Han in Carbonite. The madness finally begins!

New member here and wanted to start off with my HIC build that had been put on hold for about a year. Here's the frame built with the panel slots cut out. I do not have a pic but the slots will be backed with MDF screwed in place. The panels will then be glued with 5 min epoxy to the MDF. This way, I can remove the MDF when I need to move the HIC frame around and not damage the panels.

Here the notches are cut out with a jig saw. Still need to fill all the screw holes, sand the entire frame down, and round off all the edges before I can attach the front panel I got from Stormrider.

Here's a shot of the panel glued to the MDF backing plate. The panels were blocked sanded to get the bottom as flat as possible. There are still some gaps but were easily filled in with Apoxie sculpt.

There are holes on the panels that will need to be hollowed out. I used a 1/8 size drill bit to do this and the tape help keep all the holes the same depth.

most of the greeblies were casted a little long so there's flash on the bottom. I just used 150 grit sandpaper and sanded it down in a circular motion. Then again with 220 grit to smooth it out.

Here's one of the panel primed with grey primer, gloss black, then aluminum all bought at an automotive store. I made templates of the four squares in the panels so I can trace them on a thin sheet of aluminum. The sheets of aluminum were then superglued in place. That's where I'm at now just chipping away at each panel getting all the greeblies cleaned up and ready for paint. Thanks for following along and hope to have an update soon!

Thanks guys. Toothboy, you should post some pics of your HIC. Is it finished or still a work in progress? Either way, I may steal some ideas from you so please post pics.

Here's a diagram I got from the Yahoo HIC Builders Group. Great place with lots of photo reference and specs for the HIC. I will build my panels from my numbered 8 thru 1. Panel 1 and 2 will be the most difficult so I wanted to do them last. Still missing some greeblies for panel 2 and will have to scratch build them. Panel one will be lit but static.


Here's the actual pic of the top left panel (#8 on my diagram). I gotta say thanks to Mr. Wise of Rebelscum.com for providing these pics as they were very helpful when I scratch built my panels.


Here's my panel #8 so far. Still missing the three clips, but I will make all of them when all the panels are done.


It's time to tackle panel #7 so thanks for looking and will post again soon!

Here's the reference pic for panel #7


Here's my panel finished minus the clips and it's onward to the next one!


I am building some greeblie parts for panel #2. Here's a shot of the mesh box so far using styrene and apoxie sculpt.

Reference pic for panel #6.


Here's my panel so far. The rings were painted with Alclad Chrome (great stuff) and all the decals were from Glen over at the Yahoo HIC Builders club.

Originally Posted by WeeQuay

Hi D Very nice work! I may have missed it, but are you planning on putting in the electronics?

Weequay

Thanks and yes I plan to light up the first panel. Will have to watch the DVD again to see exactly what parts lights up but it shouldn't be too hard to do.

It was time to glue down the awesome Front Panel I got from Stormrider and I used Durham's Water Putty from Home Depot to blend the edges to the frame. I was going to use bondo but that is some toxic stuff especially when you have to sand it down. Durham's putty dried rock solid and sanded easily. The Front Panel (made of thick rubber) was first glued to a sheet of particle board. Holes were drilled in Han's head, chest, and legs for the expanding foam (the ones used to seal gaps in windows). I used Gorilla wood glue to fix the particle board to the frame with a few wood screws for good measure.


Here it is sanded down and primed (still wet)! I will have to touch up a few spots, but it's coming along and should be ready for the gloss black coat soon. Thanks for looking!

Thanks for all the comments! Skor, that would be quite the conversation piece.

Here's Han in Gloss Black. The weather's been a bit humid lately so it's messing up with my drying time. May have to give it a couple of more days before I can shoot the metallic paint on the frame.


Here's a shot of the finished mesh box for Panel #2 and a resin copy on the left.


Here's the actual prop of panel #2 and mine mocked up below it. May get a chance to paint it up this weekend.



Thanks again for looking!

Thanks again fellas. So here's the panels for #5 and #4 and they are very similar in details.



Here's panel #3 and it's also very similar to the previous 2 panels.


Here's the prop pic of panel #2. I had to cross reference a couple of pics to get all the detail right. You can see the top pic had some damage done to it (missing a decal and other parts).



Here's my panel #2 pic.


Another pic with a little different lighting to knock down some of the sheen of the chrome so you can see the details a bit better.


Now for panel #1 which might take some time due to wanting to light it. Stay tuned and thanks again for looking!

Here we go with the Hero panel #1. Watched ESB to see how everything lights up. The big square blinks Green on and off when Han was being pulled out of the Carbonite pit and as he's being hauled off to Fett's ship. Each of the digital display on both of the smaller squares are blinking on and off ramdomly (may have a blinking pattern but it's hard to tell with less than 15 secs of screen time). The Green screen is off when Lando is checking to see if Han had survived the freeze and some of the round lights on the top row turns on when he turns a dial. I am going to try to get everything to light up with the blinking digital display, but I'm not going to worry about the pattern.

Here's the panel with the areas going to be lit hollowed out.


Here's the two digital displays. They were cast hollow to make it easier to cut out the counter area. Pic on the left is the straight cast. The one on the right has the areas lit hollowed out with an exacto knife. If I'm going to have each part of the digital counters blinking then it looks like I'll need 13 LEDs for this part.


I'm going to need to isolate the LEDs so there won't be any light leaks. Will use a 1/4th rod that happens to fit a 5mm LED perfectly. I crimped one end of the aluminum rod to get the shape closer to the digital display. Pic on the right is the back side with the rods superglued in place. I added exoxie putty to the backs of both to give it extra support to the aluminum rods (small pic on the bottom).



Here's the panel primed and with the white translucent plastic sheet cut and dry fitted in place kinda like what I did with the aluminum sheets for panels 3 thru 8. Translucent sheet was obtained from Mr. Wise of Rebelscum.com (thanks again!).


Here's a test shot of the LEDs to check for light leaks. All the lights will be blinking yellow on the digital displays and I have them on order, so I'm using a blue and red LED for this test til my shipment of LEDs arrive.


Til next time and thanks for looking!

Got called in to work extra this week so time on the HIC was limited, but here's where I'm at on the Hero Panel.

Wanted to give the handle bars some support so I drilled a hole in the bottom and glued a rod in place. I drilled holes thru the panel itself so it can receive the reinforced rod.


Here I'm trying to match the colors on the digital displays.


Here's one of the lights on the plexi strip. Greeblie was painted with transparent red and a rod glued to the back hold the LED. 2nd pic is the strip installed with light leak test. You can see a slight halo around the red greeblie part.


Painted the inside of the rod and the plexi with black and it seemed to take care of the light halo.


Here's a ref pic of the Hero Panel.


And here's my Hero Panel with all the parts positioned in place. Nothing glued down yet. Still waiting for the LEDs so that's where I'm at for now. Thanks again for looking!

here's a minor update as I was able to spray the metallic paint on the frame. Don't have a pic but I started with a titanium silver and it looked too bright. I went back to Home Depot and got some Satin Nickel. Probably not the right color, but it looked a lot better. I've got one more day at work then I'm off for 10 days. LEDs came in so I'll be busy soldering for a while. Gotta finish this bad boy up real soon cause I can feel my modeling ADD kicking in.

Here we go with the LEDs wired up with the resistors. Going to use 13 5mm LEDs for the blinking digital display, 4 3mm LEDs for the plexi strip, and maybe 5 5mm LEDs for the large green square.


Here's the ON/OFF switch. It's going behind the metal looking bar that sits just below the plexi strip and one of the knobs will hide the switch.


Here's the switch screwed in place, with the metal looking bar, and knob that will hide it.


Looking at the ref pics of the Hero Panel again, seems I will have to square off my "T" bars a bit and drill two holes just below the handle bars on both sides. Also have to figure out where to hide the battery. May put it behind the smaller plexi square.

Here's a shot of the back of the Hero Panel with the 13 blinking LEDs wired up. Not a pretty site but it will do.


Solo's now in the house and I was able to mount the panels on the left side. Will finish the rest of the LEDs this weekend and should be close to finish soon. Thanks for looking!

Originally Posted by FettFanatic

Really looking good. You are going to have a nice HIC when you are done. Do you mind me asking where you got your side panels from?

Storm is correct, I make the panels and can put you on a list if you are interested in getting a set. Stormrider's front panel is highly recommended and you can see from my pics, is an awesome product.

Here's a shot of the finished Hero Panel all wired up with a total of 26 LEDs.


Here are shots of the digital counters lit up and all 13 LEDs blink randomly.




I've got some minor cleanup and putty work to do. Should be able to glue all the parts down soon and mount the final panel to the frame. Thanks again for looking!

Can you post the actual dimensions of your HIC? The reference picture / blueprint you have is nice, but you can't read the measurements.

So here's where I'm at with my HIC. Was able to mount the panels on the right side and secure the HIC to the wall. The only thing left is to make the clips that goes on the face of the panels and also the metal parts that goes on the two notches that were cut out earlier of each panel.



Here's a shot of the finished Hero Panel. Project is 99% done and thanks to everyone for following along!