Yes, thank you to Wasili for the insane work in making those for everyone that paid and received kits. My heart really does go out to those who were on a list but did not get the opportunity to buy one.
Also thanks to Eric and Craig and Ed and all those who IDed the parts, and massively again to Craig for sending those bits I didn't have (and it was a LOT) to Mike to mold and cast. It ended up being such a nice way to make a model that the Blockade Runner can now happen this way, and the under-structure is handled by Craig/me/etc so there will be an opportunity for
every resin part buyer to buy the acrylic. But back to the turret:
NO ONE had ANY intention of selling something that was incomplete. Wasili completed his transactions, and unfortunately the interest outstripped his ability/time to make more. His kit was CRAZY labor intensive.
I caught up with Steve Neisen today on the phone, and we talked about food and models and whatnot, and the Turret came up (I read this earlier and it was fresh in my head). He does indeed have Wasili's pattern, I have seen the components in person (from last May) and it will be a great release when it's ready. It will be FAR less tedious a build than what you would have had with cutting all those T-strips, too. I suspect those that bought Mike's resin parts won't have to spend more than they would have, just in getting Wasili's pieces. Just a feeling. And those parts from Mike are all over the studio scale universe, so you didn't necessarily waste your money - if you want to build a tower extension, use them and make more details (I'm extending my tower), or on the other models that used these parts. There are dozens of critical Bandai 1/48 Panther G and 1/15th Bandai bits in those bags that save you hundreds upon hundreds of dollars. It's classic ANH resin mirepoix.
And if you are STILL mad, I get that too. So tell you what - if you want to scratch build that tower NOW, hit me up and I will help you check your measurements. Please understand I am crazy busy on a good day, and get a lot of emails every day, so if I don't get back to you asap do not take it personally. But I
absolutely understand being frustrated, excited to build something, and not wanting to mess up.
I'm NOT going to give you laser files since I didn't make any, and I'm absolutely NOT going to just send a bunch of measurements that Wasili would consider ripping off his work.
If you want someone to verify that the four sided box you are building is accurate, I am happy to look at your work, and check it against what I have built here. I hope that is cool with everyone and in the spirit of the hobby? If you have spent the money and have the Salzo parts set in hand, you have TONS of "landmarks" to lay out and measure, and build a box.
And here, for free use however you see fit, is a simple .ai file of the "tower extension" I sketched out based off of the Joe Johnston drawing. IT IS NOT CANON. Go nuts!
tower-extension-final.ai
The thing is set up like this: red is cut lines, black is etched for panel lines. It's mostly useless for you guys except the TOP etch line should mate up with the bottom dims of the ILM tower, as it's designed to perch on top of that first tall section and "blend in".... at least it fit the one I have built!
So there you go, a hard data point for the very bottom of the tower box. Everything else I just made up to me "in the spirit" of the prop. YMMV. I hope I can help you guys that are building and don't want to wait for Neisen's kit. I suspect there aren't a lot of you, because if it were me, I would wait and build something else in the mean time.
