The Fast and the Furious: Mos Eisley Drift Part 3 -- Ubrickkian 9000 Z001 Landspeeder

 Here is the third installment to my "The Fast and Furious: Mos Eisley Drift" landspeeder customs -- the Ubrickkian 9000 Z001 landspeeder. Now, I have spelled "Ubrickkian" as it appears on the original ILM blueprint designs, but most sources spell this as "Ubrikkian." Of course, the name and design are an homage to Stanley Kubrick and the escape pods from 2001: A Space Odyssey, hence the name Ubrickkian 9000 Z001 (2001) landspeeder.

The Ubrickkian speeder appears twice in A New Hope: Special Edition: (1) parked in front of the GR-75 medium transport, when the ASP-7 droid smashed the small probe droid and (2) sitting front and center at the entrance of the cantina. The added Ubrickkian speeder in the Special Edition appears to be a mirror image of the speeder in front of the cantina with a slightly different logo between the window ports.

The Ubrickkian speeder also appears in one of the Sunday morning comic strips, WEG roleplaying game book, and Decipher CCG.

The original ILM blueprints show two different antenna pieces on the top, as does the WEG illustration; however, the actual photoshoot images appear to have more of an umbrella frame or periscope-designed antenna.

I looked at various online vendors for a Ubrickkian speeder and decided to go with Brad's Toy Room on Etsy and eBay. This was before I met Lolli & Pops, otherwise, I probably would have just found an STL file and had them print one. Brady's speeder came in three pieces with very fine print lines. I really liked how he has the actual window ports and not just four window openings. Also, I liked how the one cylinder-greeble extends below the belt line like the actual movie prop. I added a few greeble pieces that I cut from a G.I. Joe Torch flame thrower and other accessories.

I masked off the bottom section and interior and painted the main body Satin White. Then I masked off the rounded belt line and hand painted the belt red. I also masked off and painted the blue trim line in Navy Blue and the window port areas in light grey. I made my own custom logos and glued them between the window ports. Then I dry brushed some silver weathering in different areas, added various weathering all around, and topped it off with a wash in Oiled Earth.

I cut off the antenna that Brad had molded on the top piece and drilled a small hole. For the antenna, I used a small white grappling hook. I cut out the window pieces from a clear plastic Christmas decoration and then glued them in place. 

Overall, I love the size of this Ubrickkian speeder versus other ones that I have seen that look more like a Kenner mini-rig. The inside has a detailed cockpit that can seat one figure, but once again, like with other STL files, the seat is slightly too high, which does not allow the lid to sit properly when placing a figure inside. I had to remove Greedo's head in order for the lid to fit. I could probably Dremel away part of the lid's ceiling, but it would be better if the cockpit seating was just lower. This would also allow you to see the character's face through the window port.

Like the other speeders, this is more of a glorified diorama prop that will just sit in front of my Haslab Cantina, but for play value, it would be better if this file were redesigned with a lower, two-seater cockpit. I would even suggest having the two seats facing opposite directions or perpendicular like the G.I. Joe Iron Grenadiers D.E.M.O.N.

The Fast and the Furious: Mos Eisley Drift Part 2 -- Sorosuub V-35 Courier Landspeeder

Part 2 of "The Fast and the Furious: Mos Eisley Drift" covers the Sorosuub V-35 Courier landspeeder. The schematics on the top left are from one of the Star Wars Technical Journals or WEG Sourcebooks. There are three different V-35 landspeeders depicted in A New Hope: (1) Yellow-white, (2) Red-white, and (3) Black-silver Lar's family speeder. In actuality, there was only one V-35 speeder for the Mos Eisley scenes that was painted yellow and white on one side and white with red striping on the other side. This prop was then repainted black and silver as the Lars family speeder seen in the background of the Luke-garage scene. Since the Lars speeder is just stationary, it gives a better view of the cowl ornament. 

Through cinematic magic, ILM filmed the same V-35 speeder from different angles to depict two different speeders. You can just barely see the red stripe near the nose of the vehicle as it first drives by on the streets of Mos Eisley. At the Sandtrooper checkpoint scene, this same speeder is filmed from the other direction showing the red striping. In the Making of Star Wars video [available on YouTube] you can see the checkpoint scene from another angle, showing the yellow-white side of the speeder. I have combined still shots from ANH to give a better illustration of what the red pin striping looks like: (1) large stripes on and down the engine, (2) large stripe from the side intake to the front nose, (3) smaller pin striping along the upper body under the canopy, and (4) smaller pin striping over the canopy and along the cowl. 

Once again, Lolli & Pops, a local vendor, printed the STL file I found on Cults3D. Their print lines are super fine and the weight and feel of the model feels like a factory-produced toy. The file breaks the speeder into pieces. Lolli & Pops did ask me if I wanted it printed in pieces or as a whole. In hindsight, it may have been better to have the main body printed as one piece, but there were really not any issues in gluing the pieces together. Plus, having the rear engines printed separately helped with the painting. I glued all the main body pieces together and spray painted everything in Satin White.

I spray masked off the areas for the yellow panel details and dry brushed Sunflower Yellow until the pieces were totally covered. I also masked off the canopy (removable) canopy section and spray painted the windshield gloss black. Then, I painted the engine-intake cylinder and round cones (look like speakers) in the side boxes light grey.

I dry brushed various weathering lines to look as close to the actual prop vehicle and topped it off with a wash of Oiled Earth -- special shout out to YakChewie (Justin) for turning me on to Oiled Earth!

I don't ever get too crazy with the interior details. Normally, I just paint the computer consoles grey and then give them a wash. There is a removable lid behind the cockpit area for cargo storage. The cockpit canopy snaps in place, using small tabs on the canopy section.

Side and rear pics. I also added some brown detailing to the seats to make them look leather - Bantha hide?

The bottom has three molded "wheels" to make it look like its hovering. The cargo area behind the cockpit is big enough to hold an astromech. You could add a Lego block or something to the bottom to create a platform for the droid to stand up taller. Someone with some 3D STL design skills could customize the lid to make a cut out to go over the droid. That may be a future project of making a resin cast and Dremelling out a "droid socket."

I love all the details of this STL file. The seats could stand to be just a little lower into the cockpit to make the canopy cover modern figures better. Human figures fit fine, but alien creatures like Greedo have to be squished down a bit to get the canopy to snap in place. I get the feeling that some of these STL files were designed for vintage or retro figures.

I looked at different vendors who sell V-35 speeders and different STL files, and this one seemed the most detailed to me. So, I am very happy with how this turned out and pretty proud of how my painting and weathering looks. I may have Lolli & Pops print me another V-35 so I can paint one up with the red pin striping -- but that will definitely be a back-burner project.

The Fast and the Furious: Mos Eisley Drift Part 1 -- Mobquet A-1 Deluxe Floater

This is Part 1 of a three-part series entitled "The Fast and the Furious: Mos Eisley Drift," where I will showcase one of my three custom Mos Eisley landspeeders in each part. Technically, there are four additional, unique landspeeders in the Mos Eisley street and alley way scene -- Mobquet A-1 Floater Deluxe, Sorosuub V-35 Courier, Ubrickkian 9000 Z001, and Void Spider TX-3 -- but I have only made customs of three of them thus far.

So, Part 1 will cover the Mobquet A-1 Deluxe Floater landspeeder

The "Mobquet Landspeeder" from the ILM original blueprints is a cylindrical speeder with engine pipes on each side and tail fins, at least on the blueprint design. Although, I am confident that ILM only built one model, there are actually two A-1 Deluxe Floater landspeeders seen in Mos Eisley: (1) parked outside of the cantina and (2) parked under an arch at the landspeeder sales lot. The A-1 speeder in front of the cantina has a red underbelly and trim paint details, while the A-1 speeder at Wiolsea's sales lot does not. Also, from behind the scenes photos, you can see that ILM did not construct the tail fins and they reversed the engine pipe designs from the blueprints.

I found an A-1 Deluxe Floater STL file on Cults3D and had a local vender Lolli & Pops Studio [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61570639495920] print the speeder for me. They did an excellent job! The print lines are very fine, and the quality feels like a factory-produced toy. In hindsight, I wish I would have chosen a different file though because this 3D STL file has the engine pipes connected to the chassis, which made it a pain to paint the red details. Also, as you will see, the seat design does not allow a modern figure to fit with the canopy closed. One other minor detail is that the trim lines on this file are raised when the actual prop has recessed trim/body lines. So, I think I would have preferred whatever STL file Hole in the Ground used as the base for their model or an STL file similar to their product. 

Lolli & Pops also threw in a transparent canopy. I sanded it down with 600 grit wet-dry sandpaper and even used some headlight paste on it to smooth out the print lines. It helped some, but would probably work better as a clear resin cast/pour if someone really wanted a clear canopy.

I spray painted the body with a Satin White. Originally, I tried masking off the the top section and engine pipes to spray paint the bottom Fire Engine Red, but my masking allowed for over spray. So, I ended up just hand painting the red under belly, fins, and engine sections.

The stand was printed in a dark grey. So, I did not add any paint to this section. In hindsight, it would have been better if this stand was printed in clear plastic. I may try to make a clear resin cast of the stand.

I spray painted the canopy with Deep Turquois gloss and the interior in light grey. I also painted the engine pipes and rear thruster in Pavement then weathered the body with various techniques, topping the entire body in a coat of Oiled Earth wash. As you can see the seat is ill designed. Even with a basic sized figure like Greedo, the canopy will not sit all the way down. A better design would be a lower seat and maybe even back-to-back seats like the Snowspeeder to allow two figures to sit inside.

The Mobquet A-1 Deluxe Floater speeder will sit on display in front of my Haslab Cantina. So, basically, it will be a glorified diorama piece. Overall, I am pretty satisfied with how this turned out, but for any customizers that have not built an A-1 speeder yet, I would recommend either (1) buying the model from Hole in the Ground or (2) finding an STL 3D print file similar to Hole in the Ground's model that has the engine pipes unattached, a deeper seating area, and the recessed trim/body lines.