More Star Wars changes

Guess like most folk, biggest problem i have with Revenge Of The Sith is the crappy stumble and "Nooooooo" from Vader at the end (will someone please wipe my brain of it please). So, not too happy to find that on the Jedi Blu Ray he does it AGAIN after he's chucked the Emperor down the shaft.
Can handle the Ewoks now blinking (but would've prefered them wiping them and putting in an earlier, better design) and Obi-Wan now making a much louder Krayt Dragon roar, but not that.
George, stop fiddling

Nurgle Drop Pod

Putting this up on the 'Bay tonight and thought you might like to take a look?
Stumbled across it half built in one of the boxes in the attic and its a project that i started years back.
Its always got me that Chaos is meant to be chaotic - but stuff always looked the same. Surely things should be random, unique and totally different? Nurgle especially. With that in mind, i set about making my own version of a Drop Pod and i'd pretty much finished it but the paintjob when i re-found it.
So here it is done and this is what she's made from:

An Ovaltine jar, cut at the the 3/4 mark and a spacer put in.
That spacer was detailed with a simple cable tie.
A panel of the main part cut out and backed with Plasticard and small kit kits for the door.
The top of a toothbrush holder for the upper area where the manouvering jets are.
Plasticard wings.
And various kitbits for detailing.

Star Wars Attack Shuttle - factory finish

Here she is in her basic colours.
What i've noticed about the Clone Wars series is how the ships are never white. They're in turns white with a touch of cream or white with a touch of grey.
I knew from experience on my Millenium Falcon (which has the same basic starting point) that its a right bastige to try and replicate through hand mixing so, this time, went to Halfords to try and find a match.
Closest i could come to was "Renault Glacier White", which sure has a nice tint of both the above.
Once that was on and the reds and white's applied it sure did look toy-like.
But i've started now on the pastelling, which is darkening it down nicely:

A new Yoda for the Blu Rays

Seems Mr Lucas has been fiddling again.
This time, i can't argue with it - a rudementary, unconvincing puppet delving into uncharted waters by an uncertain Mr Oz produces a classic character full of life in 1980 makes way for a crappy, hideous lump of rubber in 1999.
Did they learn nothing at all?
Clearly they have now, with the excising of the abomination in time for the Blu Ray and then 3D release.
Check out the compare and contrast and shudder at the ineptness of '99:

http://m.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/news/a337043/george-lucas-adds-cgi-yoda-to-star-wars-blu-ray.html

Star Wars Republic Attack Shuttle

Had a REAL long shift at work last night all by meself (thank you SO much Inbetweeners) and needed something to pass the time.
Knew my local Modelzone had loads of Star Wars kits in their sale so bunged me glue and scalpel in the bag and popped in on the way to work to get me a kit.
I plumped for this ship as, like many craft from the Clone Wars animated series, its a time only 20-odd years before the original trilogy and they're all showing the genesis of "future" designs.
Here, of course, we've got a very Imperial Shuttle look with those drop down wings, but (and this is what sold it for me) the cockpit really is reminiscent of the Walkers head.
So, bought one, took it work, opened it up - and my time diverting plan fell apart.
Its actually a snap fit kit, needing no glue at all. Usually, in times gone by, the notion has filled me with horror, what with clumsy, bulky, ill fitting parts and accuracy being sacrificed for the notion.
Couldn't be more wrong here though.
All the parts are crisply detailed, the part fit is excellent and well up there with the Japanese kit makers.
The paint job is pretty good too, with really nice weathering to all parts.
But they all look a bit "plasticy" and all have the same sheen.
So i'll be repainting after the build.
The cockpit is very, very nice and the figures, tiny as they are (guess its about 1/100th scale)are painted. All i've done there is to add a black wash to make the detail pop a bit more.
Looking forward to weathering this in true Star Wars fashion.

Nurgle Titan - bodywork done

Apologies for the crappy pics - lights rubbish today, and there's more going on there than it seems.
So that's the armour and metals done.
I've got it in mind that the "horn" where the severed heads are has a specific function.
During a battle the Titan strides to the front line and any captured enemy are taken up top via the hatch i've put just before the horn starts. They're then led along the gantry before being decapitated in front of the comrades. Just to freak them out. Then the heads are stuck on the spikes. But, if its a very important prisoner, they're killed and hung in the gibbet that'll be dangling down.

From the back of the cabinet - Jawa Sandcrawler

While i'm talking Star Wars, thought i'd show you this lil' fella. Its little alright - only about 6 inches long and is actually a Micro Machines playset that opens up to reveal a little play area for the figures that came with it.
What struck me by it is the wealth of detail packed into it, and how accurate some of it is - check out the two 1/24th Airfix Harrier Jump Jet engine halves recreated on the rear.
So, it was a nice project years back to have a go at repainting it more like the studio model.
For that, i used the excellent "Star Wars Archives" book, which has some really nice clear shots of it.
And that's when i appreciated the toy even more - most of the panels on the sides are an exact match.
So it was great fun picking them all out in their various colours.
Keep meaning to take it with us when we go down to Camber Sands for some dune shots.

From the back of the cabinet - Star Fury

Dealing with the pretty much monchrome colour scheme of the Virago, it reminded me of the Star Fury i made yonks back, long before this here Blog.
So thought i'd show it to you.
The "Salem's Lottie" decals are an after build set bought from Starship Modeller.

Nurgle Titan - rusty

Having great fun rusting this fella up. The idea is that you'd catch tetanus or somesuch from just touching the beast.

Nurgle Champion - done

This fellas rather unfairly been pushed to one side as new projects have come along, but here he is all finished.

The Virago - pastelled

As th ship belongs to "Prince Xizor", you'd figure a princely craft would be pristine and dirt free wouldn't you?
But Star Wars ships aren't Star Wars ships without weathering, so here you go.
Next up, metallics, gloss black for the canopy, maybe a few oil leaks/rust, then paint the stand black and she's done.

Nurgle Titan - legs nearly done

Okay, that's the armour and metals finished. Next up its to do the poxy fleashy growths, then the real entertaining rust application, then just some dust and dirt on the feet to finish this section off.

Stormtrooper Helmet - lenses

Okay, first thing i'm addressing here are the lenses. As i'm ultimately going for a Sandtrooper, i need MUCH darker green lenses than supplied.
Asked around on the Forums and finally got an A4 sheet of 3mm acrylic that was just right - but far too thick to bend.
Got round that by cutting a shape the right width and height, then heating it up over the hob till it went floppy then pressed it into shape inside the helmet.
When cool, it gave me a nice band of the stuff.

I've Velcro'd it in place so as to aid ventilation, but also it means i can change it at any time without any hassle.

The Viarago - greys

Got round the "grey or tan?" connumdrum by having both - keeping the grey primer in most parts and picking out certain details in a tan.
I've also blocked in certain areas and the engine bells in a blue-grey, then picked out panel lines in pencil.
That's how it'll stay for the next stage, pastelling.
After that, the mettalics go on.

The Virago - primed

So, bunged on some bits along the sides, up top, but also had to put some stripes for the very front of the canopy - there's no distinguishable line at all on the cockpit for where the glass ends and the brace begins.

Now primed, i've got to decide what to do colour-wise. The instructions would have it to go with regular and medium greys for the most part, and i haven't done one like that in a while, but i'm thinking a tan sort of affair to warm everything up a bit.
Hmmm...

The Virago - built

You can see here the mass of interesting shapes you get with this and how usefull they can be on their own just as spares.

Second pic are the subassemblies coming together. Its a real simple build and no mistake. You're supposed to attach the guns at this point so they can swivel out and away from the body through 90 degrees but figure that'd look daft on weaponry that big so will be leaving them off till after painting.

Last pic is it nearly done. You can see where the cockpit will go that there's a ratchet system inside. That's so you can pose the wings in various deployments, either close to the body or wide open - a bit like the Vorlon ships in Babylon 5 could do.
That seems a bit gimmicky to me, so i've stuck them in this half-open way, which i think looks best.
You can also the huge amount of bare space midships. That's a real surprise, given the detail all over the rest of the craft, so i'll be adding some of my own. And cover up that gappy join the process.

Nurgle Titan - painting the legs

Decided not to put shin guards on as the one's i've templates for make him look like he's got flares on. And it'd cover up too much detail.
So, that's legs done then. Went ahead with Primer then realised, idiot that i am, i'd forgotten all about putting caps over the open tube hinges. Thought that might be a problem, having to find 8 all the same but turns out these tan wheels from a WW2kit fitted just right.
Over that, i've put on a sloppy rough basecoat, much darker than it appears here and i'll be building up from that.

The Virago

Bit of a puzzle this ship. Its definetly canon, coming from official computer games, books and comics back in the 90's, and is a lovely unusual design - but its barely ever mentioned, let alone featured anywhere.
I'd picked on of these kits about 10 years ago but never built it, using it instead for parts.
And a great kit it is too for that - still using bits now.
Stumbled across one on eBay going for just 4 quid so thought i'd get one and build it proper like.

Martian

As i've said before, am not a fan AT ALL of the Spielberg version of WOTW. The Tripods are okay i guess, but the rest is horribly, horribly wrong.
Biggest horrible wrong, after the fact that they're not from Mars, are the Martians themselves - a horrible sub-standard Independance Day ripoff. Did'nt they read the book????
Anyway, i'd got the kit of this abortion of a Martian as (A) i'd been swayed by Dave Daines' excellent paintjob at this years Dronearama, (B) it was 1/8th scale - the same as the George Pal version Moebious had also produced.
So, that got me to thinking: What if i did a truely accurate book version the same scale to go alongside them?
Finally pulled me finger out and the project is a go.
First up, i had to decided just how big this new one should be alongside the others. Mr Wells has them as being "A big greyish rounded bulk, the size, perhaps, of a bear...".
So, going by the figures and, more importantly, the cup on the base of the Speilberg one, i could roughly figure out how big it should be.
Pretty darn big was the answer.
"Rounded bulk" eh? No way was i going to make something that size out of solid clay, so the first thing i did was blow up a balloon to the right size and cover it with a couple of layers of paper mache;

After that, i've cut the bottom off to leave a teardrop shape bulk to which i'll be adding the air drying clay.

Nurgle Titan - the gallows

Okay, added Mr Surfacer to the clear cockpit and any other smooth surfaces to break them up a bit.
Been having a think about the "horn" thing and why it'd be there, apart from being in keeping with the style of Nurgle. I could have it as being some sort of hood affair to protect the cockpit from incoming, but then i got to thinking it'd be the perfect place to freak out the enemy.
I had a whole bunch of these severed heads on spikes in the bitsbox, so thought i'd add them up top. Trouble was, they had curved bases, so you can see i've attached them to two strips of Plastcicard before attaching, then detailed them a bit with tiny cable ties.
I also thought it'd be a nice idea to have a gallows at the very front, to show off the most prominent person they'd captured and killed. So the gallows is a bit from a 1/35th WW2 truck and the cage with the skelton is from the bits box. I've only stuck him in place with Blu Tac as i'll be removing him for painting

Nurgle Titan - head

Here you can see i've made a start on it. One of the trademark looks to Nurgle is a cyclopian eye, and i've tried to infer that using the half ball for the cockpit. Thought it'd also break up the hard lines a bit more.
Another iconic item with Nurgle is a singular horn and, again, i'm trying to infer that by having the paltform above the cockpit jutting out like it is.

Another Blight Drone

Need some dosh to fund this here hobby, so i've come up with another Blight Drone to put on the 'Bay.
This time we've a racing car body for the hull, Das Pronto for the meat, 88MM Gun parts for a lot of the machinery underneath and the screw-like engines are two legs from a tiny torch tripod, capped with a couple of 1/35th wheel halves.

Taking stock

With Joe done, i thought it might be an idea to sit back and see just where i am with other projects that have been pushed somewhat off to the sidelines during his build.

First up is my Stormtrooper helmet. You may recall that the ultimate plan is to have the whole outfit, painted up as a Sandtrooper, and i eventually join the 501st. To that end, i've got the ROMFX chipboard to give me the "tssk" through a speaker after every sentence i make, but next steps are: (1) Cut down the bolts inside that hold the ear pieces on and are far too long and gouge me every time i put it on, (2) Hot Glue some padding in the top to make it more comfortable, (3) Change the eye lenses for a far darker green, (4) Replace the Mike Tips as i've lost the mesh out of one of them.

Next is the plastic mammoth skelton that i'm cladding with flesh to make a Nurgle Plague Mammoth.

After that we've got the Ork Dreanought. Here you see the body is pretty much done and i'm getting ready to add the chimmnies to the rear.

The we've the Nurgle Titan. Progress on this that the legs are pretty poxed up now and i've started to add a "horn" affair at the front, under which the cockpit will go.

And last we've my least favourite - the "Aliens" Motion Tracker. A right duff old kit and one that's gonna take a LOT of work.

Joe Pineapples - done

Here's the fella all finished and, boy, am i pleased how he's come out. Graham's got to be commended for making a kit that's been a joy to put together and paint, and looks stunning as it dominates its shelf.
Only niggle is i've missed off his chin strap - which got lost during his bathtime.

From The Back Of The cabinet - Salute figures

No idea who made these, nor what they're supposed to be - just now they're incredibly detailed unique figures that i picked up at Salute years back.
The top one screammed Slaanesh to me, so did it in that sort of colour scheme.
Bottom is very dark, but you should be able to make out its an Ogre swinging half a dead horse as a club.
Stunning stuff both.