Studio Scale Probe Droid

Lee, after your leg work (harr) I can't imagine anything looking better, especially to your eye. It's like seeing a resin AT-St after you build a scratch one. Sure, it's nice to get a peck on the cheek, but it's not a nice long snog with that hottie in the a-line wool skirt and purple tights behind the cafeteria, circa 1988.

But I digress

understandable Lee, you've spent a ton of time on your PD project. Now if I can just talk some of my buddies into making my SS Landspeeder project a reality, My museum will be set.

moffeaton said:

Lee, after your leg work (harr) I can't imagine anything looking better, especially to your eye. It's like seeing a resin AT-St after you build a scratch one. Sure, it's nice to get a peck on the cheek, but it's not a nice long snog with that hottie in the a-line wool skirt and purple tights behind the cafeteria, circa 1988.

But I digress

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A line wool skirt, and purple tights, id better not stand up right now huh LOL.
I think as i said this will appease the masses for sure, but its not a patch on what Mars has laid down, just seems sad to post this, at this point in time, in this current state just to plug a sale because another guy dared to make a difference with a true Probe Droid.

lee

The more scratchbuilt option isn't best for me. If any option existed, the kit version would be the one I'd go with. I think it is segmented into two different customers (unless you're moffeaton!).

I'm not sure if I'd make the kit TBH, because of the massive size of the thing...

This looks great Dave. It's good to see that DYI isn't the only game in town!

Lets stay on topic gentlemen. My thread has zero to do with someone else's probe droid threads. I've been working on this for 3 years now. It only reached Mike's capable hands last week. I wish it had been 3 years ago. But such is life.

Dave

Scott Graham said:

The more scratchbuilt option isn't best for me. If any option existed, the kit version would be the one I'd go with. I think it is segmented into two different customers (unless you're moffeaton!).

I'm not sure if I'd make the kit TBH, because of the massive size of the thing...

This looks great Dave. It's good to see that DYI isn't the only game in town!

Click to expand...

I agree, this is the perfect solution to the person who has a limited skillset, a GK, you said it best Scott.
Dave, no hards man, it is nice, and itll look killer when built, it really will, so good luck with the groups project.

lee

Thanks Lee. Your compliments are highly regarded here man.

Thank you too Scott.

There are so many tiny but well worth the effort upgrades to this already if you haven't gone too deep with things yet. One quite simple one would be to mount the plastruct lamps from the inside of the sphere's, the difference in look is huge for such a small adjustment and well worth it I think. Pardon if you already have its hard to tell from the pic's. Its the one thing that bugged the hell out of me that I didn't do as it was such a pain to recreate this look on a solid cast head.

There's a thread on here somewhere with tons of R&D on upgrading the V1, since the remaining leg donors are now known this should be rocking. I have to say in the list of thanks in the first post I would consider adding Moe, it was his knowledge and advice that sparked the hole leg upgrade in the first place, hopefully you've been able to use a lot of the thread to get the info on kit parts for the upgrade, a ton of effort by a lot of talented people all round.

Mike's legs look great really cant wait to see them articulate, this should really tip it over the edge on coolness. Its a shame that there has to be some give in the sizing but totally understandable. I think making them closer but solid is a better trade off, would it be possible to insert square brass tubing to add strength? It seems a shame to got o all this amazing effort and not push it as far as it can go?

The PD is one of the most appealing models you could ever have and we're so lucky to have it out there again as a kit or in plastic for scratch building. I'm just gutted that my 1 of 3 Stop mo legs will soon be 1 of 20 or so, hey ho :lol

Thanks Guy, I also thought about the brass inserts for some of the legs but they would need to poke out past the middle disks that form the swivel joints, if they did not poke out i would not get proper alignment of the brass and you would have brass sticking out of the sides of the legs. The issue with the sticking out past the disk is not only a pain to clean the part, but that the biggest round stock i could get in there is not substantial enough to offer any real support for the leg.

I used the aluminum filled resin on the interceptor wing and it really added rigidity to them, i am expecting that it will do the same for the legs.
mike

Mike is the guy to ask on metal reinforcement, but I suspect it will be no, because the specific details that seem to warp are so skinny in the first place. No room for metal plus resin. The only approach I think we have is to increase the bulk ever so slightly and reinforce with metal powder in the resin. We want to avoid the warpage from the V1 kit. Sorry Mike, you beat me to it.

Makes sense, I'm not doubting you've been through every sensible option mate, just thinking out loud, I never thought I'd say this to you mike but you do have nice legs mate

I have to say the aluminium resin that Mike used in the Interceptor wings works extremely well. The wings have remained as absolutely rigid as the day I received them with no distortion at all, despite them being in a warm sunlit room.I've just had a look at them and everything has remained perfectly "square on". Unfortunately thats no longer strictly accurate to the studio scale model as the original is sagging noticably in places , but thirty years on thats probably true of a lot of us.
Given all the effort that goes into creating these kits and then building them, the extra durability of the resin mix is a welcome foresight and investment for everyone.
The debate about accuracy is an interesting one. There are probably less than half a dozen people IN THE WORLD who are dedicated to building a SW studio scale model as it was originally produced down to the last paint stroke at ILM and most of them frequent this forum.If professorships and doctorates were issued as a measurement of the degree to which they research these builds some of them would easily be PHDs by now, such is their thirst for absolute accuracy. And as is common in the world of academia, everybody loves a good arguement after a beer or two because it helps to improve the overall results.
I'm happy to invest in this new kit because it is a such rarity and it will remain as such for a long time.I've been waiting years for one.It will may never be quite as rare as the scratch built ones done recently using the actual parts from model kits , but given the hundreds of hours and sheer graft involved in those builds thats not surprising. Apart from Guys, Lees and Jasons PD I've not seen any completed PD builds because those first castings were so uncommon.
However, I thought the main bodies of the spydroid used by them were done using the resin kit parts from the model molds VaderDarth bought anyway. And the inaccuracies with these as have been pointed out and improved during those builds have now been corrected by Dave and co for this new casting. So there is an overall marked improvement with the new model accuracy alround.
I will find building this kit far ,far easier than a scratch built version of the droid . Though the actual truth is I want to have a go at a totally scratchbuilt one later, I'm just not as confident, having seen the effort Guy and Lee put into thiers I will get the same results or have the patience though I will be trying. But like most people here at the end of it, I won't be loosing too much sleep if I have JUST the Vaderdarth model in my cabinet!!!

I agree with you totally CutThumb. I'm in awe of the scratch builders in this hobby. I have neither the patience nor the time to track down every single donor part like these guys do, nor the sculpting ability to shape the basic forms to my liking for something so accurate. Guys like Lee and Moe and the like blow me away with their talents. I'm honored to be able to work with the real professionals in the hobby to get the wonderful toys I get for my own personal collection. This was honestly my top motivation in jumping into the Probe Droid and Escape Pod projects. I wanted a nice model of these in my collection and I wanted to see it done in a way that I was happy with the outcome of the corrections and alterations. I feel like I've done that with both models and will be proud to display each of them. I don't think they are perfect, but they look right to my eye. That is what matters most to me. Yes I would be delighted to be handed one of these scratch built donor sourced models. Of course I couldn't begin to afford such a task for my collection and so this is my solution. I know you guys are going to love the PD and the Escaoe Pod when you see them in person. Once this PD project dies down, we will move on to the EP project. It too has been heavily modified from the original kit. Every part that has been identified as a donor part for both kits has replaced the original scratched parts found on those older versions.

Could you explain the term, "donor part kit?" Is that a reference to a part that comes from some other kit a la scratch building? Also, I bought the old Rolondo PD kit but I haven't built it yet. What would be your advice for someone who has the older kit? Would it be best to replace it completely with your new kit? Or, if you do make partial kits available, just replace the dome and the legs?

You could do this, this is my droid, also a V1, with stop motion scratchbuilt/accurate legs, and virtually EVERY cast in kit part on the head and body replaced with the original part.



Yes a donor part, is a kit part, gleaned from the correct kit, and applied to a studio scale build.

bests........lee

Thanks, Lee. Appreciate it. Your PD looks awesome. BTW, did you, or is anyon,e gonna add the mechanized communication CHATTER that accompanies the PD in ESB? Does anyone know of a source for a clean version of JUST the chatter so we could burn it to a chip or upload it as an MP3 file, etc?

Jim Shima (Hyperdyne Labs) had made an AWESOME one... I think we need to hit him up again and ask if it's still available/can be put into production. I think he even had servos for the antennas at one point on a prototype, if memory serves, but I also think he was soured on the Probe Droid because he was owed a kit or something to that effect?

Alan, we might be able to offer just a head kit if it helps some guys upgrade their older kits.

I keep meaning to contact Jim about sound/light kits for the PD. I've been assured the one he did for SN was nothing short of miraculous!

Make. It. So.