Update Long Overdue
It’s been awhile, and a lot has happened. It’s time for an update . . .
Bottom Cavities/Recesses:
So I left off last talking a bit about my plan for the bottom cavities/recesses, and how I planned to use steam table pans and route a recess into the bottom for each pan. I had planned on purchasing a rabbeting bit for this purpose, but instead thought to myself “What if I just lower the roundover bit to create a recess? That way I don’t have to buy another bit!” Ultimately that’s what I did, but I don’t think it’s as clean of a method. One thing I learned here is that a bit will chew right through MDF when you’re working on the inside of the material. To clarify what I mean, if you’re not careful in the corners of the recess, you’ll easily go right through the corner and really muck things up. Here’s a photo of the pans in place where you can still see the awesome routing job:
The way I ultimately attached the pans was with a series of screws on the underside, and then I decided to glop 100% silicone on the inside to really hold them in place (I mean come on, my sink is held onto the underside of my counter with this—it should work pretty well for this application). I know a lot of people use spray foam insulation to add a little structure here, but I like the idea of additional strength of the silicone product.
As a side note, you might spot a few additional uprights in the frame. As I was cutting out the panel recesses and the steam pan holes, I was ultimately cutting into certain uprights or was otherwise hitting part of the frame. I went ahead and added uprights in between each panel and in between the pans just for giggles. Better safe than sorry . . .
Panel Recesses and Mechanicals:
While the box was turned over I decided it was a good time to get the panel recesses plugged and some of the wiring out of the way. The photos above show the panel recesses already filled. However, this ended up being a challenge. Because I didn’t cut the recesses out of the sides before attaching them to the frame (note for next HIC), I ended up cutting into the 2x frame in certain places, which meant that there wasn’t a straight edge on the top or bottom of the panel hole (or a lip on the top or bottom). What does that mean? I couldn’t just shove a piece of wood back there and fully cover the hole. I ended up having to use spray foam to fill some gaps, then went back over it with paintable caulk to even things out. The end product looks fine, but this was a time suck that I didn’t need.
As far as the wiring, I went ahead and drilled a hole in the backing wood for the 2nd panel recess so that I could fish my wires through. For the hero panel I essentially just created a rim around the opening, as the electronics and light box protruded too far to really put anything substantial behind the panel. I then created an electronics “shelf” by adding another support brace a little off of the edge of the inside of the box, which allowed for a little additional support for the computer speakers and USB power supply mount I was adding. I screwed those in place, and also went ahead and added the TV mount brackets. Finally, I was ready to turn the box over and move forward:
Attaching Han:
So, I flipped the box over, and BAM! The Han cast sat perfectly and life was grand:
Actually, no. He looked like he was floating. Now, is this due to me “eyeballing it” a little too often on the box, or is this due to a crappy Han cast? Either way, I had to figure out how to secure him properly and possibly do a little damage control. I ultimately used wood screws all around the lip of the cast, doing my best to delicately position him into place. Then, I realized that there were bubbles of fiberglass on the back of the cast that were causing excess warpage. So, out came the angle grinder and away went the bubbles. I was able to get him “about flat” with some careful screw work, then said to myself, “Why not use some of that amazing silicone goop here too to make sure that nothing pops up unexpectedly and that it’s held on as well as my sink?! Genius!” I then put down a little preliminary carbonite (more on that below) to get a sense for how this was going to turn out. Genius. I went to bed thinking I was the man:
Well, that was until I read that paint doesn’t stick to silicone. At all. Umm, this was unfortunately after I’d used the silicone to goop up all the gaps, and also to fill a few cracks/voids created by the delicate stretching of the cast to make it sit flat. Then, I let it sit overnight. Luckily there’s a primer product out there that’s supposed to stick to the silicone. It’s called “BIN” and is made by Zinsser. I promptly ordered a bunch of that on Amazon and brushed it over all the areas where I used the silicone. It took a few passes, but I ultimately got some coverage. With the buildup of carbonite that has to happen all around the edges of the cast this may not have been an issue. However, I was paranoid. Here he is with a light coating of BIN over the silicone:
Carbonite:
There seem to be quite a few methods out there for the best way to create the carbonite look. A popular one seems to be to shell out for Bondo as the primary filler, and the people that have done that seem to be much happier than the ones that started out pouring layers of Elmer’s Glue (which isn’t cheap by the way when you’re buying multiple gallons). I decided that a 45 pound bucket of Wal-Mart branded nice, professional grade drywall joint compound that I picked up for less than $15 would either allow me to do the trick, or at least provide the initial filler base that I needed. Joint compound generally has the same texture as Bondo and has a longer working time. The only downside is that it shrinks/cracks as it dries out whereas the Bondo doesn’t really change. When you’re really glopping it on, the cracks are all that much bigger. I figured I’d pour a layer of glue over the cracked drywall layer to fill in the voids and maybe get some of the goo look. This was basically absorbed by the cracks instead of filling in those voids. But, it did leave a great smooth texture to the carbonite. I ended up going back in with the joint compound (rubbing it into the cracks with my fingers) to get a nice layer, and did a little texturing with the drywall knife. I then sanded the drywall to take off the sharper edges to make it look a little more like carbonite and less like a bad drywall job. I then painted on a layer of Elmer’s Glue All with a foam brush so that all of the carbonite had that great post-glue texture. Lastly, I poured a few choice puddles to add additional gooey dimension. Here are some photos of the process (oh yeah, and I generally shot it with some automotive primer between layers so that I could see what I was working with):
Box Prep:
I basically finished the carbonite before the frame, as I wanted to make sure I didn’t get too excited and rush the paint. I also liked having the ability to wipe excess Bondo or other materials on the box to fill holes if I had too much when I was working on Han. What I will say to those who are taking on this project though is to really think about what you want the finished product to look like. If you want it smooth and glassy, then really spend some time here. I could have benefitted from a little more work here, but I also like a touch of character. I’m not 100% sure how I will do my own (this one is for my buddy/the financer). Due to some issues early on, I had quite a few spots to address. Best to use Bondo here or a similar automotive body filler, as the joint compound is more prone to cracking with movement (and ultimately this has to be transported to my buddy). After I ran out of my quart of Bondo, I ordered a gallon of Chrome-A-Lite on Amazon for like $21. It was much cheaper than the Bondo, and seemed to be just as good for this purpose, if not better. After a fair bit of filling and sanding, here’s where I ended up:
Pro Tip: If you don’t have one, get yourself a nice orbital sander from Harbor Freight for $20ish. This thing saved my life. You don’t need to go fancy, but my palm and belt sanders were next to useless for this kind of a span where I was trying to get it relatively flat the whole way. After the filler, sanding, etc., I touched up Han’s primer and became giddy:
Paint:
On to another source of debate. I found myself in a Home Depot picking up more primer and realizing, “I’m almost ready for paint and I don’t think I have paint at home!” I had already settled on the Brilliant Metal Finish from Rustoleum that I had been using for my panels for the main Han portion. However, what to do about the box?! I didn’t see the nickel or stainless colors that others have used. In fact, except for very light greys or metallic colors, grey options were actually in short supply. I ended up opting for Rustoleum’s Charcoal Grey in gloss (the only option as far as finish texture). I know some people think the box, panels, and Han were all one color. Some think Han was a lighter color, but the box and panels were the same. Some think the colors were different for ROTJ vs. ESB, etc. Ultimately, I like the contrast of a darker box, lighter panels, and a lighter Han. This seems to go hand in hand with my preference for a clear delineation of box vs. carbonite (note that I didn’t fill the carbonite up to the box edge as some others have done). It also looks like that’s the way the folks at Sideshow went with their licensed replica (for what that’s worth).
Now that that’s out of the way it’s time to discuss the process. To me, the smart money seemed to be to paint the box first, then tape off the box and paint Han. So, charcoal grey box first:
As an aside, I thought the grey overspray on Han looked pretty cool. It brought out a lot of the carbonite detail. Note that I didn’t paint the entirety of the control panel backing boards, as they wouldn’t be visible. I did primer them though . . .
Now to tape him off and hit him with Brilliant Metal Finish:
Pro Tip: Make sure the box paint is dry before taping it off (I let it sit a day in a 90+ degree garage). Then, place a piece of tape where you want your edge before adding masking material (in my case, newspaper). Then, go back and tape the newspaper to your piece of tape. That way you get a nice edge without fighting newspaper the whole time.
Wow, look at this contrast with the masking removed:
Weathering:
So, obviously Han looks a bit ridiculous above. If he looked like that in the movie it would have been very unrealistic and you probably couldn’t have made out any of his details. Solution? $1 of acrylic hobby paint. Well, at least that was my solution. Others have weathering mixes that they’ve used on other projects. This is my first go at something like this, so I kept it simple. I basically covered the bottom of a Dixie cup with the black hobby paint, then filled it up about ¼ of the way with water. Next I painted it on with a foam brush, let it sit for a minute, then wiped it up with a rag. This allows you to fill in the crevices and bring out the details in the work. It also tames the bright color of the Brilliant Metal Finish to make it look more like carbonite. Here’s a shot where I’d done about half of it on my initial pass (I only had about 10 minutes I could spend on it that night):
After looking closely at my photos for the next day or so, I concluded I was still missing a lot of detail and wanted to make the black “stick” a little better so that I didn’t just wipe it all up when going over my crevices. So, the next night I added more paint and less water. In theory this was great. But (1) it dried quicker (I think this was a combination of the higher paint content, it being hotter in the garage, and me having my fan blowing), and (2) it became very easy to over-weather. I ended up going back and hitting a couple places with the Brilliant Metal Finish where it got too dark. It may still be too dark for some people’s taste, but I think it turned out pretty close to what I had in mind. To top off the look though, I also took a tip from (I believe) Jedifyfe’s book and decided to hit it with a brown/bronze metal color. I didn’t spray it directly on Han or the box, but I did mist over the entire thing. It really added an amazing dimension to it. It makes it look like it is just a touch dirty/may have a touch of rust on it. But, you can’t really put your finger on where it’s at with the mist. It’s just one of those things that make it look a whole lot more realistic, partially because your mind doesn’t necessarily close in on what’s different about it. As I said, I did the box as well as Han with the mist. I didn’t weather the box otherwise, as I felt like it was not going to be noticeable given how dark it was in the Charcoal Grey color. The bronze gave it a bit of an aged appearance and softened the contrast a bit. If you compare the photos below to some of the ones above, you can get a sense for what the bronze did to the box as well. Without further ado, here are the pics of the finished Han (sans panels):
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