Avanaut
Well-Known Member
I need an X-wing fighter. I have a 1/72 Finemolds X-wing in the cupboard but it's a bit small, the bigger FM might be good, but I didn't want to buy that one for this. I'm keeping my eyes open for a studioscale kit as well, I hope I can catch one some day, I better practice first, though. The Revell 1/30 kit doesn't come out until October, I don't know what it is like.
So I'll settle for a budget friendly compromise for the time being. I'll rebuild an old MPC kit from the late 70's in 1/43 (?) scale. I originally built this kit for my cousin way back then, over 30 years ago, along with my own kit. We got two after a long wait and I had to build both because my young cousin thought he was not up to it. The arrangement suited me fine.
The one I built for myself will remain as it is, the other one will be rebuilt and given a new life.
This is where I started, a paint stripped hull:
Initially I thought I'd build this as close to spex as possible, the MPC X-wing has a reputation of having good proportions and it was used in filming the ESB, no less. But after a long thought I didn't want this to be too demanding, it's an old used kit that was originally built poorly by a kid - me. I won't do anything over the top, there won't be any additional features, like open hatches to show the innards or things like that, I will restore the landing gears, though, with some added bits. I'll try to improve on the MPC details where I can, but I won't go all Sherlock when it comes to researching the studiomodels for accuracy. Some details will be winged when it feels good, some will be researched, the finished fighter will be a blend of these two approaches. The extra in this build will be some lighting thingys I will add to it, not yet sure what that means exactly, but I'll try to survive with the leftover leds and optic fiber from my earlier Millennium Falcon build.
First I figured the fighter's wings need to snap tight neatly when closed, so I built one wing with scratchbuilt under wing details and magnets inside. The magnets should hold the wings together, I figured. After a while of testing and fitting I decided to let this idea go and just glue the wings shut permanently. The old wings seem a bit warped and straightening them out without breaking them may not be possible. It is not entirely a bad thing as the wing cannons will be rebuilt with brass tubing, they may be heavy enough to make the wings droop if not supported well. Closed wings are very rigid and hopefully will hold the cannons' weight. I need a landed craft anyway, so it'll do fine.
Next I started with the landing struts, made with brass and aluminum tubes. The original kit struts are long gone, only two pads were left.
The gear well cover pieces were quite crude and I filed them thinner and, in some places rebuilt some of the edges with plastic strips. These parts were glued shut over thirty years ago when I first built the X-wing, apparently I was quite carefree with the glue and used it heavily, this caused some of the parts to break when pryed off. The well covers are now glued open with some added detail inside the wells, more to come, supports, pressure tubes and stuff, I'll draw inspiration from modern jet fighters. I'll accept that this ship won't be the most pristine fighter there ever was, but at least I'll try to make it look interesting and "busy".
I wanted the struts to be removable in case I wanted a flight version later on after all. The struts are now easily removed, as they are attached with magnets, and a closed gear well cover piece can be added later, if needed.
I started this thread to keep me going, to kick myself in the butt while at it, I'd like this to be finished soon, preferably in July (that's really optimistic). We'll see...
I'm also looking forward to having some fun with this along the way.
Cheers,
Vesa
So I'll settle for a budget friendly compromise for the time being. I'll rebuild an old MPC kit from the late 70's in 1/43 (?) scale. I originally built this kit for my cousin way back then, over 30 years ago, along with my own kit. We got two after a long wait and I had to build both because my young cousin thought he was not up to it. The arrangement suited me fine.
The one I built for myself will remain as it is, the other one will be rebuilt and given a new life. This is where I started, a paint stripped hull:
Initially I thought I'd build this as close to spex as possible, the MPC X-wing has a reputation of having good proportions and it was used in filming the ESB, no less. But after a long thought I didn't want this to be too demanding, it's an old used kit that was originally built poorly by a kid - me. I won't do anything over the top, there won't be any additional features, like open hatches to show the innards or things like that, I will restore the landing gears, though, with some added bits. I'll try to improve on the MPC details where I can, but I won't go all Sherlock when it comes to researching the studiomodels for accuracy. Some details will be winged when it feels good, some will be researched, the finished fighter will be a blend of these two approaches. The extra in this build will be some lighting thingys I will add to it, not yet sure what that means exactly, but I'll try to survive with the leftover leds and optic fiber from my earlier Millennium Falcon build.
First I figured the fighter's wings need to snap tight neatly when closed, so I built one wing with scratchbuilt under wing details and magnets inside. The magnets should hold the wings together, I figured. After a while of testing and fitting I decided to let this idea go and just glue the wings shut permanently. The old wings seem a bit warped and straightening them out without breaking them may not be possible. It is not entirely a bad thing as the wing cannons will be rebuilt with brass tubing, they may be heavy enough to make the wings droop if not supported well. Closed wings are very rigid and hopefully will hold the cannons' weight. I need a landed craft anyway, so it'll do fine.
Next I started with the landing struts, made with brass and aluminum tubes. The original kit struts are long gone, only two pads were left.
The gear well cover pieces were quite crude and I filed them thinner and, in some places rebuilt some of the edges with plastic strips. These parts were glued shut over thirty years ago when I first built the X-wing, apparently I was quite carefree with the glue and used it heavily, this caused some of the parts to break when pryed off. The well covers are now glued open with some added detail inside the wells, more to come, supports, pressure tubes and stuff, I'll draw inspiration from modern jet fighters. I'll accept that this ship won't be the most pristine fighter there ever was, but at least I'll try to make it look interesting and "busy".
I wanted the struts to be removable in case I wanted a flight version later on after all. The struts are now easily removed, as they are attached with magnets, and a closed gear well cover piece can be added later, if needed.
I started this thread to keep me going, to kick myself in the butt while at it, I'd like this to be finished soon, preferably in July (that's really optimistic). We'll see...
I'm also looking forward to having some fun with this along the way.
Cheers,
Vesa
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