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1:144 XY Junkfighter Kitbash


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So, I apparently need to have many projects going at once all the time :). Inbetween steps of continuing my Millennium Falcon build (I'm now waiting on my Shapeways order), I started another semi-scratch build.

 

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This is a design included in the book "The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens" - obviously an unused concept for Jakku, it looks like a ship cobbled together from the ruins of an X-wing and a Y-wing, with some other bits & bobs thrown in. For some reason, I really like this design, and I decided I wanted to try to mash one up from a couple of Bandai vehicle model kits. 

 

I didn't take any pictures of the very first stages of the build, because I was improvising, and wasn't certain it would even work out. But I'm pretty pleased with the results so far. 

 

So....step one, making the left side, which is clearly part of the X-wing. 

 

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To make this, I assembled the S-foils as normal (only assembling the engines on one side), but glued them together with Tamiya extra-thin. Once that set, I took an X-acto saw blade to them, removing the entire engine + wing from the center assembly, and also cutting off about 1/2 of the wing. I also cut one wingtip off separately, turning it 90 degrees and gluing it back onto the wing stump, so one of the laser cannons could be mounted centered on the now-shortened wingtip. The long end of the cannon was also removed to match the concept art. 

 

At this point I observed that the x-wing engine pair on its own would make a great base for a custom landspeeder or pod-racer type vehicle. So.....possibly look for one of those from me in the future too :). 

 

I added some sheets and strips of styrene all over to make the enclosure around the engines and the detailing on the forward face:

 

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The Y-wing front fuselage is a good deal wider than what you see in the concept drawing, and it actually makes the X-wing S-foils look pretty small. So I had to narrow it - I did this starting with the underside, using the internal flanges as a guide for a hobby saw.  Then the cut-down lower section became the guide for cutting down the upper section. 

 

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And some styrene sheet to close the sides:

 

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That's where it is so far. Now I'm working on the center fuselage, which basically looks like another large engine. I'm scratch-building that, with a Y-wing engine nozzle at the back. 

 

Edited by monsterpartyhat
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More progress, with figuring out how to put the main fuselage together. I drilled a hole in the back panel of the forward fuselage, using a series of drill bits of increasing size in my pin-vise, to ensure it started smoothly and stayed centered. Into that hole I inserted a length of aluminum tube, with a styrene sleeve crazy-glued to it. The styrene sleeve is there for affixing increasing diameters of tube with plastic cement. 

 

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Several pieces of styrene tubing of assorted nesting diameters later, and you've got a little starship inchworm...


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More pieces of styrene for intake scoops and cooling fins, and some brass wire for pipes.  Then I drilled through the center of it for another tube to mount the center fuselage to the wings. 

 

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And hey, this is looking pretty good....

 

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23 hours ago, monsterpartyhat said:

, making the left side, which is clearly part of the X-wing. 

This is NOT the 'left side'.

We Brits would call this either:

 

A) 'The near side' (the side closest to the curb)

B) 'The passenger side' (Self-explanatory, if there are forward passenger seats)

C) 'The dark side' (The side most in shadow)

 

 

Seriously though... This mash-up is out of this world!

 

 

Reaguards,

Badder

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24 minutes ago, Badder said:

 

A) 'The near far side' (the side closest to farthest from the curb)

 

I fixed that for you.  ;)

 

Funny story -- I have family in New Zealand, and when my wife's uncle and aunt-in-law came to visit the States, when he was driving he kept reminding himself which side of the road to drive on by reciting "Wife in the gutter....wife in the gutter" (since she was riding on the passenger side). 

 

I had a fun time teasing my wife with that last time we visited them in NZ. 

Edited by monsterpartyhat
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And this shot brings us up-to-date on my progress so far:

 

37802732432_11d1b465d1_b.jpg

 

The long wing in the concept art is clearly a good deal longer than an X-wing S-foil relative to the size of the forward fuselage and the other wing. I extended the....I guess you'd call it the engine mount side of the wing, and I'm not entirely happy with that. It's too bulky - extending the wing-tip would work better, I think.

 

I'm also very tempted to just scrap that part of the idea, and make the ship symmetrical, with another enclosed X-wing engine pair. That would sort of make something like the "boosted" T-70 from the upcoming Episode 8; a five-engine blockade-running fighter. Seriously thinking about that, if I can tear down the modifications I've already made without destroying the wing. 

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Looking at that concept picture, isn't that an engine on the end of the RH wing?

The two X wing engines on one side would mess up the thrust line, surely?

7 minutes ago, monsterpartyhat said:

It's too bulky

It is, the ship is an aerodynamic mess. Interesting, but...

Atmospheric flight would indeed be interesting!

I like the 5 engine idea. I'd add 'fuel tanks' to the wing tips

and weapons on pylons.

Conventional, but it makes it more believable for me.

I'm still trying to figure out what makes a tie fighter move!  

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Oh...I just realized what's bugging me most about the right side (err, driver side :) ) wing....the profile makes me think of a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, especially from angles other than pictured above. Something about the wing to forward fuselage proportions with the relatively narrow neck.  

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I'm still trying to figure out what makes a tie fighter move!  

That would be the continual release of energy stored in a bucketful of windsor knots.

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Removing the extension was pretty easy. The engines won't solidly press-fit anymore, but if I choose to put them on they'll glue in place exactly where they should be.  Now that I've put it together this way, it no longer looks like the wing is too short - I'm not sure what I was thinking with the extension. I was thrown off by my initial impression of how large the Y-wing front fuselage is compared to the X-wing. 

 

Now I need to make the decisions between engines or no engines, full-length wing or cut-down for symmetry, and engine enclosure or not?

 

Here's a side-by-side of the full-length wing with no engines (as in the concept art), and with engines:

 

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Two more shots with engines:

 

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And two more without:

 

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brilliant build up there - this looks a lot better and far more believable than the majority of the new stuff I've seen knocked up for the forthcoming new SW film - what a great fresh idea - looking forward to seeing it completed

 

it's believably a "T-wing" fighter by my imagination

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Thanks! Those are very kind words. Technically, this *is* a design from the new SW films, just not one that got used :)

 

Here's a couple of silly pictures from right before I remove the engine nacelles from one side - since the wings are mounted on a tube, they swivel. Here's the SW equivalent of a V-22 Osprey:

 

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And the stages of wing extension, using the lower wing as a shelf for mounting the extension:

 

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It looks ace, even though it has an awful lot of engines for something so small. Maybe a mix of ion engines/thrusters for space,  'jets' for atmosphere and an impeller for high-density gaseous atmospheres, and under water? 

 

 Rearguards,

Badder

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I'll never understand the ratio of engines to mass in Star Wars. 

 

Why is the Y-wing not super-fast? It's almost all engine - the engines are huge compared to X-wing engines. 

 

How is the Millennium Falcon the fastest ship in the galaxy, when its engines are a wee thin band around the back of the ship, compared to the NINE ENORMOUS engines the Tantive IV has? The Tantive clearly has more engine-per-kiloton than the Falcon does. 

 

And where the heck are those damn TIE engines, anyway? 

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38 minutes ago, monsterpartyhat said:

I'll never understand the ratio of engines to mass in Star Wars. 

 

Why is the Y-wing not super-fast? It's almost all engine - the engines are huge compared to X-wing engines. 

 

How is the Millennium Falcon the fastest ship in the galaxy, when its engines are a wee thin band around the back of the ship, compared to the NINE ENORMOUS engines the Tantive IV has? The Tantive clearly has more engine-per-kiloton than the Falcon does. 

 

And where the heck are those damn TIE engines, anyway? 

Good question regarding the Y-Wing and X-Wing. Maybe because the X-Wing has twice the engines? Or because of better aerodynamics :-D Or because size does not mater??? :wonder:

 

Tantive IV was the concept for the Millenium Falcon. That is why the prop was build so big and so detailed. Then it turned out that the shape of Tantive IV is not a good choice for dog fight filming sequences so a new Falcon design was invented :-) Hence the number of engines for Tantive IV...

 

The TIE engines are those tiny red glowing Twin Ion Engines on the cockpit pod. And as you can see in the movies they work great ;-)

 

Btw: Great build!

 

René

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