So finally getting some time to get cracking on this build/quide, thanks to everyone for being patient that has been waiting for this. It will likely take me about a month to get thru all this but by the time that it is done I should be able to sort out if anything is missing from my release of the kit. While this is specific to my release it should help out anyone with the older releases. A couple of notes before i go forward.
1. There is a cockpit interior add on kit in the works, actually 3 versions. One based on the full size set with a rebel crew, one full size with the bad guys, and hopefully one actual studio interior. All versions will come with smoke glass window. Price is TBD, but will not be much, just enough to cover my cost, paying for the pattern+materials.
2. I am considering offering this kit with NO WINGS, basically a scratchbuilders starter kit. It would have almost everything but the wings. This would allow me to offer this to people at lower cost, and allow people who want acrylic or styrene wings to get the parts that are a bit trickier or time consuming to build. If that interests anyone please chime in here so i can gauge interest. This version with the wings will still be available of course.
So with that being said, here we go.
You don't need to go with this order but I'm starting with the wings. My version has the lower wings in 2 parts each instead of 1. This allowed me to cleanly run metal thru both the upper and lower portions of these wings, it also helped with the configuration of the molds to keep each wing portion dead flat. These wings are cast with about 20% aluminum fill in them, so while they are heavy they should be pretty stable over time. I know that fiberglass is lighter, but fiberglass comes with it's own set of issues production wise.
First I clean up the wings and trim back the metal tubes except for the one that is at the very top. I made sure that none of the metal is proud by giving it a once over with a metal file.
1. There is a cockpit interior add on kit in the works, actually 3 versions. One based on the full size set with a rebel crew, one full size with the bad guys, and hopefully one actual studio interior. All versions will come with smoke glass window. Price is TBD, but will not be much, just enough to cover my cost, paying for the pattern+materials.
2. I am considering offering this kit with NO WINGS, basically a scratchbuilders starter kit. It would have almost everything but the wings. This would allow me to offer this to people at lower cost, and allow people who want acrylic or styrene wings to get the parts that are a bit trickier or time consuming to build. If that interests anyone please chime in here so i can gauge interest. This version with the wings will still be available of course.
So with that being said, here we go.
You don't need to go with this order but I'm starting with the wings. My version has the lower wings in 2 parts each instead of 1. This allowed me to cleanly run metal thru both the upper and lower portions of these wings, it also helped with the configuration of the molds to keep each wing portion dead flat. These wings are cast with about 20% aluminum fill in them, so while they are heavy they should be pretty stable over time. I know that fiberglass is lighter, but fiberglass comes with it's own set of issues production wise.
First I clean up the wings and trim back the metal tubes except for the one that is at the very top. I made sure that none of the metal is proud by giving it a once over with a metal file.