Wall

Alexander Grivonev
I am curious about that spray booth of yours, is that a commercial one?

berni
Looks like a light cabin 🙂

Black Baron
berni is right. It is a Just normlicht image pro 5000 xl di viewing booth I rescued from going to trash. Using it upside down for a couple of years, that can bee seen in the older pictures. I finally converted the back wall to be straight and getting more "table area" and being able to turn it right side up. You can still see the black marks on the side walls from the original angled position. Made a ventilation hole/connection duct to be able to attach it to our houses ventilation system. The glass is from an old fridge. The dimmer is helpful at times. Works well. Put up a couple of pictures.

Alexander Grivonev
Awesome 👍

Black Baron
Just a quick update, that's been waiting for some time now. Torso is varnished. Did majority of the hands too. Going to re do the black part as its too shiny. The rest is ok. the lesson from this is that color has a direct effect on how we perceive sheen. Need to take this into account in the future.
I love the Alclad varnishes. Waiting to get the missing sheen's from my inventory but thanks to brexit even this is affected.

Treehugger
An alternative to using fiber glass, could be to use led's, one led to light several window openings, perhaps though a somewhat opaque surface like matte transparent sheet of plastic.

Black Baron
The kit comes with a internal led lighting kit but that is the traditional way I want to avoid. If there is any problem with the lights you would need to open up the model and design it to be opened. I rather put all the electronics outside so the model doesn't need to be touched if lights go out. There are instructions with this kit how to do the fiber lighting and that is basically what I'm paying for. Being shown the process by an expert, so I can apply it elsewhere. Not having to "invent the wheel" on my own.

Starbase101
When I build mine I'll be doing it similar to how ILM did the studio model, with the top section removable for internal access. With proper light-blocking, there will not be any light leakage. I honestly don't see how you'd be able to light everything (all the "windows" and engines) with the light sources outside of the model. Being solid-state components, unless you exceed their current rating LEDs should last indefinitely. Doing a "burn-in" period before permanently installing the lights will reduce the chance of later failures from manufacturing defects, but still a good idea to have "important" lights serviceable in a larger model.

Torsten
😎, I'm in 👍

Black Baron
😄 Thanks!
It's going to be a while before this build starts.

Spanjaard
interesting 🙂

Torsten
Follow this

Black Baron
Spent half a day figuring out if I can get the right color mix from MRP range. The suggested Tamiya paints I happen to have so I can do a comparison once the MR.Paint bottles arrive. Got the whole range of top coats as well.

JD
I'm surprised by the fit of this kit from Bandai. Rather disappointing, but with a lot of elbow grease it will look great!

Black Baron
Main body assembled and "TET welded" to be one piece. Hatches shut. All around gap filling with TET. Now I need another round of paint testing to get the proper shade of white/gray. Previous test was inconclusive

Stephan H.
I will just throw away the instructions of my kit and follow this report here. Honestly, nice inside view to the ups and downs.

Tim
Looks good so far. My 7 year old pretty much built this kit on his own and it's survived lots of play. Bandai including rubber versions of the side cannons to avoid barrels snapping off was appreciated.its a great kit, even if a bit pricey.

Black Baron
Thanks guys! After careful study of my screen captures of ESB non revisionist edition and the differences in the suggested "correct color" and color of leg detail. I have come to the conclusion that it's again "up yours". Bandai has had direct access to the filming miniatures etc. Mr Eaton had access to a paint master reference chip. These give us 2-3 suggestions on where to start. As all Enterprise D modelers know, studio color and onscreen color are 2 completely different things. In AT-AT's case the onscreen color changes so much between shots and due to the lighting in a shot, no 2 AT-AT's are the same color. Medium gray, dirty yellow brown light gray and almost white are all onscreen correct. I've decided to go for the "in the sun wery light gray". These things are filthy! Looking like they were dropped from the Stardestroyer and re-entered the atmosphere naked. There's much sut or they've been sitting in a rainy planet for a long time before deployment to Hoth. Grease pushing out of every joint. Mr. Eatons paint master is way too clean IMHO.

Spanjaard
good approach 🙂

JD
I wouldn't worry too much about recreating paint color to exacting specs unless you really enjoy climbing down that rabbit hole..😛 (It can become an obsession, I know) It's gonna look great no matter what you do. 🙂

Black Baron
Obsessing about details is why I do this but one must not get lost in "absolute accuracy" On many subjects ,I have found that the reality is much more varied than we realize at first. When you research it far enough you realize that its not 1 correct answer. Its a small infinity between 1-2 and there can be an infinite number of variations between those 2. For instance: What is the correct color for a soviet jet? How many spokes does a T-72 M1 road wheel have? What manufacturers paint is correct for olive drab? So you just have to pick your references and go with those. If it's within the spectrum, it's correct.

Black Baron
MRP preshading going OK. A little thinner helps the process.

Alexander Grivonev
Wow, this will be a lot of work. Zvezda issued a kit from brand new tooling in case you missed it. Or do you like a challenge? Either way 👍

Black Baron
Thanks. I've bought this kit in 96-98 and the Cobra resin maby 2013. Zvezda's release took the rarity factor out of a Mi-24 with AVU units, which was a setback as now that's commonplace. I think of this build being like the real world upgrade program of these helicopters from original D to modernized D or V spec combat veteran.