AMT Anakins Podracer

[Maui]

Your welcome Josh. And those are great reference photos and they will be very useful when I do my build . And when I do my build I am going to do as you have done for the markings , and use the the full size prop and studio model for reference. Its great that you are pointing out the issues and the your solutions .I agree with you that the top of the control console appears to be black. I am look forward to seeing how you tackle the engines and their detailing. Very inspirational work that you are doing!

I had to put my X-Wing build on hold as I was spending my free time with my friend and his wife , who had recently passed away.And now I spend my time with my friend to ensure that he gets through this tough time !

Take care
Duaine

 

[starks]

Looking good!

Thanks mate!

Your welcome Josh. And those are great reference photos and they will be very useful when I do my build . And when I do my build I am going to do as you have done for the markings , and use the the full size prop and studio model for reference. Its great that you are pointing out the issues and the your solutions .I agree with you that the top of the control console appears to be black. I am look forward to seeing how you tackle the engines and their detailing. Very inspirational work that you are doing!

I had to put my X-Wing build on hold as I was spending my free time with my friend and his wife , who had recently passed away.And now I spend my time with my friend to ensure that he gets through this tough time !

Take care
Duaine

Thanks Duaine

I completely understand the situation with your friend. Not due to a loss, but I have a friend who went through a separation, then lost his job and now just sits home alone fighting depression. It is a very lonely situation. I try and go see him every Saturday. It's not good to be alone.
Good on you for having such strength of character and helping your friend through his tough time.

On the Pod I started playing with the engines. I'm half mucking around with some lighting and seeing what I can do.
I loved lighting my Falcon, I didn't so much enjoy lighting my Xwing, I hated lighting my Ywing and swore I was done with adding electronics to model kits...... but here we are.
So far it may not be all that difficult.

Cheers,
Josh

 

[starks]

A small update today.
I bought 2 small torches, cost me $6. I pulled the LED boards out


I pulled out the center LED and soldered on a negative and positive wire. I also had to use a Dremel to shave down the outside edges of the board to make them as small as possible.


In the kit are some grey plastic discs that go in the rear of the engine and mount the center of the turbine. I laser cut 2 new ones in clear perspex.
Here you can see the factory part on the left and the 2 clear ones on the right (one still has its paper backing on).


The lights inside the engine


Not a picture but from here I cut discs of orange craft paper and glued it to the light side of the clear disc, to add colour and diffuse the light.

And a basic tape together, Woohoo.



Now I know I can achieve the lighting easy enough I can carry on moving forward with building the engines.

Cheers,
Josh

 

[Analyzer]

Great idea! I should do that or the Razor Crest I am working on. Kind of stalled the build until I get the engine lighting set up, but the task of cutting out a disk and wiring up the LEDS just makes me procrastinate. Something like this is much simpler

 

[starks]

Great idea! I should do that or the Razor Crest I am working on. Kind of stalled the build until I get the engine lighting set up, but the task of cutting out a disk and wiring up the LEDS just makes me procrastinate. Something like this is much simpler

I was thinking exactly the same thing! That this may work for a Razor Crest. If I ever end up purchasing one. I've been eyeing one off at one of our local toy shops since before christmas.

Only thing is I dont know the engine size. If it helps, the LED boards I have (shaved down) are about 22mm or 7/8 of an inch.
Would you be good enough to do a measure and let us know if they would fit?

Cheers,
Josh

 

[starks]

Having a bit more of a play with lighting.
The center LEDs I pulled out of the circuit board got some wires attached. I needed a holder for them and robbed the push in end out of 2 felt pens, the LEDs fit in them perfectly.




Drilled a hole where the translucent power coupling fits and glued the assembly in place, and gave the insides a good coat of black.



And here we go, hopefully the power coupling will light up somewhat!


Cheers,
Josh

 

[Analyzer]

I was thinking exactly the same thing! That this may work for a Razor Crest. If I ever end up purchasing one. I've been eyeing one off at one of our local toy shops since before christmas.

Only thing is I dont know the engine size. If it helps, the LED boards I have (shaved down) are about 22mm or 7/8 of an inch.
Would you be good enough to do a measure and let us know if they would fit?

Cheers,
Josh

The smallest spot in the engine for the AMT where the clear insert goes is about 39 mm or 1.53".
Ideally though you will have to inset it back a bit from that clear insert rather than replace the clear insert so most likely area for mounting it would be about 40 mm (1.57")
Revell's kit is the same size as well so the same should apply. Just note Revell's kit has no clear insert and you will have to either cut out the engines grilles, or get an after market replacement set

 

[starks]

The smallest spot in the engine for the AMT where the clear insert goes is about 39 mm or 1.53".
Ideally though you will have to inset it back a bit from that clear insert rather than replace the clear insert so most likely area for mounting it would be about 40 mm (1.57")
Revell's kit is the same size as well so the same should apply. Just note Revell's kit has no clear insert and you will have to either cut out the engines grilles, or get an after market replacement set

Thanks for that info! I think, with the right size flashlight, you can make this idea work.
I have done a small grind on the inside of the engines to make these fit a bit better and I'm sure the same could be achieved with the Razor Crest engines.

I have to go buy one now

Cheers,
Josh

 

[Analyzer]

Thanks for that info! I think, with the right size flashlight, you can make this idea work.
I have done a small grind on the inside of the engines to make these fit a bit better and I'm sure the same could be achieved with the Razor Crest engines.

I have to go buy one now

Cheers,
Josh

If it helps here is a detailed comparison of Revell vs AMT

1/72 RazorCrest - Revell vs AMT (Round2)

I picked up both of these because I could not initially decide which one I wanted. Also this gives me the opportunity to display one in landed configuration, possibly in a diorama, and one in flight without feeling I have to sacrifice one or the other :D at any rate, my initial thoughts were...

www.therpf.com

As far as the pod Racer, I am a bit curious how that power coupling will look lit. Mine is broken. It came in pieces when I bought it but can't complain since it was like $15 with free shipping. Was also missing instructions which I was able to find on line.

At any rate, trying to figure out if it is worth repairing, or just replacing with thinner wire and painting it "glowy"

I recall the original plastic piece being kind of thick and thought lots of thin wire might reproduce the look better if not being lit

 

[starks]

If it helps here is a detailed comparison of Revell vs AMT

1/72 RazorCrest - Revell vs AMT (Round2)

I picked up both of these because I could not initially decide which one I wanted. Also this gives me the opportunity to display one in landed configuration, possibly in a diorama, and one in flight without feeling I have to sacrifice one or the other :D at any rate, my initial thoughts were...

www.therpf.com

As far as the pod Racer, I am a bit curious how that power coupling will look lit. Mine is broken. It came in pieces when I bought it but can't complain since it was like $15 with free shipping. Was also missing instructions which I was able to find on line.

At any rate, trying to figure out if it is worth repairing, or just replacing with thinner wire and painting it "glowy"

I recall the original plastic piece being kind of thick and thought lots of thin wire might reproduce the look better if not being lit

Fantastic! I'll read through your thread today.

Yeah I'll be honest, I'm not expecting great things from lighting the power coupling but it's a fun experiment since I was wiring anyway.

The issues with the factory power coupling is you're restricted to where you can place the engines. And as you pointed out, are perhaps slightly on the bulky side
I've seen people replace these with wires painted in like a fluro pink/magenta and they really look brilliant.
For my whipper snipper when doing the lawns has a translucent red, I'm guessing nylon, line. Something like that in a purple could be a winner also. Ill have to do some looking around. Maybe a fishing line or something in jewellery making. 3d printing filament perhaps?

Cheers,
Josh

 

[Millenniumf]

Having a bit more of a play with lighting.
The center LEDs I pulled out of the circuit board got some wires attached. I needed a holder for them and robbed the push in end out of 2 felt pens, the LEDs fit in them perfectly.




Drilled a hole where the translucent power coupling fits and glued the assembly in place, and gave the insides a good coat of black.



And here we go, hopefully the power coupling will light up somewhat!


Cheers,
Josh

Y'know, I wonder if this would be an appropriate use case for those LED noodles that Boylei Hobby Time uses in his builds. Regardless, this is turning out amazingly, and I can't wait to see the final result!

 

[starks]

Y'know, I wonder if this would be an appropriate use case for those LED noodles that Boylei Hobby Time uses in his builds. Regardless, this is turning out amazingly, and I can't wait to see the final result!

Thanks for the kind words.

I had never seen those LED filaments before you're refering to. If theyre available in a very small size and you could 'crinkle' them somewhat could be a fantastic idea!

Cheers,
Josh

 

[Millenniumf]

Thanks for the kind words.

I had never seen those LED filaments before you're refering to. If theyre available in a very small size and you could 'crinkle' them somewhat could be a fantastic idea!

Cheers,
Josh

You absolutely can crinkle them! They're basically chains of LED elements surrounded in a silicone tube. You could take three or four of them, wire them in parallel, then apply hot glue around them to give them a blobby effect and then paint over that with clear pink. You can get them in a variety of sizes. The ones in this video look to be about two inches:

 

[starks]

I've had a big few days working on these engines. They take quite a bit of time to assemble, alignment is very close but not quite perfect and the instructions give you a wrong part placement (I'll take a photo of this tomorrow) and images for the right engine only and you're supposed to mirror it for the left .

After I got the engines together it was time for some chrome effect.
A coat of very dark grey with gloss clear:


Then the chrome effect:



From here I have spent probably 5 or 6 hours masking off for the blue and yellow.
It's a bit of a catch 22, everything kind of wants a metal effect but the masking would be much simpler if those pipes weren't in the way!
Over all the masking worked out quite well, need a few brush touches to sharpen up a slight over edge here and there but weathering will take care of a lot as well.



The next step is to start picking out all the pipe work and finer details.

Cheers,
Josh

 

[Analyzer]

That looks like some complicated masking for sure

Looks great though so it was definitely worth it

 

[starks]

That looks like some complicated masking for sure

Looks great though so it was definitely worth it

Thanks bud!

So after some detailing this is where I am up to. I over did one of the air guides and need to tone it back a bit.
Overall, to my eye they are a fair representation of what is on the studio model...and that was huge so gets a bit trickier at 1/32.

I would like some opinions on displaying this. The engine with the unopened guides have them pretty well glued in place. The open guides however I have left somewhat unfixed so can change my mind. I thought it might show some operational interest to show one engine with the guides opening. They should actually be much further open but I have trimmed down the air guide hydraulic 'hinge' to make it a bit less aggressive. I wont use the supplied stand, the engines are just sitting in there for now. But what is people's opinions on displaying the engines with one having open air guides?

Always open to thoughts and opinions.

Cheers,
Josh

 

[Maui]

Hello Josh,
My opinion is that it looks perfect, the way you have the air guides positioned.But I would paint some conduit , wires in different colors, such as red blues and yellows. This would break up the monotone look of mostly silver , and this would make everything more interesting. But not sure if this look was done in the movie. So it depends on what you like !But it's look great. And for the pilots 3dfalcon has snow speeder pilots for the old Mpc/ Amt kit or you may look into aftermarket 1/32 scale WW 2 pilots !

Take care
Duaine

 

[Maui]

I just watch Boylei Hobby Time build of Anakin's podracer, Iove what he did for the energy binders .I plan to do that to mine !

 

[Maui]

I think , that for the base I would use baking soda as it has a granulated texture or some product of that nature!

 

[Analyzer]

I like the idea of having the engines in different configurations. I figure that is how it turns?