Wow I'm blown away by that. My perpetually twelve year old brain keeps flashing back to Han being hung in Jabbas Palace. Awesome build! You should be very proud. Makes me want to start one!
Han Solo in Carbonite: A novice build
- Thread starter QCWolf
- Start date
Thanks for sharing. I think your texture looks good. That's the part I struggled with the most also. The fact that it's NOT 100% perfect is what makes each HIC unique. It makes it YOURS. Keep up the good work!
Thank you very much. I can't recommend this build enough. I had such a great time on this one. My wife actually wants me to build another and sell it. Ha! I need a break before I would even think of doing that.
Thank you! If being an 8 year old is wrong, I don't wanna be right. I was 6 when ESB came out and Han was frozen right before my young, impressionable eyes. From that moment, I always wanted my very own Carbonite block. Mission accomplished.
Yeah I hear you there. On and off (having 2 very young kids in the picture) It's taken me 9 months to get to this point and I just can't see building another one of these to sell. Certainly there's things I know I would do differently a second time that would drastically decrease the amount of time it look doing all the textures, but really I only build mine so that it could be all mine. It's been a lifelong dream since 5 years old to have my own life-size Han solo in carbonite and this wasn't a test to see if I could make any to sell later on. It is a tedious journey and labor of love.
On the subject of the texturing... I printed guides on that to try and duplicate the exact look, but after looking at multiple sources I found that the textures varied! I used the movie as a main reference, but then saw that everyone had unique markings from person to person. After months of filling, layering, tweaking, sanding, re-doing.... I had to come to grips with the fact that it just wasn't going to look 100% and that was okay. Last night I finally reached the point of acceptance to where I think I can get to the painting stage and wrap this project up and mount on the wall. I'm estimating another week hopefully and should all be done soon.
It looks pretty straight forward and simple, but it actually takes quite a lot of effort. If I didn't have any children I'm sure I could have knocked this out in a few weeks, but I did what I could with the time I had and just kept my eye on the prize of getting this thing done and all the months and bits of time here and there are finally showing.
QCWolf, how long did your whole project take to get all done?
Kids definitely slow down the process because projects like this always go slower with "help". I spent most of my time working on this thing after everyone was in bed. I would chip away at it late at night between 9pm and midnight about 3 nights a week. I also took a couple of vacation days so I could get a good long stretch of uninterrupted HIC time during the day. I started working on it the weekend after the Super Bowl this year and finally hung it last week. From start to finish almost exactly three months. A solid third of that time was spent messing around with the texture of the carbonite. I used the wood glue approach and then switched over to Bondo to cover and fill most of what I didn't like about the glue.
When you are ready to put the finishing touches on your project, I hope you post photos. I'd love to see your work.
Wow! Thanks for the kind words. I'm very happy with my Hero Panel and it wouldn't look the way it does without your amazing kit. I am totally OK with you using any photos you want to use. Post away!
matty matt
Sr Member
Man, that is so freaking cool.
Thanks! A friend of mine likes it so much that he asked me to build him one. I think I might take him up on it. Is it too much to do another build thread for a second one? Ha!
Bigturc
Sr Member
You'll have some panels in the oven soon Wolf!
That's awesome news! Thanks Bigturc!
You will have to re-title it to Expert build though.
You're too kind. However, I have learned a lot from this build. I'm gonna see if I can cut production time in half for this one.
Liquid Designs
New Member
This is REALLY impressive from start to finish! Great job!!
Thank you! The more I talk about it, the more I get excited to start HIC #2. I'm starting to put out feelers and I'm getting ready to place orders for the various kits that I need to build the second one.
I must be crazy!
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You should! All you need is patience. If I can build this thing, anyone can build it.
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