Building a manageable A-wing

Now THAT is cool. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the progress.

-Fred

After the risers are removed from the formed patterns and the flash
this creates removed. There is still an extra 3mm that needs
to be sanded away from each part.This is because all of the parts are
built up on 3mm styrene bottom profiles.
So masking tape is cut at 3mm wide and wrapped around the parts,
then it is marked with pencil and sanded until the extra 3mm is removed.

Gigatron said:

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Now THAT is cool. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the progress.

-Fred

Yo Fred you from Strong Island man!!

The A-wing is a cool fighter, to realize the shape you have to cut away
most of the model if you build it this way. So first I tape both hulls together
and find the middle of both and run the lines, as you can see in the pics.
Dimensions taken off the toy.The dremel tool does the heavy work almost up to the line, then hand sanding for the rest.In these pictures I cut away the shoulder areas on the top and bottom hulls.

The gun wells are drawn out and then dremeled away also,
same goes for the center insert sections, and the missile launch tubes.

Very cool !, Keep's the pic's coming.

After the launch tubes are cut out on each side, I chose
to fill them with some evergreen strip channel.The channel
pushed it back just far enough to give it a real nice channeled
look in this scale and it bent perfectly to shape.After this was done on each side, two reinforcement bulkheads were cut out and added. These add needed strength to the side of the hulls were it is hollow.

Arkive Dave said:

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Very cool !, Keep's the pic's coming.

No worries Dave have a lot already finished so I will
post right up to the current progression.

With just about all being cut away minus the tub opening,
it's time to start filling back in the center sections.These
need to be cut out because the sit a little lower in their
travel down the top and bottom hulls.So some poster board to make a
template.That template is then traced onto some 2mm styrene and cut out,
it ended up being exactly 2x's bigger than the old snap kit, as you can see
in the pics as I marked it off twice.

You have seen some pictures of the canopy nose cone and rail
that are bit out of order.this is how I created it, it was just
dremeled away after it was marked out.That particular plug was created
just for 90 percent of it to be dremeled away. Because the cone would be nearly impossible to create attached to the rail I made it this way. You can see
in the pic the left over piece in the background.

Next I glued down the canopy rail and nose cone. Once the rail and cone were glued down I took the dremel tool and dremeled away the inside shape
created by the rail and cone piece. Next I placed A piece of styrene from
the underside and traced the shape on it. This would aid in capturing the profile
of the tub at the very top, this will be later built up on and turned into a pattern for the tub, so it could also be vacuum formed.

With the tub part vacuum formed I added a little shelf
to add some details on. Still a lot more to do in the cockpit
but you get the idea how it was made...thats what is most
important!

Next up making the inner bulkhead the engines attach to.
I jut held the oak tag up to the profile of the shoulder cut outs,
and kind of just winged the rest making templates until I got it right.On
the inside of the model I glued down some evergreen strip to mark the location
and recess of this bulkhead. Then I went ahead and added the gun well
bulkheads, and backed them up with right triangles to give it strength.This area
will need to be drilled while in place for the laser cannons.

With the bulkhead sorted out for the most part,
it was time to start the placement of the engines and stabilizers,
first the panel lines were drawn and scribed.The lower engines
stabilizer was glued to it's engine. The top stabilizer and lower
sit at a angle, to keep the proper angle at the top I mad a little
angle type of jig to lean it up against while gluing.Then a hole is drilled in the engines front fascia.The the engine is slipped into place, I then rotate the lower engine until it's stabilizer matches the angle as the top. When this is achieved I tape a ruler to both to lock them in place.With the ruler taped to the stabilizers, I take a pencil and mark through the pre-drilled hole in the engine fascia, placing it's location on the inner bulkhead. This mark is then drilled out so a bolt and wing nut can hold the engine to the bulkhead.This allows for easy mounting and removal of the engine right up until final fitting
when it will already be painted.Thats about where I am right now I have a ton more pics but just to speed things up a bit!

Thats looking great Michael, i love the panel lines.

as the former modman from a site we dont speak of, did you get the pics of the cast parts.

Great work

Michael/Al, thats spot on fellas. Great team work, you dont fancy making a set twice the size do ya? LOL

Guy Cowen said:

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Michael/Al, thats spot on fellas. Great team work, you dont fancy making a set twice the size do ya? LOL

Ya I know your are formed and not great!!!
I could make another pattern for the SS size
and cast it also!! You have a ways to go before you have to glue them on,
you can do that completely last!

Some of the slow stuff today, working a little evergreen strip
around the vector rings and some channel on the inside. I know the
filming mini doesn't have the channel, but I like the way it looks and
it's a bit more interesting to look at so I went ahead and used it!