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.

The Arrival of A Pair of Twins

Friday, two resincasts of Han Solo in Carbonite arrived in a HUGE box.

The helmet is only there for size reference:

Seems Harrison had a crooked nose! Either that or the casting process made it that way.

Now I only have weeks and weeks of building ahead of me...

M Booksigning at Outland, Trondheim

Saturday December 8th, we supported our friend Mads, as he had a booksigning at Outland at Mercursenteret. Something of a pre-christmas ritual for The Nordic Garrison here in Trondheim


Here me and TK-50157 did some shenanigans at the H2 hairsalon:

Birthdaytroop!

November 29th we had a short troop lasting only 9 minutes, where we handed over a dipoma to the birthdayboy, and then got overrun by 12 other kids.
Kids will be kids! It seemed like they enjoyed it and thought it was cool that we came, especially the birthdayboy, who calmly approached TK-50157 while the other kids were maniacs and thanked us for coming to his birthday. A well raised kid there.

Further Woodwork

Had another round with the saw and got to bust out the router today.
Now both frames are at the exact same stage, and all edges are routered smooth.

Some bondoing and sanding is needed, but the boxes actually look a lot better than the impression this picture gives! :P

Next up is mounting the backing behind the holes for the sidepanels, and strengthening the overall integrity of the box.
Then bondoing and sanding, before making the main panel for Han and attaching that.
Small increments!

This build includes a lot of slightly askew angles and routered edges, and you really have to keep your tongue straight when measuring out before cutting, so I can understand the people that have mentioned that this is a time consuming and difficult build. But if you just keep your head cool and think things through it shouldn't be a problem.

Assembling The Frames

I'm now at the assembly stage, and there's lots of work ahead of me.
I have to strengthen both frames by adding cross braces, and rounding out all edges and add filler and sand it smooth.

The main casts are soon here, and I want to have as much done as possible, so I can start the mounting of the main pieces right away.

I also have to mount boards in the holes where the sidepanels are going to go. That's a time consuming process as well, as the boards have to be 90 degrees, while the sides of the box are slightly slanted at about 85.5 degrees.

I really hope to get a good days work done on these soon, so I can get a lot done.

I have actually kept a tally of the time used, and money spent. That might come in handy!