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- The 2 kits I’m using as a base for the kit-bash.
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- Micro Machine figures are a good match, so the scale is roughly 1/80.
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- RSO front and deck roughly mounted to the hull. Pilots sit side by side.
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- To add detail to the feet, I’m cutting up tracks.
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- Wrapped the track around the feet joints.
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- Used brass rod to create working joints.
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- Used brass rod to create working joints.
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- Joint added to leg. I soldered the brass pieces after assembly.
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- Completed joint mounted to the foot (nothing is glued, so it’s free to move).
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- I had to replicate it 5 more times.
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- Side by side comparison of the old and new legs.
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- Another view. Note the styrene strips in the joints.
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- The finished legs. I added a lot of new detail to the large legs including the big gears.
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- I dremeled off sections of the hull that I will re-detail later.
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- I dremeled off sections of the hull that I will re-detail later.
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- Brass rods added to the underside.
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- I fashioned chairs by using styrene and other parts.
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- They were mounted to the front section along with controls and other bits.
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- The pilots are from the Titanium Clone Swamp Speeder.
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- You can see the controls and stuff I added.
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- Finally, I mounted the command pod to the walker. The legs are still removable at this point.
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- Here’s a forward view of the walker.
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- The side view shows how the legs fit and the cockpit slouches in front.
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- To cover up holes, I fashioned these grabhandles via the Grabhandler. These went behind the pilots.
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- You can see here where I’ve added new detail to cover up the holes in the kit.
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- I used brass screens in the center and added a com station to the top.
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- I’ve added more styrene sections that I carefully cut and glued in place.
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- Also, you can see the MM figure and deck mounted to the back.
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- I added support beams to help hold the deck in place.
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- Deck is still removable, but fits snuggly in place.
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- Using the Chopper, I added lots of detail to the back under the deck.
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- I also added an air intake under the front.
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- And more details you won’t see to the underside of the deck.
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- Using the RSO parts, I made walkways on either side.
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- I also fashioned a crane (which I changed later).
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- Crane sitting on deck.
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- In the meantime, I built an E-WEB and other goodies in MM scale.
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- It took awhile, but I bent a lot of brass rod to go along the deck, lower deck, and side walkways.
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- I added front-mounted headlights and side-mounted spotlights to the walkways.
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- Before priming
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- Diorama mock-up on foamboard.
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- I recast a MM-sized Clone helmet for all of the Stormtroopers.
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- The helmet is a little big, but adds a nice touch to the troops. Note: for every good helmet I cast, I had 4 bad ones.
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- Everything disassembled for priming.
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- Troops primed in white.
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- The rest was primed in grey.
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- I began by pre-shading some areas of the walker. Then I added a chipping fluid.
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- I painted the rest in shades of grey, careful to highlight certain areas.
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- After adding water, I was able to chip away at a lot of the paint (via the chipping fluid) creating neat paint flakes.
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- I masked off several areas to create markings. First I sprayed chipping fluid.
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- Then I sprayed yellowish-green shades.
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- Removed the tape…but the markings look so clean.
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- So, I added water and repeated the chipping process.
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- Here’s a shot of the painted walker.
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- For weathering, I went in with oils to create shadows, dirt, dust, and all things nice. Also notice the ammo I added in the back.
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- This shows the oil weathering method. The left side is un-weathered. I also sprayed faint yellow stripes on the deck.
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- I cast dozens of rocks using Woodland Scenics molds.
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- For the big vertical rock, I drilled holes, added brass rods, and added a wooden base below the foam to ensure it didn’t topple.
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- I added thin layers of DAS air-dry clay via wood glue to the foam, making sure the rocks are embedded into the clay.
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- I also created a tow chain.
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- Primed in yellow.
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- Then shaded in black.
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- I sprayed the various cargo bits…
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- …and chipped them.
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- After spraying various tones of brown and grey, here is the mockup of the diorama.
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- Here is the finalized crane and weathered walker.
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- Finally, I had to play around with positioning everything. I also created some Commando droids and placed in the lower left corner. Once everything was placed, I came back with pigments to create a dusty look.
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- Troops painted
