WIP Speeder bike repaint and upgrade

[spudafett]

Well I liked the idea of doing a camo speeder bike so much I decided to tackle the project. I started with a vintage POTF speeder bike with exploding break apart battle damage feature.

But of course before I start anything I like to have an Idea of what it will look like in the end. So here is my photoshoped image of a speeder bike to a conceptual camo pattern:


For an idea of what it normally looks like... its basically all black and brown of course.::

[spudafett]

Here is what it looked like after I pulled all the pieces apart. I used boiling water to soften the plastic around the rear "fenders" to pull them off. This may have been a mistake because instead of weakening the glue around the pegs like I wanted it to it weakened the pegs themsleves and they broke off inside their sockets on the inside of the fender... I will probably wind up having to use some strong epoxy or model glue to put the fenders back on.

[spudafett]

Here is a closeup of the main body of the speeder with the damaged pegs for the fenders. I was hoping the fenders would slide off those pegs so I could use them to reatach both of them after painting... but it didn't work out that way.

[spudafett]

I forgot to take a picture of how this one looked before I started so here is the other speeder for a reference:


An LED Christmas light I'll use in this customization

[spudafett]

I wanted some parts to be a little lighter on the base coat of green so I did them with a base coat of white paint first and left the other pieces in their original browns and black first. Here is that paint in progress pic:



And some of those pieces fininshed and fit onto the newer unmodded speeder for Shits and Giggles... hey it's a hoth speeder......

[spudafett]

Unfortunately with this, and any of my projects I must use what is left over from projects long past. I have NO extra money right now and can't afford to spend anything on these "stupid toys" as my wife calls it.... (and she's the one who usually buys me more of them on e-bay! not to mention gets the kids 20 or so on their b-days and christmas! haha)... So anyways I had to use what was left over from my teenage years of model building. I had 2 cans of testes spray enamel and a box full of testes enamel model paints... so I dug all that out and got it all sorted into what was still good and what I could use. Luckilly the spray paint was white and green! perfect.... As you saw I already showed you the white, unfortunately it wasn't a primer... but I've NEVER used primer on ANYTHING in my life and have never had an issue with anything! lol

Unfortunately my green wasn't as light as I'd wanted it to be... but here is what the next coat came out as:


now notice in the bottom left hand corner I have the LED light Soldered up to a tiny circuit board. That light was a battery powered christmas light set and the circuit board came out of the same strand. It has a 3-way switch, one position is off, the other is blinking, the other is constant on.

[spudafett]

Closer image of the curcuitry, LED and the battery I'm using

Next paint I added was the smaller details. I went with a dark green, almost Olive for the second Camo detailing then Black for the last camo collor. I used Copper for the tubing on the main speeder body. I used Silver in several places on the main body for some accents, I'm also going to go back and give it just a TINY bit of weathering with the silver as well to give it that weathered off paint off the edges look. I also "chromed" the footpedals and handlebars.



Oh yeah, I also dremeled out a hole for the LED in the instrument pannel. IF you look closely in the above picture you can see it there. IT amazingly enough all fit up under that top cover piece and still fits on the main speeder piece and can snap down on the "exploding" spring loaded clasp. The next thing I'll probably do is get some good epoxy and make sure the circuitry is in there good enough that when it does go and explode it doesn't fall out.... right now it's in there with duct tape.

[spudafett]

detailed pic on chromed pieces ^


The other camo pieces


The main body details, forgot to mention eilier I also painted the pouch on the back of the speeder black.

[spudafett]

Finished it. Just needs a coat of clear spray paint to seal it all in and help prevent scratches. I know I said I was going to "weather" it... But I think I've decided NOT to do that. I don't know I'll take your guys input on that.

[NFC]

Holy fuck, you put an LED in the control panel for this thing! Dude, that kicks ass. I don't think I've ever see that done to a Star Wars vehicle custom before, truly AWESOME.

[SGCaper]

Nice work. I dig the LED addition. The green is a bit bright for me but still works.

[spudafett]

I was actually realy surprised to see that noone has done much LED or light additions to their stuff. I LOVE making stuff come to life with lights and sounds. I don't know anything about circuitry so I canabalize what I can and use that so puting in sound chips and speekers would be almost impossible for me. But lights and LEDs are simple. Eventually I want to do a custom starfighter (y-wing/x-wing/tiefighter, something) and make the laser cannons, engines, cockpit/control pannel, etc ALL be lit.

[blaster_e11]

good paintjob and awesome LED

[Narceron]

agreed, this is a sweet model.

Segnett and I started customizing a pair of speeders for a race dio on his desk, but when he moved suddenly, we stopped.

I think I still have my WIP, this makes me want to finish it.

Might be a neat custom challenge to have everyone make a custom speeder and rider, then stage a huge race.

I'm always up for custom challenge ideas, but thats as far as i get.

My sandviper is still on the shelf with no greenstuff,

[Xhairs]

wow wicked cool ideas . cant wait to see them all lined up.