Youtube vid of Auction X-wing Pyro and Auction Y-wing

Colin Droidmilk

Seen this? Forgive me if this has been posted already. I doubt if it has, since it represents a goldmine of ref I thought we'd've seen in the pyro x thread...

YouTube - X-Wing & Y-Wing Models: Profiles in History 'Hollywood Auction 40' Preview

voice in the crowd

Very cool.

Thank you

jedimaster

I wish they hadn't painted over the wings. It would have been cool to I'd those parts.

Thanks for posting man.

robn1

Great vid, thanks!

MonsieurTox

Thanks !

Nwerke

Uhhhm...that X fuse sure looks to have a separate canopy?

Good vid tho, thanks Colin!

MonsieurTox

Yeah it has indeed, but the guy said the fuselage is not screen used (as far as I can understand ). But that's a fuselage with a production pedigreee for sure !

Nwerke

No, but the claim (several times) was that it was production-made. But what are the chances of it being production-made yet having the same mods as the Eaves fuselage, coincidentally?

Colin Droidmilk

Definitely looks like it has a separate canopy, yeah. Do you have this pic:

Attached Thumbnails

 

MonsieurTox

Maybe I dont understand what he's saying lol but I understand that only the wings (with the cannons), the R2 etc are screen used and they assembled them on a fuselage (which we dont from where it comes) to get a complete X-Wing ? Like they did with the Y-Wing ?

Colin Droidmilk

Julien, the guy's definitely saying the fuselage was made in the ILM shop during Star Wars but was never filmed, because they finished the film without needing to paint and blow up this pyro. According to this guy, it was next in line to be blown up, but film production finished, so it survived. Everything he says about the model, he claims to be repeating from what (presumably) Dave Jones told him ( he calls him 'Phil' Jones).

This idea that they took the surviving wings from destroyed pyros, glued them onto fresh fuselage castings, then primered over the whole thing, painted up the whole model and then blew it up is new to me. Is that a new one to you guys?

The separate canopy is a mystery, though, Nwerke's right.... but then, we still don't know everything that went on in the ILM shop...

MonsieurTox

Thanks for the clarification !

Anyway this X-Wing probably was in a private collection and maybe the guy who owned cut the canopy ? I'm pretty sure that's an ILM fuselage, Kevin could you confirm this ? I'm sure you can !

gonk27

hmm, if that canopy was cut off, it was done so by a surgeon!..

I'm struggling a bit with the wings being painted-over screen used ones. In the pic you posted Colin, you can see bare resin under the grey primer where the paint coverage is thin. (not to mention the inside surface of the lower right wing) I would expect to see the model's original paint there, unless it was chemically removed first?

If the model was assembled during the haste of production, but just too late to be used, would the guys have had the patience to strip the old paint off first.. for a pyro? It would surely have been quicker to cast new parts.


Beautiful model all the same.

Colin Droidmilk

Apparently it was in the collection of Dave Jones, one of the Star Wars model crew, and one of the main builders of the X-wings, I believe. Presumably it's been with him since 1977. The Y-Wing was his also.

On a side note, the guy says there are no more models left now outside of the archives which, if true, doesn't sound too good for Red 1 lovers... and what about Red 2? Is that in the archives at present, do we know? Or is there just Red 3?

Colin Droidmilk

You're right about that resin look in the pictures - that's what I assumed was under the primer when those pics got posted. It doesn't seem likely they'd have stripped off the old paint, does it? Not given the sloppy paintjobs they were doing on the later pyros...

-... . .- --..

So, this is the David Jones (DJ) pyro, and I've managed to track down 26 decent images of it, and to my eye this is very much the real deal. I too initially thought this might be related to the John Eaves (JE) casting, but in my opinion, the DJ castings are not descendant from the JE castings. They are first cousins, to be sure, but not the same.

To my eye, the DJ fuselage is cleaner than the JE, without all of the chipped paint and re-scribed panel lines. As far as the canopy on the DJ, it's definitely different from the JE. It's only the front part of the that has been cut away on the DJ, while the rear portion, which has the proper panel lines, is still integral with the fuselage. Also, I believe that the angles and alignment of the frame uprights are correct to the original pyros on the DJ, while something...funky...happened to the JE canopy along the way.

Add to that the relative general crispness of the droid strip, engine, rear plate, cockpit and pilot castings, and the completeness of that original ILM droid, not to mention that it came straight from one of the original model makers, and I would be willing to bet that this model is as close to derived from production as anyone will ever have an opportunity to purchase.

In my judgement, while definitely related, the DJ pyro is almost certainly a notch above the JE pyro castings that Frank received while working on the MR project.

jedimaster

"something funky happened to the JE canopy along the way" that's been bugging me for a while now. Anyone else notice the missing 5mm panel line at the bottom of the back of the canopy?

Nwerke

Glad I'm not alone there. It was a point that troubled me when this sale came up. Those wings are only primered on the outside, and the material on the inside is a funny colour - if it's 70's urethane foam then I'd have expected it to be far yellower by now. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

And that.

Yes. Not to mention cutting off the canopy.

No argument there!

Good point from Beaz re the rear part of the canopy remaining in place. I'm bloody blind, some days! I guess it is a kind of a 'modelmaker-ey' thing to do, to give a model an opening canopy.

Have to add I'm not calling shenanigans on this as such - it has an awesome provenance - but I do think the description has fallen victim to Chinese Whispers, at least in part.

Colin Droidmilk

Also, in the world of prop auctions I assume the label 'screen-used' adds tens of thousands of dollars to a piece. But I do wonder if anyone can prove these X and Y 'screen-used' pieces actually appear in the film, given all the unused exploding pyro footage... 'Gone-before-camera' might be a better term here.

Nwerke

Or "cutting-room-floor". Yeah. However I think in this case if a model contains bits of models blown up for filming, and actually made it onto celluloid, it's good enough for me. Not that I have 40K to blow on a semi-crispy model spaceship.

I still wonder about the fate of Red 6. One of the few pyros we KNOW was in a more-or-less rebuildable state after being blown up...

Aurianna

Wow I feel like such a n00b I came here to learn & that I am, back in 85 I got the kenner speeder bike & hated how wrong the handles, turret, & springy legs in place of foot peddles. So I mounted it, cut away most of the plastic and replaced it with modeling wire, ran a hose to the gun turret, scratch built new handles, foot peddles, and even put a real canvas roll on the back painted it as close to the reference pics as I could then weathered it with ground pencil lead. For a 15 year old kid I was pretty happy with what I did. Now decades later after kit-bashing warhammer 40k miniatures I want to come back to modifying toys into scale replicas & wow all my work seems so limited. But it's great to have a place to find ideas & knowledge so Thanks to all of you for your hard work, & love of crafting. I hope some day to post pics of my builds and get advice and feedback.

Nwerke

Uhhh...did you know that there's a dedicated thread in the Props section for posting introductions? It's stickied at the top of the page so you can't miss it.

What made you choose this old thread?!

Welcome, though!

vaderdarth

Looks like a Salzo V2 to my eyes. The canopy fits the same anyway.

mslz22

Defiantly not, the canopy has a similar look but to me it looks like the back half is still cast into the fuselage, it seems to be only the forward half that was cut off and place back on, CCardborad and v2 had the whole canopy separate. There a a bunch of other differences but that is one related to the canopy....

darth_myeek

While we are a necro'ing, it would have been interesting to know which bird it was "next in line" for. Probably just any pyro spot they had to reshoot, but what if it were for a scene intended to be shot but the budget wasn't there? Ah the romance.