glued the guns just a little behind the logs on each side, a little smashed up and rotated, as if they are flying away.
Still need to weather them more and give a flat coat.

 

[JediMichael]

Almost forgot about the handrail around the top here. Now it also has nice smashing action.

Got the ground finished. I see there were a ton of ferns in the forest, so I added some green.

Here with the flash, and then play with contrast type settings, I think its looking pretty cool.
Get a few more little things to try out, and then I'll be finally finished.

 

[JediMichael]

I'm also glad that you can see the one guy between the part being crushed and the front window. The other, you can see his helmet a little. (but not in these photos)

 

[JediMichael]

So trying to add sparks is not so easy. Plus, I'm not ysing any lights.
With painted cotten balls, and fishing string and styrene rods, did what I could, as best I could figure out how to do it.

Not perfect by any means, but it still has a cool look to it.

Heres comparing.

Might play around with it a little more, but once I decided its finished as much as I can get it, then I'll use the good camera for some pics.

 

[JediMichael]

Decided the dowel rods looked to perfect, so I took a dremel and chewed up the ends to appear more random like, then repainted them. Its better.

I also think it needs just a few more of the pointed cotten balls. So just covered some in the elmers glue, and twisted them to a point.
Once dry, I can then spray on the colors, and decide where to add some more.
Almost there.....

 

[kermet]

Wow dude been busy in the shop so I have really missed out on these builds And You Have Nailed It super great job on the shadow box love the walker you can see the poor smashed dude in there Great detail JediMicheal CUDOS!!!!!!!

 

[JediMichael]

Wow dude been busy in the shop so I have really missed out on these builds And You Have Nailed It super great job on the shadow box love the walker you can see the poor smashed dude in there Great detail JediMicheal CUDOS!!!!!!!

Thanks. Always good to keep busy.

 

[srspicer]

Looking great!!

 

[TazMan2000]

Unsure if you can modify it, but lighting up the cotton balls with lights creates a very convincing effect.

TazMan2000