tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26617324055515118132024-03-14T03:17:52.756+00:00When Toys Rule The WorldI'm a dad and I like toys. My children like toys too. This site covers what I (and they) think of some of them.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger426125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-82353917087971742122022-08-09T15:55:00.001+01:002022-08-09T15:55:10.958+01:00Instagram Whilst I'm spectacularly failing to get this blog updated, I have (for a while 4 days!) been keeping up with the WhenToysRuleTheWorld Instagram account.<div><br></div><div>It's nothing too exciting - just me posting photos of my toy collection - but (so far) is proving to be a lot of fun. Since it takes as little as seconds to take a picture, there's a good chance I might maintain it more more regularly than this blog!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-71958384590091179312021-02-27T10:22:00.003+00:002021-02-27T10:22:50.514+00:00Opinion: Masters of the Universe in 2021As a quick glance to the date on my previous post will inform you, it's been rather a long time since I last posted anything here. Why is that? Life, I guess. It has a habit of getting in the way. Why am I posting now? Um... Because I can?<div><br /></div><div>Moving quickly on to the topic at hand: Masters of the Universe. After years of apparently not giving a crap about their Big Brand of the 80s, going so far as to - essentially - hand off the entire universe to Super7, this year Mattel have MOTU merch pouring out of their factories and two cartoons heading to Netflix.</div><div><br /></div><div>But no film. Never a film. The film is cursed.</div><div><br /></div><div>This week, a couple of images were released regarding their new toons/action figure lines this year. We'll take a look at those in a second. First, let's quickly go over the state of MOTU on toyshelves at the moment...</div><div><br /></div><div>There are currently three lines out at the moment. There's the Mega Construx line (the building blocks line), the Minis (the - mostly - blind-bag line of small figures), and Origins (the 5.5 inch line of updated 80s figures).</div><div><br /></div><div>As far as I can tell, all three of these lines are doing well. Origins, in particular, is having a - to use a technical term - shitload of product released in a very short time. So much product, in fact, that you wonder if soon they're going to... But that's getting ahead of myself.</div><div><br /></div><div>On to the images...</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YIGbUSQNRZE/YDoYaGVR7WI/AAAAAAAANew/-prD7SSYOIIzdCPhTl-uf_8yNN9ck_nEgCLcBGAsYHQ/s740/Mattel-MOTU-Cartoon-Design-Reveal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="740" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YIGbUSQNRZE/YDoYaGVR7WI/AAAAAAAANew/-prD7SSYOIIzdCPhTl-uf_8yNN9ck_nEgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Mattel-MOTU-Cartoon-Design-Reveal.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> There's been a lot of confusion about the new Netflix cartoons, so I'll clarify: two cartoons are arriving on Netflix. One is the fan-targeted Kevin Smith continuation of the Filmation cartoon, and the other is the one in the image above, which is targeted at kids.</div><div><br /></div><div>My quick scan of the internet reveals that the design of this show hasn't gone down particularly well; however, I quite like it. I'm not a fan of Battlecat's front leg weapons as they seem rather out of place design-wise, but other than that... It looks to draw upon the early 2000s designs, which isn't a bad thing; I think the designs will appeal to kids and - most importantly - it looks very 'toyetic'. I'm quite excited by how the inevitable toys turn out as they look like they'll be a lot of fun to mess around with.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j7mF6Seskwk/YDoZ4-ebMII/AAAAAAAANe4/7XF2lUjBlWEpAcmZ_5QQ06scVM0SRs8CwCLcBGAsYHQ/s928/Mattel-Reveals-MOTU-Masterverse-Figures-928x483.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="928" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j7mF6Seskwk/YDoZ4-ebMII/AAAAAAAANe4/7XF2lUjBlWEpAcmZ_5QQ06scVM0SRs8CwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Mattel-Reveals-MOTU-Masterverse-Figures-928x483.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>Now onto the Masterverse toyline, which is based on the Kevin Smith 'Revelations' series. This one I'm not so sure about. The cartoon itself, I'm hoping will be great, but these collector-targeted figures just don't appeal to me. Apart from He-Man's awful head (though, in my opinion, He-Man's head has looked terrible on every He-Man toy other than the original 80s figure), they all look fine. But that's it: fine. Nothing really exciting here, nothing to make me immediately throw out my Classics figures and replace them with these.</div><div><br /></div><div>I know many people were hoping the Masterverse line would be a continuation of the Classics line that ran as an online only collector's line for a decade, that started with Mattel and then moved to Super7. Clearly that isn't the case, and since Super7 are still releasing toys in that style for other brands (ThunderCats etc) I wonder if they somehow own the rights to the style. Or maybe simply wanted figures more closely resembling what will be in the cartoon.</div><div><br /></div><div>I wonder what will happen to Masterverse once Revelation wraps up. I'm not sure if this has officially been announced, but I can only see this cartoon being a single season (Kevin Smith isn't going to stick with it forever!), meaning character selection is going to be limited. Will Mattel start releasing other characters in this anime-like style?</div><div><br /></div><div>The question I'm left with is this: what happens to Origins? Come the Autumn - as it stands - they will be 3 action figure toylines on shop shelves: Origins, Masterverse and the children's line (as well as Mega Construx and Minis). That seems like far too many and casual customers are going to be very confused (people are already confused about having 2 cartoons!).</div><div><br /></div><div>My prediction: Origins is, and always has been, a 'filler' line. It was designed to get the MOTU name back out there and reserve a place on shop shelves before the new lines launched. Mattel have been pumping out Origins toys like crazy over the past few months and at that rate it won't be long before they run out of characters to update.</div><div><br /></div><div>Whatever happens, we're back to a Golden Age of Masters of the Universe. Quite why Mattel suddenly has interest in the brand again, I have no idea (the loss of DC, maybe?), but they're throwing everything they have at making it a success and I wish them the best of luck.</div><div><br /></div><div>...whether I buy any of it is a different matter.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-53603333067430780652018-08-23T12:49:00.000+01:002018-08-23T12:49:19.065+01:00Review: Power of the Primes Predaking<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ok, so this is going to be a complete contrast to my previous TFNation purchase review. I will declare upfront that I <i>love </i>Predaking and the Predacons. You can blame Simon Furman, his Divebomb-Swoop rivalry story, and a mother who wanted to keep me quiet while she was shopping so bought me a comic.<br />
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Predaking is this year's 'giant' Transformer from Hasbro, and is of a comparable height to Fort Max, Metroplex, Devastator etc from the last few years. Predaking, however, is ten times better than any of them.<br />
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I'll get the negatives out of the way first: he's lacking on the detail front, especially when compared to the Titans Return figures (other than the tiny 'Pretenders', I don't have any Power of the Primes stuff to compare to); the figures are very blocky and simple to transform; the matrix gimmick thing in his lion head is a bit unnecessary; the classic swords are not included; and, finally, the stickers don't fit on the figure very well.<br />
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That last one is the biggest issue for me. In these modern times, there's no excuse, <i>at all</i>, for stickers not being the perfect size. These are overly large and thus, already, the corners are starting to curl. I expect many to look tatty, or have fallen off completely, in the near future. The other sticker issue is that that cover up sculpted detail. This again will not help them remain attached to the figure as many are not bumpy surfaces.<br />
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But enough of the doom and gloom - let the gushing commence!<br />
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As individual toys, the five Predacons are blocky, as noted, and most have a giant black lump on their person (which serves as the connection point when the five combine); however, they are all still highly poseable and look fantastic as a group. Standing the Predacons next to other figures, they look like an imposing gang, ready to beat the crap out of any puny Autobots who get in their way.<br />
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The Giant Black Lumps are paid off when the five combine incredibly securely together to form Predaking. I was blown away as to how poseable this giant, heavy toy is. His big feet and ratchet joints stabilise him, and I have no fear of this guy toppling over.<br />
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Transforming him is simple, but enjoyable. I've lost count of the times I've converted Predaking between the three modes (robot/animal/combiner) and can never decide which is my favourite to leave him (them?) in.<br />
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Predaking comes with a hefty £150 price tag. However, when you thing that this is 5 Voyager-sized figures, it's really not so bad. Most importantly, it's bloody good fun to transform, pose, and (dare I say it?) play with. Buy it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-91675448849311072872018-08-23T12:22:00.002+01:002018-08-23T12:22:37.143+01:00Review: Masterpiece Sunstreaker<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I passed on Sunstreaker when he first came out. There were two reasons for this: the first, that, despite being a fairly major G1 character, I've never had any particular love for him; secondly, that this is the figure in which Takara - for no other reason than 'because they can' - hit the Masterpiece toyline with a massive price hike (a price hike which hits ridiculous levels with the current Dinobot release - but that's a rant for another time).<div>
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I went to TFNation last weekend hoping for some kind of discount on Sunstreaker so I could finally add him to my collection. There <i>was </i>a discount, however there was still a very clear difference in price between him and all the other, similar sized, cars in the line.</div>
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Anyway, I forked over the money and now I have him. Was he worth it?</div>
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Skipping to the end: not really. As I've said, I'm not really enamored with the character; I'm sure Sunstreaker fans are likely to be far more positive. He looks good - don't get me wrong - as both a car and a robot, and is highly poseable. The transformation process, as you'd expect from a Masterpiece, is highly involved and quite clever, but I didn't find sitting there and fiddling with him particularly fun...and <i>fun </i>is the main reason I buy Transformers.</div>
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At no point have I thought, 'This is well worth the 80 quid I paid out for him.'</div>
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Yes, it's nice to fill a gap in the G1 team, but should the house begin to burn, he'll be the last thing I run to save. Sorry, Sunstreaker, I'm just don't like you very much.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-76050929271650509942017-06-30T20:32:00.000+01:002017-08-17T20:50:50.028+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 20 & Han Solo in Carbonite, part 9Reveal time! It's convention day and the work of the past...crikey, I think I started thinking about the AT-AT before Christmas and Han...I have no idea. I think everyone has wanted a giant slab of carbonite in their home since they first saw Empire, right?<br />
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The final job, before assembly, was to get everything down to the school. Thankfully, this is just 5 minutes down the road as it turned out not everything would fit in the car; specifically the giant base board of the AT-AT and, well, the entire slab of carbonite.<br />
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Yeah, Han had to be carried down the road, much to the delight of passersby.<br />
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There have been a couple of minor tweaks since the last blog entries. When I built the AT-AT in the hall, I completely forgot to put the ankles on. Since taking the whole thing apart just to add these pieces would have been a bloody nightmare, I ended up cutting a slot in the cardboard and then sliding them on. Worked fine and you couldn't see the cut.<br />
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Sadly, I never managed to get hold of a 6" Luke to dangle beneath it.<br />
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The final addition to Han was a couple of hooks on the back so I could run string through and tie him to something<i> just in case</i>. The weight is all on the front and it wouldn't take too much for the whole thing to topple and crush a small child. I didn't end up doing the panels on the side as doing eight of them would have driven me nuts. It'll be something to add at a later date, should I get the desire.<br />
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More photos from the convention are on the school website, <a href="http://www.watermill.bham.sch.uk/water-mill-comic-con-2017/">here</a>.<br />
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Of course the big question, with the con over, is where to store the bloody things. Um, yeah, good question. It'll sit in the garage along with all the other crap I've built and can't bring myself to throw out. At this point I'm 90% sure I'm not organising another con at school (long story) so there's a good chance this will be their one and only outing. Oh well, it's been a fun ride.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-14910475681667840722017-06-01T20:27:00.000+01:002017-08-17T20:31:25.762+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 19Almost there!<br />
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Some weathering today, i.e. covering the whole thing in a black wash. Not a great success, I'll admit and it's ended up hiding come of the detail, but the 'clean' look was simply no good for a Star Wars vehicle. Given more time, I'd like to go back and add some brighter grey back in to balance all the wash, but for now, it'll do.<br />
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Next time this is assembled, it'll be at the school comic convention!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-2882747757632489022017-05-27T20:21:00.000+01:002017-08-17T20:25:14.896+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 18So a tiny problem cropped up while painting the AT-AT; well, not exactly during the painting, more the taking the AT-AT apart afterwards: I destroyed the feet. As much as I loved them being able to stack on top of each other, they simply weren't strong enough. Drastic action was needed. Expanding foam came to help...<br />
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The trouble with expanding foam is that it doesn't start expanding very rapidly at first. There's a good few minutes before the expanding really kicked in and during those few minutes, well, I thought it wasn't expanding anywhere near as much as I wanted. So I added more and more...</div>
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Turns out expanding foam is an utter bugger to get off paving. But at least the feet are nicely solid now.</div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-21204899145008512682017-05-25T20:12:00.000+01:002017-08-17T20:18:22.135+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 17Not a lot to say about this, other than I bought a tin of 'urbanite' emulsion from Homebase, picked up a brush and began to paint...<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-1726478644412654282017-05-23T20:05:00.000+01:002017-08-17T20:59:08.824+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 16The problem with corrugated cardboard is that the ends make it very obvious that you've used corrugated cardboard. This bugs the hell out of me whenever I use it and I'm not going to stand for it now.<br />
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So I've attempted to use two different methods to fill the gap. The first is a load of Poundland filler, which...wasn't entirely successful. The second, which I used on the leg coverings, was better and was essentially sticking paper over all the edges.<br />
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And this, essentially, brings me to the end of the build. Is it perfect? No. Could I have made it a thousand times better with a larger budget? Obviously! But it's already cost me more than enough and that's before we move onto the final stage: painting.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-38488419309045468432017-05-18T19:57:00.000+01:002017-08-17T20:56:41.123+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 15We've reached the point where all the main areas of the AT-AT have been completed and the big question arises: how much detail do I add before I start painting? Once the painting begins there's really no going back; not with the time limit as it is.<br />
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Since the con is still a while off, and there's a reasonable chance of good weather before that, today I began some detailing. First off, essential panels to the front and rear of the main body. These attach with velcro and simply 'stick' onto the laminate beneath.<br />
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Also, some windows and doors are added on.<br />
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And a bit more velcro to hold the triangular flappy bits between the centre and front/rear ends in place.<br />
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You may notice the big chunk of tape holding the triangle on on one side. This may have to be replaced as it isn't sticking too well.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-40715677909165040602017-05-13T21:17:00.000+01:002017-08-17T20:00:32.582+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 14<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Ankle time. Pretty obviously, these are made from cardboard. The wooden fence-post legs then slot through and they rest on the feet. The exterior is covered in a cardboard skin (which I've failed to take any photos of), with a gap for the leg.</div>
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There was much internal debate about the best way to do the ankles, most ideas for which became hideously complicated. In the end, I figured simpler was better.</div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-79909664884526855842017-05-11T21:10:00.000+01:002017-08-17T19:51:12.512+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 13Here are a couple of photos of something that seemed important, but I can't remember what I was actually supposed to be showing with them -<br />
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I also took this, which appears to be a start on an end section...but I didn't take any other photos. Did I finish it today, or was this as far as I got? No idea!<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-52153204238284326522017-05-10T21:00:00.000+01:002017-08-15T21:10:39.277+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 12And so we continue my attempt to convince people that I've actually written this in May and definitely not mid-August. Today work began on the undercarriage, utilising a bunch of paper boxes. It wasn't a particularly complicated job - cut a few circles, stick into the boxes and then cover in a long length of cardboard - and it was quite satisfying to have a large object completed quickly.<div>
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And that's about it. I built it in two sections as I figured a single one would be a little unwieldy, and it attaches to the main board with strips of velcro.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-19950124978219231702017-05-07T20:48:00.000+01:002017-05-07T20:49:07.487+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 11After a cold, damp day yesterday, it was a surprise to wake up to find that today was actually Nice. Finally, the AT-AT could be moved outside and life was made an infinite amount easier. Although putting it together is taking a lot longer than ideal, which is going to complicate things when it comes to setting it up at school for the convention.<br />
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Anyway, first here are some Start of Day photos, showing some of the additions I haven't been able to take proper photos of while the build was inside.<br />
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First job was attached the previously-made side-flaps. This was done by adding a scrap of wood and some velcro. I'll add more detail later.<br />
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Next was the bigger job - sorting out the side panels for the body. After much hunting through bits of cardboard and wood, I found an old fence-thing, that my dad made years ago to stop my children falling down the step by our patio doors. I only had enough to cover either the front and back, going for the back since it's larger. No idea what I'm going to do about the front.<br />
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The ridges will be filled in before painting and I might add a panel on top to add some detail.<br />
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After the walls, the roof needed adjusting. Fairly simple, in theory, however since the left and right sides weren't symmetrical, there was a bit of fudging involved. I doubt anyone will notice, however. A couple of extra hinges will be added as soon as I have them, just to make sure everything is secure.<br />
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Finally I added a couple of flaps to the main side panels. This literally was a 2 minute job.<br />
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So that's another job ticked off and leaves only a couple of main areas to do:<br />
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<br />
<ol>
<li>The front side panels & roof.</li>
<li>The undercarriage.</li>
<li>A little work to complete the feet.</li>
</ol>
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2 & 3 are fairly straightforward, or at least I have a plan in my head for. The first one, well, that depends on finding the right materials. After doing the back, I know <i>how </i>to do the front, I'm just not certain what to use. I may have no choice but to give in and buy something.<br />
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After those 3 it's a matter of deciding how much detail to add to the build. I could go crazy and add tonnes, but I have to allow a decent amount of time to start painting in case the weather turns terrible. But then if the weather stays fine it'll be much harder to add detail in after it's been painted.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-84360872393712559592017-05-04T20:11:00.000+01:002017-05-07T20:21:28.671+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 10I was in Asda this morning and came across a big pile of buckets. This are probably exactly the same buckets as they have in Homebase, however since they were reduced from £1.50 to £1, whereas the Homebase ones' standard price is £1, I convinced myself they were somehow better.<br />
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And bought 4.<br />
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Then I chopped them and added a cardboard ring.<br />
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Ta da!<br />
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I put my hand in the air and own up to messing up two of the cardboard rings. Somehow I didn't cut them large enough so, running out of cardboard, I just added a load of hot glue to fill in the gap.<br />
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Digging around in the shed, I found a plank of slightly-mouldy wood. After a bit of a sanding and a chopping, I had a pile of toes.<br />
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...and absolutely no idea how to attach them. I cut a wedge out on a whim, as I knew it'd somehow need to go around the lip of the bucket.<br />
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Thankfully there was just enough space to run a screw through.<br />
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On the fourth side, there's the lip of the bucket. It'd be a bit of a pain trying to cut this and replace it with a toe so I'm just going to leave it as 3 toes per bucket and have the lip pointing into the centre.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-34960801117654850192017-05-03T20:26:00.000+01:002017-05-03T20:26:19.036+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 9With the basics of the legs done, today was Foot Day. Annoyingly, the feet are round. I <i>hate </i>making round things. Round does not come easily to cardboard or wood, so I was thinking of using something pre-made.<br />
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Something like buckets.<br />
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After spending a long time wandering round Poundland and Homebase I bought these:<br />
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My thinking is: make hole in bucket, slide onto leg. I know that there's a second, larger, bucket-shape on the lower portion of the foot but I couldn't find anything in a) large enough quantity and b) cheap enough to make this part. I'll worry about that tomorrow.<br />
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My family has a history with cutting holes in buckets. Once upon a time, my dad decided to cut the bottom off some buckets with a large knife to use as planters. Once thing led to another and soon my dad was on his way to hospital with blood pouring from his leg.<br />
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Thankfully, my bucket experience was a little less exciting and soon I had these:<br />
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And thus:<br />
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Which is how it'll stay until I figure out the next bit.<br />
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A slight worry is that, after having had stacks of the stuff for months, I'm now starting to run out of cardboard and wood. I've got plenty of little bits for adding detail, but not enough, for example, for constructing the rest of the feet. There's not really much I can do about it either, other than constant trips to Homebase/supermarkets and hoping they get some decent bits in that I can have.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-50424824364998601862017-05-01T20:07:00.000+01:002017-05-03T20:08:01.753+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 8The weather was slightly annoying today.<br />
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Set up and pack up time has been taking big chunks out of building time, so anything that can be done to reduce that is welcomed. Plus there's a slight worry that if I'm taking screws in and out repeatedly, it's only a matter of time before things start to become a bit loose and eventually no longer hold together.<br />
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To save taking the legs on and off all the time, I decided to...well, leave them on. This creates a bit of a problem (beyond the assault course that now exists to use the washing machine) in that getting it outside to work on requires two people. It's also not a particularly quick thing to do. Faster than taking all the bits out individually and assembling each time, but still not exactly <i>speedy</i>.<br />
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So when the weather spends all day alternating between brilliant sunshine and downpours, decisions have to be made about where exactly is the best place to work on it: outside with the constant threat of having to move it in quickly, or inside which requires climbing over, under and around.<br />
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What I'm saying is: the photos aren't brilliant.<br />
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First quick job for the day: the sort-of undercarriage bit aka 'where the legs are supposed to attach'. It Two circles, joined together. Make two. Ta da!<br />
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Screw onto side of AT-AT...<br />
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Next was starting work on the leg coverings, to fatten them up a little and make them look a bit more 'AT-AT leg' like.<br />
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Not having any cardboard long enough to do the entire leg, I had to do it in two sections and then glue them together.<br />
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Top:<br />
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Bottom (including circular 'knee' and flaps to wrap around the sides of the leg):<br />
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Combined:<br />
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Since they have to slot around the existing legs, I used the undercarriage bits as a guide - drawing on them where the woods comes, removing them from the AT-AT and copying it onto cardboard. You can see the resulting slot on the picture above.<br />
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Next was lots of climbing over and under attaching velcro to the fence post legs and the cardboard coverings to make one stick to the other. I'll get some photos of how exactly I've done this once I can get the thing outside.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-75869635683948586632017-04-29T09:52:00.000+01:002017-05-03T10:18:52.935+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 7Troubles ahead...<br />
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Cutting to the chase, the 'simplification' I had in directly attaching sloping roof to the flat roof does not work. The angles are all off and the 'step' section is needed as a kid of fudge to make everything connect.<br />
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There are two options - fill the side panels will cardboard as (for once an asset) the warpiness of the material it has a bit of give and could be bent to fit.<br />
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Alternatively, option 2: build it properly.<br />
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Either way, for the moment, this places the body on a back-burner. Thoughts instead turn to the legs...<br />
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The problem with the legs, for me, is expense. I don't have an infinite budget, so options are limited. At some point I may go back on fill in my thought processes, but for the moment every minute I spend typing this, is one minute less on the actual build. I'll skip to the end, therefore, and tell you what I decided upon.<br />
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450mm square, 1500mm long fence posts. Annoyingly, the stock control at my local Homebase is awful, which meant I had to travel. I could have gotten more wood for less money, but it had to fit in the car and thus I ended up with what I did.<br />
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In more positive words about Homebase, a few years ago my local one moved (about 200m). During the clearout of the old store they left a pile of wood outside with a nice 'free' label on it. I've had a bunch of MDF sitting about in the shed ever since.<br />
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I've decided to attach the legs as you would a table, resulting in...<br />
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The fence posts are currently screwed it; I may switch to bolts but I don't currently have any bolts but do have a lot of screws. Annoyingly, the fence posts, despite being all '1500mm', aren't all the same length. But, hey!, problem for another day.<br />
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It's getting a bit tall now. It's also not super-stable, which may have to be dealt with later on. Hopefully (there's rather a lot of that going on with this build), once the feet are on, things will be improved in the not-toppling-over department.</div>
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Head attachment is problematic. Despite being cardboard, it's still a bit on the heavy side. Still having a length of MDF left after the leg-attachment, for the time-being, I've simply screwed that down to the base and, after cutting a slot at the front and back, slid the head on.</div>
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Apologies for no close-up of the head, but, if you look carefully, you can see where the plank sticks out of the front of the head. The neck bends a little (in part from the head-weight, in part due to it's own weight), but I see this as an advantage as it means the gun turrets aim towards the ground.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-75828626117392266842017-04-23T09:27:00.000+01:002017-05-03T20:08:46.163+01:00Construction: AT-AT part 6I've had a couple of thoughts after being away from the build for a week.<br />
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Firstly, I've always known that the front end of the body, in order to support the head (however I end up attaching it) is going to need to be very strong and secure. Cardboard just isn't going to cut it. So back to Homebase for another lump o' chipboard.<br />
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Ta da! Two ends, looking similar (though the sizes are slightly different). I've attached two L-shaped brackets to the bottom in order to attached them to the base. I'm using bolts in the hope that it'll be quicker to assemble/dissemble.<br />
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One minor issue was that after drilling the holes for the brackets, I realised I hadn't bought enough brackets, went back to Poundland to buy more and... arrived home to discover this...<br />
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Yep, the two backs of what seemed to be exactly the same thing, actually contained two different things and none of the holes I'd drilled now fit. Dammit.<br />
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Originally, I was going to cover the whole of the body in cardboard since it's, <i>well</i>, cheap. It's also, as I found out when lying the large pieces I'd been hoarding on the ground, very liable to warp. Since the chipboard-slot system had worked so well for the base, I decided to use the same method for the central roof. I'd also still got some (extremely horrible to work with) plywood leftover from my carbonite build so I've used that for the central side panels, screwing it in at the top and bottom.<br />
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It's worth repeating just how horrendous the plywood I was using was to work with. Nasty, nasty stuff, even though it was free.<br />
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Next step: The sloping parts of the roof. I know on an actual AT-AT there's a slight step between the flat roof section and the sloping parts, but, in an effort to simplify things, I'm going to ignore it and connect the flat roof and the front/rear vertical sections with single sloping sections. For this I need wood of a total length of 140cm.<br />
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In the shed, acquired from another school skip, I found...<br />
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So happy! It's not wide enough on it's own, but two pieces side by side gives..<br />
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Something that I forgot to mention earlier: before I went away I began to fill in the pizza plates on the head with Poundland filler. Hopefully (AT-ATs are build on hope), when this has dried and sanded down, this will look ok.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-74862181085514375532017-04-15T20:09:00.001+01:002017-04-15T20:09:59.249+01:00Review: Revival Retro Solstice '16<i>Wrote this a looooong time ago and for some reason never posted it for, probably, needing to add photos. Which I still haven't done. But here it is anyway.</i><br />
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Whilst not apparent from the title of the event, <a href="http://www.revivalretroevents.co.uk/">Revival Retro Solstice</a> was a retro computer gaming event held at Bank's Stadium in Walsall. Knowing that these types of events take place in various places around the country, and figuring that, being a kinda large city, there <i>must</i> be one held somewhere vaguely close to my house, I've been on the lookout for a gaming event for quite a while. After lots of putting random computery-type words into Google & Facebook, I finally came across this one.<br />
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When I mentioned it, I'm not sure my wife knew quite what to expect; quite possibly she was thinking it would be something along the lines of the UK Games Expo. So when we entered the room in which the event was being held, and she saw what was there, there was a sudden look of panic and an attempt to back out and go shopping instead.<br />
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Thankfully, she didn't (though she did leave to go to the shops for a couple of hours in the middle of the day) and what was had was a fun day of playing old video games for me and the children.<br />
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Yes, all of them, including my 5 year old daughter who pretended she didn't know me and one point and want off to play games on her own. Because she's a big girl now.<br />
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Essentially the room, probably about the size of a school hall, was filled with rows and rows of old consoles from the past 30 years or so and a bunch of arcade machines. Down the side were half a dozen traders selling, well, it's a bit obvious what they were selling. There was a panel room at the back (I never actually went to any of the talks so I can't comment on those) and in the centre a stage where various tournaments took place...<br />
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My 7 year old signed up for absolutely everything he could. He was a boy obsessed. An announcement went out, and seconds later he was scribbling his name down on the sign-up sheet. Hadn't heard of the game? Didn't matter. Hadn't heard of the machine it was running on? He couldn't care less.<br />
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The funny thing was he actually did quite well. He'd have won the Megadrive football tournament if he hadn't started fouling the opposition and had half his men sent off. As I pointed out to him afterwards, it was a lose-lose scenario for the middle-aged bloke he played in the final - the man faced the prospect of either beating a small child, or being beaten <i>by </i>a small child.<br />
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My older son played a bunch of games but was particularly fond of the light gun and House of the Dead 2. He wasn't particularly happy when I explained that while, yes, we had a Dreamcast at home, and yes, we even had that game, he wouldn't be able to use the light gun because of our lack of CRT TV.<br />
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And, as I mentioned, my daughter had a load of fun playing racing games and attempting to play arcade games that she wasn't tall enough to see the screen (we got her a chair in the end).<br />
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Meanwhile I bought none of the things I was looking for from the traders (Jaguar, you continue to elude me) but a bunch of things I <i>wasn't </i>looking for. This included an N64 that I was 'forced' to buy after 7yo didn't win the football tournament and I had to make him happy somehow.<br />
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I'm not sure it was the best of days for my wife, but for everyone else it was a Grand Day Out and we'd definitely have gone the following day too (for more tournaments, if nothing else) but we had a prior appointment at Grandma's house. We look forward to the next one!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-67407710498819047302017-04-15T09:16:00.000+01:002017-05-03T09:28:46.877+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 5Quick update about things I'm not supposed to be doing while I should be packing to go away...<br />
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If you'll recall, the size of the build was essentially determined by the largest piece of wood I could buy from Homebase. Well, today, I went and bought that wood and can announce that work has officially begun on the body of the AT-AT.<br />
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The next problem is the building of some kind of frame upon which to fix the panels to cover the body. There are many (better) way of doing this, but after some digging around in the shed I found an old clothes drying thingamajig which I'd been keeping because It Might Come In Useful One Day.<br />
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I've drilled some holes in the base for the thingamajig to slot into and (hopefully) this ought to be strong enough to support a cardboard shell.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-83520490342284634422017-04-06T22:00:00.000+01:002017-05-03T09:51:26.838+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 4Today I've moved onto the smaller 'head' guns, piecing them together from whatever sized cardboard tubes I had available. I was quite happy with my progress until... Well, I'll get to that in a moment.<br />
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After the guns were made there was the problem of how to attach them. Essentially this was where any hope of making an interior for the AT-AT went out the window as I plumped for 'security of guns remaining attached' and threaded a big tube all the way through the centre of the head.<br />
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I like square things. Square things are easy to make out of card, wood...pretty much any material. <i>Round </i>things, however... I hate <i>curves </i>with a fiery vengeance. And AT-ATs have two giant dome things either side of the head. My papercraft plans simply have these as flat discs, but that wouldn't look too good scaled up. I looked round various shops, hoping to find objects of the right size that I could simply stick on, but eventually gave up.<br />
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Instead got a load of polystyrene discs, leftover from months of Pizza Tuesdays, cut them in increasing smaller size, and stuck them together. I'll eventually smooth these over with filler. Not perfect, but I think I'll get away with it.<br />
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Finally came sticking the guns onto the head-pole. They looked great! And yet also...<br />
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Yeah, they're about double the size they should be. At some point I'll try and redo them, but hey! this is for kids and kids are stupid and won't notice...right?<br />
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Things are going to pause here for a couple of weeks. In part because, with the head more or less done, I need to think properly before commencing on the body (I've 80% got it sussed), and, in addition, because the kids are off school for a fortnight and they'll get in the way 'helping'.<br />
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Finally, things have to stop because I've managed to break both my glue guns. One I broke the trigger of by trying to force still-cold glue through, the second simply went 'bang' when I plugged it in. This is generally not good.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-83403417825994322502017-04-05T20:55:00.000+01:002017-04-07T21:13:23.780+01:00Construction: AT-AT, part 3Added the bottom guns today. I've had to deviate from my papercraft plans somewhat for this, since they aren't particularly '3D' in that model. There was a fair amount of guess work and plumping with whatever sized cardboard tubes I had available, rather than what was 'correct'.<br />
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I'm working on this build as being 'toy accurate'. This is a term I've completely made up, so I shall endeavour to explain. You know how toys look <i>more-or-less</i> like the thing from the TV show/film the toy originated from? It's definitely recognisable, but there are a bunch of things that aren't quite right, due to it being, well, <i>a toy</i>.<br />
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Due to my iffy method of upscaling and fudging to make things fit, this thing is never going to be 100% accurate to that seen in Empire Strikes Back. It will, however, be recognisably an AT-AT and about as accurate as the toy versions that have been released over the years. In fact, the AT-AT is approximately in scale with Hasbro's 6" Black figures, which means that if I'd actually bought the Luke in X-Wing outfit I saw in Forbidden Planet many moons ago, instead of going 'Ooo, that's a bit expensive' and put it back on the shelf, I could have had a little Jedi dangling from the final build.<br />
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But I didn't. So I can't.<br />
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I also had a thought of making an interior for the vehicle, so I could sit some of the upcomingandthereforepossibletogetforlessthanamillionpounds AT-AT drivers inside. But then I realised that things were complicated enough already. Maybe this'll get added at some far-flung future date.<br />
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I'm finding it quite tricky to take photos that show off the head at its best. Held aloft it looks great, but I am lacking a model to do the holding while I take photos.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-27732040672759502372017-04-04T20:50:00.000+01:002017-04-07T20:54:09.179+01:00Construction: Han Solo in Carbonite, part 8Wash time!<br />
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Armed with some of the crappy paint that school's always seem to buy, I covered the whole build with a black wash. Thanks to a hot day, despite being watered down, the paint was drying quite quickly and I managed to get a few coats on before requiring to do things like cook food for the children. There was a lot of trial and error involved, and, after initially starting with quite thin coats, I moved onto thicker ones as it looked a lot better.<br />
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I now await the arrival of my Rub n Buff, a product I've wanted to try out for a looooong time, to add the finishing touches.<br />
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...besides the side panels, of course, but I'm not really sure what to do about those at the moment.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2661732405551511813.post-31147127694995683362017-04-03T20:32:00.000+01:002017-04-07T20:48:17.688+01:00Construction: Han Solo in Carbonite, part 8A big day! Finally things start coming together.<br />
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Waking up to a sunny day, I decided to make a big push towards the finish. I lay duct tape in a border around the edge of the board and then started spreading out watered-down Filler to make the swirly background. Annoyingly, I ran out before I got to the end so had to pop to Poundland to buy some more...which they didn't have.<br />
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After much swearing, and not wanting to spend silly money on filler from Homebase, I bought some filler for one of those cartridge guns. Once home, I emptied out the entire tube, watered that down, and began spreading.<br />
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The consistency was a little runnier then my usual Filler, which, at the time, annoyed me no end, but proved a plus later. Being really runny, I poured it in blobs straight from the container onto the board and pretty much left it as it dripped. The final result looks a lot better than when I was trying to spread the thicker stuff, but it took fracking ages to dry (well, <i>hours </i>compared with the minutes of the other stuff).<br />
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I pulled up the duct tape and then smoothed over more of the runny filler around the frame, in the hope that it'd cover some of the wood grain. It hasn't really worked, but the thought was there.<br />
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With everything still very wet, hopes were fading that I'd get to use the Halfords spray paint, that I'd also bought while out, today.<br />
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Eventually, however, it did seem more or less dry enough. Spurred on by impatience, a fear the weather wouldn't be nice again for the rest of the year, and not wanting to move the build in and out of the garage more than I had to (I'd managed to knock off a thumb in the process of getting it outside), I got out the paint!<br />
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First I actually did the sensible thing of giving it a coat of primer. This was 500ml of Halford's cheapest grey primer and more or less covered the entire thing. A second coat would probably have been a good idea, but, hey! at least I'd given it a bit of a base.<br />
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While the base coat was drying, my son pointed out that the hands were too smooth compared to everything else. He was definitely right. With a small screwdriver, I scraped away a bit of detail to the hands and added a bit of Filler just to roughen things a little. They still aren't perfect, mostly thanks to them being born from some rubber gloves, but they were certainly improved after the adjustment.<br />
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Finally on with a 500ml can of Halford's cheapest silver spray. This easily covered the whole model and I ensured I kept a little back<i> just in case</i>.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0