Madhatter Posted January 31 Author Share Posted January 31 Hey David, how are you? Happy new year mate! Hope your holidays - if you took any - were relaxing? Bro, I have absolutely no idea how many hours I have spent on this mammoth project. Over the past 5.5 years this has been going on, taking into consideration the stop-start progress and working on an average of 4-5 hours (sometimes more) a day over 3 days a week, maybe around 900 hours in total. Possibly/probably more. I honestly don't know. If I were to include all the casting and cure times as well into that period, you could stack on at least another 60-70 hours. Regardless, my wife thinks its too much time. I say I could always spend more. We all know how this goes In hindsight, I should've recorded a time log as I am now also interested to know exactly how much time I have invested into this. Actually, scratch that - I don't want to l know. It'll just make me cry. I never started off with the intention of detailing it this much. What started off as adding some pipes to the rear of the ship exploded into pure OTT madness. Then I had to do a proper display base for it. And here we are! I'm surprised but glad that this still holds interest to some of you. Thanks to you guys who have stuck around! It helps to keep me going, knowing that there are people watching and waiting. Otherwise I doubt I would have gotten to here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David G. Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 On 1/30/2024 at 11:37 PM, Madhatter said: Hey David, how are you? Happy new year mate! Hope your holidays - if you took any - were relaxing? Bro, I have absolutely no idea how many hours I have spent on this mammoth project. Over the past 5.5 years this has been going on, taking into consideration the stop-start progress and working on an average of 4-5 hours (sometimes more) a day over 3 days a week, maybe around 900 hours in total. Possibly/probably more. I honestly don't know. If I were to include all the casting and cure times as well into that period, you could stack on at least another 60-70 hours. Regardless, my wife thinks its too much time. I say I could always spend more. We all know how this goes In hindsight, I should've recorded a time log as I am now also interested to know exactly how much time I have invested into this. Actually, scratch that - I don't want to l know. It'll just make me cry. I never started off with the intention of detailing it this much. What started off as adding some pipes to the rear of the ship exploded into pure OTT madness. Then I had to do a proper display base for it. And here we are! I'm surprised but glad that this still holds interest to some of you. Thanks to you guys who have stuck around! It helps to keep me going, knowing that there are people watching and waiting. Otherwise I doubt I would have gotten to here I'm well enough Si, thanks for asking. And a happy New Year to you too. I was just curious about the time you've invested as I'm sure it's quite a lot. Some years ago I set up a spread sheet in Excel to keep track of my build projects and the time I spend on them. This was back when I had many more commitments than I do now and I needed help managing my time. I've always been fascinated with charts, graphs, tables and other means of information management so I've kept up with the data tracking even though I probably no longer need to. I've learned that most of my builds take between forty to sixty hours from start to finish, I usually try to commit to three or four hours per week to building. The build with the longest time into it is my Chevy Proton with 171 hours total spread over an eight year period. Here's a link to the build thread if you're interested. I agree. Being a member of this community does provide a certain inspiration to keep on with a build. It almost gives one a sense of responsibility or duty to the group, rather like having an audience to play to. In any case, I'm certainly glad that you've kept at with this one. It certainly has to be one of the most, if not the most detailed Star Destroyer built. I would suggest trying to contact George Lucas to let him know if it when it's done but he no longer seems to care about Star Wars. 😕 After nearly half a century who could blame him? Regards, David G. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madhatter Posted February 12 Author Share Posted February 12 hi again Time for another update to this on-going saga. Almost finished the right side mid level - just some more detail to add and then it's onto the final detailing stage of the top plate. The left side is pretty much done as I want it to be. Maybe a couple more detail bits but not much So, starting with the left side: Now the right side There are a couple more photos but something weird is going on with Flickr right now which is causing images not to post properly. I have advanced a fair bit in the time since these photos were taken, but the next update will be the finished levels (not painted) If you have any constructive feedback, by all means, please let me know - I won't get any better without it. As always, thanks for stopping in and having a look Till next time Si 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David G. Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 The two level base is an excellent idea Si! It's rather like a cut-away of the structure, very cool! Of course, the detail bits you've added are fabulous. David G. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madhatter Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 Thanks Mate - I appreciate the kind post Thought I'd post a quick update of where I'm up to. Since Friday last week, I have been working on the top plate. I was asked elsewhere if I could elaborate a bit more on the process of detailing. I thought the top plate edging would be a good subject to show how I do things. Quick disclaimer - I am not a professional modeller and my work is pretty average in terms of tidiness but I try. I have seen some seriously amazing scratch builders here and on other sites, with some actual skills they could teach which is why I feel like a little bit of a fraud doing this as what I do pales in comparison. But I said I would, so here goes. First, I had to measure out how much over hang I wanted and then conform the back edge to the edge of the existing base plate: Then I drew out a basic outline of the edges: Resulting in: Using the waste material from the base layer cut, I then made a second layer. This was then flipped over and every edge lined with 0.20x0.20 strip plastic. I have run out of strip already - I used an entire pack on just 3 sides with the rear ones still to go. I'll be in the city on Friday so I'll pick some more up then So that's 2 evenings worth of work. Now I have started to detail the lower ledges. Once they've been done, I'll permanently attach them and then blend in the upper surface to the plates. Then the detailing will be done and I can move onto painting and lighting it all. As you can see, I've found a good use for all those left over PE radar bits I have lying around. They make for some great details I hope I haven't insulted anyone's skill levels with my very basic and rudimentary attempts at scratch building, but I'm hopeful it will help someone out with some ideas.. As always, thanks for stopping in and having a look Si 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David G. Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 Nice tutorial. Once one sees the process it all seems so simple. Time consuming, but simple. David G. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madhatter Posted February 20 Author Share Posted February 20 thanks David Yeah, it is pretty simple but then, so am I Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang1989 Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 Jeez.....it's been a long while since I've looked in on this one Simon. Aaaand the good work continues!!! I'm gonna have to get all caught up here. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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