LIS 1:35 Scale Chariot

[bakster]

Greetings, Folks. Well, here is a build I have been working on for over a year. The front end of the WIP is located at Fine Scale Modeler. I am finishing the build here at MSC. I'd estimate I am well over halfway done with the build.

This kit has a fairly decent build quality in terms of fit and function. In my opinion, where it might lack are some toyish interpretations they built into it. And that is fine. You can still make a decent model from the kit, as is.  I chose to take it up a notch; from custom fabricated curtains to led and fiberoptic lighting.

Without further ado, here is where I am at.


Below: Lighting being tested before I close up the transmission.





 


Below: The cover epoxied, no turning back.





Below: It's a long story why I started with gray, but here I decided to repaint the body to what is a more authentic color. Much masking to do at this point of the build. 





Below: I am pleased with the color and how it turned out.  I used Alclad Aluminum and cleared it with Testors Dullcote.






 




Below: The kit does NOT come with decals. So, I made my own, and I loosely followed the design used on a 1:1 replica of the chariot. In this image you can see them applied to the dash and such. Also, in this image, you can see some of the fiberoptic work that I did.





And that brings you to where I am today. My next step is to begin work on the canopy. Much masking to do there.

[kyledehart5]

Oh wow!! This is awesome!! What a super cool subject. And you’ve got some great work going on here. Loving it. Thanks for picking the build thread up over here

[keavdog]

Ha! Great to see you move this build over here.

[handiabled]

Bookmarked and following this! Addition of the led lights is terrific! I like the dulled aluminum body vs the grey

[capnmc82]

Yeah, y'all over here in MSC are missing out on the thirty-something pages of help, inspiration, critique, suggestions and the like (and far too many movie references and detours, if rather fun along the way).

We need to get Steve to post his Seaview build over here, too, if only so the tentacle references make sense.

We probably cannot get him to post the 'Icarus' from Planet of the Apes build, so y'all are going to just have to roll with the various Planet of the Apes cross references at least a couple few of us will make, reflexively.

Just wait until he shows all the work that went into the clear parts for the Chariot.

[bakster]

Aug 10, 2024 20:35:10 GMT -5 kyledehart5 said:

Oh wow!! This is awesome!! What a super cool subject. And you’ve got some great work going on here. Loving it. Thanks for picking the build thread up over here

Sounds good, Kyle!

[bakster]

Aug 11, 2024 12:10:04 GMT -5 capnmc82 said:

Yeah, y'all over here in MSC are missing out on the thirty-something pages of help, inspiration, critique, suggestions and the like (and far too many movie references and detours, if rather fun along the way).

We need to get Steve to post his Seaview build over here, too, if only so the tentacle references make sense.

We probably cannot get him to post the 'Icarus' from Planet of the Apes build, so y'all are going to just have to roll with the various Planet of the Apes cross references at least a couple few of us will make, reflexively.

Just wait until he shows all the work that went into the clear parts for the Chariot.

Oh man, Capn.  Too funny! 


Hey-- speaking of the Icarus-- Lou at Aztek dummy it building one as I write this. The kit he is building is the kit I wished I had!  It was out of production. That is a nice kit!  I had to scratch build the interior and this kit had it all. From decals, figures, to PE! A sweet model!  I don't know how I survived that build. LOL.  How?  It was a lot of help from my friends. Ape banter got me through. You know what else is funny?  The current issues of FSM  magazine has a diorama build of a crashed Icarus.  I have not read the article yet but I will.

Lous build: link

[bakster]

Aug 11, 2024 2:22:45 GMT -5 handiabled said:

Bookmarked and following this! Addition of the led lights is terrific! I like the dulled aluminum body vs the grey

Hey Handiabled-- thanks!  Yeah the aluminum came out well.  I had tested three clears to seal it and old technology, Testors Dullcote, won the battle.  It created the perfect sheen and it deepened the color even.  It was a learning moment. 

[bakster]

Aug 11, 2024 1:01:29 GMT -5 keavdog said:

Ha! Great to see you move this build over here.

John-- thanks! 

[bakster]

Canopy Floodlight Wiring

It was a vexing issue. The issue being, how to connect them to the wires coming from the main wire bus below and not have a bunch of slack showing. With the canopy off -- I'd need ample slack to make those connections, then find a way to hide the slack when attaching the canopy.  It's kind of hard to explain.  Ultimately-- I settled on the idea of connecting the two via a press fit.

Below: I soldered the power wires to adhesive backed copper tape.


 

Below: Once soldered, I fed the excess wire into the base and burnished the tape to the lower part of the model. When I get around to installing the flood lights, down the road, I will solder the canopy wiring to copper tape and secure the tape to the bottom edge of the canopy. In theory-- electrical connection will be made when the two are pressed together.  




I am glad that is done because having the wires sticking up as they were posed a risk to scratching paint and worse-- the wire retracting into the base lost forever. Access to the internals of the lower section is no longer an option.

What's next? The last few days my minds eye has one of the glass doors in an open position. That'd require cutting a panel out from the canopy. I need to study that option more to see if the risk is worth the reward.  If I opt not do it-- then my next move is to begin masking the canopy for paint. 

[handiabled]

Very ingenious to think of the copper tape solution!

[406 Silverado]

Really happy to see you continuing on with this build here Steve. Lotsa work going into this beauty of a build.

[bakster]

Aug 19, 2024 2:18:21 GMT -5 handiabled said:

Very ingenious to think of the copper tape solution!

Thanks, handiabled. Fingers crossed!

[bakster]

Aug 19, 2024 4:23:34 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

Really happy to see you continuing on with this build here Steve. Lotsa work going into this beauty of a build.

Thanks,Joe! Yeah. A ton of work went into this, no stopping now! My foot is on the gas pedal!

It's a joy bringing the build over here. A forum that actually works the way it is supposed to. Who'd a thunk!

[keavdog]

Doll house lighting kits come with some interesting solutions like two conductor copper tape with adhesive backing. I wired a dollhouse for my wife - pretty fun project.
Great progress here Steve

[bakster]

Aug 19, 2024 9:47:33 GMT -5 keavdog said:

Doll house lighting kits come with some interesting solutions like two conductor copper tape with adhesive backing. I wired a dollhouse for my wife - pretty fun project.
Great progress here Steve

That is interesting, John. And yes, that sounds like it could be fun to build! They seem to put thought into their product offerings. I appreciate that in a manufacturer.

[Steve Zuleski]

This is going full out, excellent!

[bakster]

Aug 19, 2024 10:29:30 GMT -5 Steve Zuleski said:

This is going full out, excellent!

Thanks for the comment and thanks for following the build!

[406 Silverado]

Aug 19, 2024 10:39:20 GMT -5 bakster said:

Aug 19, 2024 10:29:30 GMT -5 Steve Zuleski said:

This is going full out, excellent!

Thanks for the comment and thanks for following the build!

[bakster]

Aug 26, 2024 13:49:31 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

Aug 19, 2024 10:39:20 GMT -5 bakster said:

Thanks for the comment and thanks for following the build!

Laughing. Btw, kind of in a build funk. I am on staycation next week.I hope to get back into it then.

[406 Silverado]

Aug 26, 2024 14:15:48 GMT -5 bakster said:

Aug 26, 2024 13:49:31 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

Laughing. Btw, kind of in a build funk. I am on staycation next week.I hope to get back into it then.

 I hear ya Steve. I need to get back on my Ta-152 this week as I'd been absent from my bench for the past few weeks. Finally made an appearance to it late last week and hope to be a regular at it now after my out of town trip this past weekend. 

[littletimmy]

She's. Coming along nicely.

Running all that wiring/fiber optics would give me fits.
I like the way the tracks turned out, a little "alien" dirt looks just right.


I know Cornelius would approve .... but since he's stuck in 1968, we will just have to assume he likes it.




Patiently he sat at his computer.
Holding his breath with every new part introduced into the build.
Little Timmy couldn't stand the suspens....

What would Baxter glue next ...

[bakster]

Aug 29, 2024 18:05:42 GMT -5 littletimmy said:

She's. Coming along nicely.

Running all that wiring/fiber optics would give me fits.
I like the way the tracks turned out, a little "alien" dirt looks just right.


I know Cornelius would approve .... but since he's stuck in 1968, we will just have to assume he likes it.


i.postimg.cc/KYBkTpWS/DSCF0004.jpg

Patiently he sat at his computer.
Holding his breath with every new part introduced into the build.
Little Timmy couldn't stand the suspens....

What would Baxter glue next ...

Hey Tim, thanks about the tracks. I still need to paint the rocks and sand, but I am saving that to the end.

The optics, it gave me fits for sure. I tell ya, it could have easily shelved the project. Bending the optics was precarious. I did snap one or two but luckily, I had enough slack to recover.

You crack me me up, man.

Speaking of Cornelius, I think he and Zaius tried to sabotage the project. A cut here, a cut there, SNAP!

Thanks for stopping by. Oh, I am sending Clapper your way. He is driving me crazy with all that clapping.

[bakster]

Not much to show but what little I did today took me over 4 hours to do. This part of the build is what I have been dreading, and that is, masking the canopy. It is a ton of work and the worst is yet to come. I need to paint all the framework on both the canopy and the lower body of the chariot. That will require much more masking. I can’t wait to get past this.

But before I do all that, a couple more things to do: The base of the dome will be painted chrome. Secondly, Dollhouse failed to mold a section of frame on the canopy and I had to make it out of plastic strip. Sadly, today’s demasking ripped up that earlier work. I should have been more careful. Well, at least one side survived. Not a big deal to fix but I have to be super careful not to make a mess of things.

Below: what was painted are sections on top of the canopy, the bottom of the bubble, and sections on the lower portions of the canopy.   



The dome is resting on top and it is not mounted. Actually, when it does get mounted, it gets attached by inserting the dome from below.




That’s it for now.

[keavdog]

Looking good!

[Tojo72]

Bri gs back memories,enjoying your build so far.

[handiabled]

Another step closer to getting this together!

[bakster]

Thanks John!

Thanks Tojo!

Thanks Handiabled!

[greg]

So happy to have finally found this thread. Not sure what's more exciting, Steve, your progress or that the gang is almost all here!

Makes me feel like life is right again, having a Bakster WIP to follow along with the gang. Progress is great (and I can see the pics better here than before too, which is very nice).

Are you having cold sweats at night yet, thinking about masking that canopy? And speaking of masking, nice work masking and repainting the bottom portion, looks good.

And now that I finally learned how to bookmark a thread, you have been bookmarked, amigo. 

[bakster]

Oct 1, 2024 11:47:10 GMT -5 greg said:

So happy to have finally found this thread. Not sure what's more exciting, Steve, your progress or that the gang is almost all here!

Makes me feel like life is right again, having a Bakster WIP to follow along with the gang. Progress is great (and I can see the pics better here than before too, which is very nice).

Are you having cold sweats at night yet, thinking about masking that canopy? And speaking of masking, nice work masking and repainting the bottom portion, looks good.

And now that I finally learned how to bookmark a thread, you have been bookmarked, amigo. 

Hey Greg, glad you found my WIP.

Lol about the cold sweats.I started masking the canopy this last weekend and it is every bit a pita I thought it would be. It is a ton of work. The only way through this is not to rush, and to be patient with myself. It is many hours of work. But hey, once the canopy is painted, it should be downhill from there.

Glad you found me brother.