Good luck! I'd love to see more work done on her. 

Yeah, I'm none to happy myself! Right now I'm in the middle of uploading all my photos back up onto the internet through www.picturetrail.com so that I can edit all my posts here on the forum. Please be patient. I've been working 10 hour days (sometimes eleven) and 6 days a week so I haven't much time to myself. This is my usual work schedule for the forseeable future. As soon as I get all by bills that are outstanding I'll get my self resituated in another home hopefully soon. I'm looking for something with a basement and a garage hopefully in a much better neighborhood. I have to get the staff to unlimit my account so that I can edit and post photos on this forum again. Stay tuned....

 

~ Cobra Chris 

Just browings guys. Man if I had my stuff on that photo hosting site I'd be being perp walked about now. I can't imagine how many threads on the internet were destroyed.

 

Heck. I can't even see my harmica playing squirell and smile now!

For some reason I can't edit my post. It seems as though it's been duplicated twice in the first paragraph. I'll see if I can get someone to delete that for me. Thank you to all who have waited so patiently. I hope to be back on this soon. In the meantime please look at the other offerings on this forum.

Darthsg

Hello, I just came across this build forum. I would love to know your progress as of late. Also wanted to know if you were doing the color scheme on the wings as it was originally built, or the way it was put together as seen in the musium displays. Thanks

 

I was hoping to have it (X-wing) finished as far was the wings, fuselage, R2-D2, and hyperdrive motivator (top and buttplate) finished so that all I would need to worry about would be the pilot figure. I've been working on ID'ing the parts for the hyperdrive motivator/acutator (strip behind R2), but with mixed results. I've had to make parts by hand to scale with the model parts that I know exist, as well as the ones that I already have. Silicone rubber, and resin are expesive, but those will be the next thing that I buy to  make multiples of duplicate parts. Third: I am planning on painting this as you see it in the museum photos. I had hoped to make this into a model kit for sale to the public someday. I'll also have to figure out how much for resin altogether before I can name a price. It will be costly for just one model since there is so much surface area to fill the moulds. It will also be a specialty item for sale only for a short time. I don't want to make models this big in the hope that there will be a lot of buyers without knowing how much interest there truly is! This will be my crowning achievement in model making so far, concerning the public.

I'm only shelving this project until I can get somewhere to work. Right now work space is limited, and pretty much  nonexistent for me, so I have to do what I can on a small space.  The rest will have to wait until I can either get moved, or rent somewhere to work. Otherwise this won't happen anytime soon! One more thing, I hate to keep people hanging, but now I CAN'T post photos since Photobucket has decided to implode! This will delay everything since ALL the pictures I have are hosted on this site alone - meaning that all the forums that I frequented in the past won't have any pictures on them that were at one time visible. I have time (for now) to post progress, I need to get some work done to show, but I have a couple of other projects - three in all actuality to finish this summer. This will delay my progress that much more! As I said before - stay tuned. Something will come of this before it's all over for me.

 

~ Cobra Chris 

Hello, I just came across this build forum. I would love to know your progress as of late. Also wanted to know if you were doing the color scheme on the wings as it was originally built, or the way it was put together as seen in the musium displays. Thanks

Gamera

Hey Chris, again I'm so sorry to hear about Weepy. I dunno what to tell you, working on something might take your mind off things. Or maybe just take some time off to de-stress. 

 

Thank you, Sir! I appreciate your concern, and your well wishes.

In the meantime, I've been making progress although painfully slow it is happening. I've had to readjust some measurements cutting inches off the length of the fuselage, and the the patterns I was using were all too big, long, etc. I'm working on the hyperdrive right now and I hope to get this done soon, but time has been dragging along with the heat. I know everyone is sick of seeing text without pictures, but I guarantee that the end result will have been worth the wait. I'll have to finish this in breakneck speed, but the weather hasn't been too kind and my air conditioner is getting a workout like never before!

I don't have enough to show since very little has been done as of late. I want to wait just a little bit longer until I have enough to look at that everyone who has looked at this will be satisfied as I with the progress that I've made since the last set of pictures I posted. BE PATIENT - this is going to be done before summers' end since I don't have a lot of time to devote to it afterwards. It'll definately be a race to the finish line! Stay tuned - you won't want to miss the rest of this no matter how long it takes.

 

~ Cobra Chris

Hey Chris, again I'm so sorry to hear about Weepy. I dunno what to tell you, working on something might take your mind off things. Or maybe just take some time off to de-stress. 

Sorry to say - one of the died one week ago today. Weepy, who was the smallest one didn't live to see another month of life. She had neurological problems that caused her a lot of troubles. Sadly enough it caused her death. Now I'm in mourning, but working nonetheless. Still plugging away despite this fact, but it still hurts just as much now as it did when she went. I'm going to stay on this, and I'll finish it since I started it before both my Grandmother, and Weepy both died. I'll dedicate this build to them. I hope to have some pictures so to show, but I need to finish the parts that I started. As soon as I get a little more progress, and I feel a little more confident in doing so I will. Stay tuned. This isn't over yet!

 

~ Cobra Chris

WORK.

Glad to hear the kittens are doing well

This is what I'm working on right now. Everything from the R2 unit on to the very end of the fuselage is what I need to concentrate on now. School is out of the way (for now), so I can devote all my time to working on this kit. In the meantime this will be a truly Hurculean effort of sizeable  proportions since you can see what it'll take to get this done. There's so much detail to see, and a lot to make to the correct proportions with each part to ensure accuracy that I have to supersize these photos to determine what's a model part, and what is paint. Making the correct size parts will be the hardest part since I don't have any of the kits that Ira Keeler, and Mike Fulmer originally used to replicate this with. Give me some time to get at least a few things on this started, and enough time to get things thrown into silicone rubber that I need multiples of. Stay tuned.

 

~ Cobra Chris

 

 

Good to hear you're still on this Chris. And no big deal, gee take your time man- that's one Herculean project you've got going there. 

Ok, people.  I didn't want you to think that this was dead in the water - again. I've been researching all the kit scans that I could. However, nothing shows in this scale. I HAVE to make everything from scratch as far as any type of detail. ALL the greeblies behind R2-D2 will have to be made as well as the R2 unit himself. I have a PVC pipe in 2" inch diameter that I'm going to use for the body, and a poplar head. I'll make the legs this week, and detail R2s dome with the remaining pieces. I'll show that as soon as I get some more progress done on it. I had to order supplies for some other projects that I've had going on for some time now.  This has taken some of my attention away from this fighter, but I'm back on it - a little at a time. The kittens are growing save but one that is still tiny. The yellow striped kittys' tail has healed, and they are all doing well. Thank you all who prayed for her recovery as it was a difficult one. At the moment I'm making all the parts for the hyperdrive motivator by HAND, so it'll take some time to get that all done. Soon I'll move on to the backside of the fuselage detail, then on to the pilot making the nose cone last. Stay tuned for more photos to come soon!

 

~ Cobra Chris

Yeah I understand. It's funny how well this thing is working now that I took AVG (Antivirus garbage) off. It's better with Malware bytes.

 

Well, maybe just one more.

I wasn't going to post any more, but I just realized that these weren't on photobucket. I didn't load them onto my computer with the others since I took these photos afterwards.

 ~ Cobra Chris

Starting to come together now.

 

This is simply to show the basic profile of the nose - not the end product.

 

 

She's really starting to look like an X-Wing 

Can't help much about your computer problems though- sorry. Last one I really knew much about was my old Commodore 64..... 

Yes Sir, that's the exact same thing that has happened to me now. Everything is dead last for no real known reason. I think it's time to complain about how they keep "improving" their site.

Any way, on to the good stuff once again. After a short hiatus I dug back through and added some more photos. These I intended to add to the last group, but since we're already here....

 

 

For the time being this is what it looks like (somewhat). Only I have done a little more since this picture was taken a week ago. I have most of the superstructure finished. I need to finish reshaping the canopy, and make the inside stuctural ribs, and glue this all together with the nosecone. Afterwards I'll finish the R2 unit (vacuum form) a shape over him, and glue something to the head, then scribe all the details onto him, then make the legs. Then it'll be on to the rest of the hyperdrive motivator. I'm still trying to I.D. models for it. If I can't find anything then I'll scratch make the rest which it looks like I'll be doing. In the mean time I'll leave a little mystery until I can get more interesting, and more substantial work finished.

Thank you all for looking, and for your undying patience.

       (Posted from my boat anchor computer)

~ Cobra Chris

 

Thanks Chris, yeah PB is odd. Used to be new photos I posted there always came out on top, now they can come out dead last, or even in the middle of a folder. I have one folder of just random stuff with about ten pages and it is annoying when I find something I just uploaded is in there on page five or so. 

Thank you, Sir. I was in the process of editing these photos when you posted your last comment. You might want to look at my last post again - it contains more photos that I added since then. I had to put them all in the correct order that everything actually happened. For some damned reason photobucket put them in whatever willy-nilly order. Either way, this is all that there will be for a while since the computer that I posted these to their site wasn't very cooperative, and is running very slow I don't know when I'll get the chance to post from a more reliable source. It took me from 5:00 A.M. CST till 10:18 A.M. just to get the computer started, and get everything loaded from it to the photo hosting site, and then back to here from my laptop which doesn't have an SD card. TOO MANY problems doing it this way, so I'll have to get a new desktop, or laptop computer as the old one is simply not much more than a glorified boat anchor now!

 

~ Cobra Chris

Sharp! The fuselage is shaping up nicely!  

OK. The moment that we ALL have been waiting, and practically DYING for!!!

Pictures forthcoming - NOW.

 

 

Make a plan and stick to it, or at least make a pattern!

This is the five foot PVC pipe tube that I plan to use an armature.

I got side tracked making a boat!

This is my little helper. It was getting late, and he needed to sleep. As you can see it takes a lot to build a fuselage, and a lot of patience!

This is just thrown together, and held in place with tape to get an idea of proportion, and symmetry. This photo was just taken a angle to get the correct look of the length between the nosecone, and the canopy. The area behind the canopy was the hardest to tie together, and therefore it took the longest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, thanks.  I haven't been on the forums so much as life at school, and dealing with my family, and the kitties has been more than I can handle since they keep getting into my room, and knocking over the fuselage half that I started which holds all the parts that I'm making, as well as the parts that I've already made for this kit! I'm getting sick of seeing this all over the side of my bed, and on the floor beside it.

We just had a mishap with one of my favourite kitties - a yellow, and white little 2 pound cutie that got under my chair this last monday, and sheared a one inch length of skin off her tail! I didn't see her under the reclining/rocker chair that I usually sit in. I sat down  and heard a loud yowl! There was a small amount of blood all down the down the hallway, and through the kitchen. I almost cried when I looked at her in the kitchen laying on the rug she usually sleeps on looking at what was left of her mangled tail! We took her to the vet, and they bandaged it up. They took it off yesterday so that it can dry up, and heal. It's still VERY tender, and sore so she'll be on the defensive for a while as she has to keep it from getting infected, and the other kitties from attacking it until it can heal with a thick scab.

We just hope that it will continue to heal so that they won't have to cut her tail off! I don't know what you guys believe spiritually, but please pray that she'll heal up without any problems. I'd really appreciate it - she's one of my favourites of all the kittens other than one that isn't developing as fast as the others kitties since she's only six ounces (runt of the litter)! More to come, and I guarantee photos as soon as I get the top half of this fuselage finished enough to show. Thank you all for your comments and for your exceeding patience.

 

~ Cobra Chris

Great to see you back underweigh on this. 

Thank you, Sir.  I have the wood to go ahead with this project once again although I've been taking this slowly, and tweaking the dimensions to the correct size since this has been mostly guesswork. For the moment more planning to do, and to make a correctly shaped, and detailed R2 unit. Patience is the key. Stay tuned. I hope to finally have photos soon.

 

~ Cobra Chris

still watchin'

This is what I'm planning to use for the armature mounts. This is made from PVC. It's an inch inside. I'll modify one of these since I bought two of them. One will have no threads inside so that it'll slide in, and out for ease of fitting to the wings. I'll also use the basic tube shape with a flange to mount these parts to the wings. I need to shorten the fuselage length by a couple inches first. I'd rather have it too long, than too short. I can always cut it off, but it can't always be put back! You can clearly see that the fuselage in the above post is too short behind the R2-D2, and the hyperdrive actuator. The original ILM models were just a little bit longer. This version is loosely based on the original design. The wings are too long, the laser canon barrels are too big around, and the engine housings are too small in diameter. This is going to make it harder to ensure any authenticity to any other X-wing model made by the original ILM crew. Any way, I'm finishing up the last loose ends of the forward half of the fuselage, and tying all of it together with the rear end. Stay tuned....

 

~ Cobra Chris

Yes, Sir you are correct - a few pictures are worth a thousand words. However the computer I'm using is old, and junky as it doesn't have an SD card slot so I'm forced to use my own computer which is slow, and old, although it uses SD cards it takes forever to load, and to start up. It needs some serious help. I think I'll save my money and buy a new computer to put my pictures on, and load here. This will be when I get a couple of these kits sold. Here's a teaser. I think that my wings might not be right, and the laser canons aren't the correct diameter. Look, and see if you see what I see. I need to ensure that the fuselage behind the cockpit is correctly spaced behind the R2 unit, and the detent between the nosecone, and the canopy are the correct length before I go any further. I think that my fuselage is a couple inches too long. Check out the original ILM model in this photo below.

~ Cobra Chris

 

Can anyone tell me what the two red circled parts dimensions are = width, and length? These are from the Airfix Harrier jet. They are two pieces that look like sea shells two parts away from R2-D2s' head. If I can get the kit I'll recast them. If not then I'll scratch make them from a scan sized to the original ones in the picture you see here. Thanks for any help you can give.

Glad to see you're still on this. Always good to have a hobby to distract you from the really painful stuff in life. 

THank you gentlemen for your condolences. Please know that this IS going to happen. I just have to tweak the canopy, and the area behind it, and the backside of the fuselage then it's on to skinning this with styrene. The computer I'm using at the moment is on its' last legs as the cooling fan in it has died, and the external one isn't enough. It conks out when it gets too hot! It also is so old that there's no SD card slot for it. Give me some time to recitfy this situation. Thank you for looking, and for your patience!

 

~ Cobra Chris

I am sorry to hear about your grandmother Chris.  Sometimes it just takes a little time for a reset.  Sometimes all it takes is to just work on a totally different part of your project.  Work up some drawings on the computer or build a small piece that will be needed down the way.  Some of my projects are partly stalled at the moment as I don't have a working printer.  Thus, I work on other things.

Congrats though on being able to go back to school!  I know it is a lot of work, but the end can make it worth it.