Troy Downen
Active Member
This is my build, or at least “heavy modification,” of the Hasbro Star Wars Hero Series X-wing. This is the big 29-inch toy with the Star Wars Rebels box art released in the United States in late August 2014.
WHAT SCALE?
To my knowledge there are no “official” blueprints or measurements for the X-wing, although a number of fan versions exist and of course there are various “studio scale” x-wings available which are generally thought to be 1/24 scale. Those are typically based on one of the surviving filming miniatures, although details may be “guesstimated” where access to one of the filming miniatures is not available. There are also highly detailed mainstream plastic kits from FineMolds which purport to be 1/72 and 1/48 scale, plus the various box-scale issues from MPC and newer ones from Revell. I have a number of these releases, but if I stick to the most recent 1/48 FineMolds and a 1/24 studio scale kit that I have handy, this Hasbro offering scales out to between 1:17 and 1:19 depending on the feature one chooses to focus on. The included R2-D2 diameter is less than 2mm wider than one of my Hasbro R2 units; the Hasbro 3-3/4” figures are generally referred to as 1:18 scale. All of this is good enough for me to call the new X-wing 1:18 scale and to plan some modifications to open the wings and to make it capable of accepting other astromech units (such as R3, R4 or R5 units) and pilots from Hasbro’s excellent line of figures.
THE TOY
This is, without a doubt, a toy! This has been the subject of great controversy on various forums, but I have to give Hasbro credit for setting forth a goal – make a toy suitable for ages 4+ and at a relatively low price point – and sticking to their guns when the temptation must have been great to make “just a slight upgrade here and there” to make the product more attractive to the collector (i.e. you and I). But they have made a great product for what they intended, and it’s up to us – if we so choose – to make the modifications necessary to turn it into something more along the lines that we collectors will be happy with. Hence my efforts here.
The toy is very large; about 30” in length overall. The wings are molded shut – they will NOT open into an “X” shape. The cockpit is closed and represented by a sticker – so no pilot or cockpit detail. The R2 unit in the back is just the upper body. The wing roots / engines are molded as part of the main fuselage. The outer wing panels snap onto the root stubs. The cannons snap onto the wing tips. There is a nose gear that can be rotated up into the fuselage nose or deployed; there are no main gear under the wings. No lights or sounds. No working features to speak of. That’s about it!
GETTING STARTED
The first line of business is to tear the toy apart. Really, just tackle the various screws (a few take some effort) and pull off the nozzles and engine inlets. Note that one set of screws is hidden below the engine inlets so yank off the inlets (which snap on) to access this last set of screws.
A note regarding the plastic used on this toy. It is apparently a plastic of the polyethylene (PE) family which means that – literally – modern science does not have a solvent that will dissolve the plastic. Yep, plastic glue will not work on this toy. And if you’re thinking contact glues such as CA, epoxy or Gorilla Glue (whatever it is) then you might as well just use chicken soup for all the good it will do you. This PE will shrug it all off (ask me how I know). So you’re stuck with two choices: there are some contact glues that are purported to work more-or-less to hold it together if you’re gentle: Weld-on 1829 and 3M’s Scotch Grip 1099. I haven’t tried them yet but I’m working on getting some. Or you can try an industrial strength double-side tape such as 3M’s VHB tape (very expensive). I’ll keep you posted regarding what I am able to end up using. But the upshot is that you need to keep those screws and will need to reassemble the toy at least partially using them when modifications are complete.
Next it’s time to get out the Dremel tool and start to make irreversible changes to the toy. Here you can see that I have cut the wing roots / engine units from the fuselage:
After a lot of planning and sketches, I built an internal wooden block to serve as an armature for mounting the completed x-wing and to attach a new set of scratch-built wings in deployed “X” position. Here you can see the early states of test-fitting the wooden block in the aft fuselage:
In that same photo you can see that I’ve cut out the cockpit windscreen; I’ll be scratch-building a cockpit later in the build. Same story for the astromech slot behind the cockpit. But one thing at a time…
Here you can see how much of the fuselage I have to cut away to make room for the new wing root structures that I’ll be building. The lower line is conveniently defined by an engraved panel line on the fuselage (so I know I can get that cut straight, at least!) but the upper line is a bit less well defined. The part at the top that I have shaded red is a “cut to fit” line that I’ll shave away as necessary to get my new wing roots to fit.
I also cut an access hole in the bottom of the fuselage for a 1/4-20 insert nut so that I can mount it from the bottom (you see here the temporary mount for construction and painting). I will tidy up that hole and also make an insert to cover the hole so that I’ll have the option to hang the model instead of put it on a display stand.
Once the fuselage sides were carved away, I made an overly-complicated set of wing root mounting blocks to attach to the wooden block armature in the body. Here you can see the nuts that have been secured in the body and to which the mounting blocks will be secured using socket head screws. The wings will thus be removable for easier transportation of the completed x-wing.
Here are the right hand side wing mount blocks installed with the fuselage rubber-banded together.
And finally for my efforts this weekend, you can see my wing prototype with one of the engines sitting on top checking for fit and placement.
Now that I have the wing mount blocks pretty well built, I’ll start to tackle the wings themselves which will be scratch-built in the open position but using large parts of the toy’s engines with heavy modifications. Unfortunately I live in an area with no local hobby stores and thus I have to pretty much mail-order all of my supplies. Thus it will be another couple of weeks before my styrene sheet and brass bars arrive to start building the wings. These will consist of brass bar spars, plywood cores and sheet styrene skins. But more on that as time goes on…
Thanks for taking a look, and best of luck with your modeling efforts!
--Troy
WHAT SCALE?
To my knowledge there are no “official” blueprints or measurements for the X-wing, although a number of fan versions exist and of course there are various “studio scale” x-wings available which are generally thought to be 1/24 scale. Those are typically based on one of the surviving filming miniatures, although details may be “guesstimated” where access to one of the filming miniatures is not available. There are also highly detailed mainstream plastic kits from FineMolds which purport to be 1/72 and 1/48 scale, plus the various box-scale issues from MPC and newer ones from Revell. I have a number of these releases, but if I stick to the most recent 1/48 FineMolds and a 1/24 studio scale kit that I have handy, this Hasbro offering scales out to between 1:17 and 1:19 depending on the feature one chooses to focus on. The included R2-D2 diameter is less than 2mm wider than one of my Hasbro R2 units; the Hasbro 3-3/4” figures are generally referred to as 1:18 scale. All of this is good enough for me to call the new X-wing 1:18 scale and to plan some modifications to open the wings and to make it capable of accepting other astromech units (such as R3, R4 or R5 units) and pilots from Hasbro’s excellent line of figures.
THE TOY
This is, without a doubt, a toy! This has been the subject of great controversy on various forums, but I have to give Hasbro credit for setting forth a goal – make a toy suitable for ages 4+ and at a relatively low price point – and sticking to their guns when the temptation must have been great to make “just a slight upgrade here and there” to make the product more attractive to the collector (i.e. you and I). But they have made a great product for what they intended, and it’s up to us – if we so choose – to make the modifications necessary to turn it into something more along the lines that we collectors will be happy with. Hence my efforts here.
The toy is very large; about 30” in length overall. The wings are molded shut – they will NOT open into an “X” shape. The cockpit is closed and represented by a sticker – so no pilot or cockpit detail. The R2 unit in the back is just the upper body. The wing roots / engines are molded as part of the main fuselage. The outer wing panels snap onto the root stubs. The cannons snap onto the wing tips. There is a nose gear that can be rotated up into the fuselage nose or deployed; there are no main gear under the wings. No lights or sounds. No working features to speak of. That’s about it!
GETTING STARTED
The first line of business is to tear the toy apart. Really, just tackle the various screws (a few take some effort) and pull off the nozzles and engine inlets. Note that one set of screws is hidden below the engine inlets so yank off the inlets (which snap on) to access this last set of screws.
A note regarding the plastic used on this toy. It is apparently a plastic of the polyethylene (PE) family which means that – literally – modern science does not have a solvent that will dissolve the plastic. Yep, plastic glue will not work on this toy. And if you’re thinking contact glues such as CA, epoxy or Gorilla Glue (whatever it is) then you might as well just use chicken soup for all the good it will do you. This PE will shrug it all off (ask me how I know). So you’re stuck with two choices: there are some contact glues that are purported to work more-or-less to hold it together if you’re gentle: Weld-on 1829 and 3M’s Scotch Grip 1099. I haven’t tried them yet but I’m working on getting some. Or you can try an industrial strength double-side tape such as 3M’s VHB tape (very expensive). I’ll keep you posted regarding what I am able to end up using. But the upshot is that you need to keep those screws and will need to reassemble the toy at least partially using them when modifications are complete.
Next it’s time to get out the Dremel tool and start to make irreversible changes to the toy. Here you can see that I have cut the wing roots / engine units from the fuselage:
After a lot of planning and sketches, I built an internal wooden block to serve as an armature for mounting the completed x-wing and to attach a new set of scratch-built wings in deployed “X” position. Here you can see the early states of test-fitting the wooden block in the aft fuselage:
In that same photo you can see that I’ve cut out the cockpit windscreen; I’ll be scratch-building a cockpit later in the build. Same story for the astromech slot behind the cockpit. But one thing at a time…
Here you can see how much of the fuselage I have to cut away to make room for the new wing root structures that I’ll be building. The lower line is conveniently defined by an engraved panel line on the fuselage (so I know I can get that cut straight, at least!) but the upper line is a bit less well defined. The part at the top that I have shaded red is a “cut to fit” line that I’ll shave away as necessary to get my new wing roots to fit.
I also cut an access hole in the bottom of the fuselage for a 1/4-20 insert nut so that I can mount it from the bottom (you see here the temporary mount for construction and painting). I will tidy up that hole and also make an insert to cover the hole so that I’ll have the option to hang the model instead of put it on a display stand.
Once the fuselage sides were carved away, I made an overly-complicated set of wing root mounting blocks to attach to the wooden block armature in the body. Here you can see the nuts that have been secured in the body and to which the mounting blocks will be secured using socket head screws. The wings will thus be removable for easier transportation of the completed x-wing.
Here are the right hand side wing mount blocks installed with the fuselage rubber-banded together.
And finally for my efforts this weekend, you can see my wing prototype with one of the engines sitting on top checking for fit and placement.
Now that I have the wing mount blocks pretty well built, I’ll start to tackle the wings themselves which will be scratch-built in the open position but using large parts of the toy’s engines with heavy modifications. Unfortunately I live in an area with no local hobby stores and thus I have to pretty much mail-order all of my supplies. Thus it will be another couple of weeks before my styrene sheet and brass bars arrive to start building the wings. These will consist of brass bar spars, plywood cores and sheet styrene skins. But more on that as time goes on…
Thanks for taking a look, and best of luck with your modeling efforts!
--Troy
