Star Tours Fuel Tank Model ID help

Hello,
I've been wanting to give a go at a studio scale model but wanted to do something that has not been done before. I really have always loved the original star tours so I decided to give a go at the yellow tanker at the end that you almost crash into before hitting the brakes. I tried to find as much resources as possible but unfortunately no pictures of this, to my knowledge, exist. So I watched about 20 different HD recordings on youtube, including a pre production video, and took screen grabs from them.

So judging by the size of the set piece and the studio model of the starspeeder, this tank needs to fit into the 1:24 scale range. I was thinking that it could possibly be a train model that was slapped with greeblies and painted up but I am not too familiar with trains. It could also be a spuced up tanker truck kit possibly, considering the scale, but all of my hours of searching have yeilded nothing. The production filming took place after ROTJ and before 1987 so that opens up the possibility for a lot of kits that haven't been ID'd yet, of course . You guys are the masters of studio scale modeling and I appriciate any help, thanks.

Sat V rocket, i think i can see the teardrops....

Rumor has it the guy in the window is Lucas without the signature beard.

Sat V rocket, i think i can see the teardrops....

Im pretty sure your right mslz22, I didnt notice the teardrop shapes on the tank, theyre actually only visible in only one of the screenshots I took... I lined up the teardrop shape of the airfix saturn V to the screenshot and it seems to be a match. It seems as if the part is too long on the cone shaped part. It seems like they cut off the end of it, or it could just be the perspecitive angle too.

Rumor has it the guy in the window is Lucas without the signature beard.

It's funny, I thought so too! I remember hearing that a long time ago and was convinced of it, until Endorexpress posted this picture of the real guy that disney showed recently in the slideshow at CV, he was evidently a modelmaker for ILM and not Lucus. Really dissapointing if you ask me.

Sure looks like George still

After looking through the studioscale.com and staring at my really blury refrence pictures, I think I ID'd my first kit part ever...there seem to be three wheel wells under the Airfix Saturn part. The middle and rightmost wheel wells look like they are from the Tamiya Sdkfz 232 8Rad, the same part that is used on the back of the at-st. The leftmost wheel well seems like it is from a tanker truck or something that the Saturn V part sits on, but im still not sure the exact shape so its tough to judge the model origin. Im really stuggling without good refrence pictures of it, so if anybody can help me out please PM me if you have anything on this, it would be really appriciated!

those are some good pics, thanks TwinkimMilton... I was recently bidding on a vintage airfix apollo V, but unfortunately it went for $125 after shipping so I'm considering just ordering the reissue of it first since it is easier to come by. But before i do, does anyone know any major retooling differences? The only one that I could find was in the top capsule section, but hopefully there Isn't anything else so it wont affect my build.

I am such a big fan of the ride. I just can´t get enough rare "behind-the-scenes" pictures Great project joez!

The new kit has some tooling differences. Mainly the engines themselves but it's only minor.

Thanks Sam, I think that it is way overdue for someone to show Star Tours some love...I mean we all love OT stuff, but I feel like a good majority of it has been done already. For me, before I was even introduced to the Star Wars trilogy, the thing that started it all off was when I rode Star Tours back in 95 when i was 4. It left such an impression on me I've been obsessed with Star Wars ever since. Well thats my story haha but now back to the fuel tank. I made a really cool observation that I never noticed before, I kept looking at my refrence pics trying to figure out what donor parts made up the front before the tank...and I couldn't belive what I saw... there's an R2 driving it! I cant believe after fifteen years riding it and staring at refrence pics I never noticed it. So I ordered a 1/24 revell Jedi Starfighter kit off of ebay for like $4 and Im going to fix up the R2 a bit to put on the model when finished, if I can ever find some good refrence pics lol.

jedimaster said:

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The new kit has some tooling differences. Mainly the engines themselves but it's only minor.

That is really good news thanks jedimaster! I'm going to order this ASAP so I can figure out which parts look right. I already changed my mind from the original post I made since I found a little higher quality of a video on youtube, but still very blurry. I'll just have to wait and see once my kit arrives.

I orded the Airfix Saturn V and it should be arriving soon so Ill have pics up next weekend. Looking closer at the refrence pics i think that the wheel wells could be cut from a Tamiya M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage. I think the shape looks a lot closer, compared to the 8 rad that I thought earlier. I still cant seem to find something that has the exact match yet.

I'm definitely going to help you start this back up, it has to be done. I want one...and even if we can't be sure what IS accurate, I'll build a hell of a guess...

Lets do it!! Ive been dying to work on the fuel tank just needed some encouragement...i think a group build would be really awesome and given the lack of refrence, like the rebel fleet ship, i think as long as we keep it kit era to only 1986 and back we can do a darn nice ilm feeling model.

lets start a brainstorm and get this back rolling

The commandmodule is a 100% retooling... Must admit I didn't check the remaining parts ... once I found out, I sold the retooled version again, and by luck found another vintage kit

joez2391 said:

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those are some good pics, thanks TwinkimMilton... I was recently bidding on a vintage airfix apollo V, but unfortunately it went for $125 after shipping so I'm considering just ordering the reissue of it first since it is easier to come by. But before i do, does anyone know any major retooling differences? The only one that I could find was in the top capsule section, but hopefully there Isn't anything else so it wont affect my build.

the smithsonian version of the saturn v is really cheap compared to the vintage box and its the same vintage kit before the newer retoolling. i picked up mine for $20 off the bay a few years ago but they only pop up every so often.

joez2391 said:

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Lets do it!! Ive been dying to work on the fuel tank just needed some encouragement...i think a group build would be really awesome and given the lack of refrence, like the rebel fleet ship, i think as long as we keep it kit era to only 1986 and back we can do a darn nice ilm feeling model.

lets start a brainstorm and get this back rolling

Indeed sir! I agree on a group build for sure. It would be awesome to see what people come up with/how they interpret it and as you said; even if we can't get great reference or be sure on the parts we can build up a great pair of "looks like it" tanks. It's a great base for artistic license...and will look great next to a repainted Starspeeder playset.

Shall we try to get more reference or just make this a fun group build? Are we accuracy hooligans over creative people?

So lets pick up where you guys left off.

The Tank you've identified as a vintage Saturn V by Airfix.

There are 3 of those Tamiya M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage wheel covers on either side...We've got some led's and some sort of cylinder tanks in the rear I believe. The decal on the right of the "FUEL" reads "Hazardous". I also notice some caution striping and a decal that reads 22. Odd.

If I am remembering right, the thing hovered it's way across the screen...I can hardly believe that there would be wheels on this Star Wars vehicle. So at the moment I'm thinking of the Carbonite floating as being a similar technology to transport this tanker in the Star Wars world...if that even matters. I've only been on Star Tours 4 times and I can hardly remember what was actually portrayed.



I think I want to try not to over complicate this. I want it to be fun and not take an eternity, but I definitely want to try and capture the flavour of the original. As well as preserve the Saturn V body well enough so that if reference does come along some day, maybe I can just rebuild without buying a new one.

I dont really know about the m16 whell covers 100% tbh, the more i look at it the more it just feels like some other sort of wheel covering. oh also too dont forget the astromech droid up in front contolling it! there has to be better material out there on this, there is no way that none of this was preserved in the lucas archives. look at this picture i found below, see the maintainence bay door on the left side? that means that the fuel tank must be floating around there somewhere the problem is is that it is not a very widely identifiable piece.

this was one of the best videos i could find on youtube of the end scene

Star Tours (HD Front Seat POV) Disneyland California - YouTube

plus there is the leaked pre-star tours video which is yellowed and blurry, but if we could track down the original copy of the yellow pre release version we would be able to ID parts in a heartbeat. This video is pretty neat, in the settings you can slow it down to really get a good look at it.

Star Tours Ride Film [Full] (Pre-Disney) - YouTube

Thanks for your insight! I did notice that there was some little bulb, I didn't realise it was an astromech. We'll have to figure out what sort. I think you were on the right track, they look like wheel covers.




At one point I thought a good idea might be to contact Ira Keeler or Steve Gawley to see if they have any photos of it. Since they may have been the ones to make it. Unfortunately I have no way of doing that, except for asking around...

At one point I thought a good idea might be to contact Ira Keeler or Steve Gawley to see if they have any photos of it. Since they may have been the ones to make it. Unfortunately I have no way of doing that, except for asking around...

I think that if you could eventually track one of them down we could possibly hit a goldmine with refrence photos. or maybe one of them could even point to where the fuel tank resides today. It could possibly be in the hands of a private collector but i still have a feeling it would be in the archives. I attached below the picture of the no admittance door at the archives. Maybe if someone could have pointed the camera a little to the left...

I'll see what I can do about contacting them. "Improbable, yes....Impossible, no." Indeed.

Any idea's on what sort of Astromech is controlling it?

awesome quote right? its from the ride Timekeeper that used to be at magic kingdom, used to love that ride came and went a few years ago though..too bad. good luck with contacting them, truely this isn't an impossible task, i cant wait to hear what they have to say!

I think that the astromech is just an average 1/24th R2 of some sort. maybe just painted like R2, since the lines could just be motion blur. Here is a 1/24th R2 for a size comparison next to the saturn part. by the way, the saturn part needs to be cut down on the left side about an inch so the end is thicker in depth.



and i took a look at comparing the wheel well size to the 1/35 tamiya 8rad. It looks a little big but what about if we used the wheel wells from a 1/72 scale 8rad instead? Then we would be able to fit in three of them just like the model. i think hasegawa has a kit out that might have been used but who knows for sure with the blurry pics we have.