tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18245551014441464582024-03-12T21:53:00.004-07:00Wanted for WargamingThis is the blog of Chris FitzPatrick -- sculptor, game designer, wargamer. Share in my latest projects and diversions!Chris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824555101444146458.post-41167109255155933992018-07-03T18:22:00.001-07:002018-07-03T18:22:13.646-07:00TV remote Landspeeder<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It has been a long while since I updated, as I've had my hands full with work. However, I took a few hours off last weekend to participate in July's "Trash Bash Bits" speeder challenge, and this is the result. For those who don't know, Trash Bash Bits is a Facebook group that was started by my friend Brian Roe, and there are a lot of neat posts made there every week. You should check it out, and here is a link:<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/143863162617355/" target="_blank">Trash Bash Bits Facebook Group</a><br />
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And here was my contribution: the Ubrikkian IR97-b landspeeder, extended personnel transport version with optional sunroof.<br />
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So, a few years ago I got rid of cable TV and switched to Netflix (one of
the best decisions ever). When I went in to ATT to return 'the box', they told me they
did not want the remotes back. OK. So, I had a couple of them, and
they had an interesting shape, so I threw them into the bits box for a
future project. This is that project.<br />
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Here is how I did it... I took the bottom of the remote off, threw away to top <span class="text_exposed_show">part
(with the buttons). The plan was to turn the remote casing upside down and use the battery area as the crew compartment
for the speeder, and keep the cover to act as the roof. I cut off about
half of the remote, and the cut edge would be where the rear engines go.
Other stuff used - a few seats from the WotC Star Wars Flash Speeder, a
couple tank wheels for the engine exhausts, the claw forearms from a
'crab zoid' toy became the engine intakes, undercarriage was an oxygen
tank from an old 'Sea-Quest Transport' model from the bits box, and a bit of
plasticard to stick it all together. Oh yeah, the base is the base from
the Flash Speeder. All in all, this was a really simple model to make.</span><br />
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The gun shown in some photos is just temporary, until a nicer (and
hopefully a bit smaller) one is found. I'll also add some crew
(converted from the Flash Speeder crew) but that can wait for when I'm
less busy.<br />
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Painted with acrylics, and weathered with Doc O'briens
Weathering Powders to make it look dirty and dusty - Tatooine does not
have a car wash!<br />
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Hope you guys like it.<br />
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Chris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824555101444146458.post-76034802270084893212015-08-13T12:03:00.000-07:002015-08-13T17:23:26.939-07:00A couple more LandspeedersIt has been a while since I posted any of my Star Wars stuff - my lanspeeder race project has been on hold for the last couple years. However, I have 2 completed landspeeders sitting around, that just needed the final paint touch-ups and weathering... so I went and finished these up! These were very quick to paint - both got a simple 2-color paint scheme, and then I weathered them with Doc O'briens Weathering Powders to give them a dirty, desert-world appearance.<br />
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Oh yeah, the bases for these are from WotC Flash Speeders, I got a bunch back when they were cheap, and I've been using them for all my landspeeders. <br />
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<b>Gian Sport Speeder</b><br />
The first one is a modified Gian Speeder, from the old Galoob Action Fleet toy range. I removed the side-mounted guns to make it look more like a civilian vehicle. The original model was a long, 4-seat model, and I wanted this one to be a 2-seat racing vehicle. So... I got out my razor saw and cut out the center section with the rear seats, then glued and filled the gaps from the join. The end result looks a lot more sporty, and after a bit of sanding the join ended up being almost imperceptible. The driver next to it was a WotC Star Wars character, I cut off his hand and added a nice cool beverage. Thanks to my wife Debs on this one, she did most of the painting on the speeder and the driver.
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<b>"A-1 Deluxe Mobquet Floater"</b><br />
The second one was a more complicated model. It was based on an old plastic toy car from the 1950s that I found in a flea market from a company called "Wannatoy." I noticed that it looked a bit like one of the speeders that can be briefly seen in some of the Mos Eisley background shots in Star Wars. It got my imagination going, and I decided to try to convert the toy into this speeder. A bit of internet research discovered that this vehicle was called an <b>"A-1 Deluxe Mobquet Floater"</b>, and there were even the original blueprints available from when the built the prop! (see below) Isn't the internet amazing? Armed with the plans and a few photos, I set out to create my version, loosely based on the original.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KcfxM79vu6s/VczlZLvnULI/AAAAAAAAAKo/l3nwrv9av5I/s1600/5622829115_1d3b608102_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KcfxM79vu6s/VczlZLvnULI/AAAAAAAAAKo/l3nwrv9av5I/s400/5622829115_1d3b608102_b.jpg" width="400" /></a>
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I lost all my in-progress shots, but here is a picture of one of the same toys from ebay:<br />
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In the movie:<br />
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The bottom of the toy had holes for wheels, and I filled these with plasticard and putty. I then added the 2 seats inside in tandem, and a custom driver with a sculpted helmet, goggles, and breathing mask. The side engines were just plastic tubing, cut and glued onto the side rails. The dorsal fin in the back was a piece of plasticard, cut and pinned into the rear of the vehicle. The actual prop had 4 fins positioned like the rudders of a torpedo, but this looked like too much work, so I just stuck with the one.<br />
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The last, and most difficult bit was the canopy. The rear (opaque) section was made from bronze putty, formed around a marble and popped off when dry, to get the rounded shape. This I glued on and filled. The clear section was a blisterpack form from an oven-light bulb that I got at the hardware store - the packaging was just about the right size, and when carefully cut down it fit pretty closely. It was glued into place with 5-minute epoxy, and then I added the curved slats by using very thin plasticard strips, bent and glued again with 5-minute epoxy. I used epoxy because superglue would dry too fast to position correctly, and it would likely fog up the clear plastic. Final weathering touches and the "A-1 Deluxe Mobquet Floater" was complete! It is not an exact match, but it is close enough for me.<br />
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At this point I have 11 completed speeders, more than enough for the race. <br />
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Chris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824555101444146458.post-28561162760513879102015-05-16T09:16:00.000-07:002015-05-17T05:09:27.947-07:00Back in the 80's: The Partha Pipeline<br>
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Sorry for the long absence from posting to the blog! I've had my hands full for the past year working on the miniatures and book for Olympus, and that has not left much time for other pursuits. However, I'm going to try to make the occasional post, so let's start with a trip down memory lane...
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Back in the 1980s there was this miniature company called Ral Partha, maybe you've heard of it? Partha was the one of the 'big two' US miniature manufacturers (the other being Grenadier Models). I was a big fan of both of them. Every now and the Ral Partha sent out cool newsletters, with illustrations of the latest miniatures, comics, and stories about whatever they were thinking about at the time. These newsletters were called the Partha Pipeline. They also did a newsletter to support their short-lived Chaos Wars game, called the War Bulletin. This mainly focused on scenarios and new rules, again with lots of great illustrations.
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The artist responsible for most of the illustrations within was Bill Neff, the head of the Partha art department at the time. I believe he now works as a professional illustrator/designer in the news industry, and his art for Partha has a unique and cool style that still looks great today!
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CKdD_x5Ee4g/VVdtI7z3EyI/AAAAAAAAAI4/8bYK53IekoQ/s1600/ChaosWarrior.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CKdD_x5Ee4g/VVdtI7z3EyI/AAAAAAAAAI4/8bYK53IekoQ/s320/ChaosWarrior.jpg" /></a></div>
I was a big fan of Partha back in the 1980s, and in the 1990s I went to work for them in my first job as a miniature designer. Sadly, this was after Partha had ceased producing the Pipeline and Bulletin, but I did manage to find a couple issues I has missed during my time there.
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I've compiled all of my issues of the Partha Pipeline and the War Bulletin into a PDF, so that my fellow fans of Ral Partha can enjoy them. I'll likely move the host site soon, so get it while it's hot!
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Here's a link to a direct download:
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<a href="http://www.crocodilegames.com/content/downloads/Pipeline_Bulletin_Compiled_PDF.pdf">Partha Pipeline Download</a>
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Ral Partha miniatures are now produced by the great guys and gals at Iron Wind Metals. They are currently running a Kickstarter program to get a lot of the classic Tom Meier miniatures from this era back into production, as well as a few new pieces that were never produced. Head on over to their Kickstarter page and have a look!
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<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1050509756/ral-parthas-chaos-wars/comments">Chaos Wars Kickstarter</a>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SE_1O-7b8uw/VVh__hjVpRI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/jnAxiRTsD7I/s1600/WarDept.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SE_1O-7b8uw/VVh__hjVpRI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/jnAxiRTsD7I/s400/WarDept.jpg" /></a></div>Chris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824555101444146458.post-89373147205788176412013-05-08T17:44:00.000-07:002013-05-08T18:02:03.866-07:00Drow -- Old School style!Just thought I'd show off a couple of my recent sculptures here -- I recently finished 2 Drow elves for Otherworld Miniatures. These are the first elves I've sculpted in about 10 years, the first since the final Dark Elves I made for Games Workshop. It took a while to get back in the groove, but after a while was pretty fun to return to my old pointy-eared pals!
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These were both inspired by the artwork of Erol Otus, one of the pioneering artists of the Dungeons & Dragons game back in the early 1980s. For those who don't know who he is or are not familiar with early D&D, you can see a collection of some of his art here:
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<a href="http://jrients.tripod.com/otus/otus.html" target="_blank">Erol Otus Shrine</a>
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Anyhow, check out the minis... they are now up for pre-order at Otherworld if you want to claim a set for yourself! It's great company, and the quality of their figures is top-notch!
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<a href="http://otherworldminiatures.co.uk/" target="_blank">Otherworld Miniatures</a>
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Click below to make 'em bigger:
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Chris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824555101444146458.post-77588936581414756422012-12-30T11:34:00.002-08:002012-12-30T11:51:21.694-08:00Stone Giant Raiding Party!As I got to the last few days of this year, I realized I had done almost no miniature painting for myself the last 12 months! So I took the last few days off, and broke out the old paints & brushes! The first result was the Cave Troll I posted a few days ago, and the latest ones are a trio of Stone Giants for Dungeons and Dragons!<br />
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I bought 2 of the <a href="http://otherworldminiatures.co.uk/shop/giants/g2-stone-giant/" target="_blank">Otherworld Miniatures Stone Giants</a> a couple years ago at Salute. I loved the model, it was sculpted by my pal Paul Muller (we used to share an office back when we worked at GW). However, I wanted each one to look individual, so I converted one of them with a new face, turn of the head, and I sculpted 2 new arms on him carrying a club and barrel from my bits box. I also gave him some bone armor (more bits from by bits box) and when I was done, he looked pretty different from the original model. He looks a bit like he's returning from a raid on some town, with a big barrel of ale he's stolen from the inn!<br />
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In the picture below, the Stone Giant in the middle was a <a href="http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Giants_-_C28_%28solid_base%29" target="_blank">Citadel Miniatures C28 Giant</a>, sculpted by Michael and Alan Perry way back in the 1980's. One of the Giants in this series was clearly meant to be a D&D Stone Giant, and it matched up pretty nicely with the Otherworld Giant in scale. The only problems were his head and feet -- the head looked too big and the feet were to small (in comparison with the Otherworld minis). So I did a quicky sculpt of a new head that was a little smaller, and added some putty to bulk out the feet. In the end, when based in the same manner, all 3 looked like they were made for the same range.<br />
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I painted them with a pallet of neutral tones, as I wanted them to have a cold, stony look. I picture Stone Giants to be a bit like neolithic man, making weapons & gear from stone and hide. The scenery in the photo is some of my neolithic stuff I made last year for WarGods of Hyperborea (the Wendigo), if you like it you can see more color photos of these in the <a href="https://www.crocodilegames.com/store/itemDetail.cfm?prodID=74&catID=33" target="_blank">Wendigo Warband Book</a>, available from Crocodile Games. <br />
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I hope Otherworld does a couple more poses for their Giants range -- I'd love to have a Stone Giant throwing a rock to go with these guys!<br />
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Now, the question is, can I get anything else painted before the year is over and I have to get back to work???<br />
<br />Chris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824555101444146458.post-92077588102232080832012-12-26T17:27:00.002-08:002012-12-26T17:33:01.309-08:00"They have a Cave Troll!"It's been a long while since I've updated this blog -- thanks to stopping by to see what's new!<br />
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We were snowed in the day after Christmas, so I spent the afternoon brushing up on my painting! Inspired by the recent Hobbit film, I decided to finish up an old project I started a long time ago -- a Cave Troll, from the Games Workshop 'Lord of the Rings' game.<br />
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This figure came in the Mines of Moria box set. I liked the miniature, but I wanted it to have a face that was different from the Troll in the movie. So I played around with the mini for a couple hours while at my sculpting table and came up with a new, slightly different head that looks fierce but suitably inbred. I even had the green of the head molded in case I wanted to do a few more of him. (I still have a couple extra heads, email me if anyone wants one for their Troll).<br />
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The figure then sat around on my shelf for many months, waiting to get painted. A foot of snow outside was a sign that the time was right!<br />
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And some close-ups of his face... scary! <br />
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He's painted with a mixture of Vallejo and GW paints, with some of the GW washes and inks for weathering. All in all, a fun miniature to work on, now I just need to paint up Tom, Bert, and William to keep him company!Chris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824555101444146458.post-11622486569647926632011-01-16T15:39:00.000-08:002015-08-13T12:41:05.937-07:00And Another Two!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/4721/rodian2sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/4721/rodian2sm.jpg" height="133" width="320" /></a></div>
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I took a break from my regular job at Croc Games today to slap some paint on 2 old landspeeder conversions that have been sitting around unfinished for a long time. They are the Rodian Runabout and the customized Flash Speeder.<br />
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I've posted the <a href="http://wantedforwargaming.blogspot.com/2010/03/rodian-racer-in-progress.html">Rodian Runabout</a> before, detailing how it was built. I wasn't happy with the paint job on it, it was too dull and really did not bring out the best of the actual conversion, but I had spent so long on the darned thing that I had to put it away for a while for the sake of my sanity! Well, it's been many months, so I came to the model today with a fresh outlook, and gave it a fresh coat of paint. I stuck with a simple color-scheme inspired a bit by Greedo's costume in Star Wars (this is supposed to be his landspeeder.) I also used a couple decals from an old japanese robot model for the hood and sides of the speeder, and then weathered the whole thing with Doc O'briens 'Gritty Yellow' weathering powder. The standing Greedo miniature is from WotC's Star Wars range, and the seated Greedo in the landspeeder was a simple conversion using the head of one of the cheap 'common' Rodian miniatures. A little putty and paint, and done!<br />
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Here are some more pictures:<br />
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The custom Flash Speeder is a conversion on the <a href="http://www.rebelscum.com/photo.asp?image=toys/e1mmafflashspeeder.jpg">Flash Speeder toy</a> from the Galoob Star Wars "Action Fleet" Micromachine range. It is basically the same thing as the WotC Flash Speeder, but it is a tiny bit larger and has much better detailing -- and, it is made of hard plastic, better for conversions. I wanted the speeder to look faster and a little more aerodynamic, so I cut the big awkward square engines off the sides and replaced them with 2 round turbine-style engines I made from some parts from my bits box. The original toy had a cannon mounted on the back, and I removed this and cut the top off of the 'roll bar', then extended each side up about 1/3 of an inch higher, to make it look a bit like the tail fins of a jet-fighter (specifically the awesome F-22 Raptor.) I added a bit of rolled up fabric to represent the convertible top being down. Last, it was mounted on a base taken from a WotC Flash Speeder. Construction complete, it got a simple paint job and some further weathering to finish. <br />
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That's it for now! Enjoy the pics!<br />
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--FitzChris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824555101444146458.post-6050700577285327492010-12-18T09:44:00.000-08:002019-12-28T07:36:18.178-08:00Clock Radio Building
Pretty much every miniature gamer I know has a few pieces of styrofoam packaging inserts stowed away in their closet, saving them for some future scenery project. I don't know what it is about styrofoam packing inserts, but the make great buildings! However, the problem with the white-styrofoam is that it is really fragile, and can't be painted or sealed with any kind of aerosol spray, so they always have a short life span. Last year, I received a new clock radio for Christmas, and it came with a packing insert made out of a strange, brown, paper-mache material -- <a href="http://img.diytrade.com/cdimg/425573/6846530/0/1220841324/pulp_insert.jpg">THIS</a> kind of stuff. The shape and texture of the insert looked interesting, like a very weathered sandstone or adobe. What's more, it was fairly sturdy, so I decided I'd try an experiment and see how it worked as a building. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of the insert before I started the project, so you'll just have to imagine what it looked like beforehand -- I promise I'll take some in-progress photos next time!<br />
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Anyway, this building is supposed to be a power station, sort of like a gas station for Landspeeders. The insert had a lip around the bottom, which I trimmed off with a hobby knife. There were also some holes and such, which I filled with putty. Once I had the basic shape ready, I sprayed it all with a sand-texture spray (the stuff the use on outdoor furniture), but the results were underwhelming. On top of the already-rough texture of the insert, you could hardly see the fine sand texture, so I need not have bothered. After this dried, I added a bunch of mechanical components from my bits box. This included parts from the "Platformer" power station and pumping station sets, plasticard, a door from a Galoob Action Fleet playset, and the tops of some toy missiles. The roof of the building had a big hole, so I cut a big piece of plasticard and glued this in, to make a place for models to stand. The junk pile around the back was, well, a bunch of junk. I'm planning on putting a ladder on the back as well, once I find something suitable. Then, the whole thing was glued down to a piece of 1/8 inch tempered hardboard for the base. Then the whole thing was painted and the base was flocked in the usual manner.<br />
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Christmas is coming, and I'll on the lookout for some more interesting packing materials hiding in the boxes!<br />
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Chris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824555101444146458.post-21095458173724662282010-12-13T13:45:00.000-08:002010-12-19T19:23:33.629-08:00Two More Landspeeders!OK, here's a couple more of the landspeeders that I've just finished off. <br />
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The White/Yellow landspeeder is the Sorosub V-35 'L-Kamino'. It's based on the same toy as the <a href="http://www.rebelscum.com/toys/mmbp16.jpg">"Lars Family Landspeeder"</a> (posted earlier on the blog), but I've made a few modifications to give it a different feel. Just like our cars come in different models (convertibles, hatchbacks, etc), I tried to make this a slightly different model of speeder, with a glamorous bubble canopy, larger side-mounted engines, and cargo room in the rear. I removed the plastic canopy from the original model and filled in the gap on the top where the hinge was, and replaced the canopy with a clear-plastic bubble that I cut from a 'Woodland Scenics" Fir Tree 5-pack -- the packaging was a clear plastic clamshell and the top of each 'tree compartment' was the perfect size, once trimmed with some scissors. The side engines are from the Micro-Machines Action Fleet "Gain Speeder", they were originally its guns that fired little toy rockets. I think they look better as engine pods, with some little circular bits glued to the front and back. The driver was s spare from one of the many WotC "Flash Speeders" that I dismantled to get their round bases, I cut off his head and replaced it with the head of a Wizkids 'Ghostfinder" miniature from their defunct Horrorclix game. No model is safe in my collection! It was then painted and dirtied up with weathering powders for that grungy "used universe" feel of Star Wars, particularly the vehicles you see on Tatooine. I'm pleased with the way this one turned out, especially the wacky little 'El-Camino' style cargo area in the back! <i> (Thanks for the idea, Lyle!)</i><br />
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The Magenta landspeeder is based on a little keyring of <a href="http://www99.epinions.com/pr-Toys-Tiger_Electronics_Star_Wars_Episode_II_Attack_Of_The_Clones_Force_Links_Key_Chain_Anakins_Skywalker_Speed#">"Anakin Skywalker's Airspeeder"</a> from Attack of the Clones. According to the Wookiepedia, it is a "Narglatch Airtech XJ-6 Airspeeder." The keyring was part of the "Force Links" series of collectibles produced by Tiger Electronics around the time that the Clones movie came out, and I was able to pick up a couple very cheaply as they did not seem to be popular, probably due to their hideous yellow/orange/green color scheme! Unfortunately, they were a little too small, probably 1/72 scale, so I needed to make the them look a little bigger to fit in with the rest. Basically, I extended the rear engines with plasticard and putty by about 1/3 inch, added larger head-rests, and added some sort of frontal steering or propulsion fins alongside the engines. These were inspired by the fins at the front of the Speeder Bikes, I figure that since landspeeders are using the same technology, they might have similar components. These were just cut out of some simple plasticard shapes, and I added some thin plasticard rods to make them look like they are firmly attached. With all these add-ons, the model finally looked the proper scale, albeit as a compact sports-car type vehicle. The last bit was to give it a suitably racy paint job so that it will stand out from the crowd. My wife really likes this one, and has claimed it as her speeder in the upcoming races! (The other 'keyring speeder' is currently parked in the garage at Spaceport Speeders with a blown coolant regulator -- the repair parts are being shipped in from Mos Espa, but it's gonna be a while!)<br />
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Both of them were mounted on plastic bases torn off WotC "Flash Speeder" miniatures.<br />
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Looks like we have 10 completed speeders now, I need to do is get some suitably hazardous rocks and terrain built, and we'll be ready to race!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/8929/sorosubsidesm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/8929/sorosubsidesm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/1351/sorosubtopsm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/1351/sorosubtopsm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/7754/sorosubfrontsm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/7754/sorosubfrontsm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/4372/sorosub2sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/4372/sorosub2sm.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8026/x61sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8026/x61sm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/46/x62sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/46/x62sm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/769/xj6frontsm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/769/xj6frontsm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/3319/xj6sidesm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/3319/xj6sidesm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Chris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824555101444146458.post-48471494464095482942010-12-12T16:55:00.000-08:002010-12-13T17:52:04.899-08:00Mushroom Buildings!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>OK, so they are not <i>really</i> mushroom buildings, but they are made from mushroom containers...<br />
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For me, one of the most fun elements of building scenery is finding common, everyday items that can be turned into scenery and models. This is one of those instances.<br />
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I was grocery shopping with my wife a few weeks back, and while perusing the 'fresh produce' isle I happened across a container of mushrooms. I was struck by the unusual shape of their little plastic container, which when turned upside down reminded me of a building or bunker with structural supports along the walls. So I purchased the mushrooms, and several salads later I was ready to turn their container into a Star Wars Tatooine-style building!<br />
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The problem with these containers is that they are made of very lightweight plastic, which would not hold up well to the abuses of most gamers, myself included. However, since these are just vaccu-formed shapes, they can be easily used as molds for something more durable, like plaster. I cut a slightly smaller shape out of styrofoam, so that the building would be lighter, put the shape into the container leaving about half an inch between the shape and the interior walls of the container, and then poured the plaster in. The styrofoam floats on top the wet plaster, so I weighted the top down with some heavy books (wrapped in plastic, of course) and left it to dry. An hour later the mold is done, and viola -- instant shape! While the basic shape was still fresh from the mold, I cut the windows into the side (plaster is very easy to cut with a scalpel for a few hours after it comes out of the mold.)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(This photo shows the blue foam suspended in the plaster, for lightness.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Next, I put a dome onto the top (half of a plastic Christmas ornament), and added an archway and door (I made made mine from putty, plasticard, and parts from my bits box, but there are LOTS of manufacturers who make similar sci-fi doors which would work great -- Armorcast, Scotia-Grendel, and Antenocitis Workshop all make some). Once all these were put onto the basic shape, I filled in any gaps with some filler putty, and then textured the entire building with Herb Gundt's famous "Sandstorm Technique". The chimney was a little part out of my bits box. The whole thing was then mounted onto a piece of particle board and then painted and weathered. Easy!<br />
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This was such an easy project, a welcome break after the long ordeal of Spaceport Speeders! I've since discovered several other similar shapes at the same grocery store, all in the mushroom section (a slightly bigger container for the 'stuffing mushrooms', and a thinner, longer container that had the 'organic mushrooms'. I'll be making a few more similar buildings with these in the future, once I get a little free time. I've included a photo of some of the different shapes.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(some of the different shapes I found...)</td></tr>
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Oh yeah, the grocery store is called Meijer, I think it is a chain all across the midwest.<br />
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Here are a couple more shots of different angles:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Front View</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rear view.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Overhead view.</td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Chris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824555101444146458.post-21889965894072343452010-11-07T14:23:00.000-08:002011-01-17T08:49:33.941-08:00Spaceport Speeders<embed bgcolor="FFFFFF" flashvars="id=img6/shopdetail1.jpg" height="320" id="smilplayer" menu="false" name="smilplayer" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="http://img6.imageshack.us/slideshow/smilplayer.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="426" wmode="transparent"></embed><br />
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OK, it has been a loooong time since I've updated this blog. I've not been slacking off, things just get really busy during the summer convention season, so I took a little break from the blog. But I'm back, with lots of photos of a new project.<br />
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Most of my posts this far have been about a Star Wars Landspeeder Race I've been planning for some time. Most of the Speeders are now done, so lately I've been getting some terrain ready to set the scene. I expect the Landspeeder race to be a knock-down, drag-out affair, with lots of crashes and damages to the entrants, so we're going to need a 'repair shop'. I present, "Spaceport Speeders!" Right off the bat, I should send out a big thanks to Herb Gundt for lots of expert advice and support... thanks Herb! This thing would probably look like a mess of popsicle sticks and and upside down paper cups if it were not for his help! And a big thanks also to my wife Debs, for putting up with the eternal mess on the kitchen table! ;)<br />
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Unfortunately, I did not take photos of this in-progress, there was just way too much going on, so I'll just briefly recount what wend into making it. It's on a 1/8" thick tempered hardboard base, and the buildings are made from various found objects. The big tech building is a plastic Kneenex dispenser I found at Goodwill for about $2, topped with half of a plastic sphere. It has lots of tech-stuff added from my bits box, as well as a few pieces cut off of a Star Wars micro-machine toy set. The garage was made from wood and half of a card shipping tube for the top. The rear power shed was a little flower planter, and I added the door and top bits from the bits box. The textured surface was made utilizing Herb Gundt's famous 'sandstorm technique,' then painted and weathered with Doc O'Brians Weathering Powders from Mico-Mark. Hmm, what else -- the crane was from a micro-machine 'Pod Racer' toy set, and I added lots of details from the bits box and plastic tubing, so it wouldn't look like a toy. I added lots of fun little details, you might be able to see some of them in the close-up images, like a little droid attendant in the window, landspeeder schematics and pin-up space babes stuck to the interior walls of the garage, and lots of tools and parts lying around the work yard. Oh yeah, the sign says "Spaceport Speeders" in Aurebesh, the Star Wars 'galactic common' language, and there are fonts available for free online. Unfortunately, I didn't think to light the interior of the garage until it was glued down, so now I'm on the hunt for a tiny, flat, and inexpensive battery-operated light that I can just glue to the ceiling behind the arch. Anyone have any ideas?<br />
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And I just need to find a box suitable to store this darned thing in! <br />
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That's about it, just a few more pieces to go, and we're ready to race!<br />
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Here are direct links to all the images:<br />
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</a>Chris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824555101444146458.post-74563958412555774522010-03-08T18:54:00.000-08:002011-01-16T15:41:37.752-08:00The Rodian Runabout (In Progress)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6364/rr3n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6364/rr3n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Here's the Rodian Runabout, the latest of my custom landspeeders. This one was a complicated model, and it has given me quite a few headaches.<br />
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It is based on an old 1:43 diecast toy car called a Bertone Runabout, a funky little sports-car from the 1970's. The toy had a neat retro vibe, which I felt fit in nicely with the design aesthetic of the original Star Wars film. You can see a picture of one of these toys <a href="http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/diecast/images/matchbox/k31.JPG">HERE.</a> So, a couple years ago I bought a beat-up used car for about $3 on ebay, and my headaches began.<br />
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The first thing I did was to take the whole thing apart. This guy wasn't held together with easily-removable screws like the Batmobile toys I used for some of the other speeders. This meant drilling out the 2 rivets used to hold the thing together with a large bit power drill. Once apart, I trimmed off the bits of scrap metal around the holes, and gave the metal parts of the car a bath in PineSol. After a few days, the paint was ready to come off with the help of a brass brush.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The rest of these photos are of the model before it was painted -- you can see where I had to fill in the body with brown or green epoxy putty. The front wheels had to have their fenders ground out, and then the holes were filled and filed smooth.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The engine pods are from my bits-box (they were actually the internal engines from the Bat-submersible toy -- let nothing go to waste!) They were secured into place with a flat piece of brass, then I filled in around it with putty. At last, the model was taking shape!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/6103/progress2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/6103/progress2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The glass canopy of the Speeder was made by making a solid form, which was used in a vaccu-former to make the clear plastic dome. This took a few tries to get right. A big thanks to my pal Brian and his vaccu-former for making this part possible! The 'Buck Rogers' style bubble-canopy is really my favorite part of the speeder, and it will keep the sand of Tatooine out of our driver's eyes!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Did I mention that this one caused me some headaches? It crossed the line from being 'fun' to 'frustrating', and I very nearly threw it into the trash a few times.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I showed the finished model to the good folks at Armorcast, and they offered to try to cast the thing in resin. It was something of a problem for them to cast, though, as it was not really designed for production. Kudos to Armocast... the model shown in the first 3 photos is a casting of the original! This last process actually went pretty smoothly, and I ended up with a few extras for the other racers in our gaming group to paint. I may revisit this speeder at some point in the future to make it easier to produce -- probably replacing the engine pods with something much simpler, like those on Luke's speeder.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm still not quite happy with the finished figure, it still needs a Rodian crew (in progress), and further painting and weathering. But I've decided to set it aside for a while for my sanity!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>Chris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824555101444146458.post-40521524852385013902010-03-06T10:04:00.000-08:002010-03-06T14:57:41.186-08:00Mon Calamari Ferrari<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/6436/moncal1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/6436/moncal1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
OK, here is a new one -- the Mon Calamari Ferrari! I wanted a speeder that looked like it was designed for operating over water rather than land, as the Mon Cals come from a water-world. This is how it was done:<br />
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This landspeeder is converted from a Corgi Batman 'Batsubmersible' 1:43 scale diecast toy that came out a few years ago. You can see a picture of one <a href="http://www.diecastcars.tv/images/US77321.bmp">HERE.</a> I took it apart and removed the glass domes to allow for spots for the Mon Cal crew to sit. The 'dorsal fin' was cut down considerably, as the toy's fin was rather huge and silly. Cutting the fin down was hard work, it was the hardest plastic I have ever tried to cut, almost like metal. At least I know it will be durable! It had pop-out pods on the side, I glued these permanently in, to keep it looking sleek and organic.<br />
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The crew miniatures are converted slightly; they were originally Mon Calamary Mercenaries, from the 'Rebel Storm' set. I gave them new head positions, racing suits, and new paint jobs -- then glued into the open ports. Last, the whole thing was mounted on a spare base from a Flash Speeder, for compatibility with the rest of the Speeders. I kept the original paint job (for the most part), only having to repaint the rear engines and the dorsal fin (because I cut it down.) <br />
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I like this one quite a bit -- it looks suitably aquatic, which fits the Mon Calamari background, and even has some of the smooth, organic aesthetic of the movie ship designs.<br />
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Enjoy!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/9758/moncal2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/9758/moncal2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Chris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824555101444146458.post-41372310248993022672010-03-05T15:22:00.000-08:002010-03-05T15:34:23.842-08:00Sith Speeder<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9862/dscn5366fw7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9862/dscn5366fw7.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
This one was a more complex project.<br />
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The Sith Speeder was was converted from a Corgi die-cast 1:43 scale 1990's Batmobile toy. (You can see a picture of the original toy <a href="http://www.3000toys.com/images/CORGI/US77303.jpg">HERE.</a> It took quite a lot of cutting with a dremel tool -- I had to remove the front wheel-fenders altogether -- and then a LOT of filling and filing. The jet pods were made from assorted parts in my bits box.<br />
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I painted the Speeder to match its driver, a Mistral Shadow Guard. The weathering was a fun effect -- it was added after the paintjob is complete, by painting silver paint in dabs where the body would be hit be debris, while traveling at high speeds (mainly the front plate, and some of the edges and sides.) ILM model-making deptartment -- I await your call!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/7024/dscn5369pp6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/7024/dscn5369pp6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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The entire rear of the landspeeder is hinged, so it can flip up to access the engine inside. I've included a photo of this, it's a pretty cool effect.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/7800/dscn5377ar6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/7800/dscn5377ar6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Chris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824555101444146458.post-82612304499266020672010-03-04T15:47:00.000-08:002010-03-05T15:57:18.418-08:00Simple LandspeedersHere's a couple more. These were <b>really</b> easy projects -- they are Speeders from the old Galoob Action Fleet toys (their "Battle Packs" line). I re-based these onto extra bases that I pulled off from the "Flash Speeder" minis from the SW Miniatures "Universe" set (the original Galoob toys have clear plastic wheels.)<br />
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I didn't bother to repaint them though, as I think these paint jobs are pretty good as is (though I may weather them further at some point in the future.)<br />
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The first is the Lars Family Landspeeder, a Sorosuub V-35 Courier. It's from the Galoob "Lars Family Homestead" Battle Pack.<br />
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Next is Luke's Landspeeder, a Sorosuub X-34. It's from Galoob's "Cantina Encounter" Battle Pack. I figure this guy picked it up cheap after Luke sold it before leaving the planet.<br />
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Just a few more contestants, and we'll be ready to start the race!Chris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1824555101444146458.post-66991202679416266392010-03-03T09:11:00.000-08:002010-03-05T15:43:07.157-08:00Custom Gian LandspeederOK, let's start out with something cool -- it is no secret I'm a big Star Wars geek, and over the years I've collected a bunch of the WotC pre-painted plastic miniatures. A while back I got the idea into my head to make some custom landspeeders that would be compatible with the WotC miniature range (28mm figures).<br />
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Here are some photos of the first of these I finished. It's a conversion from the old Gian Speeder playset from the Galoob Action Fleet toy range. The cool thing about this range of toys was that most of them were scaled somewhere between 1:48 and 1:72 scale, which makes them just about the right size for 28mm figures. I put some of the figures in the photo for scale reference.<br />
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The original toy had big spring-loaded rockets on either side which really made the thing look like a toy. I removed these and filled in the holes with putty. I made a few changes to the cockpit as well, but, but this is mostly just a repaint.<br />
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Anybody wanna race?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/5921/landspeeder3lj7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/5921/landspeeder3lj7.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/6955/landspeeder1lf3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/6955/landspeeder1lf3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
One more: <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/3422/landspeeder4ac9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/3422/landspeeder4ac9.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Chris FitzPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14386976559893908829noreply@blogger.com0