Y-wing- 1/48 scale scratchbuild diary

[Pete in Lincs]

Cool.

[Dreamcatcher]

i take a seat !

I think i will enjoy that journey :-)

 

[rockpopandchips]

That looks spectacular!

[BrotherMole]

Amazing skills, it's looking lovely.

[Jim Kiker]

Hi all,

 

As of last February my article writing caught up with the modeling. I had only a few pictures to share that brought us fully up to the modeling work.  I have had the bottom of the cockpit glued onto the main tub pieces for some time now, and in the picture below you can see the assembly just behind the cockpit as it will look when the model is complete.  Looking at the area just in front of the rear wing spar, you see the shutters (like Venetian blinds); this is more of my own "take" on the anti-gravity controls.  As with the lower neck, the louvers are meant to swing down for full vertical lift, or pointed towards the rear to impart some extra thrust.

 

 

Next up below is a picture of the upper rear fuselage.  Again looking at the area just in front of the rear wing spar, you see the "devices" that create the anti-gravity.  If they look a little like washers that have been wrapped with wire, they should; that is exactly how I made them.  At this point I was working on the plates that form the upper rear end that cover the "hyper motivator."  I used thin sheet plastic to make the shape of the main panel using my drawings and checking the actual dimensions of the model.  There is also a set of exhaust shapes on the outer side of the front section of the panel.  These shapes mimic the shapes seen on the engines in several places; to me all of these shapes look like some kind of exhaust, so I am treating them accordingly.  I created a shelf piece and wrapped it in .015" sheet  so that it fits down over that raised piece that was already painted.  As you can see, I now have some re tidying of that panel's paint to do!  For what it's worth, the hole in the side of the narrow box is for one of the extra pipes that will run out to the engines.

 

 

Well, that's all for now.  I expect to get the upper rear end of the fuselage complete and painted next.  After that I'll be making a base for this beast and then I can mount the engines and use the stand to hold the model while I work on the cockpit.  Stay tuned!

 

Cheers, Jim

 

Edited January 7, 2018 by Jim Kiker
Images replaced.

[The Chief Smeg]

Jim this is incredible! An absolute masterpiece. 

[Jim Kiker]

Hi Chief,

 

Thanks for the kind words- much appreciated!

[MarkSH]

Loving this, really clean and accurate build. Definitely something to aspire to.

[Jim Kiker]

Good evening all,

 

Lately I have been working on the upper rear end of the fuselage.  If you look at the last shot from my previous posting, you can see the right side plating in place. All of this plating is made from .030" Evergreen plastic sheet.  In the picture below, I have added the left side sloped plating, then fitted the back plate.  Drawings notwithstanding, I cut the first rear sloped piece a bit too small and had to cut out another.  I've also added a square plastic piece to give me some gluing surface for the top piece and give some support as well.  All of these "plating" pieces were cut slightly oversize and sanded back as needed.  The top piece and stubby cylinder that sits at the back edge of the rear plate are sitting behind the fuselage.

 

 

The next step was to complete the plating, fill and sand all the joints, add that little cylinder bit, and make some additional surface details.  You will note that since the wiring comes together in this area, the upper plating is hollow.  Once I had positioned and glued up top and that stubby cylinder, I was able to figure out how to cut a section from the same size tube to make the fairing underneath the cylinder piece.  I used some thick Mr. Surfacer in the joint and swabbed the excess away with ear buds dipped in alcohol; this left very little sanding to be done.  I added two .010" thick pieces in front of the cylinder to represent access hatches.  Two pieces of half-round plastic stock were added to represent what I would call stiffeners on the rear plate.

 

 

Some time back I acquired a 1/72 scale King Tiger tank kit and robbed the vertical rear plate to use on this build.  I had to add a strip of .030" plastic around the edges to get it close to the correct size, then another layer of .030" sheet for the outer projecting cover.  The plate itself was painted, gloss clear coated, washed with oils, grimed up with pastels, and the whole thing (except the outer edges) clear flat coated.  I actually mounted this piece before gluing on the rear sloped plate; this gave me a shelf to help place the plate properly.  I'll tape it off before painting the rear end (which, in this image has already been painted).

 

 

If you look on the side plate, you will see a little shape sticking up; on the movie models these were 1/35 scale shovels; to me they looked like scoops more than anything else.  Given that, I found a couple of excess resin teardrop shapes from my spares, trimmed them off a square surround of plastic, reshaped them, trimmed the front straight and filed a slight undercut into the front edges.  Voila!  Almost-instant scoops.  Here is a top view of the work.  I took this shot with only one light to minimize the glare from the white plastic so it is a bit dark, but the details are more visible.  Having lived with this project for so long, I see more and more that on the movie models there are a lot of extra bits sitting on the outside of the model.  Granted, they do not have to make sense, but since I am treating this as a model of a real vehicle, I find I want to keep the outside surfaces a little less cluttered.  For those of you viewing this thread who are also Y-wing fans, I am interested to know if you prefer this "cleaner" approach or the more conventional look of additional layers of bits added on.

 

 

That is all for now...

 

Cheers, Jim

 

 

Edited January 9, 2018 by Jim Kiker
Edited text for clarity.

[Thom216]

Looking busy! Sweet job so far.

[Caerbannog]

Impressive lesson in scratchbuilding

Thanks for sharing

René

[Pete in Lincs]

Epic!

And you keep giving me ideas for my scratchbuilds too.

Two for the price of one.

Thanks!

I do agree that less can be more too.

Pete

[Jim Kiker]

Hi all,

 

I am about done now with the boxed-in rear fuselage.  Last time around, the basic building work was done.  First up then, is a picture of the area with basic paint on.  I use solvent-based paints, so after the base coat I added a clear gloss acrylic coat.  That formed a barrier for the oil washes that were to follow.  As you can tell, I've been having problems with my camera; this shot is a bit too blue in tone so I may try to figure out a way to neutralize this later on.

 

 

Once the clear gloss cured, I mixed some Payne's gray and white artist's oils to a mid blue-gray shade, say RAF Ocean Grey, and applied it in the edges of the side doors, the smaller "inspection" doors, and the detail on the rear sloping plate.  Then I added a bit of pastels, mixed colors on a sanding stick, and applied that.  I also ran a dark gray artist's pencil along all the edges of the plates to simulate paint wear.  I then applied a layer of clear acrylic flat to seal in the weathering effects.  That looks like this:

 

 

If you look carefully, you can just see some of the initial weathering.  I was also making changes for taking pictures and this was the initial result.  I have two desk lamps and I replaced the bulbs- I had two different temperature bulbs which I replaced with bright white LED's.  Then I reset the custom white balance which made a huge difference in how things look.  I also changed the background color.  More importantly, I figured out that my initial shading was just too subtle for the subject.  I went back and used pastels to outline all the crevices, the side and inspection doors, and the rear plate details, applying the pastels and rubbing them down with a Q-tip (ear bud), and then hit everything with another coat of really flat clear acrylic.  And here is the result:

 

 

If you look around the edges of the doors and the raised details, you can see some dark staining plus some streaks from goodness knows where.  The good news is, I've about figured out my new lighting setup and the colors here are pretty close to what my eyes see.  I expect to see better color rendering as I go through the remainder of the project.

 

Thanks for hanging in- I'm working on the rear vectrals, also the base and stand, and then it's on to the cockpit.  More to come!

 

Cheers, Jim

Edited January 8, 2018 by Jim Kiker
Changed out second image.

[Jim Kiker]

Good evening all,

 

Time once again for an update, and it feels like a significant one to me!  With the rear end of the fuselage complete and painted/finished, it's nearly to the point where I cannot hold the model and work on it, so I will be getting all the lighting and power connections soldered up very soon and use the stand to hold the model during the final push to completion.  In the meantime, I painted and installed most of the external "repair" pipes that are so common on the Y-wing.  Using 1/16" copper rod, I had bent up and fitted two pipes running for and aft along the upper edge of the fuselage (one to each side), and one on each side on the upper wings.  Taking note of the various colors, I eliminated straight copper, brown, rust, and orange, all colors I've seen on various models that ultimately didn't suit me.  I went back to the pictures of the studio model that was given to Alan Ladd, and was pleasantly surprised- those external pipes are a pale golden metallic color.  Enough to be visible yet not be the first thing an observer will notice- just up my alley.  The pipes got a couple of coats of gray primer, then a light coat of Alclad Pale Burnt Metal, and two coats of clear gloss acrylic to keep the paint from being easily chipped.  In the first picture below, the fuselage pipes have been installed, while the wing pieces are displayed out front along with an extra piece of copper rod to show off the finish.

 

 

As more pieces go on, the assembly sequence looms larger and larger; after this photo above was taken, I mounted the two wing pipes into position and made the next big step- I attached the two engine pods permanently on the wing spars.  Here is the result:

 

 

The R2 unit and the wheeled thingie up between the engine oil pans at the top of the rear fuselage are just sitting in place, but they do reveal that almost all of the interior fuselage equipment is now in place.  I could not resist taping on one of the engine domes; I think they turned out rather well.

I have planned for some time to have a couple of obvious repairs involving those pipes.  The first one you can see above just to the right of the R2 unit's socket; a section of damaged pipe was neatly cut out and capped off, and the slightly browner pipe available in the repair shop that day has been angled down into the main line. 

 

 

Finally, here is the other local repair job.  A stray blaster bolt sliced the right hand wing pipe and damaged the surface beneath.  Maintenance repaired the hole in the wing skin with a metal patch and sealed it with the local brew of patching compound, then repaired a section of pipe with a handy piece of new pipe and sealed off the ends; at least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

 

 

Well, that's all for now.  Once I get the lighting sorted out, I'll get the engine exhaust assemblies mounted, construct the maneuvering vectrals, and then it is on to the cockpit!

 

Cheers, Jim

 

Edited January 10, 2018 by Jim Kiker
Images replaced.

[The Chief Smeg]

This is just stunning - beautiful work. 

[Gimme Shelter]

an amazing build - cant wait to see the final result - movie standard in the making I'm sure.

[James G]

Just caught up with this - super work Jim!

[nheather]

Amazing, I am in awe.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

[Jim Kiker]

Hi all,  Just a note to say that this is not another update; I had some duplicate text and pictures that somehow got added in.  In the meantime, thanks to all of you who have replied and know that I appreciate the good vibes!

 

Cheers, Jim

[GazB]

Watching people build things like this out of some plastic sheets and bit and bobs just blows my mind

 

Wish I could do even a percentage of that

 

Gaz

[Pete in Lincs]

Jim,

Still looking good.

I like the repairs.

 

[Carts]

Love this,am especially impressed with the almost "modular" build approach,its all coming together beautifully .

[StevenBills]

This is coming along great! Very good work!

 

SB

[Jim Kiker]

Hi all,

 

And now on to the lights!  While I had checked the basic ship wiring earlier on, I wasn't sure I would get it all correct to hook up to the stand.  As you can see below, that first test worked fine.  The stand is a basic box made from PVC, made by one of my model geek buddies (thanks, Free!).  The stand itself is brass tubing and is capped off with a 1/8" male RCA plug.  Wiring runs into the base and is connected to a switch and then to a port for a wall wort (a DC converter, much like our cell phones come with).  I get six volts from the Wart, and with the switch I can turn the power off the take-down of the model a simple lift off affair.

 

 

 

Finally, I have working lights!  The first next thing I've done is mount the engine exhausts into the rear end of the engine nacelles. Once I connected the lights to their reflectors and that connected to the exhaust housings, the wires were carefully pulled to the front to help the engines into place.  Popping the model onto her stand and flipping the switch, I get this:

 

 

Needless to say, I'm very pleased with the engine lights.  I'm now working on both the maneuvering vectrals and on the cockpit/crew.  I'd like to tip my hat to my buddy Boz for volunteering to do the soldering; I am learning how to do it but he did the work, and between the two of us we figured out where the initial glitches were. Getting the lights on certainly gave me a recharge keep the build going, so stay tuned for the final installments.

 

Cheers all, Jim

 

 

 

 

Edited January 10, 2018 by Jim Kiker
Images re-set.

[rockpopandchips]

Very very nice indeed! The engine lights look excellent.