Padawan-Builder's Galactica: 9 years and counting

[Wombat]

Good to see, Mel. Likewise i've taken more than a year off from the build and have been laying pretty low for the most part. Not sure if this is the place still for the Battlestar builders or if everyone else has moved on? You're still here and i hope to get back to it again in the near future. As for the port eye i don't have any new ID's for that area. Theres a few unkowns still in that eye and all over the thing really that still need to be found/shared..

[padawan-builder]

Phil, 


  Really good to hear from you.  I was beginning to think that all the G builders and finished and moved on without me.  ;-(  Haven't seen any  G posts in a while.  Good to see you are still around.  I am hoping to keep the momentum up this time and finish this beast.  It is good to have others building at the same time, it helps keep the motivation up. 
  Anyway, good to hear from you.  Hope you can start on yours again soon.

THX,

Mel

[darkimmitator]

Good to see a G post again Thanks Mel and lookin good thus far. Phil great to see you on here again as well . Hope to be back on my build real soon.get the ol G build community active again !!!

[Wombat]

Thanks fellas!!

Haven't had much in the way of motivation for anything but am trying to get back into building the Battlestar again at last. Plan on trying to pop in here again more often and keeping up with where everyone is at with the builds. Mine still sits as it did last update bar maybe a half dozen tiny parts i added over the last couple of weeks. Good to see at least a couple of familiar names are still around the traps. :-)

[bwayne64]

Heyyyyy, fuzzy one ! So good to see ya ! I was worried about you. I thought a mongoose or a big cobra had bit you in the butt, LOL, Or whatever the natural enemy of the wombat is. Glad to see ya here. You don't have to be building anything to hang out with the homies. I actual started building the core of the 5 foot falcon. Haven't forgot about the Big G though. I go back and forth between projects. I found that way I don't get too burned out on them. I can totally relate to the motivation thing. Too many decades on one thing can ruin anything. It's awesome to see ya back, cheers,

Joe

[padawan-builder]

Hey guys,
  Have a few construction questions for the collective.  

1. On bending plastic coated wire for the G piping, how do you guys do that?  I have been using needle nose pliers, but find a few issues with this.  First, the bends tend to be more square as opposed to the more rounded look of the actual G.  Second, it is hard to get the bend exactly were I want it.  Is there any kind of hobby tool for more precise wire bending that might work for this?  Any thoughts, insights.

2. Applying the "acne" to the G.  I have avoided doing any of this thus far mainly because I don't see a really effective way of doing it.  How do you apply such a small thin piece of plastic with glue on one side?  There must be a tool or some way to grab it from the top and place it where you want it without touching the glue side, especially in those tight hard to reach places.

Any words of wisdom for the rookie?

THX,

Mel

[bwayne64]

Hey man, 
 As for placing the small chips I usually stick them with T pin or sharp awl. Then just place them and give a little twist. The hole left is so small that the paint fills it. There may be other ways, but that's what I do. Don't know about bending the wire, haven't used it yet, cheers,

Joe

[Wombat]

Mel, i hear what ya saying about bending that coated wire. Both in regards to the bends and getting em where they need to be. I just use pointy nose pliers and have not been too worried for the most part about the bends being tighter than how they are on the G. I'd guess rounding the face a lil on the jaw edge of the pliers may help with that? Another option is to simply bend it of a rounded edge but this gets a bit harder if there are multiple bends required.

As for the chips and same pretty much as Joe mentioned i just use an exacto blade to apply mine. Stab lightly, swipe a bit of CA on the back with a pin and glue down. I'd like to say the chippin side of things is lot's of fun but i just can't.. I did a lil of that last night for the first time in a bloody long time and gee i did a lousy job looking at it this morning.

And Joe it's good to see ya still about mate.. Battlestar and MF now also.. Theres a couple of subjects to keep ya out of mischief for some time. But a couple of cool things at that! :-)

[darkimmitator]

Mel , I bend my coated wire over the edge of the work platform of my drill press . seems to make that rounded look on the corners of the bends .

[padawan-builder]

Hey guys,
  Thanks for the replies.  I am not looking forward to the "acne", but at least now I have a plan.



Mel

[Wombat]

No you have it wrong.. You need to be looking forward to that acne to start with.. It's not till you've laid half it down that the "not looking forward" to it part should come in.. You'll be fine!! ;-)

[Mr. Wabac]

Mel:

I have been using just plain styrene rod, which is more difficult to bend and keep bent.
The only advantage is you don't get a ragged cut end.

For the chips, my approach has been to put a small drop of CA on the end of an entire strip, then press the strip to where you want the chip.
The CA sets almost immediately, at which point I use a sharp X-Acto to cut the strip free, leaving a small chip behind.
The advantages appear to be - easy to remove if you don't like the placement; plus you have better control over whether the chip is parallel to the body and the whole strip provides a guide as to whether it is parallel or not.  Use shorter strip in tight places.

[star-art]

CA tends to cure more slowly when gluing styrene. Best to have fresh glue because it sets even more slowly after it's been open awhile.

You can use a "pick 'n stic" to pick up tiny chips. It's like a Q-tip but with wax on the end (I bought mine decades ago, don't know if you can still get them). Or, just use a sharp XActo blade and stab them with that. With a little practice, it works quite well.

As for bending wire, you need the right set of pliers. They make pliers with two rounded jaws and no grooves to mar the plastic. Jewelers use them.

Hope that helps!

And, yes I am still around. Just beginning yet ANOTHER build and this time it's for me. At last! Will start a separate thread. . .

[padawan-builder]

Hey Charles,
  Thanks for the feedback.  Good to see you are still around.

Mel

[LastBattlestar]

(04-29-2015, 09:11 AM)padawan-builder Wrote: Hey Charles,
  Thanks for the feedback.  Good to see you are still around.

Mel

Hey Mel, damn good to see you back mate, time to get building again huh?

It seems like ages ago we caught up, but Nikki and I were married in Feb 2014 and had our first little baby, Noah, just two weeks ago! I won't clutter up your thread with personal stuff, but are you on Facebook? I do most of my personal chatting there these days. My Galactica is a lot more complete now also. Most updated pics here, including up on it's stand!

http://www.resinilluminati.com/showthrea...=galactica

Mike

[padawan-builder]

Hey Mike,
  Congrats on the new little one.  Would love to chat on Facebook.  Just recently got on myself.  How are you listed so I can find you?

Mel

[padawan-builder]

All,
  Here is an update.  Got most of the kit parts in, and most of the pipe.  I am pleased with how the pipe has turned out thus far.  I thought it was going to be harder.  Still need to suck it up and start doing the "acne".  It's a little tight as my eye measurements turned out the be a bit on the small side, but not enough to risk damage on a redo. 

Mel

[Wombat]

Hehe see, you can do it!! Now that you've tackled that bit theres plenty more for you to do and not all will be as tricky as that bit either. Even if the eye is a lil small it looks like you will get everything in there so it'll look the part when done for sure mate. Keep at it, Mel! :-)

[LastBattlestar]

Looks great to me Mel. I quite enjoy bending up all the pipes.

Great to have you back here Phil, you were missed that's for sure!

Mike

[padawan-builder]

Hey all,
  Back to working on the G some.  Sounds like there may be some others still plugging away.  Been working on the landing bay front cones.  Here are a few shots of progress.  Posted some parts ID questions in the reference section.  Hope some can help ID some more.  Hard to believe after all this time, there are still so many parts not ID'd.  This is truly the most monstrous 3-D puzzle ever.
  All comments welcome.  

THX,

Mel

[Wombat]

Nice clean work, Mel.

[padawan-builder]

(01-25-2016, 07:37 AM)Wombat Wrote: Nice clean work, Mel.

Hey Phil,
  Thanks for the encouragement.  Means a lot.  How's your baby coming?

Mel

[Wombat]

You're welcome and god knows we could all use some at times when it comes to this subject..

My baby is just a lil over four months now and for his age he's doing pretty good. 

   
Normal crap, digging, barking but so far the Battlestar has been left alone. :-)

[Mr. Wabac]

When does the chewing everything in sight phase kick-in ?  

[Wombat]

For his sake it betta not kick in.. But even so I'll be making doubly sure not to have kit's where he can get em when I do get back to things.. Been through that before, crunch, crunch.. LOL

[padawan-builder]

Hey guys,
  Not sure who is still around, but finally have something primed.  I know, it's been a while.  But life is like that.  Hope you all enjoy.  All comments welcome.

Mel

[star-art]

Looking good! I'm afraid by the time I get mine done I'll be so old I don't remember what it is anymore. LOL

[Satazius]

Oh fabulous! Looking great. That must be a really good feeling. I hear mine calling...

[padawan-builder]

Thanks guys.  It has been a long road to be sure.  Hoping to finish this year.  Fingers crossed...

[JAWS]

Beautiful. 🤩

[padawan-builder]

(02-12-2021, 03:15 PM)JAWS Wrote: Beautiful. 🤩

THANKS!  Any word on the castings for the gun mount behind the bridge?

[Wombat]

It's been sometime and I was really just passing through but your thread being on the home page caught my eye, Mel. Your build is looking fantastic! Lot of years but also a lot of work has gone into getting it to where you now have things. I hope you see that finish line this year along with another north of the border. Keep up the great work there.

[padawan-builder]

(02-15-2021, 04:49 PM)Wombat Wrote: It's been sometime and I was really just passing through but your thread being on the home page caught my eye, Mel. Your build is looking fantastic! Lot of years but also a lot of work has gone into getting it to where you now have things. I hope you see that finish line this year along with another north of the border. Keep up the great work there.

Phil,
  Glad I caught you passing through.  I appreciate the kind words.  I can finally see the finish line coming and I wouldn't have made it this far without the help of folks like yourself.  Thanks again for all your info and encouragement throughout the years.  It is greatly appreciated.

Mel

[Battlestar1563]

I'm still around...back to working on my battlestar. This is taking me way to long. But I'm not going to give up. I'll post soon . Looking amazing mel!!! Wish I was that far. Lol

[padawan-builder]

Good to have you back.  I am still plugging away.  Will finish one of these days.

Mel

[padawan-builder]

Hey all,
Finally closing in on being able to say I am finished. Hopefully this year. Starting to wonder given all the time and money I have invested in this beast, what to do, if anything, in terms of protecting it. What do people who own studio scale models do in terms of insuring them? How did you arrive at determining their worth? Or do folks just count on their regular home owner insurance to cover it?
Just wondering what others have done/are doing...

Thanks in advance,

Mel

[wizardofthenorth]

In Canada...at the very least you should document and get an estimate of the value of anything collectible to have it covered by basic homeowner insurance. But bear in mind...there is a max xontents value you will be reimbursed for.

And then decide if you should get specific insurance to cover it, if the value is extraordinaru.