1:24 X-Wing Red 3 **WIP**
- Thread starter StevenBills
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This is gorgeous!!!! What an inspiring project!
I'm very familiar with FDM printing but have been wanting to get into Resin printing for a while. Would you recommend the ELEGOO Saturn?
I'm very familiar with FDM printing but have been wanting to get into Resin printing for a while. Would you recommend the ELEGOO Saturn?
Analyzer
Master Member
When doing my Red 3, I stuck with the shorter nozzle for mine because I liked the idea of the X-Wings being repaired/cobbled together with spare parts and thought it added a nice variation even if it was not originally that way in filming
Also on the Bandai kit I had to swap out the engine can positions as well as the are mirrored from the configuration used for Red 5
I don't think you can go wrong with any of the Elegoo resin printers, honestly. They've been in the game for a while now, and know what works and what doesn't. I happen to have the original Saturn, but now they have a 12K resolution Saturn, which just blows my mind.
In addition to scribing the wings an lower fuselage yesterday, I also printed out little discs to hold the LEDs so that they're centered in the engines.
This is a 5mm LED, and it just looks so tiny in there. On many of my past projects, 5mm has been totally fine, but on this it just gets dwarfed! I'm wondering if I need to step it up to a 10mm LED instead? Thoughts?
Although I'm sure the 5mm LEDs would work fine, bigger brighter LEDs would work BETTER.
Interesting thoughts on the shorter thruster nozzle. I'll have to give it some thought. Also MasterJedi I ordered some 10mm LEDs and they'll be here on Monday. I'll do a lighting test and see how both the 5mm and the 10mm fare. Stay tuned for that.
A few updates today. I was looking at the forward part of the lower fuselage, and saw that the proton torpedo tubes were kind of plain. So I raided my spares box and found something to spruce it up a bit! This is a sprue from the Tamiya 1/32 Mustang, and the part that caught my eye was part #2 (or rather, the backside of part #2):
I'm not really sure what this part is for on the Mustang, but it worked perfectly for some torpedo nozzles!
I know that Red 3 didn't have these little bits in the torpedo tubes, but I think it adds a bit more pizazz if you get what I mean. I then epoxied the upper fuselage parts together, with Mr. Surfacer acting as a bit of filler. I also glued together the lower parts, and finished scribing all over the model. I also used Mr Surfacer 1000 to fix the many slips of the scriber tool. So after that all dries overnight I'll get it sanded and primed again.
Oh, I also started working on the cannons. I found an old diagram, kindly provided to me by Jkirkon a few months back, and inserted and glued the brass into the aavid heat sink part...
...which then slips into the cannon body itself:
Anyway, I think that's all for now! Thanks for following along, and the good discussion!
SB
A few updates today. I was looking at the forward part of the lower fuselage, and saw that the proton torpedo tubes were kind of plain. So I raided my spares box and found something to spruce it up a bit! This is a sprue from the Tamiya 1/32 Mustang, and the part that caught my eye was part #2 (or rather, the backside of part #2):
I'm not really sure what this part is for on the Mustang, but it worked perfectly for some torpedo nozzles!
I know that Red 3 didn't have these little bits in the torpedo tubes, but I think it adds a bit more pizazz if you get what I mean. I then epoxied the upper fuselage parts together, with Mr. Surfacer acting as a bit of filler. I also glued together the lower parts, and finished scribing all over the model. I also used Mr Surfacer 1000 to fix the many slips of the scriber tool. So after that all dries overnight I'll get it sanded and primed again.
Oh, I also started working on the cannons. I found an old diagram, kindly provided to me by Jkirkon a few months back, and inserted and glued the brass into the aavid heat sink part...
...which then slips into the cannon body itself:
Anyway, I think that's all for now! Thanks for following along, and the good discussion!
SB
Thanks Fett_Ish and joberg, I think it adds a nice little touch to the torpedo tubes. It has been a few days since my last update, but I have not been idle! Just busy doing little things here and there on this build.
I got the 10mm LEDs in the mail, and I'm a bit disappointed. Below is a photo of the 5mm LED on the left, and the 10mm LED on the right:
So, I think I'll be going with the 5mm LED and then possibly wrap the inner engine in aluminum tape so that it helps bounce the light around a bit.
I also decided that since I'm crap with the dremel, that it'd be easier to remove the seat from the cockpit in MeshMixer, so that's what I did, and I reprinted it last night.
I love the detail that you can get with resin printing!
Here's the pilot from Alain Rivard sitting in the new cockpit. I fit the two fuselage halves together in order to see if I'd need to chop off poor Biggs' legs, but he seems to sit in there at the right height just fine. It might be a smidge tall here, and if so, I could just sand down the bottom of his seat a millimeter or two.
I also fixed the gun shrouds. I had a problem where the hole in the C shape was a bit too large for the brass tubes I had for the guns. Luckily, the hole is exactly 1/8", and I had some 1/8" copper tubing that I am going to be using on a forthcoming 1:24 Y-Wing build (stay tuned for that!), so I cut off short sections of the copper pipe and made a little fitting inside the guns, so that they fit onto the laser cannon tips just fine now.
I'll wait to glue these gun tips on until the very end so that they can all be lined up properly.
I also wasn't really happy with the little SeaLab part for the inner wing that came with this model, as it was only a half of the part, and it didn't really print out very well, so I went into my slicer and modeled (yuck!) the part, roughly. It's not absolutely perfect, and I know that the SS X-Wings only had half of the part, but I am gonna stick the whole thing in there. These printed out perfectly, and I didn't seem to take a photo of them, so here's a screenshot from the slicer. Also, don't use your 3D printing slicer to model stuff. It's weird and all sorts of wrong. But I don't really know any 3D packages, so it's what I had to use!
Then I spent the morning going over the fuselage and the wings one last time with 400 and then 2000 grit wet-sandpaper in preparation for primer and paint. I paid special attention to where the front and back halves join together, but I won't really be able to tell how I did until I get some primer on there. The weather dropped into the teens last week, so it's a bit too cold for painting right now, but I'll get to it on the next sunny day.
So that's where we're at as of now. Like I said above, it's a bit too cold outside to paint the big stuff right now, but as soon as the next warm day rolls around, I'll hit all these parts with a final coat of primer in preparation for the Archive-X base color! Although, I think that I might start up on painting Biggs in the meantime.
Stay tuned for more!
SB
I got the 10mm LEDs in the mail, and I'm a bit disappointed. Below is a photo of the 5mm LED on the left, and the 10mm LED on the right:
So, I think I'll be going with the 5mm LED and then possibly wrap the inner engine in aluminum tape so that it helps bounce the light around a bit.
I also decided that since I'm crap with the dremel, that it'd be easier to remove the seat from the cockpit in MeshMixer, so that's what I did, and I reprinted it last night.
I love the detail that you can get with resin printing!
Here's the pilot from Alain Rivard sitting in the new cockpit. I fit the two fuselage halves together in order to see if I'd need to chop off poor Biggs' legs, but he seems to sit in there at the right height just fine. It might be a smidge tall here, and if so, I could just sand down the bottom of his seat a millimeter or two.
I also fixed the gun shrouds. I had a problem where the hole in the C shape was a bit too large for the brass tubes I had for the guns. Luckily, the hole is exactly 1/8", and I had some 1/8" copper tubing that I am going to be using on a forthcoming 1:24 Y-Wing build (stay tuned for that!), so I cut off short sections of the copper pipe and made a little fitting inside the guns, so that they fit onto the laser cannon tips just fine now.
I'll wait to glue these gun tips on until the very end so that they can all be lined up properly.
I also wasn't really happy with the little SeaLab part for the inner wing that came with this model, as it was only a half of the part, and it didn't really print out very well, so I went into my slicer and modeled (yuck!) the part, roughly. It's not absolutely perfect, and I know that the SS X-Wings only had half of the part, but I am gonna stick the whole thing in there. These printed out perfectly, and I didn't seem to take a photo of them, so here's a screenshot from the slicer. Also, don't use your 3D printing slicer to model stuff. It's weird and all sorts of wrong. But I don't really know any 3D packages, so it's what I had to use!
Then I spent the morning going over the fuselage and the wings one last time with 400 and then 2000 grit wet-sandpaper in preparation for primer and paint. I paid special attention to where the front and back halves join together, but I won't really be able to tell how I did until I get some primer on there. The weather dropped into the teens last week, so it's a bit too cold for painting right now, but I'll get to it on the next sunny day.
So that's where we're at as of now. Like I said above, it's a bit too cold outside to paint the big stuff right now, but as soon as the next warm day rolls around, I'll hit all these parts with a final coat of primer in preparation for the Archive-X base color! Although, I think that I might start up on painting Biggs in the meantime.
Stay tuned for more!
SB
modelerdave
Sr Member
The cockpit is just gorgeous! Wow.
Yes, that cockpit is indeed beautiful! I just wish I could take credit for it, because all I did was print it!
Got a bit done on the engines. I used the 3D printed discs and applied some aluminum HVAC tape to one side in order to reflect the light from the LED better.
Then I wired up the LEDs and fit them into the engines.
Even though I painted the inside and outside of the engines black, I still get a little bit of red light coming through the resin. I'll have to hit it with another layer of black and then hopefully the subsequent layers of paint will help a bit with that. As you can see, these 5mm LEDs are plenty bright. I guess the 10mm LEDs will just live in the stash until I have a use for them.
Then I got to looking at some reference photos of Red 3 and noticed that it has a lot of styrene chips all over the fuselage that mine didn't have, and so I went to town with it. Kind of sloppy, but I hope they'll blend in a bit with some paint.
And then came a part I was dreading: modifying the nosecone. This kit has Red 5's nosecone, when swoops all the way back, whereas Red 3's nosecone looks like it was chopped almost flat towards the back. So, carefully, I took it to the belt sander. Here's the before, with my crude pencil markings on where to stop:
And here's after literally 10 seconds on the belt sander:
After that, I rescribed that panel line that runs through the whole nosecone. When that was done, I got some 3/64 brass rods and used that for the little pipes on the cannons.
So the only thing left to do on the cannons is to glue the shrouds on, but like I said above, I'll leave that until the end so that I can get them all lined up nice and tidy.
I have modified the armature file that comes with this kit to better work with the wings as well. I have also primed Biggs in some Tamiya fine surface primer (white), in preparation for painting him. I have some of Jason's decals coming for his helmet, etc... so that will probably get started this weekend.
And that's about it for now! Thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
SB
Got a bit done on the engines. I used the 3D printed discs and applied some aluminum HVAC tape to one side in order to reflect the light from the LED better.
Then I wired up the LEDs and fit them into the engines.
Even though I painted the inside and outside of the engines black, I still get a little bit of red light coming through the resin. I'll have to hit it with another layer of black and then hopefully the subsequent layers of paint will help a bit with that. As you can see, these 5mm LEDs are plenty bright. I guess the 10mm LEDs will just live in the stash until I have a use for them.
Then I got to looking at some reference photos of Red 3 and noticed that it has a lot of styrene chips all over the fuselage that mine didn't have, and so I went to town with it. Kind of sloppy, but I hope they'll blend in a bit with some paint.
And then came a part I was dreading: modifying the nosecone. This kit has Red 5's nosecone, when swoops all the way back, whereas Red 3's nosecone looks like it was chopped almost flat towards the back. So, carefully, I took it to the belt sander. Here's the before, with my crude pencil markings on where to stop:
And here's after literally 10 seconds on the belt sander:
After that, I rescribed that panel line that runs through the whole nosecone. When that was done, I got some 3/64 brass rods and used that for the little pipes on the cannons.
So the only thing left to do on the cannons is to glue the shrouds on, but like I said above, I'll leave that until the end so that I can get them all lined up nice and tidy.
I have modified the armature file that comes with this kit to better work with the wings as well. I have also primed Biggs in some Tamiya fine surface primer (white), in preparation for painting him. I have some of Jason's decals coming for his helmet, etc... so that will probably get started this weekend.
And that's about it for now! Thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
SB
Thank you! I'm hoping to do the paint job justice so that I can photograph it for my ongoing photo project. I have a few X-Wings already, but the largest one is a 1:48 Fine Molds kit that I made into a Vanguard Squadron X-Wing.
It'll be nice to have a different paint scheme in the fleet!
SB
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I made them! All of the ships that you see in these photos are models that I have built/painted.
You can see more of my photos here: StarWarsBattleground - Hobbyist, Photographer | DeviantArt
And here's a layers breakdown video for the two images above:
One of the main reasons I make models is to photograph them for this project that I'm doing. Another photo I forgot to add with my old Fine Molds model:
I really like that model because I added four different mounting points on it, so I can photograph it from the bottom or sides or back without seeing the model mount.
This Red 3 model, however, only has a mount on the bottom, so that limits the angles with this one a bit. But I think it'll work out okay
SB
