STAR WARS Hero X Wing Scratchbuild from Maxi Brute

Nighteyes

The X is iconic, no doubt about it. To me the ANH X is the X wing. A shame as most have been abused or partly modified. I hope to pay proper tribute to the original builders of these fabulous miniatures and those here who have followed in their footsteps after over a decade of research.

It’s a damn good read too. These threads have been invaluable:
Building X-Wing 1/24 : Help!!
X-Wing Research: Differences Between the Hero and Pyro Models
The All-New X-Wing Thread

You would be wise to visit these threads as well:
Hero X-Wing Build
RED 4 - Hero X-Wing with machined armature (motorized)

As far as I know these talented individuals are the only ones to have documented their own X scratch-builds. It is because of their good work and the extensive research here on this forum (and others) that this build is possible. Thank you!

I was lucky enough to pick up another member’s scratch-build. I’ll let him chime in if he likes… will attempt to use as much of it as possible, but will most likely be rebuilding everything from the ground up. This build begins with the master patterns for resin cast assemblies.

The engine master begins from the Phantom II engine cut and recombined, with panel lines added before gluing. This dark green plastic is from the 1976 release of the Phantom kit, and can be brittle. Speaking of brittle plastic, I have had terrible luck with the landing gear bits from the whitley. The one at the top was removed from another master in 6 pieces and has been reassembled. It is difficult to see in the photo but the detail is now a bit rough from the repair. Even Tenax couldn’t save this one… off to ebay for another and grabbed up the elephant kit required for this build from the same seller. Not sure if it was a result of packing but 1 of the 2 from the new kit was also broken. Gluing this one back together was a piece of cake, though.



Also began construction of the strip that goes behind R2. I paid special attention to the Hurricane bit. If you have ever seen the kit-part you know that it does not sit flat; with a gap for another part that continues the raised border along the edge. The ILM droid strip looks to have some filler in there. I wanted mine to sit flat on the Scharnhorst deck so I used some bits from the Hurricane to approximate the shape of filler on the original.



It’s a start anyway. This build will take time.

And before you ask… the training remote is nearly finished. There will be an update to that thread shortly.

Colin Droidmilk

Looks good. Is the fuselage going to be Salzo or is that going to be scratchbuilt too?

Nighteyes

Modified Maxi Brute all the way.

It'll be what I work on while I save up for the 1/15 Bandai stuff.

MonsieurTox

Great job so far !
How close is the maxi-brute from the original ? I remember Bill George used a maxi-brute for his own build up, correct me if Im wrong !

Which one will you depict ?

Nighteyes

Tox, you are indeed correct. Bill George's build can be found here:
http://www.starshipmodeler.com/gallery/bg_xwing.htm

Good question...
It was rumored the fuselage had been vac-formed over an original. However, when held it is immediately apparent that this is not the case. I wish it was too, but further research reveals it was built up from scratch. The master pattern for the Maxi Brute back plate, droid strip and a segment of the fuselage can be found at the SWCA:
http://theswca.com/index.php?action=...&item_id=59028

Seemingly no direct lineage to the originals besides the claim on the box... or is there? Have a look at pages 10 and 11 of the 1977 Estes Christmas Catalog:
http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/cat.../77estxmas.pdf

Obviously the writer has taken a few liberties but this does establish some lineage. Estes staff did go there and handled the models. There is even a tiny photo of a "Wayne" measuring a Y Wing and a Charlie Webb credited for taking over 500 photos. Now there is a portfolio I'd like to see.

The Maxi kit comes with a wing blueprint that measures out to the size of a Hero wing. The cannon depicted is dead on to all of my studio reference as well. My hypothesis is that the kit was made from a set of measurements taken during the visit.

omes72

Hi Paul. This will be a treat to watch. I'll be in the background while you & the guys that know what theyre talking about get this build sorted.

Nighteyes

Who ever said I know what I'm talking about?

joejoejedi

Hey, great start, I have three of max's. Ill be following this and hopeing to start mind soon

Nighteyes

Welcome to the forum triple J. You are very lucky to have three of those; they are rare. I waited for a while before I found one... another member here was gracious enough to hold one for me but then my timing belt went. I did manage to scoop one up later, but thanks again Dan, if you're reading.

Nighteyes

A small update:


Getting the droid strip right was a PITA. You have to cut the sides off, drill out the raised circle, but leave the lip the thickness of the rest of the raised borders. I backed the entire thing with styrene but added an extra slice under the Hurricane part so everything sits flush... can't have any undercuts if its going in rubber.

Anakin Starkiller

No problem

ILMwannabe

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing! I have a Maxi-Brute also, as well as a few of the Hasbro Toys (which really aren't bad if modified). I'll be watching this build also - it looks great so far!

Maybe too soon, but have you thought about which particular X-Wing you wish to build?

omes72

Ooh those kit parts look sexy Paul. Going in rubber. Sounds good.

atom

Hi!
I’m　new here, and sorry my bad English.
Because, It's　not my main language.

BTW,I have a question.

I think that rectangle part in red circle came from fujimi elephant.
If I'm correct, that tiny little parts on that rectangle part came from the same kit? I mean parts no.5.
You devided that tiny little part(parts no.5) in two and attached them on rectangle part?

I’m glad if you answer me.
Thanks.

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MonsieurTox

Welcome here Atom, yes, you're correct !

Nighteyes

Indeed... this guy DEFINITELY knows what he is talking about.

But before you glue those parts together make sure you have them positioned properly. This is really picking at details but you might have noticed that one side of the rectangle part has bit of an angle to it. The angle portion should be the side the halves extend to the edge of... if you look very close you can see I have mine backwards. I'll be making 2 of this part to speed up casting time. One oriented correctly, and the other backwards. Such a tiny detail... not going to worry about this one.

On the ILM miniatures this part was cast with the styrene already attached to the back. If you look closely at the your reference you can see the same blob of glue in the same spot in all 8 locations.

Photo updates tomorrow including a Maxi Brute X Wing photo analysis....there is more here than I thought.

As for which X this will be... I'm still on the fence. I always wanted to build Red Leader, and there is plenty of great reference available. Regardless, not every inch of this bird has been covered and I'm the type to want to match decals and all. With no Red 1 photos of the back or anything clear of the underside I might just build my own 'factory' finish X. A sort of OEM T65 could be a lot of fun.

atom

Thanks! MonsieurTox!
Thanks! incrediPAUL!
I’m happy, because you guys gave me kind words.
And incrediPAUL, I greatly appreciate your explanation of how I glue part No.5 on the rectangle part. It’s very helpful for me!
Now, I’m building 1/24 RED2.
If I finished mine, I would show you guys on RPF.

And incrediPAUL, I’m looking forward to watch your progress,
May the force be with you!
Thanks!

MonsieurTox

You're welcome Atom

incrediPAUL did a good explanation indeed !

I dont know if this is yours Atom, but I saw today all the parts (primed) of an X-Wing (I can tell it's red 2 because of the side mounting hole cover plates) laying on a desk on a japanese board. That's an incredible job ! The guy building it is going by the name of FH (fortunatly that's not Kanji ! )

atom

Hi!
That's me! I am FH.(yes!that's not kanji! lol)
If you can read JAPANESE, may be not, you recognize how slowly I build my RED2.
It took me about 7 years until　I finished almost parts of RED2.

About 90% of parts, I made them by myself,wings, laser canons,engines etc.
Off course, I used real kit parts that ILM used.
I used CCX as a fuselage,it's a SCOT's first generation model not SALZO's v2,v3.
But CCX's fuselage is not match against real filming model at many points.
So, I made heavily modification on it.
If I got SALZO's v3 fuselage 7 years ago, I could progressed much firster.

Do you understand what I　mean? I'm sorry, my English is not so good.
Anyway, I　will show you my RED2 someday on RPF．
Thank you!

OH! I'm sorry,incrediPAUL!
I may interrupt your X WING thread.
If you mind, I apologize to you for my rudeness.

kh39

HI,

I'm Japanese too.
I'm very interested in this decent studio scale replica thread.
I can't wait to see it finished!


As Julien said,atom is building a wonderful modification of CCX.
And I have to say that he's found a great thing which is where the
pilot's helmet comes from recently.A lot of people say it comes from F1 car's
helmet or something,but he's found a joe johnston's scketch which was drawn for ANH.
Sorry atom!I've attched this without your permition!
Now I think you guys don't need to try to find the helmet part do you?

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Nighteyes

No apologies neccessary atom and thanks for the interest! Please, feel free to post photos of your build in here as well. I can count on one hand how many X scratchbuilds I've seen in the past decade. I would be especially thrilled to see a Red 2. Have you made the engines?

Nighteyes

Here is the elephant part once more with the bolts aligned.


You can see the raised portions are not centered on the mid-line. This will effect the length of the halves that get glued on top.

EDIT:
Forgot to gripe about the quality of the plastic on the later releases of the elephant. The darker tan is the newer plastic, which is about as soft as wax. I had to trim off melted plastic bubbles when the halves were glued down. Atom looks like he sourced a totally different version, white plastic?

Nighteyes

And now the moment you've all been waiting for... presenting the Maxi Brute fuselage. Here is a comparison with a V3 and the studio Red 3.


Look at this nosecone and tell me you don't feel that wave of familiarity wash over you.


What exactly is vinyl tape and where can I find some? In the past I have used adhesive vinyl from sign shops, but the thickness and adhesive quality vary. Any recommendations?

joejoejedi

I know its been posted some where in the forum but do you have the compete list of models and parts use on the x-wing ?

MonsieurTox

Great job !

Yeah the fuselage and nose cone look really close

I bought my vinyl tape from Ebay, this original purpose is to use with a vinyl plotter (so that's the same you used ?), I probably had great chance, but the thickness was about perfect and it sticks very well, even after heavy washes of white&spirit and paint !