Star Wars Speeder Bike [Work-in-Progress: Painting & Assembly of the Lower Hull Components]

 Just as it was for the upper section, I had similar misgivings for ignoring the manual's assembly order. Instead I had put together all relevant components onto the Speeder Bike's Lower Hull before combining the upper and lower hulls together. Whether this will adversely affect the final assembly process which for me means snap-fitting large pieces with fragile attachments - the Steering Vanes on Outriggers; the Upper Hull with all its components fully attached; and this the Lower Hull sub-assembly - remains to be seen. For now let's see how the Lower Hull Components was put together.

Star Wars Speeder Bike work-in-progress: Lower Hull and its components attached

 In keeping with my modus operandi for all things Bandai, I had painted the individual parts and sub-assemblies first before attaching them to an also fully-painted Pseudo-Metallic Chassis/Main Frame Structure. And of the three Lower Hull Components I painted - i.e. the lower hull armor, blaster cannon, and rocker-pivoted footpad - it's the last piece that's most fragile. As such it's the piece that I was most worried about with further assembly that's required along the line.   

Lower Hull Components: bottom armor plate, rocker-pivoted footpad, and blaster cannon

Speeder Bike's blaster cannon (left) and rocker-pivoted footpad (right)

Speeder Bike Lower Hull Components next to the Main Frame Structure/Chassis

 Despite my heightened apprehension about breaking the rocket-pivoted footpad, the assembly process went off without a hitch. But I'm not counting my chickens just yet as there is a much more difficult assembly process to be tackled i.e. the final assembly process mentioned earlier.   

Star Wars Speeder Bike Lower Hull with a near-full complement of components installed

Speeder Bike's lower hull is at this stage fully painted and weathered 

Components like the Rear Side Hull Plating/Armor and Air Brakes (not shown here) ...

... have yet to be attached to the Speeder Bike Lower Hull because those pieces are best assembled ...

... only once the upper/lower hulls and steering vanes/outriggers and fixed together

 If you have been following along with the Speeder Bike's progress since the beginning you may have noticed that the rear side hull plating/armor and air brakes have not been fixed onto the chassis. There is a reason for that. Before the aforementioned parts are fixed onto the chassis, I fel that I should first put together all the sub-assemblies completed so far i.e. the Steering Vanes/Outriggers; Upper Hull; and Lower Hull (shown in this post). This is just a matter of preference in that I believe it would be easier to handle and fix the Lower Hull onto the Upper Hull sans the said parts.

Fragility of the rocker-pivoted footpad as well as the existence of a myriad of ...

...  other components such as the power cell, blaster cannon, etc. makes the bottom-half ... 

... of the Speeder Bike's surface uneven thus necessitating an elevated base for display.

 As it stands at this point in time, I have in my hands all the full-painted parts and sub-assemblies that I need to proceed with the final assembly process of the Speeder Bike. It has been a long journey, but it'll end soon for this iconic Star Wars vehicle. And this opens up another slot in the hobby worktable, which I intend to fill with a type of model kit I have never attempted to build before. But more on that later. For now, I thank you for taking the time to read this blog. Stay safe, and be well.  

Star Wars Speeder Bike [Work-in-Progress: Painting & Assembly of the Upper Hull Components]

 As I had alluded to in my previous Aratech 74-Z Military Speeder Bike progress update post, assembling fully painted parts and/or sub-assemblies of the bike is turning out to be problematic. This problem was amplified when dealing with upper hull components that comprised a variety of parts and sub-assemblies like handlebars, control switches, seats, tarp, etc. Read on for the horror story ...   

Star Wars Speeder Bike work-in-progress: Upper Hull and its components

 Fragility of parts in combination with the difficulty of fixing fully painted parts into tight-fitting joints resulted in issues ranging from minor ones like chipped paint all the way to the worse case scenario of the model kit breaking into two separate pieces. This particular assembly process was nerve wracking for me, and it all boiled down to me wanting to paint parts/sub-assemblies before putting them together. Doing so tends to cause the inside of joints getting paint on them thus making the fit tighter than normal. Moreover, having to fix painted parts together will always expose them to the danger of their paint layers getting damaged and chipped due to unavoidable rough handling.

Upper Hull components (from left): handlebars, switches, seat, miscellaneous piece, and tarp shelter

Individual Speeder Bike components all laid out next its Upper Hull prior to assembly

 First problem was encountered when I was fixing the tiny control switches into the holes on the upper hull. Simple enough right? Well primer and paint had gotten into the holes thus making the job of putting the switches into them a harder than expected task. So much so that I nearly broke a few of the tiny switches while trying to force them into the holes. In fact, a few of them did bent quite badly and came close to snapping in half. In the end, the task was accomplished without real damage. Apart from that, there was additional paint work on the upper hull in the form of the big red button, the trio of silver buttons, and the series of rivets on the hull between the control switches and seat.

Before attaching any components, I painted red/silver buttons and rivets on the Upper Hull

First components attached were the metallic switches/controls on the dashboard

 Following this, the major fubar occurred. The Speeder Bike broke in half as I tried to fit the seat pegs into the corresponding holes in the upper hull (see below). Since the fit was extremely tight, I couldn't fix the seat into the upper hull by hand. I had to use a rubber mallet instead. After carefully protecting the seat with some kitchen paper towel, I proceeded to hammer at the seat in the hopes of forcing it into the hull. With the upper hull structure more fragile than expected, the bike broke into two. Luckily for me, it was fairly easy to glue the bike back together without comprising its structural integrity as well as shape. Sadly though, the paint on the seat chipped so I had to repaint parts of the seat. 

Rear section of the Speeder Bike Upper Hull prior to attaching any components

Using a hammer to fix the Seat Cushion onto the Upper Hull caused the latter to break

Seat cushion fitted onto the Upper Hull, with the latter requiring glue to be put back together

 After these initial issues, things calmed down a bit and continued on without any further mishaps. While it took quite a bit of doing to fix the tarp onto the rear of the bike without any gaps showing, the force I had to apply luckily didn't result in any breakage. Meanwhile, the small black trapezoid piece located in between the seat and tarp was the easiest of all the upper hull components to assemble. 

Miscellaneous black trapezoid piece fitted behind the seat cushion ...

... followed by a Tarp for Wilderness Shelter right at the back of the bike

 Installing the handlebars and hand grips was surprisingly easy and almost effortless despite my anticipation of this task being the hardest. But despite my initial apprehensions as to the fragility of the handlebars, they were resilient to a fair bit of rough handling and fit quite easily and securely into the provided slots. And with that, all the upper hull components were in their rightful places. 

Nose/bow section of the Speeder Bike prior to adding the Handle Bars/Hand Grips

Nose/bow section of the Speeder Bike prior to adding the Handle Bars/Hand Grips

 Overall, the theme of the upper hull component assembly process was that of expectations and reality. Tasks that were expected to be easy turned out to be hard, which resulted in near misses, chipped paints, and the ultimate nightmare of the kit breaking. On the other hand, tasks that turned out to be easier than anticipated had no real consequence other than being a pleasant surprise. Essentially I was careful when I perhaps didn't have to be, while I was complacent when I should've been more careful. Like life, the hobby doesn't always stay true to expectations.   

Star Wars Speeder Bike Upper Hull with full complement of components installed

Star Wars Speeder Bike Upper Hull Complete (isometric view, from left hand side)

Weathering on the Upper Hull Components was kept to the absolute minimum

Star Wars Speeder Bike Upper Hull Complete (isometric view, from the back)

Seat is just a flat black as it'll be largely hidden from view once the Scout Trooper was seated

Star Wars Speeder Bike Upper Hull Complete (isometric view, from right hand side)

 Handlebars and Tarp for Wilderness Shelter received the most weathering of all the components

Star Wars Speeder Bike Upper Hull Complete (isometric view, from the front)

 With all the upper hull components now securely attached, next in line for the Speeder Bike are the lower hull components. This step of the assembly process shouldn't be as difficult. But I've learned to manage my expectations better after the mishaps that occurred in the upper hull component assembly process. For sure I'll approach the next step with more care and less over-confidence. This should also apply to our approach as the COVID pandemic becomes nearly-but-not-quite-endemic. So as always I wish onto you, dear readers, please stay safe, and be well. 

Star Wars Speeder Bike [Work-in-Progress: Assembly of the Steering Vanes onto the Outriggers]

 In the final few assembly/painting phases of the Aratech 74-Z Military Speeder Bike, work will progress from the bike's bow/front to its stern/rear, with the upper-facing sections worked on first before the bottom facing ones. Sounds confusing? Well, hopefully things will be clearer as the next few post updates are uploaded to the blog, beginning with the bow or front end of the Star Wars Speeder Bike i.e. the Steering Vanes attached to the Outriggers.  

Star Wars Speeder Bike work-in-progress: Steering Vanes attached to the Outriggers

 For the assembly process of the Speeder Bike's Steering Vanes onto the Outriggers, I had initially expected the parts and sub-assemblies to all fit together nicely in a snap-fit sort of way. But things never really turn out the way you expect them to, and it turned out that the fittings were too loose and glue was required. Ordinarily this is would be a straightforward process, but I was gluing together parts that were already painted, and glue is damaging to painted parts. Thankfully I was able to apply the glue in places that were relatively hidden from sight. Couple with a light-handed approach, I managed to put everything together without any significant damage (if any) to the paint.  

Speeder Bike Steering Vanes and Outriggers fully painted parts prior to assembly

Speeder Bike Steering Vanes after being attached to its Outriggers

As for the Outriggers themselves, they will eventually be attached to the main body

 Upon an extremely closeup view of the Steering Vanes of the Speeder Bike, I can't help but feel that I could have overdone the metallic scratches and scuffs a bit. On the bright side it's not too overdone, but perhaps a few less scratches and scuffs may have improved the overall look.

Closeup view of the attached Steering Vanes; isometric view from bike's left side

Closeup view of the attached Steering Vanes; isometric view from bike's front

Closeup view of the attached Steering Vanes; isometric view from bike's right side

 Assembling painted parts for the Speeder Bike is turning out to be much difficult than for my previous outing involving the Space Battleship Yamato hangar bay and its docked space fighters. I believe this is partly dues to the fragility of the parts and sub-assemblies of the Speeder Bike that is being put together. Apart from glue potentially damaging the paint, there was also the danger of paint chipping during the assembly process. The latter arose out of the rather rough handling of parts/sub-assemblies when trying to put together fragile parts in hard to reach places. 

Visibility of the metallic scratches and scuff marks on the Steering Vanes become ...

... much more apparent at certain angles of lighting (compare this photo and the one above)

 When viewed from underneath (see below), it's easy to spot that the Steering Vanes have not been weathered. It was a conscious decision on my part not to weather the underside of the vanes because I felt it's a viewpoint that one rarely notices. However, if I turn out to be wrong then I guess it shouldn't be too hard to apply some mild weathering on the underside of the vanes. 

Steering Vanes and Multi Scanner Array (located at the tip of the Outriggers) viewed from underneath

 Progress on the Speeder Bike should gain enough momentum to see it completed in the coming weeks. The bike forms part of my second Join The Empire vignette project. The other parts are the already finished Scout Trooper and the yet to be completed Girl's Rider figurine. The latter has hit a temporary snag in that I have yet to repair and paint the leather accessories. Moreover there is the ever present mental block I have to overcome whenever I paint figurines. It involves me slowly building up the courage to paint her eyes. Mess up the eyes, and all the work I've done on the figurine up to now will have been wasted. No pressure then. So as I chip away at my fear of painting miniature eyes, the interim will see me finally complete the Speeder Bike. Until then, stay safe, and be well.