Making that old MPC Snow Speeder kit shine!

[3d-builder]

Hey guys i think this is a great little kit and I always have!
There are a lot of things I like about it and think it's worth
the time to make it just a bit more accurate. I made a video
but have some pics first sorry about that.

What I am thinking to do is and have done so far:

Sand all raised detail off the hulls including panel lines (DONE)
Sand all parts that have unnecessary details such as ribbing (In Process)
Build a new seating for the cockpit
Scribe panel lines

I am trying not to get to crazy with it.....but
lets see what happens, the list above could grow on
the fly! I wanted a build up that would allow for some scratch
building, but allow me to get into painting
relatively quickly and enjoy what the model kit
offers. LOL

Kind of a model to relax to between the escape pod and
A-wing figure I would let G catch up on his A-wing then I
would get back to it.......good enough excuse eh? Anyway
I love the speeder and hopefully you guys will like it and it
will kick start some more!

Ok first off i sanded all the raised panel lines off the hulls
top and bottom, same with the engine boxes front and rear,
and all the funky out of place raised detail and ribbing. As an example
if you know the kit the ribbing on the laser cannons comes to mind.
I think for a kit MPC did a great job the first stage coming out of
the big rear box, but the second stage not so good! So i did
some sanding of the ribbing and cut away a piece of it you will
see in the pictures. The laser cannons were a quick fix which consisted
of sanding the raised ribbing on the surface and fitting to brass compression
fitting for the tips. The seam lines were bad at the tips and sanding only
proved to eat them up more and destroy the shape. I left some of the plastic
tip and fitted the compression fitting over the top so it fits
snug.

Ok in this picture you can see the original kit part in my hand
I sanded the ribbing off and cleaved off the funky end. You can see the finished
part on the model. Looking at the Studio scale model it looked to me that the diameter
there was the same as the laser cannon in the front, so that's what i went for. I just
used some evergreen tube and fit it in after i opened up the front.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40/3dimensionalmanagement/MPC Snow Speeder Kit build up/007.jpg

In this picture you can see i drilled through so i could run
the plastic tube through both parts. This allowed me to
set the rear box and the front box in place, then push
the tube until it hit the rear fascia of the front box. I dropped
a little solvent on it and locked it in place, the rest was trimmed
away in the big box because the housing for the rear break has
to be fitted latter.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40/3dimensionalmanagement/MPC Snow Speeder Kit build up/002.jpg

One done....
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40/3dimensionalmanagement/MPC Snow Speeder Kit build up/005.jpg

Both done...
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40/3dimensionalmanagement/MPC Snow Speeder Kit build up/008.jpg

 

[youngwm]

Looks like you are off to a good start and have a good plan!!! Can't wait to check out the progress..

 

[3d-builder]

Thanks guys much appreciated as always!!

I got into making the windows a little taller
and wider, I used tape to mark them off.
If you do it with pencil there is
to much handling involved during filing
and you loose your reference marks.

 

[yuumi2891103]

Yahoo!!
I have been dieing to see your next build :lol

 

[ozzyguanche]

Actualy I think it's a great kit as well. Will be watching the progress with interest.

Ozzy

 

[3d-builder]

Thanks guys...:thumbsup

Ok i wanted to make that little sensor area in the front
of that speeder a lil more accurate, it was a raised panel
shape prior i sanded that off. Marked it off drilled a few
holes for pilots and then filed it all out.

I used some evergreen V-groove plastic it's so small you can't see the
grooves in the picture.....but the scale of the grooves works well.

Ok i found out i needed to do a little filing of the tub to get the
evergreen V-groove to fit, and I had to sand off the two little
placement tabs for tub as well.

All nice....

 

[3d-builder]

Ok onto that dreaded cockpit and tub.....well it's not that bad.

Just started by taking some measurements to get some heights and
widths. I am going to build new back to back seats in here, one that
looks like the Fine Molds 1/48 scale speeder. Before I did anything
i carefully scribed out the original seating assembly. I didnt want to
attack it with a dremel because I wanted to remove it clean. I cut a new bottom
out of some plastic stock and glued it in place.

The tiny FM seating arrangement and the beginning
of the side frame template for my seat.That's the
only template i created for the seat i just worked
on the fly after that. I used some Evergreen sheet
a V Grove pattern so it would have some detail.

The kit's head rest was way to long if you ask me
so i used to chunky pieces of evergreen stock
and sanded it to shape.

The pilots....LOL I know these figures that came with this
kit get a bad review every time ......deservedly so! I am
going to try to have mercy on them! LOL I have no idea
what I am going to do, but pretty sure those heads have
to come off and arms shortened! That's if i keep them i am
leaving this totally open if it doesn't work out I will source
something else. I did cut them at the knees and get them to sit well
in the seats, i will fill the knees with clay and clean them up later.
The figure is hollow on the backside so they sit low, their shoulders
are not up high enough, so i will have to build under the legs and give them
some booty to get them raised up! LOL The (3rd) picture shows the correct height
they need to sit at.

 

[3d-builder]

Ok the instrumentation......
Because the speeder has this back to back seating arrangement,
it's impossible to adjust the seats forward or aft in the tub without
changing the distance from the instrumentation.To solve the monkey
are dilemma that plagues this kit i shimmed in back the rear instrumentation,
so it would sit closer to the figure/ rear gunner. I just cut a piece of styrene
to fit and did a bit of sanding to make everything fit.

 

[Dedalus5550]

I think this is one of the better (the best, perhaps) kits from the MPC liine-up. I mean this in the sense that when I first saw most of these models (perhaps all of them) I had seen the movies once or twice, I was only in my teens, yet I still saw serious shape flaws. But not with this bad boy (excepting the shape of the pilots). For instance, if the MF really had the same dimensions as the MPC kit, it wouldn't be more than a side note for me as far as modeling subjects go. If the studio model speeder were exactly like the MPC kit, I'd be totally satisfied (as long as normally-proportioned humans could sit in it). By this measure, I like this kit. I've got three in the stash, and would rather part with FM speeders I have instead (and they also have accuracy issues).
Mike Todd

 

[3d-builder]

More with the seating......

I wanted to get started with the angle
pieces that come off the seat,s and span
out to the sides of the tub. To do this
I used some square stock from my evergreen
supply.

I filled the sides with some evergreen strip.

In the first picture the shoulders have been trimmed to
a lower angle, the second picture shows how
it fits correctly in the tub, and does not come through
the canopy.The third picture i wanted to show that i
had filled the holes at the top of the shoulder with
some Apoxie sculpt.

 

[3d-builder]

Things were looking a little blah inside so i decided
to add some more evergreen strip on the sides,
i used some channel.This also helped to begin to
figure out exactly where the seats would sit, as
the channel is on each side and the seats sit
in the middle of it.

Next i really felt it needed a little texture
on the sides underneath the channel. So
i found the small square pattern from
my evergreen supply. I had to keep inserting
the front instrumentation mark some lines,
and then make a template that would fit
below the channel and be cut out so the
front instrumentation could drop in. The same
was done for the rear.

 

[3d-builder]

I worked on the canopy and a bit on
the lower hull. On the canopy i just
added some of the same evergreen
sheet i used on the side walls of the
tub. So it has a matching design wanted
it to have sort of a padded look.This mod
will not allow me to use the clear canopy
part that came with the kit, that's
ok i will go with out the clear part like the
original filming miniature.

On the lower hull i added a piece of polystyrene
at the back to close off the area like it is on
the filming miniature, i also used some Apoxie
Sculpt to fill in the runners that span to the front.
You can see a gap the way the kit was designed
and it was pretty bad, so I felt i needed to do something
about that. At the front of the lower hull it comes up short
and you can see a gap there also, so again I added some polystyrene
to even it up.This also allows for a gluing surface to the top hull
where there wasn't one there before.

 

[3d-builder]

Decided to jump around a bit and worked on the rear heat sink
a bit. The part from the kit is not bad but has some issues. The
fins are a little rounded over on the edges so i sanded them flat,
and at the ends they have this wonky widening that goes on. I
went ahead and sanded that wonky wideness away.You can see
in the picture the bank on the top and the wideness that comes
with the kit part "AS IS," and the correction on the bank bellow.

The fins also have a strange angle to them on the top,
so i marked a line and straightened them out making
them much more 90 deg.

I also noticed on the studio model on the lower hull the
little inlets looked open so I opened them up on my model
kit as well. Not sure how deep it should run hollow, i may extend
the channel back so you dont see all the way in later on.

I also started marking out some panel lines on the
top hull they are scribed I just don't have a picture yet.....
next update

 

[3d-builder]

Here are the results of the scribing guys......
i also decided to model this with the circuitry access panel
removed, as seen on one of the filming minis.

Roughed in with pencil.....

opposite side...

Thats where I am at pretty much brought this all up to
date now.:thumbsup

 

[tek2graphics]

Wow that's beautiful! If you don't mind me asking, how many hours do you think you've spent on this so far? I have an unbuilt kit and would LOVE to do what you've done so far!

 

[jedimaster]

Nice work, I used some of Mikes 1/24 pilots for mine. With his permission of course.

 

[IEDBOUNTYHUNTER]

Looking good. and im crazy. you got me beat.

 

[3d-builder]

Wow that's beautiful! If you don't mind me asking, how many hours do you think you've spent on this so far? I have an unbuilt kit and would LOVE to do what you've done so far!

Oh man sorry i never keep track of that stuff .:facepalm
I would say i have less than 20 hrs so far......and it's
getting there.:lol

 

[3d-builder]

Jedimaster that's going to look real cool with the big AT-AT!

I did get a little done today before leaving for work,
managed to get the circuitry access panel framed up
on the underside of the top hull.

 

[jedimaster]

Sweet. I did this on my studio scale model. Unfortunately the inside surface wasn't flat so working out the dims for the styrene was a *****. Also I forgot to drill the holes in the girders before I mounted them. Also a *****. Watching with interest on the smaller model.