C1-10P Chopper

The detail in the open sections of the main body are a bit rough - I've carved them off, deepened the recesses and will scratch build new details. Panel lines have also been refined 

Back of main body showing refined panel lines 

Main body in base coat of Tamiya Insignia White 

Centre wheel has been cleaned up and a brass tube axle fitted. May to further work on this to allow both the wheel strut and the platform to rotate separately 

Central arm has been cleaned up 

The sensor dish comes in 2 parts - here they have been cleaned up and glued together 

The head has had its panel lines and the eye locations refined, and has been painted in the main colours  

Some parts made for the eyes - the brass tube goes into the recessed left eye while the section of styrene rode will be the centres of each eye 

The leg struts in kit are a bit too deep and only butt onto the feet (left). I want them to be a bit more secure so sanded the bottom to a different shape and drilled a hole for a new pin to be added to the feet (right) 

The feet are a single piece (right). The first step to adding hinge pins was to cut them in half with a razor saw (left) 

Holes have been drilled into the foot halves and a hinge pin made of styrene tube glued in place 

Test fit of the legs in their new configuratio 

More work on the struts - the moulded-in pistons were a bit off and hard to clean up. Here they have been removed and the main parts filled and sanded 

New, more accurate, pistons made from Styrene tube and glued in place 

Leg struts painted and feet attached - here they are being clamped while the super glue dries 

Head with detail painting complete and antenna attached. A part of the kit decal - for the red sensor, has been added as well 

Modified legs temporarily attached - they work! Still need to clean up the seams on the feet 

Noticed on the live-action version of Chopper that he has a neck piece between the head and body, so I sanded a flat section on the bottom of the head and made a neck ring from sheet styrene, painted gunmetal 

New neck ring glued in place - the head still rotates. I've also milled out the lens in one of the body sections 

Working on the centre wheel - using some poly caps left over from another build to allow both the wheel strut and the centre platform to rotate. The caps have been placed into appropriately sized drilled holes and some sections of styrene tube have been glued to holes in the platform 

All the centre wheel parts painted and ready for assembly, including some axle caps still on the sprue 

Completed centre wheel assembly. The height of the strut was cut down after this as the wheel sat out a bit too far. 

Chopper clipped together, showing his new centre wheel 

Built some of his innards with various bits of styrene rod and tube, plus a bit of left-over resin sanded to shape 

Installed some of his innards, still more to go. Also did a bit more detail painting and added some decals made from some old Microscale Yellow and White stripe sets 

Chopper's main open area has a box with a lot of wire coming out of it - here is my representation out of a shaped block of styrene and different sizes of fuse wire for the cables. All painted grey 

Box and cables in place and a triangle of yellow decal as back in for the kit decal, which is very translucent 

Kit decal over the top of the backing decal - got the sizes almost right (can just see a very small amount of yellow around some of the boundaries) 

The kit just has a decal for his repair patch - I made a patch from styrene for the kit decal to go onto 

Repair patch painted and attached, waiting for the decal. Also carved out a bit more of the manipulator housings in the head 

I'm not going to use the head-arms that come with the kit so filled the housings with some styrene strip sanded to a tight fit and pushed into place 

Patch decal applied and eye lenses painted and installed 

Green front panel painted (as well as a sand one at the back) and some white and grey decal stripes added - the grey ones made by painting some clear decal paper and cutting into strips 

Decided to redesign his neck - based on the version seen in the Ahsoka series - filed a section of the sloped area flat and 3D printed an extension for the existing ring. 

3D printed extension fitted over the old ring 

New neck painted 

Milled the louvres for the front panel 

Some paint in the slots and touch-ups on the panel 

Back louvre slots finally milled 

Some paint in the slots for depth