My Salzo V2 Blue Leader w/pics!

[Robiwon]

I finished my Salzo V2! I chose to do Blue Leader as there are just so many Red 5's, 2's, 3's, etc. Here are some things I did on my build. First, R2 is from the Revel Jedi Starfighter plastic kit. The cockpit is lit with a few dozen fiber optics. R2 has about 60 FO in his head alone!. Each engine is lit with a 10mm red LED. The batteries and switch are under the R2 strip. The strip itself is held in place with 2 rare Earth magnets from Radioshack. The mount is a Panavise 883. In one picture you can see the brass threaded insert on the underside of the hull. The base is an Icons recast. This was my first SS kit and loved it. I need to take some better pics with the lights on. For some reason they kept coming out blurry. I'll try again tonight. Enjoy the pics.



















Here you can see the brass threaded insert.

 

[Colin Droidmilk]

Nice pictures! The first one particularly. Close-up of threaded insert much appreciated!

 

[MonsieurTox]

Nice pictures! The first one particularly. Close-up of threaded insert much appreciated!

Very nice ! Im glad to see a Blue Leader being done !

I did one a while back but I have to remove the paint and start overr, I'm not satisfied. I dont want to hijack you thread so I'll post only one pic :

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h203/monsieurtox/bl17.jpg

I think you should paint the black over spray on the upper left can since Blue Leader is Red 2, beside that it's really nice ! :thumbsup

 

[Robiwon]

Colin, I thought you would appreciate that pic! Did you get an insert yet?

MonsieurTox, I'll have to wait till I get home. My works blocks PB. Thanks for the compliments. I wanted something a little different. The hardest part was picking a blue color that looked "right". After staring at the shelves of blue at the LHS, I decided on regular Testors dark blue.

I should also note that on the ship itself the only paint is the white and blue, the engines were basecoated black, everything else is pastel chalk. The weathering, yellow stripes and panels, engine metalics, etc. R2 is painted of course.

Oh, forgot to mention the pilot. That is a cut down and slightly reshaped Luke action figure. Everything was repainted except the helmet.

 

[vaderdarth]

Very nice buildup!!!

 

[MonsieurTox]

Colin, I thought you would appreciate that pic! Did you get an insert yet?

MonsieurTox, I'll have to wait till I get home. My works blocks PB. Thanks for the compliments. I wanted something a little different. The hardest part was picking a blue color that looked "right". After staring at the shelves of blue at the LHS, I decided on regular Testors dark blue.

I should also note that on the ship itself the only paint is the white and blue, the engines were basecoated black, everything else is pastel chalk. The weathering, yellow stripes and panels, engine metalics, etc. R2 is painted of course.

Oh, forgot to mention the pilot. That is a cut down and slightly reshaped Luke action figure. Everything was repainted except the helmet.

It seems your blue match greatly the Blue Leader markings ! I cant remember which blue I used but it was a kind of dark blue too, from Tamiya.

Blue Leader is really a nice bird too bad the chromakeying wasnt as good than today, it would have been nice to see it attacking the Death Star !

If you got some Tamiya decals, you can add the Tamiya's logo cut in half on the upper left can :

The other half is somewhere else on the ship (on the underside if I'm correct). That's an easy addition to get an even more accurate bird !

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

THAT...... is really freak'in sweet.

 

[Robiwon]

Thanks guys. I have to track down some Tamiya decals as I don't have any right now.

Another little detail is R2's eye. I drilled out the plastic eye and replaced it with the "lens" section I cut from a 3mm clear LED. It was painted black from the backside and creates a great effect.

 

[mslz22]

That really does look fantastic!!!
mike

 

[Robiwon]

Thanks Mike, it means a lot coming from you. And everyone else of course.

 

[Robiwon]

I still can't get clear pics of the cockpit! It's really bugging me. May have to borrow someones elses camera. The lights are really screwing with my camera. Any tips from anyone on how to get better pics?

 

[Kuhn Global]

I LOVE THIS!!!!

Nicely done! love:thumbsup

 

[Robiwon]

Thanks Kurt! Will try again tonight for close ups of R2 and the cockpit. That or I'll just let someone at Wonderfest snap it and send them to me.

 

[Robiwon]

Here are a few tips I used while building my V2.

For each wing there are four identical groups of parts (or nearly). Due to the nature of resin cast bits they are not all perfectly square. What I did was I gathered the parts for one complete wing. These parts at this point would never be mixed into the kit again. Each of the parts for this wing were sanded and fitted to fit this one group of parts only. These parts all had an "A" scratched into them. This was done for each wing. the next wing had a "B" and then a "C" etc. This way I would not grab a S V part that had been fitted to another F4 engine and cause alignment issues. I knew that when I went to glue parts together that they would fit perfectly.

The wings on my bird are pinned. After matching a wing to its mounting block I superglued one wing into position. I then took my Dremel and from the backside of the block, drilled thru and into the wing. I then used a piece of copper tubing and epoxied it in place. The excess was cut flush with the back of the block.

 

[PHArchivist]

Have I said yet just how awesome this is!?

 

[Robiwon]

Nope, this is your first post in here. Been waiting for you though!:lol Thanks for the compliments!

Here's another from inside the house. I have more to download, just have not gotten around to it yet.

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

Are you turning off the flash to take pics of the cockpit ?

If so, it slows down the shutter speed. Any movement in your hands and the pictures are blury. Use a tri-pod or rest the camera on something so it's rock-solid-stable to snap a pic.

Also, try the macro feature on your camera for close-ups.

 

[PHArchivist]

Nope, this is your first post in here. Been waiting for you though!:lol Thanks for the compliments!

Here's another from inside the house. I have more to download, just have not gotten around to it yet.

Its awesome on a couple different levels: First, how cool and unique to do Blue Leader! Don't know that anybody else has, and its just cool! Second, you have seemed to capture that ILM essence quite nicely! Well done!

 

[Colin Droidmilk]

Here are a few tips I used while building my V2.

For each wing there are four identical groups of parts (or nearly). Due to the nature of resin cast bits they are not all perfectly square. What I did was I gathered the parts for one complete wing. These parts at this point would never be mixed into the kit again. Each of the parts for this wing were sanded and fitted to fit this one group of parts only. These parts all had an "A" scratched into them. This was done for each wing. the next wing had a "B" and then a "C" etc. This way I would not grab a S V part that had been fitted to another F4 engine and cause alignment issues. I knew that when I went to glue parts together that they would fit perfectly.

The wings on my bird are pinned. After matching a wing to its mounting block I superglued one wing into position. I then took my Dremel and from the backside of the block, drilled thru and into the wing. I then used a piece of copper tubing and epoxied it in place. The excess was cut flush with the back of the block.

Thanks so much for these instructions. For those on a first-time SS X build like myself it really is extremely helpful, I'm sure... Much appreciated!

 

[Robiwon]

O.K. I got a camera tripod and took a few more pics. I'm getting better with this fotowgraffy stuff. :confused