Han Solo at Star's End: Blue Max scratchbuild

OK, first off, I'm totally ripping off Lichtbringer and his amazing Blue Max construction thread: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=264050

I'm a big fan of obscure droids, so when Lichtbringer started his thread I was totally inspired and had to have a go myself.

So, Blue Max, being from the Han Solo Adventures Trilogy novels (Han Solo at Stars End, Han Solo's Revenge and Han Solo and the Lost Legacy) that were published back in 1979-1980 (before Empire even came out!) has very little in the way of official reference images. The Star's End comic depicts just a plain blue cube, but the book The Essential Guide to Droids gives us this:




Which this painting obviously uses as reference:


(BTW, anyone know is this painting has been officially published anywhere? It's not in any of my books, but I don't have EVERY Star Wars guide book published)

As he's only really a written description I could alter what Blue Max looks like in my build, but I want to try to match the Essential Guide to Droids image as much as I possibly can. I want the front elevation to be the same, so any added bits will have to not stick out any further than what's shown in the book image.

So, being basically a cube, I wanted to start with something that was about the right shape and size and was pre-made, so I wouldn't have to try to get all the edges to meet up exactly. So I started with one of these:



As these measure 9cm x 9cm x9cm I scaled the Essential Droids image to ensure that the cube part was 9cm wide and printed it out lifesize to use as my plan.

Starting with the jack/probe/arm, I came across this in my local Poundland:



Which when disassembled is pretty darn close:



With come unscrewing, cutting, rearranging, added washers and glue, it gets a lot closer:



The photo cube was TOO cubic, so I cut it down to size - the design of the thing means that the two halves still slot together perfectly and can opened to insert electronics (think I'll light the photoreceptor).

So, after much cutting, gluing and dremelling this is where I'm currently at:







The photoreceptor is a red glass marble I had in my junk box that just so happened to be the perfect colour and size.

Need to try to find some more cheap model kits to cannibalize for greeblies now....

This came out nice, Im liking where this is going!

No Blue Max for decades, now 2 in a month.

Nice looking.

Can't wait to see the end result! Very excited!

I raved about the Han Solo trilogy in the last thread, so I will restrain myself here, but awesome to see another Blue Max. You're doing a great job.

This whole line of thinking has me considering working up a Gallandro costume for the next con I attend. Talk about obscure!

Really, check out those books if you get the chance. Brian Daley was the best EU author of all time. Even John Jackson Miller (author of the fantastic "Kenobi" and a few other very solid EU books) thinks so.

And for god's sake don't throw any of that Timmy Zahn stuff at me. I like Zahn perectly fine and love me some Mara Jade but Zahn couldn't carry Daley's stationary.

My copy of the Han Solo Adventures Trilogy novel arrived this morning, so I will start reading that tonight. Got to admit, I did like Zahn, but that was mainly for Thrawn. Looking forward to starting it.
OBIWANJALOPY (as I haven't started the book yet) any idea on what colour of blue Max should be. I know it's a "deep", "multi-layered" blue. Am I right in thinking it's also a "midnight" blue? And as the blue paint was "protective", does that mean that he's fairly pristine? As he's from the Star Wars universe I'm leaning towards weathered with paint chips (like my recent EV-9D9 paintup)....

Also, do you know what that large square on the front of this diagram is supposed to be? It's the one bit they DIDN'T label! I'm assuming it's a monitor/screen. If it IS, did Max ever display anything on it during the story? Star's End Prison schematics or that sort of thing?

Howlrunner: you're asking good questions. I don't think there's much in the books about the droids actual appearance, other than the brief summary you describe. I did always imagine him as a very deep, midnight blue, but I don't think his screen really displayed anything. He mostly just spoke, and he had a little kid's personality.

The illustration above, however, doesn't do justice to Bollox. Han always referred to him as "old timer" and was constantly described as almost ancient. That drawing doesn't really do that for me. Anyway, they save the day a couple of times and are really cool.

Again, I think you are doing a terrific job on this.

I'd LOVE to have a go at a Bollux head, but that's way beyond my skill set unfortunately.

Got some more kitbashing done - have added a few more details to the sides and top. I also did the whole of the back and built the trapezoid bottom and peg mounts. He's finally ready for some paint!

All arms/probes/antennae have been removed at this point for painting.

Front (buttons have been made but will be painted separately before being glued on):


Right Side (as you look at him) - the square hole will be backed with some exposed machinery which I've created separately):


Left Side (as you look at him):


Back:


Bottom:


Top:

Managed to solve the hand problem today. While out at the local Sunday Market/car boot sale I came across this guy for £1:



No idea what he's actually from (thought it might be a large scale Lego Lizard from Amazing Spiderman or something from Bionicles, but I can't find any match online), but the hand is perfect in scale and shape!

I worked out what the toy is I got the hand from - it IS an Amazing Spiderman Lizard figure, but it's from Mega Bloks (Lizard TechBot), not Lego....

Anyways, painting is now done. After going through LOTS of photos of different dark blue cars, I finally found a colour that matched how I saw Blue Max in my head - not too blue, and not too black - Vauxhall Prestige Blue. Picked up the spray paint from Halfords.

After spraying blue I then added topical weathering, similar to painting my Boba helmet. I think I may have done a bit too much weathering now that I've read more of the book and know that Max is supposed to be relatively new, but it definitely gives him more character, so this is now my post-Lost Legacy Blue Max, when he's had a few adventures and gotten into a bit more of a scrape! :lol

At the car boot sale that I got the Mega Bloks figure from I also came across a stall selling loads of different 3D lenticular greetings cards for 50p each, so I bought a solar system one. From that I cut out the Sun - I figure that a star is a pretty appropriate thing for Blue Max to be displaying as it's related to Star's End. The picture is held in place with blu-tac, so I can easily swap it out later if I come across (or think of) something more appropriate.

There are no lights in Max, but I DID include a working switch as one of the greeblies on his back, so that I can add lighting later if I decide to. As it is, the red glass marble actually picks up a lot of ambient light anyway.

So, for now at least, I'm calling this little guy finished. It's been a fun build, as it's not often you get to use your own imagination on a Star Wars build as there's usually so much reference material!

that looks fantastic. I never get so lucky just finding useful bits when out and about...

That thing is the bomb. Really, really well done.