Author Topic: Cloud City Garrison's IG-88  (Read 7533 times)

Offline CadBane3

Cloud City Garrison's IG-88
« on: June 11, 2018, 05:21:01 PM »
So, I hadn't built anything in like a day, so I was itching to start another project. Have a few lined up but grabbed the one I wanted to do the most, because, goals... IG-88 intrigues me because he's a bounty hunter, has a very minimal amount of screen time, looks pretty cool, and seems like a fun project to do. To say there is not a lot of reference material on this guy would be correct, but since I'm not building a costume, and it doesn't need approval, I suppose I just need to do the best I can. At this point, I'm not certain if I'm doing the whole build, body and all, or just doing the head and stopping there.

Here's one of the best reference images I can find.

IG-88 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

Found a few more in an old book from Powell's this weekend and found a few build logs that are out there, but they seem to disagree on certain parts, so for now, I'm just going to focus on the head. I'd really like to bring this prop to the garrison, so if anybody out there has any ideas, tools, resources, or heck, even a "can do" attitude and some moxy, then your assistance would be greatly appreciated.

One general consensus that I have found is that the droid stands about 7'6" when fully assembled and in ESB, his feet aren't shown (because they didn't build him feet) and he is down a step during the bounty hunter scene. This means that if we make a whole stand up prop, body and all, I think it would need to be able to be broken down into lower legs, torso, arms, and head, so that it can be stored when not on display. But anyway, those are problems and discussions for another day.

I picked up the head from Docking Bay Outfitters. The original head was a Rolls Royce Derwent engine combustion chamber from a Glouscester Meteor, a British jet from the 40's and 50's. Thankfully, this one is a cast of it because I think weight is going to play an important part in this build.

20180610_161911 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

So, here's about all the reference material I have to start with...

20180611_102208 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

His neck is actually the lower portion of the Derwent, so first thing is cutting it into pieces:

20180611_103309 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

Now I have a neck and a head, and a very messy office. All additional Dremel work was completed in the garage. Lesson learned...

20180611_104007 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

Then, I marked out what areas needed to be holes.

20180611_111908 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

Side note, here is an example of why you wear a mask when using your Dremel.

20180611_110132 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

So, I cut all the holes I need, and then reviewed a second build log. I may have been a bit exuberant and cut a few too many. Well, the two build logs don't agree on which ones to cut! So, I may need to fill a few of them in the future.

20180611_150546 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

I paid extra for the kit I bought so that the greeblies would be included. The part I'm holding in my hand is his eyes... I think...

20180611_160635 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

Upon dry fitting them and inspecting the pieces more closely, I decided that I would order replacements for the 6 UHF PL-259 connector plugs. They came out all right, but to have the sharpness that can only come with metal seems like a good call this early in the build. The rest of the pieces seem fine but I'll have to figure out how to attach the eyes to the head.

Anyway, this will be a very slow build and may only be comprised of the head. I don't know. We'll see how motivated I am one I get the head done and lit up. May just be an expensive lamp if I don't keep going!
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Mike
TK/TB/BH/DS/DZ-42125

Offline Rat

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Re: Cloud City Garrison's IG-88
« Reply #1 on: June 11, 2018, 05:26:59 PM »
This is awesome! Would love to see the project go all the way, but I can understand the amount astronomical work going into a complete prop.

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Offline Ilovesanddirt

Re: Cloud City Garrison's IG-88
« Reply #2 on: June 11, 2018, 06:22:16 PM »
Holy cow!!!! Great work so far!!!! This is awesome!!!


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Offline daryldoak

Re: Cloud City Garrison's IG-88
« Reply #3 on: June 11, 2018, 09:12:06 PM »
Love it!  I want to build one also!
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TK/TA/TS/IS/IC/BH-11371

Offline CadBane3

Re: Cloud City Garrison's IG-88
« Reply #4 on: June 11, 2018, 09:38:30 PM »
Love it!  I want to build one also!

Let's build this one together and we can have joint custody! Or, this will be the test one and then we can copy it for yours.
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Mike
TK/TB/BH/DS/DZ-42125

Offline Beckett

Re: Cloud City Garrison's IG-88
« Reply #5 on: June 12, 2018, 11:06:26 AM »
Cool, I always love IG for some reason. Wish I could help out with this but I’m pretty swamped with my own projects. Are you connected with other people who’ve built him?...I’d be happy to put out some feelers also.
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Offline CadBane3

Re: Cloud City Garrison's IG-88
« Reply #6 on: June 12, 2018, 03:10:47 PM »
Cool, I always love IG for some reason. Wish I could help out with this but I’m pretty swamped with my own projects. Are you connected with other people who’ve built him?...I’d be happy to put out some feelers also.

No connections here but I have found a build log on The Dented Helmet that was pretty well done from scratch and things the guy found in the street. The other log I found was just for a head, so I'm using that one mostly right now as it's easier to read. Any feelers or connections you may have would be much appreciated!
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Mike
TK/TB/BH/DS/DZ-42125

Offline CadBane3

Re: Cloud City Garrison's IG-88
« Reply #7 on: June 12, 2018, 03:21:38 PM »
Today I was able to bondo the extra holes I had drilled. Whoops!

20180612_085716 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

And then I looked at the parts to see what would need sanding. Lot of mold lines.

20180612_090025 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

And then this one, which is the mother of all mold lines! And it has a twin sister on the other side!

20180612_095032 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

Well, I sanded them for quite awhile and got them to a point where I was comfortable that anything remaining will be hidden by primer:

20180612_102336 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

Then, I started priming the interior. I want to do a few coats of black and then maybe a coat of plasti-dip and then a coat of silver. I want it to get some thickness so that the interior lighting will only shine through the holes it's supposed to shine through.

20180612_125945 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

Then, I ran to the hardware store and found a few supplies that may help get me through the rest of the head build. Trying to brain storm a way to have the light remain in place inside the head. I'm thinking about suspending it some how. Got a few ideas.

20180612_145527 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

I'll coat the interior a few more times and then I should get the replacement UHF connectors. Once those are received and installed, I can start painting the outside. May start playing around with some ideas for feet and lower legs in the mean time.
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Mike
TK/TB/BH/DS/DZ-42125

Offline CadBane3

Re: Cloud City Garrison's IG-88
« Reply #8 on: June 12, 2018, 04:09:17 PM »
Here's a test run with the lantern I bought inside the head with 2 coats of black spray down:

20180612_155811 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

Seems like I could go with a weaker light. Will do some searching to see what I can find at the Dollar Store or something. This one I bought is too nice! LOL. The holes will be covered with red plastic, either tail light repair tape of tinted plastic that I have laying around extra from my Cad build. I also need to remember that the outside will have 2-3 layers of paint down on it too and it's unlikely to be displayed in perfect dark conditions anyway. The inside is probably ready for it's silver coat once this dries.
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Mike
TK/TB/BH/DS/DZ-42125

Offline daryldoak

Re: Cloud City Garrison's IG-88
« Reply #9 on: June 12, 2018, 08:32:58 PM »
lol.  I can't believe you cut that in your office.  Looking great!
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TK/TA/TS/IS/IC/BH-11371

Offline CadBane3

Re: Cloud City Garrison's IG-88
« Reply #10 on: June 13, 2018, 06:12:18 PM »
Not much to share today, but I started to think about the size of this guy, if I am going to do the whole thing. Wookiepedia places him at 6'5" but other builders have made him 7'6". The head alone is 18", so 6'5" seems to be a little small. After spending a good deal of time thinking about it, and bugging a few other people, I decided that maybe I'll aim for 7' tall and see what happens. So, I had Jim Pedroli send me pictures of the feet of his Sideshow IG-88 and measure the feet and height in cm so that I can get some comparison sizes. Then, I made this:

20180613_105703 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

I sprayed the inside of the head with silver.

20180613_082255 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

And then used a small screw to figure out how and where I will mount the eyes.

20180613_145218 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

I then started painting the eyes and will probably paint them separate so they are a slightly different shade of dirty silver than the rest of the droid.

Lastly, I dismantled a lamp and shoved IG on it to see how the 2 different red shades that I have would do. Learned a few things.

20180613_153804 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

I'll need a smaller, less powerful light source. Something cheap and kind of wonky would be perfect. The bunch of smaller circles around the base are not supposed to be lit up, so I'll need to have the light source above them or perhaps block them out. The lamp I had bought that has LEDs is just too bright. It needs to be a dull light, something you could get in the early 80s. So, I'll keep shopping around for the interior lighting. Regarding the different red shades, the light was too bright to really tell the difference, but the circle on the left (with the additional circular detail around it) is repair tape for a taillight and the rest of the circles are through a red tinted acrylic.
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Mike
TK/TB/BH/DS/DZ-42125

Offline CadBane3

Re: Cloud City Garrison's IG-88
« Reply #11 on: June 15, 2018, 06:12:21 PM »
Put the head aside while I'm waiting for parts and figured I should start at the ground and go up. So, I bought some MDF board and started thinking about the feet. The movie version doesn't have feet but the Sideshow version does, so I tried to use that as inspiration. I started with cutting what I think I would need:

20180614_141453 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

And then holes in the bottom and sides for support. This is a dry fitting:

20180614_160700 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

20180614_160702 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

My plan is to leave the holes in the bottom so that I can use a heavy steel sheet or something with a pipe welded to it to assist in keeping him upright. Last thing I need is to put all this work into him and then have him topple over!

It was looking a bit plain, so I used some inspiration from the Sideshow model and added some trim pieces to help hide the piping I had done:

20180615_101731 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

The Sideshow version has some type of foot darts, so I thought I should add them as well since they looked cool. This is where furniture sliders come in handy. They are rounded and have a back to them so that you can secure them to builds. Always a great part of the store to pick up items:

20180615_151010 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

Also, all sides of his feet have some circular disc trim. Was lucky enough to wander down the canning aisle and found these beauties!

20180615_153006 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

So, here are the feet. I'll add some additional details as I go, but for now, they are good:

20180615_175237 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

20180615_175244 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

Then, because I was tired of looking at blurry reference images, I decided to buy the Sideshow IG88. It is inaccurate in a few places, but close enough that it will work for what I need.

20180615_175347 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

Looking it over closely, I have no idea how I'm going to do certain parts. It'll definitely be an adventure. In the mail today, I received the UHF pieces for his head, so I'm hoping to get working on that shortly and at least get that portion somewhat wrapped up.
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Mike
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Re: Cloud City Garrison's IG-88
« Reply #12 on: June 16, 2018, 01:17:26 PM »
So glad you decided to do the full scale. 1:1 prop.

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Offline CadBane3

Re: Cloud City Garrison's IG-88
« Reply #13 on: June 18, 2018, 02:17:29 PM »
This will be a bit of a head paint photos dump, but I was able to make a lot of progress over the weekend and the head is nearing completion.

I received the UHF PL-259 connector plugs late last week and got them epoxied in.

20180615_231411 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

I'm so glad I did as the quality of the actual metal piece is much better and the details are much sharper than the resin cast ones, and there's no sanding to do!

I then started with a black primer layer:

20180617_105642 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

Then, I noticed some scratches from where I sanded off the mold lines, so I did a layer of filler primer, sanded a bunch, and then went back to black. After that, I did a layer of Rustoleum Hammered Dark Bronze (big thank you and props to http:www.bloody-plastic.com/props/IG88heat.html for the paint scheme he used).

20180617_105852 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

After that, I did a light dusting of silver, black, dark metallic, and brown, following along with the previously mentioned blog:

20180618_093936 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

Then, we got it all oily using this wood stain and applying it liberally with a sponge, but wiping away most of the excess except for a few drips:

20180618_103225 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

I didn't like it being so drippy and felt I used too much, so I rubbed a lot of it off, but it still came out looking nice and metallic and worn. I really like the look of it now:

20180618_103635 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

20180618_103643 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

Then, I added the eyes, which were painted separately and are a slightly darker tone than the rest of the head:

20180618_131910 by Michael Halstead, on Flickr

Now, it's sitting in the garage while I wait for the last bit of the wood stain to dry so that I can hit it with a quick clear coat. Once that is done, I can add the red parts to the inside and finish my lighting plans. Then, there's a wire that comes out one side of it and the head is done!

Time to start thinking about the shins!
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Mike
TK/TB/BH/DS/DZ-42125

Offline Mosi

Re: Cloud City Garrison's IG-88
« Reply #14 on: June 18, 2018, 05:11:51 PM »
Amazing!
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pew pew

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