Topic: Joerhyno's vehicle repairbay(10-1-12 GI JOE/StarWars Crossover idea&question)...

[Joerhyno]

Greetings everyone!  I kept on hearing Imperialshipyards this, Imperialshipyards that.. and kept seeing it in Jule's youtube videos, so when it was time to start building some custom vehicles, I thought what better place than a custom site that not only has a name that fits, but also a custom section for just that...

Anyway, without boring you with too much text, most of you guys probably have seen my name here and there on various custom sites... I mainly wanted to find a site that had a good section for custom vehicles to help me out on a couple projects I'm working on for a friend's diorama. I'm hoping I chose the right place...  

With that said, lets dive in... basically my friend's diorama is going to be a Smuggler's den/hangar hidden in an asteroid(There have been a couple like this in recent books)... I'm trying to help him populate the "hangar" part with some random smuggler/Bounty Hunter transports/starfighter/cargo ships... nothing too big(like Bessie Mk2) but nothing too small like a Jedi Starfighter.

My goal is to have 2-3 medium to large ships that have a look where someone can get up and walk around in... granted the ships wont open up for this to actually happen, but just the general look of a ship that size.

The first one up I started with a GI Joe tank and added another GI Joe Cobra cockpit. I dont have the area set up right now to take a good picture with my ghetto camera/lighting in the basement(where I work).. so for now, I hope my digital mockup will help get the idea across until I can get real pictures taken.

I started out with this tank:

It's funny, cause as I was checking around the site.. I remember seeing someone mention this very tank(the jungle camo one) for another project, lol.. It was one of the only junk larger Joe vehicles I had, so I figured, why not?

Anyway, I unscrewed all the 4,000 screws this thing had, took it apart, took off the turret and the treads, and then put it back together. I then went and added a HISS tank cockpit that I had(it was broken and missing parts, so don't worry) to the top for the main cabin/cockpit area...

Here's my digital mock-up I did with two images I found on the net to give you an idea of what it looks like right now...

This is where I am right now. I'm hoping to get some gray primer or something on the parts to help take away from the mixmatch color, but our lovely Chicago weather's been rainy the last week or so, so maybe it'll clear up soon and I can do that.. if not, I might have to do it by my ghetto-rigged air vent window fan...

So, my main reason for posting this, is to A. get ideas from people to make the ship more Star Warsey... things to add, wings, gun emplacements, radar dishes, etc... and also B. to find out other ideas for the next couple of ships.  Can't wait to see what kind of input you guys have... I spent about 2.5 hours on here just looking through everyone's thread, seeing the talent and hope you guys can help me out... Thanks again, and see you guys around...

-Joe

[Clonehead]

Hey Joe, welcome to the Shipyards! Sounds like a cool project you got going here and if you are looking for input and ideas for making custom vehicles, I do believe that you came to the right place.

[Reconsgt]

Welcome to the Shipyards Joe,

 The tank will be a killer combo and I eagerly await more pics.

[Joerhyno]

Tanks guys.... 

What's the best method to take off factory stickers? These are those new-er clear stickers.. is there a good method, or just peel and goo gone them???

[Clonehead]

I always heard that lighter fluid worked well for that. Also, a citrus based solvent works well for breaking up the adhesive on stickers.

[Reconsgt]

I peal them off and use lighter fluid, then was with a mild soap and water before I paint.

[Luke Sprywalker]

Welcome to the Yards Joe! This vehicle and dio project is sounding pretty sweet. This tank is a great first vehicle and the mock up looks great. As far as additions it really depends on what you are looking for as far as style and the fodder you have available. I think a cobbled together look would be cool, like things were added over time. If you want to add some thrusters on the side sprinkler head guts/ the stem of  a pop up but non rotary head, works well. You can also use the body and cap for the diorama as a fuel storage tank or whatever. I hit Salvation Army, Dollar Tree, Ollies, Big Lots, Ross, Marshals and other discount stores all the time for various fodder for projects like this. If you can go out and buy something get the new Joe Ice Dagger for  another vehicle. I would love to get my hands on one of them. Also I saw the terminator ship at Ross for $10 and thought it would be cool to mod it for a bounty hunter. So take at look at that and see what you think. I know what you are saying about the bad lighting for the pics but please get us some pics of the actual thing as that helps even more. Good luck.

[Joerhyno]

oooh.. love those ideas... sprinkler heads? Runs outside and guts the lil' spiderman wacky web sprinkler... hmmm... maybe not.  I have various vehicles that I was selling/trying to get rid of, not to mention the 20 or so that I already did, while most of them I don't mind, it helped pay the bills.. there are a couple I'm cringing at now, of course after I started brainstorming, like that GI Joe Ice Dagger I had, that I sold for dirt cheap.. yeah.. that could have made a sweet ride... sigh...

I still have a couple pod racers, I might dig those out, maybe steal the pod engines for boosters.. though I don't think I want to add too much as far as wings go, I think the boxy-ness gives it a certain flavor, and I think I wanna keep with that.

I cleared part of an area in the extra room. so I'll try to get some real pics for you guys... thanks for the input so far!!!

-Joe

[TheCloneCommander]

i think L.S is talking about these!!

[Luke Sprywalker]

Yes CC those are the ones and you can get them a bit taller as well. All you have to do is unscrew the nozel on the center one and remove the spring.  These things have many uses. Joe I totally agree about the boxy look and would not add any wings. SW vehicles don't need wings to fly but this looks more lika a hover craft/land vehicle.

[Reconsgt]

If your going for a smuggle craft, I wholeheartedly agree with the others, boxy is good,    This is just my opinion, but it appears in SW lore, wings act as nothing more than weapons platforms for space vehicles, so who needs wings all the time.  The overall desgin you have laid out is perfect for a armored cargo ship.

 As to the sprinkler ideas, I never saw those, but they are filled with potential and since my other half works at a Home Depot, I will be looking for these and other ideas.

Hunting fodder is half the fun of building these types of customs.

[StenHunter]

Welcome to the yard!! This looks like a great idea and should come out awesome!

[DocOutlands]

JOE!!  Welcome aboard!!

Dude, that is one seriously sweet design you have going!!  Wish I'd known you were dumping an Ice Dagger!  (wait... I'm broke and couldn't have bought it anyway...)

[Joerhyno]

Thanks for the welcomes...


I was able to use some of my cousin's gear to take some pics, though I'm not a pro at the camera, so sorry if they're "yellowish"... anyway, I wanted to get some actual pics before the holiday took up my free time, so here's a pic of where I was at when I started the thread...

I attached the front of the HISS Tank canopy to the tank with a little bead of hot glue just so it would stop falling on me when I moved it around... I also went over it with a base coat of a chrome color I had, to get rid of the mix-matched color... Don't worry, it's not the color of the ship, if anything, it'll be the color of some battle damaged parts..

The last pic kinda shows how low it sits... and I want this to be a sort of transport, so I want to raise it up a tad... Nothing too high, but I was thinking maybe an inch or two.

I think even just that little amount makes it look a lot better, something someone could actually walk around in, instead of hunched over all the time.



As for adding to it, like some have said, I think I'll pass on some wings, it'll take away from the transport look, I do have a Sebulba's Pod Racer, so I'm really thinking of hacking up the engine part, and adding it towards the back... maybe using the height of the "L" shape part of the engine to determine the end height of the added part of the ship and then build onto if from there... but I dunno. I guess I'll have to wait till I see the pod engines next to this.

Anyway, let me know what you think so far. I do have a question... What type of filler do you guys recommend to fill in the gaps. I'm mainly planning on using foamcore to cover most of the gaps, and styrene, then I was thinking of just using fixit sculpt to putty it all up and sand it smooth... anyone else have any better ideas on putty to use? Anyone ever use bondo they use on cars? Just wondering if there's an alternative, all I really have is Fixit sculpt on me.

Thanks again...

-Joe

[hangarbay94]

That is a very clever use of parts, plus it looks at home in the Star Wars Universe...

My recommendation: Get some thin styrene sheet and fill in the holes in the underside area, other then that it makes an excellent accompaniment to the Luke figure!