AMT/ERTL's

STAP with Battle Droid

Stated scale:

1/6

Actual scale:

unverified

 

 

Overall length:

Material(s):

styrene

Number of parts:

STAP: 30
Droid: 31

Stand included?

yes
1 pc. styrene + 1 metal pin

Decals included?

no (1 needed)

My Source:

local shop

Cost (w/o s&h):

??

1/31/07 - Weathering is underway. This had been assembled and base-color painted for a long time (So what else is news?). Base color on the STAP is Model Master wood & Metallizers gunmetal and aluminum; base for the battledroid is Model Master radome tan. Weathering is, as (almost) always, being done with chalk & brush, and paint washes.

STAP Weathering...

STAP_wxing1.JPG (33967 bytes) STAP_wxing2.JPG (31071 bytes) STAP_wxing3.JPG (30834 bytes)

Droid weathering...

droid_wx1.JPG (29229 bytes) droid_wx2.JPG (28835 bytes)

2/13/07 - Weathering has continued, with work done in washes of Testor's 'rubber' on the STAP and Model Master military brown on the droid. Metal wear was added by applying silver leaf Rub'n'Buff over the gunmental and aluminum areas. The STAP engines have had a coat of Acryl pearl white dropped into the wells, preparatory to simulating their glow.

STAP_aft.jpg (111389 bytes) STAP_quarter.jpg (100331 bytes) STAP_top.jpg (95558 bytes)

Droid_back.jpg (121833 bytes) Droid_legs.jpg (64900 bytes) Droid_sitting.jpg (143501 bytes)

And no, your eyes aren't deceiving you. I've bent the mounting pin so the STAP will be canted over at an angle. The droid won't exactly be in full control of his ride.

2/14/07 - Mounting up! I roughed up the mounting pin with a metal file and superglued the STAP to the base. The droid got clamped and vise-gripped roughly in place, and now the fun begins - how to get a pose that's precarious, yet firmly attached to the STAP. I began with supergluing the left foot to the STAP (below left) The other attached limb will be the right arm, which needs articulation at the elbow, wrist and fingers. I drilled holes and added wires to the joints (here the elbow, below right) to make them articulatable.

MountUp_lg.jpg (655985 bytes)  elbow.jpg (22714 bytes)

2/21/07 - FINISHED!

For the power plants, I airbrushed over the pearl white with a light misting of acrylic white, transparent yellow, and pearl. It looks fair in room light, but worked out pretty well when hit with the camera flash.

I tried the final mount-up with only the left foot and right hand attached to the STAP, but... well, it wanted that 3rd point of contact to be really stable - so the right foot is attached to the side of that pedal. All three points-of-contact are superglued. Once I had those points made, I shot a few drops of Tenax into the leg & arm joints.

OK, maybe not so finished. I still need to get the droid's number on his comm-pack, and a few more bits of detail color need to go here and there - mostly fingers & joints.

You don't ever really finish a model, you just choose when to stop working on it.

2/26/07 - OK, NOW "finished"!  Except.... I added a custom decal to the droid's commpack.

3/9/07 - We've been on a road trip. I took a number of models to display at Marscon in the Twin Cities (MN, US), the STAP & Droid among them. The superglue holding the droid to the STAP didn't hold up well; both feet came loose. So, it's back in the shop for a little more work. I've wanted to adjust its pose anyway.

OK, not finished. I've also decided to replace the antenna stalks with thinner wire to replace the thicker styrene stalks.

I trimmed away the styrene stalks (below, laid on the styro block next to the new wire stalks), filed the cut surfaces smooth and drilled them out with a 1/32" bit held in a pin vise.
To strengthen the mounting points between the droid's left foot and STAP, I drilled a 1/16" hole in the foot rest, inserted a trimmed nail through it from underneath and superglued it in place. I drilled a matching hole in the sole of the droid's left foot, which will be fitted over the nail.
3/10/07 - I installed the new antennas onto the droid's commpack. To attach the metal to styrene, I first applied Tenax7R to the styrene and then positioned the styrene piece. After the Tenax had set, I applied superglue to the joint.

 

To mount the droid to the STAP (again) I fitted the left foot over the nail stub and secured it with a wire twistie tie. I moved the left hand into position on the hand grip and drilled holes through the fingers into the grip. I pinned the hand through these holes with short bits of wire and superglued them in place. I covered the wire holes with putty & touched up the paint.

Really... this time... FINISHED!