Dan's Escape Pod (WIP)

[moffeaton]

They are faceted gems... got some at the craft store, in the before time, the long long ago

 

[3DImpact]

They are faceted gems... got some at the craft store, in the before time, the long long ago

Ah ha! Neat - thanks! Off to the craft store I go (as soon as they open again)!

Dan

 

[dirtydave]

So what do you think.8rad part C40,41?

If you look close you can see the ridge on the ref pic.

 

[dirtydave]

Actually it's C40.41 is a little different.

 

[3DImpact]

Oh man - I think you're right! That sure does look like it. It would make sense too, lots of 8Rad parts on the rear end.

Dan

(ETA - Darn, I'll just have to live with mine without that addition - not sure I can strip away the parts I have there now without ruining or breaking things.)

 

[3DImpact]

Starting in on my practice piece to get used to putting on the primer. t2sides recommended the black primer he used on his Falcon so I'm going with that. I'm glad I did this test on the practice piece first, because my first coat of the primer out of the can resulted in a pretty poor result. I was so worried about 'flooding' the detail with too thick a coat that I erred too far in the other direction by lightly 'dusting' on very light coats. The problem with that is that it leaves a dry, 'dusty velvet' texture across the model. After cleaning that up by 'buffing' the piece as clean as I could with dry paper towel I tried a few other options, including spraying some primer into a catch cup and then using that, thinned, through my airbrush. That worked a bit better, but can still leave the dry, 'dusty velvet' texture to some degree if you are again too timid with laying on the primer.

After a bit of trial and error I think I've gotten the feel for the right amount to coat on - just enough to leave a bit of wet shine to the surface. It then dries back rather nicely to a smooth surface.

Here I went just a tad too heavy and left a few minor drying cracks in a few places (and there are some dust specks left from the paper towel buffing stage), but I think I now have a feel for the right coat level. So, I'm glad I build this practice piece - it is serving its purpose very nicely, allowing me to make mistakes here first while learning, hopefully, how to do it right when I get to the actual escape pod model.

Next up: laying on the base gray coat...

Dan

 

[dirtydave]

That's too bad.I thought you would be able to change them since you didn't paint yet.It's going to be cool seeing your painting process.

 

[3DImpact]

That's too bad.I thought you would be able to change them since you didn't paint yet.It's going to be cool seeing your painting process.

Well, I may try to pry one set off and see if I can make it work. I just hate the thought of missing a detail like that!

Thanks for your heads up on this - great catch!

Dan

 

[dirtydave]

Maybe try a little debonder?

 

[swgeek]

One of my favorite rattle can primers is Bondo brand, believe it or not. I use it at work as well as at home. I don't like their body filler but the paint works well. It says it's a filler primer on the can but it's not really, except for small scratches. It's a very light primer, which is what I like about it. It will cover small details without drenching them in paint, it also drys pretty fast.

 

[Jedi Dade]

To take care of the "dusty" effect I like to use tack cloth to give a wipe between coats. Its also usually the case that you're a bit to far away when spraying. so the paint is drying before/as it hits the surface... try decantign the primer into an airbrush and you'll likely have better results since you can control the flow easier - Just a thought (or 2).

Jedi Dade

 

[3DImpact]

To take care of the "dusty" effect I like to use tack cloth to give a wipe between coats. Its also usually the case that you're a bit to far away when spraying. so the paint is drying before/as it hits the surface... try decantign the primer into an airbrush and you'll likely have better results since you can control the flow easier - Just a thought (or 2).

Jedi Dade

Thanks much for those thoughts! And I agree completely with your assessment after playing/testing a bit more - I think I was trying to be a bit 'too' careful about spraying on too heavy and getting pooling/dripping and so ended up spraying too lightly from a bit too far away and ended up with that dusting. Once I got the feel for the proper distance and amount it was going on just wet enough to flow properly and dry with a nice smooth finish.

Glad I attacked the practice/test piece first! Good lesson learned!

Dan

 

[3DImpact]

Anyone have any suggestion on the best gray to use for the base coat? Which Archive-X gray would match what might have been the base used for the original ILM Escape Pod? Many of the Archive-X colors are not available right now so I'll probably have to go with something approximating the 'real thing'...

Dan

 

[Jedi Dade]

To my eye it looks to be the same/similar white as the Faclon... I'd hit it with a black primer followed by AS-20 tamiya, then weather the holly heck out of it... BUT you might try the archive-X paints (can be found easily on facebook), and see if they have done a paint match for it.

or
www.archive-x.com

Jedi Dade

 

[3DImpact]

Going on a suggestion from t2sides that the base coat for the escape pod might be the same or similar to that for the AT-AT, I searched the Archive-X site for reference to the AT-AT and found this:

EX-021 1975 SP Lettering Grey

"A beautiful slightly green-blue grey which is common to all the Legacy films. EX-021 1975 SP Lettering Grey 30ml Enamel paint is believed to be used as the base colour for AT-AT medium scale and chicken walker from ESB (not the chicken walker from ROTJ though!) Newly discovered to be a panel colour on the ANH Star Destroyer."

But I also wonder about:

EX-001 Grime

"Grime is one of if not the most commonly used colour from the Vintage Floquil Railroad range that was used by ILM when making Star Wars. It is used for panels on X-Wing models, as the base coat of the Falcon and Slave 1 amongst others. We also now know it's also used on the Boba Fett helmets and costumes. If you paint a lot of Star Wars subjects it's a must-have colour and a beautiful warm grey. "

Grime is out of stock, though, so I'll have to try to color match to something else...

Dan

 

[Jedi Dade]

I think the AT-AT color will be much to dark... Grime - of its really the base for the Falcon - kinda jives with what I thought originally... your mileage may vary.

Jedi Dade

 

[3DImpact]

Many thanks, dirtydave!

It turns out that the parts popped off rather easily, albeit with a bit of care so as not to break them in the process. So glad to be able to get this detail correct. Thanks again for the tip!

Dan

 

[dirtydave]

Cool,glad it worked out.

 

[3DImpact]

A little more error correction today, and another detail addition.

I had originally put the little U-Boat railing greeblies on upside down relative to what is on the original ILM model. I was looking at images of someone else's build in addition to the reference images of the original and for that particular detail the other person's build had it upside down. Every other detail on that one is absolutely wonderful but it led me astray for mine, so I corrected that today with parts from an actual donor kit. Here is one of those greeblies on the original ILM model and my fix:

And then I wanted to get the little faceted jewel bits onto the rear end:

Dan

 

[3DImpact]

As long as I had the airbrush out for another job I decided to give the inside of the main engine nozzles a shot of primer.

Dan