Alain Gadbois Posted August 7, 2022 Share Posted August 7, 2022 Hi all! Sometimes you have a kit that's started and then gets put back in the box for some reason. Then one day, you open the box and the interest suddenly picks up again. This cycle has repeated itself a few times in this project, mainly because there are so many things to do to improve this kit that I would get bored after doing some difficult part. Anyway here it is. Purchased around 1989 or 1990. A bit of a descriptin of what was done then: First step was getting rid of the raised details and recribe with the best references in various books. Some styrene has yelllowed with age! Replaced guns with aluminium tubing. The canopy framing is too thick, so is reduced and I will need to finish the job on the rear windows. The infamous gnomes! Compared to a 1/20 scale Tamiya F1 pilot body, which can fit nicely in the cockpit (see lower) and could give an idea of the actual scale of the kit. Engaving of the underside, done about 5 years ago. Central part to be completed. The much too shallow floor can be lowered by getting rid of the tub supplied and lower the bottom fuselage section, that has been modified (compare to the instruction sheet). The resulting underside, no glue yet. As you can tell, this part had been glued in place before I decided to improve the kit, necessitating ripping it out later. The engine section had also been glued in place until I couldn't live with the extra thick (cooling?) fins on the engine. Managed to chop nearly half out before putting the kit away one more time! And thus it had remained for the last few years until last week... bye for now! Alain Fanes, Model_Monkey, Treehugger and 10 others 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted August 7, 2022 Share Posted August 7, 2022 You've done some really nice work on this one, Alain! Would love to see you finish it off. Kev Alain Gadbois 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_K2 Posted August 7, 2022 Share Posted August 7, 2022 Looking good. I love these old kits. At one time I had a bunch of AMT and MPC stuff. Alain Gadbois 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted August 7, 2022 Author Share Posted August 7, 2022 2 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said: You've done some really nice work on this one, Alain! Would love to see you finish it off. Kev Hope I will finish it this time around! LSP_Kevin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted August 7, 2022 Author Share Posted August 7, 2022 4 minutes ago, LSP_K2 said: Looking good. I love these old kits. At one time I had a bunch of AMT and MPC stuff. The nice thing about the Snowspeeder is the size, and the much better newer kits are quite small in comparison. I got a few MPC X-wings and a bunch of quite good AMT (?) Tie fighters donated by a friend in variously started condition many years ago. Started to check those recently and might get to build them after the Snowspeeder. Alain LSP_K2 and Greg W 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted August 10, 2022 Author Share Posted August 10, 2022 I managed to finish removing all the kit fins with the help of Dremel,cutters, sanding stick and sharp X-Acto. The engine section has been glued back on and the three types of fins in progress is shown. The finished larger fin is shown in place temporarily. Note it is a sandwich of three parts. Alain TAG, chukw, Fanes and 10 others 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Nice work, Alain! Kev Alain Gadbois 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Mike Posted August 13, 2022 Share Posted August 13, 2022 Keep going on this! Looks good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted August 13, 2022 Author Share Posted August 13, 2022 3 hours ago, LSP_Mike said: Keep going on this! Looks good. Thanks! Great stuff to show you all today! First, I have started casting the larger central engine fins. I need eleven in total and I am much to lazy to cut and shape all these pieces. And I have just received the Falcon 3D printed cockpit set for the MPC kit. Beautifully printed parts, and very well packaged.Here is the link for those curious. https://www.falcon3dparts.com/products/cockpit-set-for-amt-ertl-snowspeeder Here are some pics of the parts, and they appear to be very accurate. They are a straight replacement for the kit parts. Front Rear Clear part for rear cockpit screen MPC vs 3D parts! Seats Pilots and clear visors Harnesses. Actually only two of them are necessary. The casting base is very easy to remove, the cutters not really necessary. Very good fit! Very exciting to check over the parts. Scratch building all this would have been quite time consuming so this set was very welcome when I discovered it very recently. One major reason to work on the kit again. Bye for now! Alain Fanes, Starfighter, LSP_Kevin and 17 others 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted August 13, 2022 Share Posted August 13, 2022 That cockpit is certainly a major improvement! Kev Alain Gadbois 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ray Posted August 13, 2022 Share Posted August 13, 2022 An understatement! Huge improvement! Alain Gadbois and LSP_K2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted August 13, 2022 Share Posted August 13, 2022 14 minutes ago, LSP_Ray said: An understatement! Huge improvement! I just noticed the price, too, which is also huge! Kev Alain Gadbois 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Model_Monkey Posted August 13, 2022 Share Posted August 13, 2022 Brilliant. Alain Gadbois 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Madhatter Posted August 13, 2022 Share Posted August 13, 2022 That is a very nice update set. I had a good laugh at the kit supplied "pilot" figure. Wonder what drugs whoever sculpted that was on? I almost feel sorry for it Did it come with arms at least? Alain Gadbois 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted August 13, 2022 Author Share Posted August 13, 2022 10 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said: That cockpit is certainly a major improvement! Kev Light and day! 9 hours ago, LSP_Ray said: An understatement! Huge improvement! It would have been a huge amount of work to acheive this by scratch building, with all the rectangular frames and recesses. 9 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said: I just noticed the price, too, which is also huge! Kev I know, but considering the price vs the amount of work to get the same result by hand, it seemed to be very much worth the price. 2 hours ago, The Madhatter said: That is a very nice update set. I had a good laugh at the kit supplied "pilot" figure. Wonder what drugs whoever sculpted that was on? I almost feel sorry for it Did it come with arms at least? The sculptors did not understand the very reclined position of the pilots in the Snowspeeder, hence the compressed torso. And they do get arms in the kit. Still quite a horrible figure! 4 hours ago, Model_Monkey said: Brilliant. Thanks! Alain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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