Scratch Build: ROTJ Concept Speederbike

marvin

marvin

Sr Member
Hi All,

After a long absence due to another project (customisation of a Harley Davidson Night Rod Special) I'm slowly making my way back into Studio Scale modelling Although I'll be finishing my old builds (hopefully soon) I've decided to start with a new model: the concept speeder bike used in developing the final speeder bike for Return of the Jedi.

My basic modeling principles for this model are:

  • I'll be making an idealised model, so I won't be recreating glue blobs or screwed parts
  • I'll be modeling it only with the mounting points that I need to display my model and not necessarily with all the mounting points on the studio model
  • I don't know yet how I will be painting it, since the paint scheme on the concept model isn't really to my liking
A lot of ID's were made in an old thread (http://www.therpf.com/f10/rotj-speederbike-reference-needed-119135/), but we got stuck at a certain point. Perhaps putting one together will help spark the fire and we will get more ID's going. A few are still a mystery to me, but perhaps you guys can help with those.

Thanks for looking!
Marvin
 
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These are all the reference images I have so far. If anyone has any more and is willing to share please send me a P.M. I'm only looking for reference images of the concept model, not the filming model or the full scale model.

ROTJ_Speederbike_Concept_Ref_01.jpg

ROTJ_Speederbike_Concept_Ref_05.jpg


ROTJ_Speederbike_Concept_Ref_02.jpg

ROTJ_Speederbike_Concept_Ref_03.jpg

ROTJ_Speederbike_Concept_Ref_04.jpg

ROTJ_Speederbike_Concept_Ref_06.jpg
 
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So this is the first section I was able to put together. I redid this section because I wasn't happy with my first try and the parts are cheap anyway (except that 312B cowl). The threaded bolt in the belly gun holds everything together and allows the gun to swivel.

ROTJ_Speederbike_Concept_01.jpg

ROTJ_Speederbike_Concept_02.jpg

ROTJ_Speederbike_Concept_03.jpg
 
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Next I made a backbone to which I'll hang all the parts. It's a square brass profile within a styrene profile for each of glueing styrene to styrene. Don't mind the greeblies on the support. I did that just in case there's an angle from which you can look inside/under the 312T cowl that will go on top. I think there isn't.

ROTJ_Speederbike_Concept_05.jpg
 
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I've just started on the upper body. The front is definitely the Tamiya 1/12 312T cowl, the back is definitely the back-end of the Tamiya 1/20 BT-46. The middle part is hard to ID. For now I'm going to guess it was scratch built. The back-end was also heavily modified with styrene to get the shape in the reference pictures.

ROTJ_Speederbike_Concept_08.jpg

ROTJ_Speederbike_Concept_12.jpg
 
I'm glad you're back on this. I always thought it was one of the coolest subject matters. It's too bad there's not better reference. :thumbsup
 
Yeah it's good to be back and she's a fun build. Too bad about the lack of reference but let's see how accurate we can get this.

I started to work on the forks as well. I wanted to keep in line with the original by using paintbrush handles, but I couldn't fin the correct size. So I bought oversized ones, stuck them in my lathe and sanded them to the correct shape.

ROTJ_Speederbike_Concept_14.jpg

ROTJ_Speederbike_Concept_15.jpg

ROTJ_Speederbike_Concept_18.jpg
 
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Eh up buddy,wow I love these bikes!and after I finish my build I'm definitely thinkin of building one of these
So I'm really keen to follow your build.....love ya progress and how bang on it looks...top marks mym8...
Peza
 
Thanks. She's a fun build and most SS builders should already have most kits in the closet to build one of these.
 
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OK so I'm back at this. I'm putting the front vane assembly together and in the meantime I'm figuring out some of the parts on the back and body. Should have new pics soon/ On the back/underbelly I'm stuck on one part and finding it would help me a long quite a bit. Hoping anyone can help.

To me it looks like the bulkhead from a 50's style racer or maybe an airplane model.

parts_05.jpg
 
I like your ID sheet , I have something similar I am doing for the 5 foot falcon , also to try and decide which kits to buy next , thanks for sharing your learnings
 

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