Painting Han

The previous pass of woodglue had seeped in to the woodwork pretty good, so I did another pass and made the texture around Han Solo. I figured I'd get the texture approximately the same as the original, but not be nitpicky about the exact patterns, just get the right "feeling". Then I sanded and filled the remaining spots, and then sanded again.

Wiped it clean with a damp cloth and finally put primer on it, which made it look like a complete piece.

Then I was quick to spray the box-portion with Rustoleum Stainless Steel

I then waited until it was dry to the touch, masked off and sprayed the carbonite texture and Han with Rustoleum brand Aluminium

The whole painting seance took me less than two hours, from primer to Aluminium coat (including driving a trip to get another box of primer because I had been a noob and only bought one, which wasn't enough).
I let the paint dry for a day, and came back to weather it with thinned down black acrylic paint.
I painted the black on with a brush, let it sit for a little bit (just the right amount of time, a delicate business) and wiped it off with a cloth, doing multiple passes over all. I also weathered the "stainless steel" box.

After that, which took me just under two hours, I let him get some sun, and meet other people.

I am very happy with the result, and I'm looking forward to getting him in my livingroom.
Right now he's at the firestation where we will change tomorrow and walk in the national day parade.

I still have the sidepanels to finish, and will probably do those across the summer. But in the meantime, I'm happy to let him shine as he is!

Pouring The Carbonite

Had another go at it today, and did another pass of filler where neccessary and finally started to make the carbonite texture by pouring woodglue over, something that went very smoothly:

I have been swamped with school and work since newyears, so I haven't been able to do nearly as much on this project as I would like.
I'll try to make another pass tomorrow, as I have the entire day off.
Wanting to make it presentable (sans sidepanels) by next saturday, and maybe stroll it around during the may 17th national day parade.

Another troop at Sirkus Shopping

This weekend we had another appearance at Sirkus Shopping

 

I have also made some more progress on the Han in Carbonite, although it's not that visible. I've strengthened the boxes with crossbraces, glued the main panels with Han in place and started to bondo the screwholes and other irregularities. So the boxes are completely assembled now, and I'm missing the bondoing and filling in the woodglue to create the Carbonite texture.
Trouble is the solvents in the bondo are pretty toxic, and I'm working in a basement with no ventilation, so I would like to take it outside in the garage to get good ventilation while filling and sanding it, but it's winter here now and minusdegrees so I'll have to wait a little bit for the temperature to rise. Might try to give it a pass anyway.

Just checking in

I haven't had time to do much on Han after newyears, as I've gone back to school, and that takes up most of my time.
But this week, I had some time off and went to tinker a bit on the project.

I glued down the cast pieces even further, and tried to get them to lay as flush as I could:

Glued on the feet as well.

I also recieved one set of  "pockets" which go on the ends of the carbonite block, which I started to install.
No pictures of that yet, but next time I'll take some more pics.
And I presume I'll get to start pouring in some wood glue around Han and making the carbonite texture next time. As well as smeraing on some filler on the screwholes and joints and sanding that smooth.
I suspect I have a lot of filling and sanding ahead of me.

On another note, I found a local dealer which actually has the spray paint I'm looking for (at a reasonable price as well) so I bought a few cans of that, and I can't wait to just get a layer of primer on there.
With spring coming and the weather being a bit nicer, I can pull the HICs out in the garage and do the painting there. Helps me from getting suffocated by the fumes too.

Anders and Han in Gabba's Palace

Went to play poker at my friend Gabriels house, where I'm also building the two Han Solos in Carbonite.
Took the opportunity to take a picture of Han and my friend Anders:

Han is glued to the board now (minus the feet which will be added next time), next up is filling in the seams around him to make him blend into the board smoothly and add woodglue all around and make the carbonite texture. A lot of filling and sanding after that.

PS: We sometimes call Gabriel "Gabba", and Anders coined the phrase Gabba's Palace as the name for the basement. I thought it was hysterical and can't believe noone has thought of it before.

Han In Carbonite Progress

I have been tinkering with Han a little bit last week, and here are some progress photos:

Mounting the backing behind the holes for the sidepanels, I only took the cut out pieces and screwed them to a thin bar and ran a small bead of glue along the top. The panels are supposed to be at a 90 degree angle perpendicular to the floor when the box is laying flat, and the sides of the box are at 85.5 degrees angle, so that's why they're at an angle. I'll fill in the gaps around it when I fill and sand the rest of the stuff on the box.

I then glued on thin shims to hold the main panel where han will be mounted:

Cut out particleboard for the main panel by hand, I chose particleboard because it's less expensive, and this particular one was a few millimetres thinner than the MDF used as a frame, so I have a few millimetres in height to fill in around the Han pieces and create the "carbonite" texture using woodglue:

Superglued together the pieces of Han and heated them a bit along the sides to make them lay more flush:

Here is where I'm at right now:

I guess I won't get anymore done before january comes along, but I'm looking forward to continuing!

The ForceCast Podcast

I have to thank my buddy Tom Sutton (a great guitarist and Star Wars-fan who used to play in Church of Misery) for making me aware of The ForceCast podcast a year or two ago.

The ForceCast is a great weekly podcast by and for fans of Star Wars hosted by Jimmy Mac and Jason Swank. Their show often employs relevant guests, such as Steve Sansweet (founder of Rancho Obi-Wan), James Arnold Taylor (voiceactor supreme, voice of Obi-Wan in The Clone Wars animated series), and lots and lots of other people related to the Star Wars universe.

With the recent news of Disney's aqcuisition of Lucasfilm and announcement of upcoming Star Wars sequels (with episode VII scheduled for 2015), it's fun to take part in Jason and Jimmy's round-up of rumours and discussion of announcements related to that. 
Another thing I really like about their show is their enthusiasm and optimism, making it a very uplifting show.

It's just a great show to wind down and relax to, check it out!

Here you can visit their facebook page.