So many swarms! It's going to be awesome.
Showcase: Vulture-class Droid
I'm gonna be painting the Vultures I get from the individual Expansion Packs in this scheme here. First cause it seems simple to replicate, second cause this picture covers every conceivable angle I personally can think of.
Has anyone tried (or is planning to try) modding a Vulture droid into walking position for use with grappling struts?
I got a little overzealous when I snuck in on the short-lived BOGO free sale at Barnes & Noble and now I have 10 of these suckers, so I’m thinking about modding 2 of them into walking positions. I don’t have a ton of experience modding ships though so any advice would be nice.
Well, pop the "wings" off first of course, then you'd have to split them somehow probably with a razor saw.
I don't know if you'd want to pin them in place at that point, or possibly magnetize them.
Next would be taking the head off the body. Using a No. 17 chiseling blade,
you'd have to wedge it into the "chin" and slowly push and slightly rotate the blade left and right and walk it to the end until the head comes off. The beveled side should be towards the ship and the flat side facing up.
This is how I would approach it, so I'm not speaking from experience making this mod. However, I have used these techniques on other models. specifically this Kihraxz mod where I removed the cockpit by using the same method of "walking" the blade.
Red wunz go fasta
Mining Guild scheme
On 4/4/2019 at 9:36 AM, Herowannabe said:Has anyone tried (or is planning to try) modding a Vulture droid into walking position for use with grappling struts?
I got a little overzealous when I snuck in on the short-lived BOGO free sale at Barnes & Noble and now I have 10 of these suckers, so I’m thinking about modding 2 of them into walking positions. I don’t have a ton of experience modding ships though so any advice would be nice.
They have now!
2 hours ago, MasterShake2 said:
They have now!
Awesome!
So spill the beans, how did you do it? Any tips for me when I try my hand at it?
It was a post on the Mods & Repaints FB group
Look further down this page-
Does anyone have good color matches for the Trade Federation browns?
Citadel Dryad Bark seems pretty close for the dark brown.
The lighter color is eluding me; everything I try seems either too yellow or too orange.
Alright, I buckled down this weekend and did my first real X-Wing mod. I'm very happy with how they turned out.
Open the spoiler box for more pictures I took of the process and a few helpful tips for anyone who wants to do the same mod.
Disassembled :
To get the wings apart I used a very fine jeweler's saw to cut down the middle, then used an Exacto knife to score the seams on the back side, then popped them off.
The heads were trickier. I took my Exacto knife and cut around the outline over and over until I had a decent groove cut, then put the blade against the seam on the back of the head and rocked it back and forth until they popped off.
Next (I forgot to snap a picture but) I used a very fine drill bit to drill pin-holes in the wings, head, and body. For "pins" I actually used a black twist-tie with a rounded sheath (ie: not flat like most twist-ties are). Originally I was thinking they'd be flexible enough that I could switch the ships from flight-mode to walking-mode, but the legs proved to be too delicate. However, it was still worthwhile, because the twist-ties are flexible enough that I can tweak the poses and get them just how I want them. Two thumbs up for the twist-tie pins.
Assembled :
Here they are glued together, 95% complete. You can see the twist-tie pins in these pictures and how I (carefully) bent them to pose the heads and legs. I just used Krazy glue to glue them together. Before I did though I went through and painted all of the exposed cut surfaces. More on paint down below.
After they were glued up and I had them posed how I wanted I took some Bondic plastic-weld and put a glob around where the pins are attached to set them in position and give the legs some extra stability, which they needed. That plastic weld stuff is fantastic- very quick and easy to use.
Lastly, I painted the bondic welds and any last exposed edges, then sealed the sections I painted with some brush-on matte varnish. I couldn't be happier with how they turned out.
Additional tips:
I used a hemostat (also called locking forceps) to hold the models while I worked on them. I highly recommend picking up one of these for any sort of painting or modding- though I would probably find one with padded tips, since the one I used did dent the models (I made sure to grip the models by the pegs, so the marks are all underneath where you can't really see them). These were invaluable, especially while working in close with the Exacto knife so that I didn't accidentally slice my fingers open.
On 4/6/2019 at 3:32 PM, Hatemonger said:Does anyone have good color matches for the Trade Federation browns?
Citadel Dryad Bark seems pretty close for the dark brown.
The lighter color is eluding me; everything I try seems either too yellow or too orange.
I looked at my FLGS's Citadel collection and didn't really find anything (other than the Dryad Bark which you recommended), but I had a lot of luck with the Army Painter Warpaints. Here is what I found and used:
Brown Trade Federation Droid:
Dark Brown: Citadel Dryad Bark (reasonably close match)
Light Brown: Army Painter Monster Brown (Fairly thin paint, probably intended to be layered on, but it matched perfectly)
Gray: Army Painter Hardened Carapace with a tiny bit of white to lighten it up (took a little mixing, but got a perfect match)
Gray and Blue Separatist Droid:
Light Gray: Army Painter Dungeon Gray (reasonably close match- I just put it on thin and blended it until you can't notice it)
Dark Gray: Army Painter Hardened Carapace (perfect match)
Dark Blue: ??? (I forgot to find a matching blue, sorry, but I didn't end up needing it for what I was doing)
@Herowannabe Good God, those are fantastic!
I'm happy to see your mods came out successfully. Great job!
Simple black to gray with some painted in long highlights along the wings and hull.
Red eyes were a must
On 4/8/2019 at 12:38 AM, Herowannabe said:
I looked at my FLGS's Citadel collection and didn't really find anything (other than the Dryad Bark which you recommended), but I had a lot of luck with the Army Painter Warpaints. Here is what I found and used:
Brown Trade Federation Droid:
Dark Brown: Citadel Dryad Bark (reasonably close match)
Light Brown: Army Painter Monster Brown (Fairly thin paint, probably intended to be layered on, but it matched perfectly)
Gray: Army Painter Hardened Carapace with a tiny bit of white to lighten it up (took a little mixing, but got a perfect match)
Gray and Blue Separatist Droid:
Light Gray: Army Painter Dungeon Gray (reasonably close match- I just put it on thin and blended it until you can't notice it)
Dark Gray: Army Painter Hardened Carapace (perfect match)
Dark Blue: ??? (I forgot to find a matching blue, sorry, but I didn't end up needing it for what I was doing)
Thanks for the list. One of the FLGS here just started carrying Army Painter (like, last week), so I was finally able to get Monster Brown. I agree with you on the match as well as consistency. The closest I was able to get with Citadel was by mixing equal parts Zandri Dust, Steel Legion Drab, and Skrag Brown. It's not as close as Monster Brown, but the coverage is better (although still not excellent). YMMV.
I'm less concerned about the other colors.
The main body of the CIS drone looks like neutral grays, so I can use black and white to mix up and down until I get what I like. Likewise, the blue seems like a "true blue", so there should be a match in almost any paint line.
Steel Clan Vultures. Coming soon, Hyenas in similar Gunmetal/Silver with black and white stripes? And a B-22...somehow similar.
Borderlands Style fun checking in!
On 4/8/2019 at 12:38 AM, Herowannabe said:Gray and Blue Separatist Droid:
Light Gray: Army Painter Dungeon Gray (reasonably close match- I just put it on thin and blended it until you can't notice it)
Dark Gray: Army Painter Hardened Carapace (perfect match)
Dark Blue: ??? (I forgot to find a matching blue, sorry, but I didn't end up needing it for what I was doing)
Has anyone tried matching the Dark Blue?
3 hours ago, madmc326 said:Has anyone tried matching the Dark Blue?
Caledor Sky and soft black wash looks pretty similar to me.
On 4/12/2019 at 4:35 AM, Polda said:Simple black to gray with some painted in long highlights along the wings and hull.
Red eyes were a must
Cylons!
Hey @dunhop , you should post pictures of your repaints here...
Edited by Herowannabe
