AMT/ERTL Slave I WIP

[Wokky]

Hi all, first post on here. I used to put together the odd model kit many years ago (very amateurishly might I add), but eventually grew tired of them getting summarily disassembled by a particularly exuberant younger brother. I still had Slave I and a Revell Starfury that weren't yet started, so I tucked them away with the intention of one day assembling them. Recently I felt the urge to finally put them together, so I bought a few bits and pieces and got underway. Things didn't get off to a great start; when I put the kits away I had the genius idea of separating the transparent parts from the rest to prevent them from getting scratched up, but it appears that at some point in the intervening decade they became more separated than I intended and are now nowhere to be found... so I shall have to get more creative than originally planned at some point in this project.

I've decided to try building the kit to look as close to the studio model as possible, scratchbuilding details where necessary. This is entirely beyond my abilities, but I shall stubbornly try regardless.

So far I've filed and sanded almost all raised details from the main hull and skirts, glued together the two halves of the main hull and gotten started with filling various gaps and dents with Milliput. The large raised panels on either side of the main hull seemed too large to file down so I sliced them out, and glued them back in a more recessed position. I also noticed that the positioning of the entrance hatch was totally off-centre, so that was also sliced out and repositioned.

Next I'm aiming to fill and sand out some all remaining surface deformations, and get started on this new, fearsome beast known as panel line scribing.

 

[newmagrathea]

Welcome and nice start.

 

[kruleworld]

This is entirely beyond my abilities, but I shall stubbornly try regardless..

I admire your determination. it looks good so far, will be interesting to see it progress...

 

[Wokky]

A little more work on the main hull pieces, first up are the two holes located either side of the upper part of the cockpit which I drilled out by hand with an x-acto blade.


I also scribed along the edge of the two upper hull sections, to better give the impression of being two separate pieces as in the studio model. It's a little more rough than I would like and not particularly obvious so I may attempt detaching it entirely and reattaching it with a little more spacing.


I also started on modifying the cockpit to do away with the rotating section, and add enough height to fit in the two seats below the pilot's level.


The curvature on the pilot's console was all wrong, so I began adding parts to correct that.


I also scratchbuilt a chair for Boba to replace the little block the kit had as stock. The pilot's chair in the studio model cockpit clearly conflicts with what we see on-screen in the interior shot of Slave I, and I decided to aim for something closer to the latter.



The round bulges on which the cannons are mounted were definitely too small, so I sanded them down and crafted some replacements out of a paint palette. The holes are still too small, but I've not yet figured out how best to enlarge them while preserving the circular shape.