Four Foot X-wing work in progress(UPDATED WITH NEW PHOTOS)

Does anyone else know an easier way to glue copper to PVC tubing? I've been working on this for two days gluing cleaning up excess glue,gluing cleaning up, etc. I know this piping looks awfully crooked in places but it's impossible to bend it to shape then glue it without having it move. This leaves glue marks that have to be wetsanded out after it dries. The poor quality of lighting makes it look like brass but it IS copper. I got it from a Hewlett / Packard computer transformer.

This post has been updated with a more complete version - it still needs more greeblies added to finish the inside of it. The piping is done.

~ Cobra Chris

The Saturn V housings with the sheet styrene glued to it. This is to make the small lip that is not very prominent on the front edge.

The horrible scribbling is to remind me which edge is to be cut for gluing.

This is the Saturn V housings together to check for straightness. I had to plane them to the correct dimensions.  I left the bottom edge oversized for a margin of error. This allowed me to get superglue on it then sand it without ruining the straight edge by removing too much material until the styrene sheet edge was finished. There's a slight edge between the bottom edge of the engine housing and the styrene sheet that overlaps it. I added the strips on the ends of the engine housings that are present on the ILM Models. I'll post a comparison photo later.

I scraped the bottom edge of the styrene to make the line straight with the PVC pipe as I cut the sheet a little off center without realising it. I then sanded it with 150 and 220 grit to make it smooth. I'll do all the little touch ups later with 320 and 600 grit to make it ultra smooth and even.

These are the first attempts at making the greeblies that go on the outside of the Saturn V housing. The one on the far right is the first one I made. The one on the far left is the properly shaped and finished version.

This photo shows the two housings with the protruding lip. This was never removed from the original models used in the seventies. This was added to the four foot model by Ira Keelar to replicate this feature of the Saturn V engine housings.  This was actually a lip added to the original Airfix Saturn V model to allow proper alignment between the two pieces of the rocket body joint.

The following photos are of greeblies that go on the outside of the engine housings. These are made from 0.05" thick sheet styrene. This is why these features look so faint on the four foot ILM model. The long spar(rib)between the two chevrons is 0.20" inch thick.

 This is stretched sprue that I made,but I didn't have enough to fit the inside of the housings in the correct diameter. I ended up not using it afterall.

These are closer shots of the greeblies that are present on the outside of the rocket housings. These have been replicated by the ILM guys for this build. I replicated them to be the same size, shape, and thickness for my build too.

The three bottom greeblies are shown for comparison with the finished versions.

~ Cobra Chris

Thanks jtrace214. I'm pulling all the stops out on this one. This will be my ultimate tribute to the ILM guys. Accuracy is a must!

The only thing other than having to replace parts that are the wrong size here and there is,finding out that I have to make TWO laser canon bodies as they're not the same all the way around. There are two distinct designs they used for the top right wing and bottom left wing - these two being the same. And - the top left wing and bottom right wing are the same design. Why they did it this way is a mystery. I'll post comparison shots when I get the other laser canon body done.

I'll let most of the photos do the talking. If you have any questions - I'll try to answer them in a timely manner. I've been busy since I got the materials I've needed for a while. This is why I haven't posted for week I'm still building as you read this.

I put the new flash supressor inside the old one for comparison. I did this after realising it was too big. The smaller one is the correct size.

The bottom half of the engine intake shroud finished.

~ Cobra Chris

427,as a big fan of the movies you are doing great justice to the X-wing,great work,my hands are hurting just looking at them cuts lol. Keep up the great work.

John

Here are two of the reference photos that I used to make this with. Click on photos to see them in their original size.

~ Cobra Chris

  Here's a birds' eye view of the barrel. I took several photos of this. I can't make up my mind which one is the clearest,so I posted all of them. I haphazardly assembled this for you guys to get an idea of what this will look like when finished. None of it is glued together yet.

This is Mandy.  She thinks she's helping me out. No sooner than I started taking these pictures,she jumped right into the camera view. She was playing with the short brass piece that I use to mount parts for photos.

Click on photos to see them in their original size.

I know that everyone is sick of seeing this in the form that it was made in - I know I am.

Now you don't have to.

I had to shave this down,it was too tall.

Here you can see the lines I scored into it for cutting.

With its' final shape. This is for the F-4 Phantom engine mount. F-4 -it seems ironic,as this is the stamp the U.S. government uses for "rejected" projects. Um, actually it's 4-F. Same difference - I'm rejecting these parts.

The cut off  wheel that I made is very sharp. I found this out the hard way.

The discs I cut for the finial behind the flash supressor.

This is it in the rough. I turned all the discs at the same time. This was too long,so I had to remove one of the discs. I didn't glue these together to keep me from having to shave this down.

The smaller disc was to be shaved to the correct diameter later. I only cut it out at this stage to approximate its' size with the other parts.

The heat from turning the discs melted them together even after polishing them to high gloss.

This is to show scale.

I turned the ruler over for both english and metric measurements.

More damage. It's easy to see which hand does the most work. I tore this open while cutting these discs. I have over half a dozen cuts now.  I know what everyone is thinking. You don't want to see a cut up hand. I won't be able to work on this until I heal.

Well if you don't see any updates for a while you'll know why.

This is the finial in its' final shape.

 A closer look. I polished this for clarity. This way,I could see if there're any imperfections.

This won't be highly polished when I'm done with it. This will have to be satin finished so that paint will stick to the cast version of it.

~ Cobra Chris

Here are the latest reference photos that I used for this. 

Not only are you scratchbuilding a four-foot X-wing, you're scratchbuilding your own tools.

Sweet.

    I'll let most of the pictures do the talking. 

I turned this on a Millwaukee corded drill. This picture is only for demonstration and to show how I made this. I clamped the drill to a vise on the workbench then I held 60 grit sandpaper glued to a board. I smoothed this to shape with a rasp file held at a 45 degree angle. I followed that up with 220,320,(Wet)and 600(wet)sandpaper.

I shaved this down to the same diameter of the first disc.

This is to show the clarity of this piece.

Here's the mess I made on the countertop while doing this.

This is the cutting wheel that I made from a fender washer with the Moto-tool. I was tired of breaking cut off discs,so I made this. It slices right through plastic like a knife through hot butter.

~ Cobra Chris

  This is a piece of stretched sprue that I inserted in too far,and I had to drill out,and make another piece. (It was superglued in)

  This is the tip. I had to round it off to look like the actual model. Doesn't it look like the top to a waterbottle?

  Yes I AM crazy enough to drill into this 3/32nd of an inch styrene tip.

~ Cobra Chris

    This is the beginning of the bell housing. I turned these all on an arbour made for polishing wheels. I put a power drill into a vise mounted on a workbench.  I had to make an adapter for this to hold these as the holes in the vinyl discs cut from the EVH musicman control covers were drilled to 3/8"ths of an inch. This made holding them in place easier as they were being machined. The acrylic discs were turned on a 1/4" inch hole (the same size as the bolt for the arbour).  These didn't require any special adaptor to file them as they were being turned on the drill. I held a rasp file at an angle against the table and the discs and filed them as they were turning.

   This is a "3/8ths drill bit. This is to ensure that this has the correct symmetry all the way around.

    Acrylic discs. These form the rest of the bell housing behind the reinforcement ring. I'm using acrylic,as I ran out of the vinyl EVH musicman control covers that I cut up for this.

    I decided to cut the cone off instead of trying to cut the insides of all the discs to match the symmetry of the cones' structure.

This isn't glued together yet. These are just laid on top of each other for example.

This is what this should look like when finished.

This is it from the other side. I hope you all like this so far.

~ Cobra Chris

Here're the two photos that I used for reference.

~ Cobra Chris

Here I'm doing the water test. This is to make sure that the glue has sealed all the way around - it did.

Here is the acrylic that I used to make the ribs for the bottom of the shroud facing toward the front.  If you look closely you'll see that there is a slight gap between the shroud and the ribs themselves. I'll glue 60 grit sandpaper to the shroud with 3M brand spray adhesive as it's a soft glue and is easily removed with mineral spirits. This will allow me to draw the acrylic across the sandpaper and sand the exact shape into these pieces. This way there will be no gap between the two surfaces when glued.

A view from above.

 
This was a vain attempt to round these out evenly.

~ Cobra Chris

   This is a photo taken to show the clarity,and scale of these wings. The wells,or engine bays  (the plenum where the Saturn V parts go)are separate from these and will add about 5" inches more to their overall width from the wingtip to the fuselage.

These are the wings with the acrylic pieces replaced where the hole for the inside detail was cut too big.

The half circle shapes are the pieces that go at the ends of the engine housing for the Phantom engines to mount.

  The little retangular piece cut in half at an angle is the original replacement for the acrylic that I cut for the wing detail. The hole was too big,and the wrong shape towards the leading edge (towards the nosecone) so I made one to fit. This was a tiny bit too small so I made a second piece that now fits to my satisfaction. The other triangular pieces to the left of the wing are the details that go on the front of the intake plenums. They have no real life function but decorate this area for a more realistic look.

These are the intake plenum ends. These are the parts that are covered by the ornamental triangular pieces.

~ Cobra Chris

Here,I'm making a template for the bell housing. This will help guide me along as I make the small cuts that will create the shape that I need to acheive the look of the original model.
 

Each one of these steps have to be carefully taken to ensure accuracy but for now - I'll just rough this out with my Moto-tool and then refine the shape by hand. Using the RC car mount for an inner structure saves time.

In this photo - I'm measuring to see how wide this is. This helps me to establish whether or not my tracing is too big or too small for this acrylic piece I have chosen for this pattern. I'm not one for wasting anything so I'm making this from a piece of scrap.

Here, I'm measuring to see where the center line should be,so that I can place the pattern on the reverse side and make the same shape as I trace it out before cutting it to shape.

 
 I'm making my mark on the pattern here to ensure that it's straight so that it'll be evenly cut on both sides afterwards. I have to take into account the thickness of the ballpoint pen and move the yardstick over a little until the very tip of the pen touches the center line I made earlier. That way I know that the mark will be centered all the way through my pattern piece. I'll have to extrapolate the dimension of width from the engine housing to make sure that it'll be proportionate to rest of the model.

Traced out on this side.

This is it after being cut on one side but I wasn't too sure about making the fine cuts with the Moto-tool so I'll leave all the fine cutting and fitting to being shaped by hand. I'll cut the basic shape out the rest of the way tomorrow as I started to cut this out at twilight. It was getting to dark to see what I was doing so I had to stop for the night.

~ Cobra Chris

This is the original pattern cut from cardstock before I found out was too small (wrong scale 3'ft. 6" in.)! Now I have to start over with the fuseglage dimensions,but everything else I've made since then is correct to the four foot scale. For those who might be reading this right now - I'll have to edit this later as I'm sick and feeling light headed. The medicine I took an hour ago is now starting to really kick in and making it harder to concentrate on what I'm doing right now.  I'll edit this and the previous post with explanations of what each photo represents when I feel more lucid (clear of thought).

                                          ~ Cobra Chris

This is all penciled with roughed out lines to show where all the parts should be once assembled.

'
 

 



 

 

Thanks for the compliments! I was just checking my mail when I came across this forum post in my inbox. I have a bad cold right now,so I'm out of action. I only have enough strength to post a quick message.  Here's the latest progress. 

                                                                                  ~ Cobra Chris

 This is not yet glued. You can see that the outside edge still needs to be shaped to the outside of this shroud.

  The edge overhangs here,and in the photo below this one as well.

 
I taped the bottom part of the shroud to keep its' shape. After routing this to 3/32nd of an inch,this wants to spring out - especially after being cut in half.

 I taped this first,then slid the tape a little at a time(holding it with one hand)while this was sitting on top half of the engine housing,so that I could align the two without a lot of hassle.

This it to show the step between the two pieces. For whatever reason,the ILM modelers did this purely out of asthetics.

The dirt in the surface of this is from the 600 grit particles of the wet-sanding paper that got into the cellular core. The outer core is harder than the inner core,which is porous.

I shaved this down into the core,so this will have to be sealed with lacquer before I glue any parts to it. This will ensure a smooth surface once cast is resin. This isn't yet glued at this time,as it still has the protective covering over it,and only shown for example.

 
In this photo,I'm using a piece of MDF to weigh down the acrylic so that it glues evenly. This will ensure that there is no asymmetrical warpage.

Duly noted. Post edited. I wish not to be associated with such forum hyjinks! I don't want to seem off balance with the other members here.

~ Cobra Chris

Howdy, You obviously are very devoted and have already put forth alot of research and effort to get to this point! And with the background of this model , which you've shared, at ILM in itself makes it noteworthy as well! But, may I please submit for your consideration that speaking of interboard (or past boards) "politics"/issues/controversy only detract from your own presentation here?

 I say that hopefully in a constructive fashion (in no way pretending to be a mod) as an interested reader/member, here at FSM who finds the rest distracting at least and even possibly casting an unpleasant mood on your thread. I look forward to following your project.