Collector's TAP CAFE XV everyone is welcome here !!!

I made cookies for my friends. They're almost all eaten

 

Aww those are awesome...and they look tasty!

 

I want a Fett cookie!

 

Hm... bells as Imperial guards... I will keep that in mind, as that looks like an easy cookie to make. I can't bake and rely on idiot-proof cookie mixes.

 

So, this week, after messing around with my action figures, my brother stuck a PotF Ackbar's weapon onto the head of one of my PotF Vaders. Immediately, I said "D'harhan!" So, I looked through my figures for a toy to sacrifice (we were talking about kit-bashing some toys anyway) and PotF speeder bike Luke went on the chopping block. I'm currently hard at work on a custom D'harhan.

 

Be sure to post a pic when it's done!

 

Here's some less-than-stellar work-in-progress images. Sadly, these phone images turned out better than the images I had taken with my camera, with a three-point lighting rig and backdrop. :/



Currently, I'm working on figuring out how to make the tail and still have it be articulated. I have one idea for that, currently. The boots I'm debating on altering. The book described him as wearing boots, but the Warfare image has digitigrade feet. The most I would do to the boots, should I keep them, is add some additional armor. To configure digitigrade feet would be a bit tougher, and I rarely customize action figures. D'harhan is my first serious kit-bash.

 

Pretty good!

 

What those lousy images don't show is his paint job. I gave him a flat black base coat, highlighted his armor with gray, dry-brushed rust and dirt details to various edges, and even painted some battle damage. Acrylic paints have been holding up pretty well so far. Mighty Putty is a decent canvas after I sanded it down, and the paint hasn't yet scraped off of the plastic.

 

You're right, TrakNar, the pics are a little dark, but the figure is cool. I'm glad you told us what you used and how you did it. Any ideas for a good glue to hold my Lego builds together?
I've already tried crazy glue & gorilla glue. You would think gluing clean plastic Legos that already snap together would be easy. It's not. I have this one Falcon in particular that falls apart every time you touch it - much like the real one only worse. I complained like crazy to the Lego rep at CIII that it was a great set, but unplayable because it broke apart to easily. She admitted they had problems with that set and a lot of complaints. Still, they had no suggestions for glue. They did come out with a new & different Falcon after that. I bought that one, but it drives me crazy that the other one sits in a bag as a sad mess of Legos. It's not like those big sets are cheap.

Now I have seen desks, coffee tables, and various other things built out of Legos. Certainly I can get a Falcon to stay together.

 

I guess try modeling glue. If it can hold a model together, it should hold Legos together.

 

When you look at glue, make sure it's one that's OK with plastic. Some types react badly. I'd give the model glue a try on a couple of waste LEGOs to see if that holds before trying it on the Falcon.

 

All of the glues I tried definitely said plastic. I'm thinking the problem is the surface of a Lego is almost too smooth. There are no fine grooves for the glue to settle in. Like when you are tiling or even when a new pavement is laid on the road. Model glue is a good idea. I'll give it a try. The deal with models though is that you make it and then don't touch it, right? This is Falcon and it's really cool and I want to at least play with the inside. It's not like I wanna try blasting it off into hyperspace or anything, but it would be nice to be able to open the top move the figures around inside a little. Even the landing struts just collapse if you breath too hard around them. Such a shame. It really is just poor structural design. I probably need to just make some special modifications a la Han Solo and make it better.

I have even tried a hot glue gun with the specially made glue for plastic. This just shouldn't be that difficult.

 

Can you just glue the bits that don't need to come apart to at least make the Falcon more stable?

 

I tried that first. Unfortunately, it was a no go. Then I tried gluing every piece. Again, not even a dent in stability. That's why I was giving the Lego rep an earful. I felt bad, but it was close to a $100 for that set. I can't imagine if I had received it as a super special present as a kid and it fell apart like that. It really is a nice set, but such a flawed design. I have all the Lego sets that have anything to do with the OT and I have never had one so structurally flawed or felt the need to glue it at all. The Lego rep tried to brush it off and say that Legos are meant to come apart so you can put them back together again. Huh? I had never thought of that! LOL! Of course, I countered that when I set takes almost 5 hours to put together you should get more than 30 seconds of playability out of it before it falls apart.

I keep wondering if the little lego heads that interlock weren't tall enough to really lock into the lego above it. They don't seem any different than any other Lego, but it is strange. Somebody had suggested using the plumbers 'glue' that seals pipes. That stuff is really dangerous to work with and your not supposed to be messing with it after it dries either.

I guess it's just gonna sit in the bag. I'll go check into the model glue though.

 

We have a LEGO thread here (probably down on page 2 or 3). You're welcome to bump it up and ask for advice there.

Edit - so I can't find the LEGO thread. It might have been truncated in the move. If you want to start a thread asking about the gluing feel free..

 

Hello gang, After 7 months I am finally back in the Cafe Lots has happened in the last 6 months. Those cookies look so good !!! Sorry to hear about the issues you are having with the Falcon J_Girl. I had a similiar issue with a gunship years ago and I had to resort to a transparent plastic sheet attached to fish line to hold the gunship in place as it was suspended from the ceiling. It worked out well until I smashed into it one night in the dark...

 

So what have you been up to, Mike?

 

Thanks, Mike! So yeah, what's been going on?

 

Where to start, my company was bought by an investment firm that has dumped a few hundred million into my company in order to grow it. So we have bought 27 companies in the last 2 years. To add to the fun we are changing our US and Canadian systems and homeland security is making lots of changes coming in 2014 so I have been working 14-16 hour days

 

Ouch..hope you get paid overtime, Mike..

 

Unfortunately not Les but I do get leu time which insane as I end up with another 2-3 weeks of vacation.

 

Happy Easter everyone Just having a quiet day today and getting ready to do some cooking....

 

Glad to hear you have some down time CrazyMike, sounds like you could use it! Enjoy.

 

Hoppy Easter everyone!

Well my shrine is officially on its way to being packed up. I started packing everything up...not an easy task considering I've got stuff of all different sizes on shelves including breakables that I need to get their boxes for. I think a large number of my GG Mini-busts will need to be very carefully packed in a special box to take over since I think their boxes are all buried in our storage unit. Luckily our move is only a mile and half away.

Painters are working on my office and finished my craft room. I think next weekend we can start the long process of moving stuff over (we have a ton of junk.) I bought a ton of tubs last night, will work the rest of the weekend to get more done in the office and start on my bedroom.

Moving sucks...but at least we're moving into OUR house - no more renting, no more moving, for the first time my sister and I are finally settling and won't be moving again....aka the shrine can now fully explode to its heart's content

Going to IKEA today, I want to pick up glass doors for all of my Billy bookcases to protect my collectibles from puppy teeth and I need a couple of tables for my craft room...and maybe a couple more bookcases.