AMT/ERTL 1/72 Eagle Transporter Complete.

rastanz

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Jan 27, 2011
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191
Hi all, hope everyone is safe and well.

Started on this classic kit which is a nice model on it's own but I wanted to detail it a bit more and turn it into a display piece that I'd be happy with.

I started with a dry fit of most of the main parts and found only tiny issues which was surprising, the kit only lacks finer detail here and there which can be added.

I started on what I thought would be the most time consuming of the model which is the cockpit and the hollowing out of the landing gear cages, since I wont be lighting this, I wasn't too worried about detailing the cockpit interior and just glued both parts together.

I then used a tiny bit of putty to fill in the seams and sanded the areas smooth.

I did however want to detail the inner modules of the cages so I concentrated all my efforts on hollowing out the cages which presented itself as a tedious challenge because the plastic was a little too thick for my knife to easily cut through.

I ended up approaching this step using a technique which was mentioned by Youtube channel Intersteller Modeler to use a dremel to thin the backside of the cages so your blade had less thickness to cut through, it worked like a charm only after I had brute forced my earlier attempts which was my fault purely out of laziness of resourcing.

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Once the cages were done I then proceeded on the next challenge which was the plumbing on the engine area, this area is lacking detail and missing a lot of piping but can be easily fixed.

I found several versions of this area on the interweb so I decided on on version I thought would be most easiest for shaping the plumbing in and around the tiny spaces.

I used a bit of styrene rod and brass wire for detailing the smaller pipes.

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I used thicker styrene rod for the larger plumbing including the angled pieces on the central and outer part of the frame.

This not only filled in the empty spaces but it also made the whole engine part solid and sturdy.
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Thought I'd give myself a break from the more fiddly details and go with something simpler and glued the passenger pod together which only consisted of three parts, the two side walls (roof attached) and a floor.

The sides and roof went together without problems however, the floor section seemed tapered and wider at one end which prevented it from fitting into the grooves so I had to carefully plain the sides down on the wider end whilst trying to maintain it's straight edge... nerve racking because taking too much off would make the part too small and messing up the straight edge would create unwanted gaps to fill.

Used some thin cement as seam filler.
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Started on the engine baffle inserts for the engine bells, I measured four circles to a size that would fit inside the bells then marked and drilled the positions of the holes on a sheet of styrene then cut them out with a sharp scissors.

I sandwiched the cut rounded shapes between two small washers and sanded the edges to further aid in shaping their roundness but during a dry test fit, I found that the engine bells were not perfectly circular which left tiny gaps around my rounded parts and the bells.

Since I didn't have any larger styrene tube, I cut short lengths of styrene strip and used my heat gun and a drill bit to help curl the heated strip around the bit into a circular shape of the size I wanted... interesting approach but it worked.
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During modifying the baffles, I also revisited the cockpit and added more detail around it's back wall by adding some piping.

Looking at it afterwards made me think if I should just cut away the whole wall and rebuild it... but since after having already added the details I thought to myself stuff it.
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I used strips of angled styrene to detail the landing gear supports which also became handy to use as a guide for hollowing out the spaces between them with my hobby blade.

From there I proceeded to scratch build the angled struts of the landing gears.
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And yes, it was a fiddly job especially when you don't have the sized strip you want and have to improvise.

Made some support rails for the walls and shelving of the inner modules using more angled styrene.

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Working on some detailing for the inner modules of the cage using styrene and brass rod, I also found use of some spare mini rubber feet pads.
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More to come.

Cheers.
 
Ambitious. I have this old kit, but you're going to town with it.
Me, I opted for the new tool from Round 2 for my next version
 
Ambitious. I have this old kit, but you're going to town with it.
Me, I opted for the new tool from Round 2 for my next version
I got tired of ignoring it on my model shelf and upon opening the box and inspecting it's contents, I thought it would be a cool project to play around with.

Not going for 100% screen accuracy, I just want to turn it into a decent display model.

I also bought the retooled MPC 1/72 14" kit which looks very crisp in details and a huge improvement over this kit.

Cheers.
 
Modified all the maneuvering thrusters that attach to the side of the landing gear pods.

I removed the one thruster that has the slit cut through it (top one) and filed the end of some styrene rod into a cone shape (same shape as thruster) then cut it to size and glued it in place, I also hollowed out the remaining ones with my pin vise.

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After the thrusters were done I then proceeded to shave away the raised areas on the pods where the thrusters mount, hence the slit in the one thruser, and left only a tiny nub of it. I will use the nub as support and add some styrene to slightly raise the thrusters off of the pods surface.

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Added some detail to the tops of the cages, I more or less stuck to a pattern just to keep things simple using bits of sprue, styrene tube and brass rod.

I am almost done with all my modifications, but I don't think I'll paint it just yet, the weather here is a bit cold and damp and may have undesirable results with my paint and airbrush.

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Thanks for looking.

T-man.
 
Looks pretty fun.
I'm having fun yes, cheers.

Looking very good thus far
Thank you very much.

Added some greeblies to the inner modules using spare landing gear doors from a 1/144 scale Bandai Millennium Falcon, bits of sprue, modified styrene tubing and brass wire, again I just stuck to a basic pattern to keep it simple and tidy.

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It's a bit wet and damp here to do any painting so I'm just tidying up my work, sanding and smoothing out some of the roughness.

Thanks for your comments and looking.
 
Excellent work! I know how hard it is accurizng this thing and I love where you are going with this

I have one I am forcing myself to finish for the last year or so before I will let myself build the newly tooled version.

I know if I finish the new MPC/Round 2 1/72 version it will kill my desire to finish this

Opening up those side cages was a total pain. I went about it a bit differently, using a jeweler's saw to cut the stuff away. Yours seems like it might have been the easier way

Here are some WIP pics if you are interested https://flic.kr/s/aHsmkRpXvD

I had just started back on this last night adding some piping to the engines as well as the missing rod supports. I can't believe how much stuff they left off from that area
 
Excellent work! I know how hard it is accurizng this thing and I love where you are going with this

I have one I am forcing myself to finish for the last year or so before I will let myself build the newly tooled version.

I know if I finish the new MPC/Round 2 1/72 version it will kill my desire to finish this

Opening up those side cages was a total pain. I went about it a bit differently, using a jeweler's saw to cut the stuff away. Yours seems like it might have been the easier way

Here are some WIP pics if you are interested https://flic.kr/s/aHsmkRpXvD

I had just started back on this last night adding some piping to the engines as well as the missing rod supports. I can't believe how much stuff they left off from that area
Thank you for your comment and for the link to your work, is it posted on here? I may have miss the thread.

I love how you opened the whole cage, it gives the area more depth and authenticity and amazing work you've done on it with the attention to detail on the modules and the shelving behind the slots of the landing gear pods. I didn't go as far with the detail as you have since I left some of the caged areas unmodified, those areas of the interior will be obscured looking in from the outside so I opted not to detail them.

I also have the newly tooled Round 2 14" Eagle sitting in it's box, it became my inspiration to put some effort into accurizng this model, we both know it's a hell of an effort to hollow out the cages and only after I had finished hacking away at one side I thought surely there must be a simpler method to this, and there was.

I had fun on the engine area, I found various styles of that area during the gathering of photo resource and decided on a basic version that required less bending of pipes.

Thanks for looking and commenting.
 
I didn't go as far with the detail as you have since I left some of the caged areas unmodified, those areas of the interior will be obscured looking in from the outside so I opted not to detail them.

In hindsight, I would have done the same thing you did as well. I only went all out because I started this before the 14" version was announced, so I thought this was going to be the only shot at having an Eagle Transporter close to 1/72. Had I started this later after the announcement, I might not have gone so far with it

I wasn't going to do much with the landing gear, but I really like what you did here and will try doing the same.
 
I wasn't going to do much with the landing gear, but I really like what you did here and will try doing the same.

The landing gear was probably one of the fiddliest things to scratch with the parts being so tiny and me being blind as a bat lol.

I split #142 040 x 040 (1.0 x 1.0 mm) square styrene into two narrow strips for the elbows and diced about 1.0 mm #221 3/64 (1.2 mm) styrene rod for the elbow joints.

I found it easier to build the landing gear first and glue everything together as is, give the cement time to set and harden overnight then use a nail file to round and shape the pieces rather than struggling to hold and shape the tiny pieces individually.

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I completed the landing gear on the passenger pod.

My original idea for the area didn't work so I ended up completely removing the molded parts altogether which left openings where the gears were. I used the cut away pieces as anchor supports for the landing gear of which I used some brass tubing and brass rod then scratch built the foot pads and the tiny elbows with styrene.

I added some styrene truss as support for the landing gear and to give the area more detail, I built them as gear down just so I have the option to display my eagle separate from the pod itself but in doing so, I'd need to cut out some detail for the entrance to the passenger pods.

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I revisited some earlier work I had done on the engine baffles, I found the baffles were a bit of a task to sit level inside the bell so I reworked my idea to have them sit straight.

I removed the rounded inner strips and replaced them with styrene rod cut to length as support posts and just long enough to allow for the lip for the baffles which now sit inside nicely, I wasn't worried about adding any further detail there since I wont see the area behind the baffles.

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I may add some more detailing to the underside of the passenger pod just to dress it up a bit, then do some touch ups and clean up and hopefully I can start priming when the bloody sun eventually comes out.

Thanks for looking.
 
Zow ! Great work with such tiny construction .
Thank you.

Minuscule update, just been cleaning up my work and dressing up the underside of the passenger pod since the damp weather here is a bit undesirable for any painting. I had two spare entry ramps from a couple of Bandai 1/144 Millennium Falcons of which I sawed the ends off then glued to the underside along with some scrap brass wire.

Also adjusted the landing gear elbows and trimmed away some of it's structure so it sat on the foot and not on the leg itself.

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Cheers.
 
Amazing progress.

All these extra details and patient work really add to this kit. Nice work here.

Thank you.

I haven't made any progress on the paint work yet since the weather here is still a bit damp and rainy so I'm revisiting other projects I've started until the sun decides to show itself then I can lay some primer on my eagle.

Fine Molds 1/72... replaced most of the piping... I think I'll do some surgery on the mandibles and jaw box.

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The sun was kind enough to come out today for a couple of hours before the rain chased it away again, but I managed to prime my eagle plus a couple of other things I had sitting on the bench waiting for the sun-rays.

Eagle primed along with my custom conversion Ertl Tie Droid and a Bandai 1/144 Tie Striker.
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Now, I'll probably go back to work and bloody sun will come out :rolleyes:
 

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