Sandcrawler project

Some more progress...I'm reasonably sure that at least 95% of the larger interior parts are now done. I can really only think of one more major bit to go in (on top of the platforms in the upper sections along the sides) but even that isn't a big thing. Otherwise, I'm at the same point with the inside now as I was with the outside when I started kitbashing. Note how clean my table is now :D incidentally, for scale reference, the table is 6 feet long and 3 feet wide.

Engine rooms – pretty much complete now, except for maybe adding some smaller model pieces:

Remember those gray pipes that used to be where my Danger Dan Rad Res’s are now? For awhile I’d thought I wouldn’t be able to reuse the pipes, but I found some spots that they fit after a date with my hacksaw. The last photo in this set is taken with the roof removed, looking toward the rear of the model. With everything put together you don’t really get this view – the roof and cooling system are in the way. Anyway, that cut gray pipe quite nicely fills in what would have been a rather large empty spot in the upper engine room.

Back on March 8, 2010:

November 16, 2010:

I love how silly bits & bobs like straws look & then it gets the airbrush magic & then all of a sudden it looks nice & awesome :D.

Love how this has come together, the engine room looks amazing! 19 days to the deadline... You can do it!

Good start (on the inside)..now get bashing! :D

On a side note, are those little, round, flat things on the far right of the first pic their 5.5V 0.22F supercaps? If so, I'm impressed that they threw that many of them in a surprise box.

Thanks guys!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Waynio

I love how silly bits & bobs like straws look & then it gets the airbrush magic & then all of a sudden it looks nice & awesome :D.

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so true – just go back and look at the photos of the outside right before I painted it. It looked ridiculous. And then that magic paint stuff got on there and voila! Instant sandcrawler.

@ X88X - nope, those are little potentiometers that have are highly likely to end up as droid parts.

So today I … ok really it’s been the last couple days. Anyway. Today I made a connecting walkway that goes around the motor driving the upper conveyor belts, connecting the above-the-conveyor platforms on each side of the model. The walkway came out a bit crooked – it looks more crooked in the photo than it does in real life, probably partly because it’s *really* tough to see up in there where it is. Even looking through the side opening panels it’s hard to see that walkway. Eh well. I didn’t exactly spend gobs of time on it either.

I also decided I didn’t like the way one of the main support braces kinda cuts off the rear of the upper platform from its front, so I decided to turn that brace into a wall with a permanently closed door. There isn’t a lot of physical depth, but when it’s painted and with the lights on it should look fine. I did add a recessed model part on one side to give it *some* extra depth…I think the part is a car radiator from an early model Ford or something. First photo below is the test-fit of the template piece I made; because of the brace I had to make sets for each side, so that template piece you see, I had to make 4 of those. Amazingly enough, I had to make only super minor modifications to the template to get it to fit in the other 3 places.

I also added elevators to access the platforms. I was initially going to make them either permanently up or permanently down, but then I thought of a way I could use some scrap styrene and make them moveable. Granted you have to move them manually, but they move. :) First pic is of the drawn not-yet-cut-out T-shaped pieces that are glued under the elevator platform and go through the support wall. I’ve only glued in the elevator on one side so far, but the other one is done too. Just haven’t put it in yet.

Lastly, I got the final horrifically tedious part of the build out of the way at long last. I covered the insides of all 10 opening flaps with paneling same as I did on the outside. Took me quite awhile to do it, and I went slower because I hated every second of it. But it’s done now, which makes me happy. As you can see in the photo below, though the white looks a little odd, it’s definitely a step up from fiberboard with sharpie all over it.

So what’s left? Well, the cargo bay is currently devoid of one rather important piece of equipment. And…that’s it. Aside from adding a TON of detail pieces, control panels, pipes, etc etc. And painting of course. Anyway, that thing going into the cargo bay, I gotta figure out how I’m going to make it. I have the design, just not sure how to build it.

It’s getting close, after almost 4 years and so many revisions and reworkings it’s almost a completely different model than what I started with. (wow…4 years. April 2008 was when I started designing it, although I don’t think I started building til May or June 2008.)

Congrats, it looks great! I love those elevators. :D +rep

what a massive case. :D

I’ve finally gotten my act together after being out of town for a week, then sick for a week, and resumed finishing this thing. It’s getting VERY close now – just some more detail parts to glue on (necessitating yet another trip to the hardware store today for yet another tube of glue), then masking and painting. The first few photos are from about a month ago, when I built the loading crane inside the front bay. I cut a slot in the ceiling of the bay, and used a washer and screw through that slot into the dowel of the crane so it can slide back and forth. It sort of works. I used square dowels to line the slot, mostly to hide the rough edge. And I used a magnet at the base of the crane so that metal necklace chain you see is held entirely by magnetic force. :D

Next was the loading door – I wanted to hide the back ends of the LED “headlights” so when the door was open, it would look like machinery or some such there. So I made simple boxes to cover up the lamps, then surrounded them with electronics bits (and I’ll likely add some model bits too).

The engine rooms are done. The lower cutaways are pretty much done too. What remains to be finished are pipe and little detail bits under the walkways and on the walls of the upper sections. Also, I’ll probably add some more bits inside the loading bay. I *should* have enough random pieces left over so I can do some junk piles, to be added in a few spots after I paint the inside.

lookin good!

Looks great. One thing, and this is really more of a personal preference than anything..maybe let the chain dangle a little bit more?