If you've been following this thread for a while, you'll remember a post a while back at the beginning of the year about a fan of our mod (Yoda Jammies), who was interested in taking our unique vision for the Expanded Universe vehicle, the Rebel Armoured Freerunner, and taking that into a solid real world model form through the process of Rapid Prototyping, a process by which a computer generated 3d model can be effectively three dimensionally printed in polymers or plastics to create a real model.

Well the process goes on, and on and off over time the modeller has been sending me a number of photographs charting his progress as he paints this model and layers on the detail, as well as to ask advice on the colours that should be used that will allow him to finally give us an accurate representation of the vehicle you see in our mod. I'll hand you over to him so you can get a feel for the process that he is working through, and then finish with a few more pictures to show his progress.

Enjoy.

'If you recall, the last photos were of the base colour-- a grey brown. After cleaning my airbrush to get all the muck out-- I used Interior Aircraft Black and sprayed a thin line of black over the panel lines or where I felt the illusion of a panel line ought to be. I then was a tad more generous with the undercarriage and the engines were pretty much covered with a mist of black. Again, up top, I gave a light misting of black to the gun turrets.

Finally, I painted the windows black. 

The kit will need to dry-- but the next step will be to cover most of the hull in camouflage grey OVER the base coat and the black. This will give the illusion of shadow and make the Rebel Freerunner look battle ready.

Best Jammies'

Thanks guys,

Jammies

Looks like you had a bit of a hard job having to sand away the Rapid Prototyping process lines, but it looks like the surface detail is pretty much still intact. Certainly looks better with the primer now applied, also liking the detail effect on the shields around the main gun, looks really good.

Paint scheme wise I'd go with the gold/yellow stripe paint job, and a really weathered looking grey/brown hull, I think with a lot of dirt and weathering, especially a lot of oil and grease streaks around the engineering section at the back.

This model should look really cool once painted.

Keep up the good work.

As for a paint deco-- I'm thinking of matching the screenshots of the craft from the Mod (grey with red and yellow stripes).

-Jammies

Enjoy.

Hello!

Just finished with the primer. I used one coat, then sanded that one down and added one more. These are the results. Next comes the hard part (but the fun part too): painting.

Lol! Never have expected a mod to start marketing!

Mods sell merchandise all the time, it's a perfectly good way to raise money. I think FS isn't allowed to, though, since Star Wars is copyrighted and all that.

Don't worry, we're still beavering away on the mod.

BTW that E-wing is awsome.

Spent a lot of time sanding down some of the milling effects on the model. APS is not easy to work with. I started with a 200 grit sand paper, but that was too week. So, I went to a hardware store and got 80 grit, then i used a 100 grit, before wet-sanding the model with 200 grit. Overall, this smoothes out a lot of the artefacts, while keeping the model looking like a Freerunner, and not just a piece of plastic. Sanding will also let paint more readily adhere to the surface.

Next I tackled the small bits. Some of the guns were about the size of an American quarter. After sanding those as well, I used a pin vice to drill in the holes where the gun barrels would be. Then, I drilled a hole in both guns and turret mounts. This allowed me to use a thin wire and super glue to connect the assembly. With the glue and the wire, the bond is very strong.

Priming will be next. Stay tuned.

Also in addition here are a few examples of other quite unique Star Wars models he has done. The first is another model realised through the same Rapid Prototyping process, an Imperial Chariot LAV Command Speeder.

And finally a Rebel E-Wing fighter built using a very limited edition resin kit.