Red 4 ? Pyro X-Wing Build

jedimaster

Ok , Been here a while now and haven't posted a build as yet so i figured seeing as Frank asked nicely......Why Not?

A While back when Frank first started the interest thread for the Pyro i got really excited. To me this was the "Holy Grail" of model kits. An X-Wing cast from an original ILM bird. Before he had even posted a picture of the kit i had a vision of this.

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A few months later i got this.

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I was so excited to hold this in my hand i think i just stared at it for at least two hours. After discussing the in's & out's of pyro's for about a month in Carstens thread i decided that my v3 would be Hero red 3 and my Pyro would be Pyro red four. All Good until you realize the lack of reference pix on Pyro red 4.

Now ideally i would haveliked the bird in two halves as in the first pic , but i am going to keep this bird pretty much as is , with only a few minor changes.

Firstly i had to remove/pop the insane amount of air bubbles in the fuse. You guy's in the Northern hemisphere may not have a problem with this but here in OZ it gets to 42-44 degrees c some day's . this not only causes warping in most garage kits but the air trapped in those bubbles will expand and go POP!!!!!!.

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Sorry for the quality of these pix (iphone). This took me day's

Colin Droidmilk

Go for it, bro!

MonsieurTox

Great job so far !

Red 4 is my fav X-Wing ever, good luck !

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So, minus good reference pix you could do a lot worse than study Julien's incredible Red 4 buildup. He mentions there that he had access to four production photographs, and while he may most likely not be in a position to share those, I can tell you that he did an amazing job of replicating the finish on the original.

I'm sure you've done it already, but just in case, definitely don't forget to read through his thread here and save every pic from this gallery of his finished model here.

And as for bubbles in Frank's kit, my castings have the exact same look and it's actually been extra cold in the States this winter, so I've been doing a lot of the same kind of filling, mostly with a combination of thinned Apoxie Sculpt and every grade of Mr. Resin and Mr. Surfacer.

So keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to following your progress too.

jedimaster

Thanks for the motivation guy's. It was Julians build that really got me on to this bird. My inspiration if you like. If I had franks molds I would probably do all of them but 3&4 just have great paint jobs and there are plenty of shots of hero red 3 so that nailed it for my v3 and just the fact of 4 being a hero/pyro nailed it for this.

Muzza

good to see some models being built in Planet Perth. Go man Go!!!!!

Nwerke

Go Simon! I must get back into my X builds, arrghh...too hot lately! Nearly melting right now, with the aircon on full bore, and it's already 8:15pm. Anyway, I second Beaz's recommendation, not that I've seen the pics in question. Don't need to, though, to spot that Julien's build is tops!

I will try to have my Red 6 build done for WASMEX, what about you?

jedimaster

I should have both these , red 3 hero and red 4 pyro as well as the snow speeder . Maybe the escape pod too.

I've mounted the pyro today but I've come across a hurdle with the canopy. I've had this niggling thing going on in my brain since I got this bird. I have alway's thought the droid sat too far forwards on this particular casting. But today I had a eureka moment when I noticed some panel lines missing from the bottom of the rear half of the canopy. Whether it was cut off the fuse at some time or most likely removed from the bottom of the canopy , it is missing. There is only a 3 mm or so difference but it's definitely there. The Dave g casting has it attached to the canopy. It's a tough one as the originals had the canopy fixed with the left and right halves so I guess I am just going. To have to improvise with some styrene.

I'll get some pix up tomorrow. Murray I see you've ordered one. Which one ya gonna build?

Nwerke

Mine's got a slight gap, which I thought was more at the front than the rear. No biggie to fix tho.

jedimaster

I think you'll find if you line up the front and look at the rear the "skirt" or the bit that tapers out is missing. Ther is a panel line on both hero and pyro models which runs from around 13 mm from the front edge of the canopy and sits around 5 mm below the canopy on the fuse.it follows all the way around and is usually painted the same color as the canopy. On our pyro it stops at the bottom of the "v" on the side of the canopy and does not continue upwards towards the droid.

Does this make sense?

Muzza

Hi Simon Yes i hva ordered one I didn't want to be the only one at the club with out one. I have not looked into which one I am going to build yet. but I am planning having the Probe Droid finished for WASMEX.

jedimaster

Sounds like a case of Pyro Envy you got there Muzza. I got this thing mounted yesterday.I mounted it high as i need to fit the hero red 3 on here as well.

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jedimaster

And behind it the only reference pic i have of the studio model , so Juliens pix are going to be invaluable.

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ralphee

Damn nice to see one of these taking shape, keep it coming Simon! Ill second, follow Juliens paint to the letter, its VERY close to the prop in every detail, an amazing likeness.

lee

ckwanwoo

Hey Simon,

Good Job~!
However, I'm wondering why it has a gap between the fuselage and the canopy?

I also want to build my X-Wing ASAP

thanks Eric.

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jedimaster

Thanks Lee. Eric the canopy still needs pinching. It was a little warped and had a large LUMP on the port side. I am still working on that . Also the canopy is a little small. There is a few mm missing from it. If you look at julien's build he has corrected it nicely. As mine is the solid fuse I have to wait until the cockpit and pilot are in situ befor I correct the canopy.

Thanks......Simon.

MonsieurTox

Simon, actually it was a bit easier for me to fit the canopy... I think you got a solid fuselage, which shrunk a lot... the 2 parts hollow fuselage are much larger (in every directions) than the solid fuselage (I have both), I didnt have to pinch my canopy to get it flush with the fuselage side walls on my hollow fuselage (but I had to do on my solid fuse), but the gaps at the back of the canopy were still here, since he hacked up this canopy from another bird that's normal it doesnt fit perfectly the fuse, well that's how I understand it !

Oh and... I'm very jealous of all your Stormtroopers Helmets !! And I can spot a scout one on the left... I'm very envious !

phase pistol

Stormtrooper heads watch silently from the sidelines.

jedimaster

LOL...... Yeah I had to move the workshop into my theater as it was reaching around 50 + degrees c in there. (not good for resin or humans). R2 is project managing the build.

Julien , I saw Martyns hollow fuse the other day and it is 8 mm longer. I didn't realize the solid fuse had shrunk that much. So overall that's a huge difference. I may have to rethink the canopy. If I pinch it in it will sit too high. Maybe I should just order an extra hollow fuse from frank.... Mmmm...decisions!

Colin Droidmilk

Looks bloody ace on the mount! Did your fuse come with the notch in the nose, then? Mine's blank.

jedimaster

Mine was blank as well , with all the discussion on carstens thread about the nose I figured I'd start there. The mount is just temporary . I'm going to mount these on a black acrylic base when their done a la ILM.

Colin Droidmilk

So you're keeping the original nose, then. I too see no real improvement in the other nose that comes with the kit. Today I saw an obvious difference in the underside of our built-in kit nose; it slopes up too early to the tip. So I bunged some blutac on to re-draw the outline, and boy it makes a heck of a difference; makes the whole fuse instantly much more ILM. It actually makes the fuse feel kinda longer too. I'll post a pic when I get a chance.

jedimaster

Cool look forward to the Pix. I also wondered about that. I've been focusing on the canopy for the last week. I managed to fine tune the canopy and added some styrene shims to close the gaps. Trouble is it now sits a little high. Damn solid fuse. Anyway I ordered a hollow fuse from frank. I just couldn't live with the fact that my bird was going to be 8 mm shorter than everyone else's, but until that arrives I'm going to plod along with this one.

Rats

Simon, You shouldn't really worry about being 8mm shorter than everyone else..........it's not really that much....

Good to see your progress, will it be on view next Monday night?

jedimaster

Hey John LOL!!!! That's easy for you to say with that perfect hollow Mic Davis casting. ahhh it was mine if only for a few hours.

I'll bring it along next Monday , hoping to have the wings on by then.