Monday 8 July 2024

SLAVE TO THE MACHINE

 The hobby can sometimes feel like it is a machine, and then throw in OCD you can very much feel like a slave to it ! LOL So where am I going with this you may ask, well you may remember back in October, my wife and children got me a toy of the Slave-1 firespray gunship. Now there are several bits that needed to change before painting it, here is a reminder of what it arrived like.

On the front there was some lugs that needed removing, as these were for adding extra guns which I didn't need, there was also a couple of screw holes that needed filing, and the cockpit needed to be blended in, all of this was quite basic work, but would bring the toy up to the next level.


Then we come to the engine area, wow this was going to be a task and a half, there was a big hollow where there should be a raised section, and a lot of the details were wrong, I decided to go with an approximation style as a lot of the details that are in the preformed plastic aren't 100 % accurate, and below is where I've got to.


Below is a reference picture to show what it should look like.


As you can see there are a lot of differences, but short of starting from scratch, this will do, and I can now get on with the painting, that's all for this post, so until next time stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

22 comments:

  1. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out as I have the same model waiting in the wings.

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    1. Thank you Michael, the front was easy, the back took a serious amount of work, so depends on how insane you feel, or just paint it ! LOL

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  2. Really nicely done, it’s gone from looking like a toy to an official model.

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    1. Thank you SD, that is high praise indeed.

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  3. Great stuff Dave. I'd have been tempted to just stick it flat to a base though, LOL!!

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    1. Thank you Simon, as I would like to find a way to have it on a flying stand, that wasn't a option ! LOL

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  4. good luck with the project.
    I'm dumb, but I can't really tell what you did. I just can't tell by the pictures.
    so whatever you did, I'm sure it was with style and talent, I just can't follow it in this post. Sorry

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    1. Thank you Stewart, I'll take it as compliment, that you can't tell what I've made, and what was there, or I'm just terrible at explaining myself ! LOL

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  5. I probably said this last time, but this is likely my favorite Star Wars ship. The lamprey like design, the weird way it flies and fires, and you can't forget who is piloting it! Great touch ups, Dave! I think it's going to turn out nicely.
    Oh, this is odd....if you look at the under section, there are two circles in the middle of the reference pic. In between those two circles, looks like there is a cartoonish face with a pointy nose! At least that's what I'm seeing, but maybe there was something different in my coffee this morning, lol!?!

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    1. Thank you Brian, the first time I saw it I thought it looked like an Elephant head in space, but over time it grew on me, when I got past every ship should look like a dart ! LOL The painting is a fun challenge so far to get the colours and chipping right, so hopefully I can do it justice.
      That is a clear sign of an active imagination, which is never a bad thing, in the old house we lived in there was a brick in the back wall that had flaking paint on it which looked just like an alligator surfacing in the water, but no one else could see it ! LOL Yes I can see the face you pointed out, so were either both right, or had our coffee spiked ! LOL

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  6. Wow!! Oh my, that's a hell of a job! I love what you are doing there! Please more! MORE!!

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    1. Thank you Suber, to be honest I was questioning my sanity, while building the underside, but glad I persevered, hoping to have it painted by Friday's post

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  7. Great work on turning this toy into a model, lovely work!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you Iain, hopefully the paint job I'm aiming to post tomorrow takes it to another level again ! LOL

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  8. Slave to the Machine is a fantastic band name. They'd have to be metal or punk with a name like that. I like the little details you've added to Mr. Fett's ship. I think those little details in the ship design and the weathering on the vehicles and ships is what separates Star Wars from most other Sci-Fi universes so I'd say they're well worth your time!

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    1. Thank you Jeff, or perhaps they could be a mash up of both and start a whole new trend ! LOL the front wasn't a hard decission to do, except where the gun lugs were situated on the steering vanes, but the back was the biggest stumbling block for me, whether to fill the void or just paint it, glad my OCD kicked in and went for filling the void ! LOL

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  9. John@justneedsvarnish17 July 2024 at 09:14

    A good start, Dave! :-) The underside detail you've added looks really good!

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    1. Thank you John, some would say it's extra work for the sake of it, but for my OCD it was necessary ! LOL

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  10. Oh my word - seeing this after the finished model just highlights how much of an amazing job you did on this one!

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    1. Thank you Azazael, the wife has got me booked in for a jacket that does up at the back and 12 rolls of padded wallpaper as she thinks I've completely lost the plot, I replied there was a plot ! LOL

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    2. It's certainly a hell of a lot more work than I would have put in - but I totally get it as I do the same thing with paint a lot of the time. The extra details no-one else would notice are for our own hobby ADHD/satisfaction.

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    3. Indeed mate, we all have those switches we just can't turn off ! LOL

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