BarfolomewMog

Thanks, I used F-stop of 4 so it took a few goes to get both minifig heads in focus at the same time haha! As I was approaching the end of the mech build I was tossing up which minifigs to use in the "helmet up" photo and Boba seemed the obvious choice to close off the story.

He has a special place in my heart too! He evolved over the 5 years that I worked on him as my parts collection grew and I was able to put into practice some of the techniques I had learned from following the amazing builders out there. In some ways I think of Boba as my "apprentice piece". Thanks, I tried to stay reasonably faithful to the main features of his head, harness, back-pack and wizard sleeves but figured, at the end of the day, he's a dark brown triangle with a pale puffy head and pale puffy hands sticking out the sides (like he was drawn by a 5 year old haha) and that having 4 legs would help keep the impression of the wide base. They also help support the weight as the knee joints are pretty much at their limit of load bearing capacity! Originally, I got one of those energy effect packs from Bricklink, and that sat him at about the same height, but the impression created was too linear and static. Introducing more of the smoke trail added some much needed curves and movement (although it was definitely a challenge!)

Thank you for the kind words! Originally the hoses were connected to the front of the helmet and they actually had a snugger fit and came out at a better angle, but obviously it made exposing the minifig head a challenge. Splitting the helmet seemed the best compromise, so I built a little cockpit and attached the helmet at the back and the hoses at the front.

Hiya! Here is the final mech in this series. This time around, I started with the helmet and worked my way out. Part availability in Dark Brown definitely played a role in the direction that the model took. Hope you like it! "We're putting the band back together, we need you man!' by Greg Dalink, on Flickr Zuckuss Utility-Class Battle Mech by Greg Dalink, on Flickr Zuckuss Utility-Class Battle Mech by Greg Dalink, on Flickr

The connections are fine and I'm really happy with the end result. Next, I'm going to try to darken up a couple of the fatter pearl gold hoses, probably check every 5 minutes so I don't over cook them. I'll try a lower temperature as I lost at least two thirds of the liquid through evaporation in 30 minutes of simmering last time. Might throw in a couple of clear windscreens as well just to see what happens. Cheers

Hello again! So after an extra week of soaking, the hose remained unchanged from how it looked at the 2-day mark. I ordered another 10 hoses from a local Bricklink store; see below for the ridiculous packaging by Pedro! After a bit of research, I purchased a bottle of Rit DyeMore Synthetic Fiber Dye (for use on polyester, nylon and acrylic). No true "black" colour exists in this range. The darkest colour available is "Graphite" The normal ratio is 1 bottle to 6 gallons, so after a bit of conversion to the Metric system I decided on using around 300ml water and a splash of dye (probably around 5 ml). The pair on the left are the result after half an hour of simmering/ boiling the dye mix. The middle smiley hose is a genuine Lego black hose. The pair on the right has had a further half hour in the dye but no visible difference to the first pair. The thicker hose on the far right was originally LBG and this after an hour in the dye. It's turned a really dark bluish green. It spent another hour in the dye when I threw the rest of the hoses in, but didn't get any darker. Looks kind of cool though. In conclusion, this dye worked fantastically well on the clear plastic (It looks blacker than the genuine Lego part) but not so well on plastic with a preexisting colour.

Hose on the left had the vinyl dye applied with a fine point brush. Bending and rubbing caused the paint to flake off just as you suggested. Luckily a neighbour had an old can of the same stuff so I didn't have to buy any. The middle hose has soaked for 2 days in a jar of vinegar based egg die that my talented wife uses to create her Ukranian Easter eggs each year. I'm about to go interstate for a few days for work so I'll try some fabric dye when I get back. In the meantime, I'll keep the middle hose in the dye to see how it goes. Thank you both for your input!

Hi there, sorry to bump a VERY old thread, but I recently bought some 10 L hoses from Lego that I thought were black but were actually these ones: https://store.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=27328pb01#T=C which I can pick up from my local Bricklink shop for 1/8 of the cost. Now, I am a great believer in the Sunk Cost Fallacy, and as such, I am planning on using this: https://autobarn.com.au/ab/Autobarn-Category/Shop-our-Full-Ranges-by-Brand-|-Autobarn/Vht/VHT-VINYL-DYE-SATIN-BLACK---SP942/p/DI00856 to paint them for use in my latest MOC. My question is, should I just spray the pieces "Gyros style" or should I spray the liquid into a container and use a brush to make sure the paint gets into the crevasses? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Cheers! Greg

The colour blocking is top notch, and I think your landing gear solution is great, it keeps those lines clean whilst supporting its weight, lovely work!

Saw this in my Flickr feed the other day, looks great! I like the height you achieved with the landscape.

Great work replicating these designs at this scale! I really like your efforts at the colour schemes of the Lhosan LC4 and the Joko TZ8. My favourites, though, are the Aratech Lux and Meirm Dark Wolf, these 2 came out better than the source material I reckon!

I like the way you managed to incorporate the black stripe between the forehead and the eyes.

Ya, spot on. The shoulders, hips and ankles pretty much line up vertically and then the weaponised backpack sits over the backwards knees. The seed parts for this mech were: https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=26831&colorID=120&in=A https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=24124&colorID=120&in=A https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=87559&colorID=120&in=A Initially, I played around with regular knees but the model would have turned out too tall and skinny (like Rothgar Deng, which was the last thing I wanted) so I reversed them, much like the AT-ST, and everything flowed on from there.

The feet look great!

Thanks, glad you like it! I knew I had to use the cannons somewhere when I found them in the parts collection and sometimes the more "dakka" the better haha. The side builds were just to add a bit of context, I wanted to keep them simple so that they wouldn't distract from the mech too much.