Adam Savage's Tested: 1:1 scale Star Wars model shop

[Weaver]

What-Ifs on Tested! This model group had a challenge to build something alternative out of the new-tool Aoshima Back To The Future De Lorean:

[Diamondback]

Well you can't avoid working on it, but NEVER take it for granted. I had it drummed into me by two engineering uncles from when I was old enough to toddle into their workshops that lathes and pillar drills are ****ing lethal.

Apologies for the necro catching up on this thread, but...

One of the very first things my grandfather told me the first time I joined him out in his machine shop as a wee'un.... "Never forget, son, that every little thing in here has one very big thing in common, and that is that the second you don't respect it it kills you." A steak through the bandsaw made that point crystal clear...

And I had to forward that WWI dogfight video to the Wings of War crowd.

[Weaver]

Here's one for all you 3D printer freaks: the maker of this amazing model is making all of the print files available for free, to use/modify/translate to your hearts' content:

[Rick Lowe]

Cool, thanks - have passed it on... 

[Weaver]

Couple of good videos here about resin techniques, and a new Youtube channel to follow.

I think the most interesting thing from the first one is the use of tungsten powder in resin to make moldable heavy weights. I could see that being potentially useful for making nose weights for models where it's difficult to fit enough conventional weight in, such as helicopters or glass-nosed types.

The second one covers UV resin techniques:

[Mossie]

The tungsten resin is similar to something I've thought about but never done. In my teens and 20's, I worked at a firm that made medical dressings. To make X-Ray detectable dressings for operations, we'd add tungsten powder to adhesive 50-50 and it retained its sticky properties.*

My thought was to add it to epoxy putty so you could mould it exactly to the shape you wanted. I never got around to it as tungsten powder isn't cheap, you'd probaly want to usebit many weights to make it worth your while.

* You had to watch yourself around the guys who worked on the process, they had a mischievous streak.  They'd wait for you in hidey holes and flick balls of the stuff at the back of your neck, you knew you'd been hit by the stuff! 

[Weaver]

Yeah, 1kg of Tungsten Carbide powder is £62 on ebay. You can get smaller quantities, but the price/gram goes down significantly the more you order.

[Weaver]

Russ Laarman's original concept scratchbuilt spaceships at Wonderfest 2025:

[jcf]

Yeah, 1kg of Tungsten Carbide powder is £62 on ebay. You can get smaller quantities, but the price/gram goes down significantly the more you order.

At a density of 19gm/cc, a kilo
would weight a stash worth of
models.
🤣

[Weaver]

Adam Savage in Awe of Star Wars' Resistance Bomber & Hammerhead Frigate Models, one 3D printed, one scratchbuilt.

[Diamondback]

Belated, but re tungsten powder, I wonder if that might be a solution to my woes getting more power out of an old model locomotive. The traditional fix is add weight and make it heavier, but there ain't gonna be a lot of room inside this thing once I get its new guts in...

[Andrew Gorman]

Lead is still denser and much cheaper, even in powder form.  Just don't eat it!

[Rick Lowe]

Lead is still denser and much cheaper, even in powder form.  Just don't eat it!

I have a lot of old nail heads from when I redid the shed roof... I've also got some ground up stuff Dad brought home from work (back in the day, he was in the printing industry) and had thoughts before of mixing some into epoxy, either glue or builder's bog - but haven't yet got a round tuit.
Maybe one day, when I have the need and can remember where it is...

[Weaver]

For this year's Wonderfest, a 1:1 scale recreation of the Star Wars model shop in 1976: