Star Wars 74-Z Speeder Bike (The Mandalorian)

[Chuffy70]

"Jedi" was my first encounter with Star Wars. I was too young for the others. I was three weeks old when ANH premiered. My "addiction" began when my mom bought me my first action figures, a Jawa and a Sandpeople, back then in November 1982. This caught my attention and since I was into everything space themed I wanted to know more. When my aunt provided me with the first articles on the movies I was hooked. When "E.T." was announced I wanted to watch it at all cost. However, this was the first time I was watching a scifi flick at the theatre (before that I was used to "The Rescuers", "Cinderella" etc. ). The theatre was dark and the sound was very loud. When "E.T." was running from Peter Coyote, screaming like hell, I did the same and left the building as fast as possible. That one scene was just too much for a six year old brain to handle and put an end to watching "Jedi" at the theatres before it even premiered at my home town.

However, I quickly found a suitable alternative which helped me overcome my troubled youth: "Battlestar Galactica" (and "Buck Rogers"). In summer 1983 the first German television broadcast a series of scifi movies in conjunction with the launch of "Jedi". Among them were classics like "The Black Hole" and "Logan's Run". They showed "Buck Rogers" on a Friday evening, the making of "Jedi" on a Monday afternoon and "Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack" on a Saturday night (the second movie version of the series, cobbled together from "The Living Legend" and "Fire in Space"). I was completely blown away by the VFX, the Cylons and Dirk Benedict. I resembled him quite a bit which made him the ideal role model, and when I learned that BSG was a WEEKLY SERIES I had to watch every episode when they were shown on Dutch TV. So I became a Galactican.

Fantastic sci-fi recollections there, I'm not sure I'll watch ET the same again, thinking of a six year old running for the hills...

Saturday evening held the slot for Buck Rodgers here in the UK, but do not really remember when Battlestar Galactica the original series aired, although I do seem to remember mid-week evening showing of Galactica 1980.

...and good tip there, laminating parts with spare, rather than folding them over - like that

 

[THE DC]

Nice work!!!!

How'd you manage the recolour?

Will you be posting the recolour on this site?

 

[Revell-Fan]

Thank you all!

How'd you manage the recolour?

I imported the PDF pages into Gimp and played with the settings:

1) The imported page:



2) Layer duplicated and desaturated:

3) Layer duplicated and Colour Dodge:



4) Layer duplicated and Screen:



5) Then I moved the original unaltered layer up and added a layer mask. I left everything visible which should keep its original colour.


6) I selected the parts which should be simply desaturated (parts 19), copied and pasted them as a new layer and desaturated them:


7) The page was saved as *.xcf and exported as *.png. This is the layer window:



This is basically the same procedure I used on the Colonial Raptor when I turned it to white. The layer modes give you a good control of the output. You can make it as bright as you want and you can toggle the visibility of the layers till you have a pleasing result. If you just kill the colour by simply painting over it you are in danger of removing the weathering. If you look carefully you can see that the Dodge mode killed all flaps. No idea why but I added them on-the-fly on the printed page.

Will you be posting the recolour on this site?

I'll send the pattern to Julius and ask him.

 

[THE DC]

Interesting!

This is a nice step-by-step guide of your process and accomplishment. Thanks!


Look forward to the recoloured version!


Regards~

 

[thegreek270]

I thank you too Revell, i will try this out.

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

Those look good!!!

 

[Revell-Fan]

Here we go with the limbs!

















They fit excellently:





OK, this might be somewhat disturbing but it proves that even Scout Troopers may have a hangover. And sometimes they loose their head, too.

Oh my - this one doesn't even HAVE a head! So let's get it over with!



It is best to attach the "ears" first. This gives you the proper position of the visor.









Done!

 

[Revell-Fan]

Now it is time to dess him up. First the body armour:



The belt pouches:



A strap has to be fiddled through two of them:





The backpack:



Now everything comes together:













The boots look very realistic:





In for some tap-dancing?

Maybe later.

First we have to attach the upper arm armour.





And more pouches.







And the blaster!

 

[Revell-Fan]

Each hand consists of three major parts.









To insert the blaster you have to carefully open the palm. It fits snugly but it is best to secure it with a drop of glue.



A first dry-fit. Hands and boots are loosely pushed over the arms and legs. Do not glue them yet because they need to be loose in order to position the Scout on his bike correctly.



The head is glued to the neck. You can adjust the rotation of the head according to your liking.

 

[Revell-Fan]

Now the moment of truth has come.

Since the handle bar and the foot bar position tell you how to mount the Trooper onto the bike you have to work your way carefully through each position.

First attach the left hand.



The handle bar is very delicate so be extremely careful not to rip it off. Open the palm of the hand and push it over the handle. Secure it with a drop of glue. Wait till the glue has cured before you continue.

I'm sorry that I cannot show you any pictures of the mounting of the pilot here because I had absolutely no hand to take any. I hope that my description can be understood even without pics.

Put the biker onto the saddle. It sits pretty much at the rear. Wiggle your way through and you will find the sweet spot. Use the boots to see where they meet the foot bar. Once you have found the position apply some glue to the bottom of the biker, press it onto the saddle and hold it down till the glue has cured.

Put some glue inside the left hand and slide it over the left arm stump. This attaches the biker safely.

Then put some glue into the back of the boots. Leave the front of the boots afloat. Slide the boots over the leg stumps, adjust their position so that they slightly touch the foot bars and hold them till the glue has cured.

The result should look like this:



Please note that the boots are not glued to the bar in order not to apply stress on them.

 

[Revell-Fan]

Looking at the bike I noticed some areas which could be refined. So I printed some extra parts and laminated them to some strategic points.





The stabilizers got their circles and the control panel a laminated red button and some control levers made of painted toothpicks (5mm long).



The base was decorated with some logos to break up the black:













And this is it!

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

You did a FANTASTIC JOB on this project!!!

 

[Revell-Fan]

Thank you very much!

I really enjoyed the build. I did not encounter any big problems and the kit is very carefully thought-out. There are a few things which could be improved, like the levers could be added and the layout of the control panel is not quite right, but the overall appearance is truly stunning. If you want to build a Speederbike paper model for your shelf - this is the one to go. You will find more beauty pics in the gallery.



THANK YOU, JULIUS!!!

However, there is one glaring mistake which I noticed after the build was finished. The scale is wrong! If you put it beside a Hasbro Black Series figure you will easily see that it is not 1/12th scale. The Scout is about 20 - 21 cm tall which brings it closer to 1/8th scale.



Ah well, you cannot have it all!

The model was a HUGE hit and my friend was elated to get it from me. Mission accomplished!

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

KUDOS TO YOU ON A FINE JOB WELL DONE!!!

 

[Chuffy70]

A fine job, with a very happy looking recipient, great job all round and I must say the Trooper looked really great

 

[Revell-Fan]

A fine job, with a very happy looking recipient, great job all round and I must say the Trooper looked really great

Thank you! But this is not the recipient, that's me.

 

[mijob]

RF you did a realy good job on this model.
I love the re-paint.

 

[Revell-Fan]

Thank you, my friend!

I don't know what it is but I always have to change something when I build a model for my colleague. Here is was the colour and the turbine, the Sandcrawler got a recess, the Snowspeeder a new bottom, the TIE fighter cockpit, the Xmas deco for the AT-AT...

 

[Chuffy70]

Thank you! But this is not the recipient, that's me.

Oooooopssss! that's one happy builder!

 

[thegreek270]

Very well done Revell-Fan, congrats and thank you for your recoloring-TUT.