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"Meatball" orange in B Wing of "Return of the Jedi". Question.


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Hi all.

 

I'm looking for information about Star Wars' B-wing.


I have seen, both in this forum and in multiple photographs on the internet, that Ala B is represented by orange "meatballs" on its wings. Even the Bandai kit offers decoration with them.

I found a picture of the real model of film and its modeler, I think. However I made some screenshots in the only scene in which this ship is clearly seen.

 

And I'm confused. In the photo of the original model (supposedly, I think) you can see the orange circle on one of its wings. But in the screenshots you can see that the mentioned circle is not in any of the wings of the 3 ships that appear.

Can anyone offer me some truthful information?

Did he carry the ship's orange circle on his wings or not?

 

Thank you all.

 

Andrés S.

 

48190339696_0891c258be_o.jpg

 

 

48190322691_2a6027d14b_o.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

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As with many of the "fighter-size" craft in the Original Trilogy, ILM built multiple models of the B-Wing for the production.  Since the design proved difficult to film with the processing technology of the day, they received only a fleeting cameo in Return of the Jedi, their only "canon" appearance to date.*

 

Specifically, B-wing models are seen as part of the Rebel attack fleet just before jumping to hyperspace (screenshot linked below), and again as the fleet approaches the Death Star (your shot above), then mysteriously vanishing for the remainder of the film. Otherwise the only on screen image of the type is in a background matte painting, seen behind Lando and Han as they part ways just before the battle (in that shot the locations of the markings are not visible).

 

In all of the above scenes (and as well as screen resolution allows), the B-wings shown do not appear to have any of the distinctive "meatball" marking.  However, as seen in the other photo you posted**, at least one of the B-wing studio models definitely had the markings. 

 

While the "meatball" paint scheme may not appear in the finished film, virtually all of the "beauty shots" of studio models published over the years seem to be of the version in your photo.  The "meatballs" were featured on both the Kenner "action figure scale" toy and the AMT box scale model kit released shortly after the film, which confirms the reference documents given to the toy and model companies showed the same paint scheme. It was also the model included in most, if not all, of the various museum exhibitions over the decades (I saw it in person at the Smithsonian in 1997).

 

So while probably not showing up in any on-screen images, the version with the "meatball" markings is not only 'official' but probably also better known than the unmarked variation.  It's interesting to note that Bandai's recent 1/72 kit has the meatball markings in the regular boxing, but not in the limited edition boxing released for SDCC.

 

Bottom line, you can build it whichever way you prefer and no one can say it's wrong - as they said abour Camelot, "It's only a model!" 😄

 

Screencap - B-Wings before the jump

 

Studio Model w/meatballs

 

Vegetarian B-Wing (no meatballs)

 

*Footnote 1:

In Star Wars terms "canon" has a varying definition, but for this discussion I'm considering only film & TV productions. Speaking of the latter, the animated series Star Wars: Rebels (highly recommended) has an episode featuring the prototype B-Wing (referred to as the "Blade Wing" in-universe). One of the distinctive features of the prototype is its color scheme: overall orange, with white circles - i.e. a mirror image of the better-known official scheme.

 

**Footnote 2:

The gentleman shown holding the model is Bill George, who built it for ILM.  He can also be given shared credit for its design as this was a case where the model was built based on rough conceptual sketches prepared by others.  Mr. George is something of a legend in the sci-fi modeling community, as he scratchbuilt a studio-quality Y-wing after seeing the original Star Wars that helped win him a job at ILM while Empire was in production. He went on to create many famous models, notably the USS Excelsior and the Klingon Bird of Prey.

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Hi, CT7567.

Well, I have been perfectly answered with your explanation. I think that when the time comes to build the model I will add the orange "meatballs". It is a visual plus to the model.

Thank you so much for everything.

 

Regards.

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I imagine you’ve already checked but is the meatballs/ no meatballs due to Lucas’ digital enhancements perpetrated to tie in better with the execrable SW1-3?

Dont know if the original 1977-1981 cinema releases are still available.  I only have IV from way back but it has 2 disks with original and “improved “. Not labelled clearly so it’s not till we get to MOs Eisley spaceport there’s a shout of “Dad, you idiot, you’ve put the stupid digital one on!”

Cheers

Will

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2 hours ago, malpaso said:

I imagine you’ve already checked but is the meatballs/ no meatballs due to Lucas’ digital enhancements perpetrated to tie in better with the execrable SW1-3?

Dont know if the original 1977-1981 cinema releases are still available.  I only have IV from way back but it has 2 disks with original and “improved “. Not labelled clearly so it’s not till we get to MOs Eisley spaceport there’s a shout of “Dad, you idiot, you’ve put the stupid digital one on!”

Cheers

Will

None of the B-wing scenes were altered (aside from general cleanup) for the Special Edition. I have the same boxed set of the "real" trilogy on DVD, and while the screen resolution is not as high as the Bluray Special Edition, it's clear that those scenes weren't changed. 

 

In fact, as much as I dislike the SEs overall, I would have been happily surprised if they had taken the opportunity to add the B-wings back into the battle. There's a widely published "production still" showing a group of B's flying away from an exploding Star Destroyer. It would've been awesome to see that happen on screen (the B is a "heavy assault fighter" so a squadron would have the firepower). Without spoilers, the Rebels episode I mentioned, "Wings of the Master," is probably as close as we'll ever get barring a Rogue One style tie-in to the Battle of Endor. 

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Hi Malpaso.

 

No, I had not checked. I have the original versions released between 1977 and 1983 and I just watched the scene.

Well, it seems that nothing has changed since it is the same as the later digitized versions. Definitely B Wing ships do not seem to have the orange "meatball" in the images that can be seen in the movies. But I think that my model will take them because I think it is positive visually since there are images of the original models of film that did. I do not know, maybe the fact of not being seen in the film is something related to the chroma during the filming.

 

Thanks !!

 

Regards.

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10 minutes ago, CT7567 said:

None of the B-wing scenes were altered (aside from general cleanup) for the Special Edition. I have the same boxed set of the "real" trilogy on DVD, and while the screen resolution is not as high as the Bluray Special Edition, it's clear that those scenes weren't changed. 

 

In fact, as much as I dislike the SEs overall, I would have been happily surprised if they had taken the opportunity to add the B-wings back into the battle. There's a widely published "production still" showing a group of B's flying away from an exploding Star Destroyer. It would've been awesome to see that happen on screen (the B is a "heavy assault fighter" so a squadron would have the firepower). Without spoilers, the Rebels episode I mentioned, "Wings of the Master," is probably as close as we'll ever get barring a Rogue One style tie-in to the Battle of Endor. 

I was writing when I later saw this intervention.
True, very true what you say.

Thank you !!

Regards

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