My Life-Size Han Solo In Carbonite Project - 2nd Attempt
- Thread starter azheat01
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Re: My Life-Size Han Solo In Carbonite and Base Project - 2nd Attempt - New Updates
Jumping around projects again, waiting for some parts to come in, so I thought I would work on my HIC base. Thanks to Fuzzual, this is something I've been wanting to do for a long time! I'm going to try and borrow many parts of his design because it's so great. I had some extra panels from my figure base projects so I decided to use one of those. The only problem is they aren't wide enough, but rather than cut a new one I decided I would just extend it with some solid boxes. I cut the panel in half which leaves me about 14 inches of space for Han.
Then I built the boxes for both ends. Just need to fill the nail holes before I can paint and mount the acrylic. Once that's done I'll start on the greeblies.
Jumping around projects again, waiting for some parts to come in, so I thought I would work on my HIC base. Thanks to Fuzzual, this is something I've been wanting to do for a long time! I'm going to try and borrow many parts of his design because it's so great. I had some extra panels from my figure base projects so I decided to use one of those. The only problem is they aren't wide enough, but rather than cut a new one I decided I would just extend it with some solid boxes. I cut the panel in half which leaves me about 14 inches of space for Han.
Then I built the boxes for both ends. Just need to fill the nail holes before I can paint and mount the acrylic. Once that's done I'll start on the greeblies.
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I was able to paint the light box so I can install the acrylic next week. Also went to Lowes today and spent some time looking for greeblies, this is what I came up with so far. All the black pipes will be cut to different lengths, just put everything on there to see how it would look. I also have some schedule 40 pipe and a bunch of connectors to place still. Gonna place everything before I paint the rest of this. Still gotta mess around with it a little more..........
Got the first coat of paint on everything and the remote LED lights installed. Gonna put another coat of paint on and then I want to do a light wash of gray in some areas. The camera exaggerates the light source but to the naked eye it looks more uniform. I also didn't put the back panel on when I took these pictures so there is some light leakage. I'm going to line the inside with some foil like I did on my Death Star panels and that will help with the lighting effect.
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Little more work done today, first I re-positioned the lights and lined the inside with some foil..........definitely helped a little with the lighting effect.
I decided I also wanted to add a lighting effect to one of the smaller tubes. The control box will have LEDs as well, but this sits much lower. I cut a slit near the top of the pipe and printed some blue squares on a transparency sheet. I then cut the squares down and did a quick test fit. Rather than wire this light to the switches on the control box, I just went with a tiny LED flashlight. It works perfectly with the switch at the bottom, I just bore out a hole on the back side of the pipe and slid in the flashlight. Easy to turn on and off and hardly noticeable.
I got most of the pipes painted today so I hope to install them this week.
I decided I also wanted to add a lighting effect to one of the smaller tubes. The control box will have LEDs as well, but this sits much lower. I cut a slit near the top of the pipe and printed some blue squares on a transparency sheet. I then cut the squares down and did a quick test fit. Rather than wire this light to the switches on the control box, I just went with a tiny LED flashlight. It works perfectly with the switch at the bottom, I just bore out a hole on the back side of the pipe and slid in the flashlight. Easy to turn on and off and hardly noticeable.
I got most of the pipes painted today so I hope to install them this week.
Thank you!
I was itching to get some of these pipes on and did a few today. I also decided to move the base up to the Star Wars room before I installed anything just to make sure nothing shifted or broke when moving it. I used Rustoleum Black Stainless Steel for the pipes and although you can't really tell in the photos, it looks nice against the HIC cabinet color as well as the black in the base. For each pipe that connects to the base I used a 3/4 PVC plug, drilled a hole in it, then screwed that to the base. Sorry for the poor lighting in the photos, not the best room for taking pictures. Have a bit more to do, but it's moving right along............
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Thank you!
More work today.........first, I wanted to finish the lighting in the small pipe that will go in the front. I had a piece of scrap light panel left over from another project so I used some of that. I took my heat gun and formed the piece around the pipe.
I took the piece of transparency I printed and applied that to the smooth side of the panel.
I glued the panel piece to the inside of the pipe and then glued the flashlight into the hole in the back. I left enough of the light out so I could unscrew it and replace the batteries when needed. The lighting effect adds that little extra..........
I was also able to mount a few more pipes, move the base to where it will sit, and put HIC on it. So far I'm real pleased with it. I still have to add the control panel and side pipes.
I was at the store picking up some things and I happened to see these two cake pans, one with a cover and one without. I immediately thought these might work for my control panel, and at $4.00 for one and $3.00 for the other, it was worth a shot to save me a lot of scratch building.
The cover snaps on upside down, which works perfectly for how I want to do this. I then cut out part of the cover leaving a small lip so I can add a piece of MDF for the switches, etc.
I drilled a hole in each corner and bolted the two halves together, bottom to bottom. The lower pan hides where it mounts to the top pipe. I also cut two small pieces of 2 x 4 and screwed those to the top of the pipe so the pans would tilt slightly forward.
I also went to a Goodwill to see if they had any electronics that I could take apart and use for pieces. For about $12 I got an old TIVO and a DVD player. I took them apart to see what I could use with the other odds and ends I got from Lowes. I also went to a Radio Shack down the road, sad thing is the store is going out of business, good thing is I loaded up on greeblies because almost everything was 90% off!
Gonna see what I can put together............
The cover snaps on upside down, which works perfectly for how I want to do this. I then cut out part of the cover leaving a small lip so I can add a piece of MDF for the switches, etc.
I drilled a hole in each corner and bolted the two halves together, bottom to bottom. The lower pan hides where it mounts to the top pipe. I also cut two small pieces of 2 x 4 and screwed those to the top of the pipe so the pans would tilt slightly forward.
I also went to a Goodwill to see if they had any electronics that I could take apart and use for pieces. For about $12 I got an old TIVO and a DVD player. I took them apart to see what I could use with the other odds and ends I got from Lowes. I also went to a Radio Shack down the road, sad thing is the store is going out of business, good thing is I loaded up on greeblies because almost everything was 90% off!
Gonna see what I can put together............
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Was able to just about finish this up today; made some changes to the panel layout, painted the MDF insert, added some greeblies, LEDs, etc. I also added handles to both sides of the control panel box. I installed the control panel unit to the main base and added the remaining pipes to that. I have a tiny bit of greebification left that I'll slowly take care of, but all in all, I'm real pleased with how this turned out. Looks much better in person..............
And here's a quick video of the lights on the control panel.............
And here's a quick video of the lights on the control panel.............
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zanefielding
Member
I get asked this quite often, and I'm sorry to say my friend I don't remember the name of it. I have since checked Home Depot and Lowes and haven't seen it, that was years ago. All I can remember is that it was used in garage floor coatings, and I think it came in a red plastic bottle which I accidentally broke when I dropped it. Sorry, wish I still had that info. I think now that the floor mixes come all in one they have stopped producing it.
It's been almost 8 years since I finished this and it doesn't have a single scratch, chip, crack, or defect. I've never had to repair or retouch ANY part of it; it looks as good as the day I finished it. It was moved twice when it was downstairs, then moved upstairs when I finished my theater room, and then moved again when I built the display base last year. It has held up perfectly. I've got one more of these builds in me and when I do it, I am definitely using glue again. My best advice is to pour multiple small coats. The pics below were taken just a few minutes ago............
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VanOaksProps
Sr Member
Did you ever post pictures of the base you built? It’s hard to keep up with all the HIC threads over the years. Lol
UPDATE: Never mind. I see it above.
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