Part Four - Painting/Assembly
June 7, 2004
Well so begins the last phase in the Captain Cardboard studio scale X-Wing experiment. I apologize for the overdue update, but the new game City of Heroes became a way of life for me there for a while and I am finally back on track. I have finished pre-assembly on the wings and the laser canons and the only major work still left to do is the fuselage assembly. More on that in the next few days. I have been really busy finishing allot of old projects that have sat around for far too long and have found time to work on the cockpit. I wasn't happy with my original design so I got another cockpit tub from Captain Cardboard and have spent the last few days getting it painted. Here is a shot of the cockpit in it's original form.
And here are a few shots of the cockpit modifications I have made. You can see in the picture to the left some of "greeblies" I have added. I used some twisted 30 gauge wire to make some miscellaneous cables that go behind the pilots head. I also used the same 30 gauge wire to make some cable runs at the front top of the cockpit. Looks better painted, hehe. I also added some sheet styrene and a small section of styrene tubing. The tubing is my version of the graflite flash used in actual full sized cockpit. You can also see the holes that are pre-drilled where the fiber will soon reside.
These next few shots show the same cockpit but almost completely painted. Please note that there is no weathering done yet as I have not had the time to seal it with Future. Once I seal it with Future, I will go back and weather it so the shiny areas will be dull and sufficiently "dirty", as any good X-Wing should be.
This last shot is of the wings all assembled with pre-shading done in all the recessed areas. She is really starting to come together.
August 24, 2004
This latest update shows the wiring and LED's installed and lit in the newly mounted engines. So far all the pre-planning I put into this things has really paid off. Very few surprises and I am turning the home stretch on the assembly. The ONLY assembly left to be done is the fuselage and I am going to be starting on it in the next few days. I appreciate you coming by and I hope you enjoy the new pics. Some are in the dark so you can get the full effect. What you cannot see in the pictures is that all four engines are flashing at a really high rate and give the appearance in person of the engines flaring. It was quite easy to achieve and it looks cool as hell.
September 6, 2004
Being a holiday weekend I got to spend some time working on my model. After what I considered to be a very successful implementation of the engine LED's, I decided to go ahead and start finishing the wing assembly.
I decided to start with lining up the wing mounting brackets and drilling out the holes in them that I would need for the wires from the engines. I dry fitted the mounting bracket to the wing and marked where the wires came out with a ball point pin. Next, I drilled out the holes using three different sized drill bits. I did this so as not to chance cracking the mounting brackets. Note the two holes, one for each wing.
To make life easier on myself when I start painting, I have gone ahead and attached the upper wing to each mounting bracket. This way I will be able to maneuver my airbrush into the inner wing area and assure adequate paint coverage. In the pictures below you can see how The wings were attached and the holes for the wiring are perfectly lined up.
After successfully mounting the upper wings to the mounting brackets, I decided to attach the laser cannons to the lower wings. I have not attached them to the upper wings at this point because the laser cannons are very fragile and I do not want to be constantly breaking them off and attaching them. However, on the lower wings it is not as much of a problem because they are not connected to the mounting block. Trust me when I say, the further along you get in the assembly the more creative you have to get in how you store the parts.
From the pictures below you can see that the cannons are now attached and I can begin painting on the lower and upper wing assemblies any time I feel like it.
I have been to my amazement working on this model for almost a year. This may seem like a long time but of course life does get in the way and I do have a 3 year old who keeps me busy. If you do not have one of these models, get one, PERIOD! This model is beautiful to look at and build. This model was no longer in production but has recently become available again. The new distributor has given me permission to give out his email address in case you are interested. His email address is salzo1@aol.com Again, if you do not have this kit, get it while they are still available.
November 21, 2004
Seeing as that it is almost Thanksgiving, I figured I had better update my webpage before the holidays. I have been busy on a few projects and am so close to wrapping this thing up I can taste it.
My original plan was to do all the electronics myself but in the end, my limited knowledge on the subject was causing me to have to cut out some features that I didn't want to. My circuit for instance, did not have the ability to have the R2D2 lights blink. This is something I felt I could not do without so I broke down and bought the Hyperdyne Labs X-Wing electronics kit. This kit is phenomenal and I am really glad I broke down and bought it. Thanks to Jim for being very patient with me and for providing such a great product. Here are some pics of the Kit in action, including two movie files.
As you can see from the pictures above, I used a small section of styrene tubing to plug in the LEDs. From there I drilled a hole in the tubing and inserted the Fiber Optic Cable. Here are the two new movie files showing the Fiber and the LEDs in action.
The last part of the update today is some shots of the entire fuselage assembled. These shots show some of the modifications I have made so I can insert the fiber optics and the electronics kit. Also, notice in pictures three and four here that I had to fix a crack where I dropped the fuselage and it snapped. It wasn't a major repair just a lesson, once again, in how brittle resin really is.
I hope to do another update this week before the holiday so check back.
January 22, 2005
This is my first update of the new year and I am aiming to finish this model by the end of February so get ready for a bunch of updates over the next month. Today's update shows my progress in the initial base coat painting, fiber optics installed in the cockpit and the beginning of the detailed painting on the wings and laser canons.
These first two images show the fuselage with the wet sanded base coat on. I applied a really thin layer of the Camouflage Gray by Testors. It is in their Model Master Acryll line of paints. It went on really well and I am very happy with the way it has turned out. Every sub-assembly at this point has had a base coat of this paint applied.
The next two images show the cockpit completely painted with the fiber optics installed and ready to be joined to the LEDs. Man this is gonna look good and I can't wait for the day I plug this baby in.
Using thin masking tape and using my Fine Molds X-Wing as a guide, I laid down a masking template for the wing markings. I am doing Luke's Red 5 from ANH so as you can see from the pictures there are five red pips on the wing markings. The first two pictures are of the template, and the third is a close up of the template showing how I am using water and salt to create a look of weathered chipped paint which can be seen in the next group of pictures. Also you can see the already done barber pole stripes that go on the Port Upper and Starboard Lower canons. The stripes came out a little wide so I will most likely re-paint them. Live and learn hehe!
After I finished painting I let the paint dry for a few minutes and this is what that particular point of the process looked like.
The last two pictures show the completed wing details after the template was removed and the salt rubbed off. Using the salt to simulate chipped paint has turned out great in my opinion. After finishing this on all four wings today I am totally stoked about how this is going to look when finished. Please let me know what you think.
January 23, 2005
After yesterday I was really jazzed up. I decided to continue painting in earnest. Today I touched up some of the details I painted yesterday and started air brushing the fuselage details on. Using the same salt and water technique I masked off the areas of the fuselage that need to be red and threw some paint at it. Once finished I let the paint dry and then since it is a cold, clear and sunny day outside, I went outside to take some pictures of the new markings in the sunshine. I had someone request that I take some pictures with better lighting so here they are. :)
These next two shots are of the inside of the Port Lower Wing. This was done using Tamiya Dark Gray. I am using the lots of sources for reference, but none more so than my Fine Molds X-Wing. I cannot stress enough, that if you cannot afford this model go get a Fine Molds X-Wing, it is a glorious little ship. Again here are two shots of more of the wing details. As I said yesterday the updates will be coming quick and the end of February is the deadline I have set for myself. Thanks for stopping by.
Sorry for the bad lighting on these two went back and wanted to show some pics of the fuselage and wing assemblies together.
January 25, 2005
Had to leave work early today, one of my boys was sick, so I decided while he was taking a nap to work on my model some. These four pics show the distressed yellow markings that are on the top side of the fuselage forward of the cockpit and the weird grey marking about the red stripe on the starboard side. Please keep in mind that I have done no weathering yet so the colors may look bright and clean Hope you like the pics.
February 2, 2005
Been working on the painting a lot and save for a few minor details/touch-ups the model is done being painted. Tonight when I got home from work I drilled out the hole where the model will be mounted and test fit it into the base. Seeing it mounted has really lit a fire under my ass to get this done. I hope you enjoy the pictures of the mount and the base. The last picture is something I did to distinguish my X from others. I made a custom dash panel and printed it out on transparency. I then put a piece of clear frosted styrene behind it and I think it turned out pretty good. I was going to light it but ran into some issues so I just decided to leave it unlit. Anyways we are almost done and my deadline of the end of February is still an attainable goal.
And my custom dash panel!!!
February 5, 2005
Today marks the end of painting! I put down all the final tweaks and changes to the markings and fixed some stuff that was wrong. I am now done painting and am about to start final assembly and then the weathering. It has been a long haul to get to this point and I am very proud of how she looks. She is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but she is damn close and I can live with that for now. The first set of pictures here show the final wing markings. The fifth picture down is some of the marking changes I made after I realized I had painted them wrong the first time. On the actual studio model the markings were angled, not straight up and down, so I wet sanded and re-did the markings. You can see the way I originally had them HERE
These next few pics show the final fuselage details. The first picture is a red marking that is found on the filming miniature that I thought was cool so I added it. I did not originally have it there, but it is plain as day on the model. The middle picture I fixed a painting mistake where I did not take the canopy outline out far enough. You can see the original way I had it HERE The last picture is just a shot of the paint chip effect and final markings, but is very similar to some of the other pictures above.
Also here is the file of the custom cockpit panel that I did that can be viewed HERE Some people expressed interest in it so I am offering it to anyone who wishes to use it. I printed it out on transparency paper and used a piece of frosted clear styrene as a backing.
March 16, 2005
Not much of an update, just waiting on my Death Star Surface Panels to come in from Mike. Here are some shots of the panels in an 18 X 18 inch configuration that has one of Mike's T-65 build ups. These surface panels are for sale if anyone is interested. Click HERE for Pricing information.
April 3, 2005
Well we are in the home stretch here folks. The base pieces are in the model is done painting. Only thing left to do is to make my base and connect everything. Here is a fun little story about my base.
So... I am working on my HUGE base for my X-Wing. Routed out all the channels for the wiring and everything looks really good so far. I start to route out the place where I plan on putting the battery and switch for the power. I make an initial pass with the router and then reset my depth and everything is going well and all the sudden I am grinding metal. I pull the router and look and apparently some mystical form of physics causes the bit to expand or something cause it went all the way through the MDF.
Not only do I have a 4 X 4 hole in my base that I don't need, but I now have a nice groove in my table saw top and a shot $17 router bit. Here are some pics of the channels I routed out for the wiring, the nice big hole I made in the base and my routed table saw top :)
Being no stranger to making mistakes, I thought of a pretty quick and easy way to fix what I had done. First I reset my depth on my router to match some thick styrene sheet that I had left over from making my Death Star base. I then routed a groove all the way around the hole about a 1/4 from the inside. You can see how it turned out in this picture.
Next I cut a sheet of the styrene to roughly the same size using the tried and true, Score and Snap method. Once I had the shape I needed I just used some sandpaper and trimmed the edges down until it fit how I needed it. Add some five minute epoxy and you got yourself a nice little patch.
I got my panels in from Mike about a week and a half ago and have not been able to work on them or my model at all since March 25th. I got Lasik done and have been super paranoid about my eyes since I got it done. I went and got me a really nice set of work goggles and am able to work on my model again.
As an interlude, I have 20/15 vision and damn if I am not seeing the world in a whole new way. I would recommend this surgery to anyone. It was quick and painless and the benefits are awesome.
Now back on track, I pulled all nine panels out and spent some time at the sink cleaning them and making sure all the mold release was off. It was over 80 degrees here in Dallas today so I set them in the sun for a few minutes to dry them off. I had previously marked off on the base board where I wanted the tiles to go. These pictures show the base tiles in the sun, and then being test fit. In the test fit picture you can see that I have already drilled the hole for the brass tubing that will support the model. Also is shot of the side profile of the base board so you can see the bevel it has.
Mike Salzo and I had a conversation about a month ago and I told him that I wanted to have one of the tiles on my base be removable so I could replace batteries, as well as, hide the switch to turn on the lights. He recommended that I go to my local Radio Shack and pick up some Rare Earth Magnets. For those who don't know what I am talking about, they are very small very powerful magnets that hold extremely well. I decided to give Mike's idea a try and here is how I used them.
After fixing the debacle with the router, I now turned my attention to making the panel that will go over that space removable. In this set of pictures you can see where I marked and drilled out the holes for the magnets. They are only about an eighth of an inch deep so it was not necessary to drill very far. I test fit the magnets then used CA to super glue them in place. Once that was done I drilled matching holes in the panel and test fit it and then gravity tested it.
Note in the picture that there are only three places where I put the magnets. The reason for that is these magnets are so small I lost the first set that I took out of the package and was never able to find them. So lesson learned on that. Anyways on to the pictures and I am so close to being done I can taste it. Thanks for reading and as a bonus a shot of my work area. I am about to commence work on building my work bench for all my tools. My wife cannot wait for me to finish and get my crap out of her way LOL
April 4, 2005
I got allot done today on my base. All the tiles have been attached and the wiring has been run up into the X-Wing Fuselage. Also included below is a shot of the port for the external power supply that will plug into the wall.
It's About Damn Time
I FINALLY got this beast mainly assembled. I know I can't believe it either. Here are some shots of her assembled and mounted. Please let me know what you think.
April 11, 2005
This weekend I finally got to do something I have wanted to do for a long time. Build my own workbench. This bench is 8 feet long and I finally have somewhere outside of the kitchen to work on my models. My wife got her kitchen back and I got my own space. I also built a rack for all of my model paints. Turned out pretty damn good if I say so myself.
April 21, 2005
Well I am almost there. Here are three sneak pics of the model Fully assembled and wired up. There is still some weathering that I need to do and a detail here or there to fix, but for the most part she is done. The pics make her look glossy, she just got a coating of future to seal in some of the pastel weathering I did. Oils are next and she is done. Even included a picture of the lighting test.
May 3, 2005
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