Buck Rogers Starfighter

[Zuiun]

It's been awhile since I've had anything to post in here... so here we go.

The last three models I built were all Star Wars (Bandai Snowspeeder, Fine Molds Y-Wing, and a Bandai Imperial Scout Walker), so to switch things up, I dug this kit out of my collection...

I've always loved this ship design, even if the show itself was pretty cheesy... I had a model of it when I was a kid. I was thrown a Buck Rogers themed birthday one year and got a cake with this and the Marauder assembled (poorly by an uncle) and on the cake as decorations. Sadly, both models were lost in moves. But neither were put together well, so I don't know if they would have been salvageable if I still had them.

As those familiar with this kit know, there is a very small number of parts for it (I think just 16 pieces). This is a good thing, because it's fast to assemble, but a bad thing, because it really doesn't assemble well (at least not the main body halves -- we'll get to that later)...

Despite having so few parts, I somehow managed to forget to include the cockpit and the cockpit glass...

Before I go any further, I just have to say that finding definitive photos of the filming miniatures is a challenge. I've found tons of images of assembled models (this kit and others), but almost nothing but screen caps of the the actual model. Because of that, I made a decision pretty early on to not get too hung up on accuracy and paint this how I wanted. Maybe that's blasphemy to some, given that this is such a rare and collectible kit, but that's the direction I went.

The first "doing it my own way" decision I made was to add some extra detailing to the back panel. It just looked a bit too plain to me. I made a few little greeblies and fit them on. It actually didn't take much to make it look infinitely better to my eyes...

One weird detail about this kit is that some of the panel lines are recessed, some are raised. So I decided to give this model my first attempt at scribing panel lines. Spoiler alert: I didn't scribe any of the curved surfaces for this one. I just wasn't mentally prepared to take that risk... ;-) I started off with some easy things, like extending the indent for the control flaps along the top surfaces of the "wings."

And then a quick blast of primer to see how the greebles look on the back panel, show me where I needed to continue to fill and sand on the engines, and also on the wings because it made the raised panels easier to see for scribing...

More to come...

 

[xingshen]

Nice!

 

[edge10]

You can find some of best shots of the fighter here:

BattleBuck Repository

A private museum of original miniatures

www.smallartworks.ca

 

[Zuiun]

You can find some of best shots of the fighter here:

BattleBuck Repository

A private museum of original miniatures

www.smallartworks.ca

Those are some great shots! Wish I had come across that sooner... but alas, I still wound up pretty happy with how things came out.

Continuing with the build, the next decision I had to make was what to do with the cockpit. The hatch doesn't open and I wasn't planning on lighting this, so I knew it would wind up being pretty dark inside. Still, I wanted to have a pilot. Funds being tight, I didn't want to order something. Luckily I have 5 old MPC X-wing kits lying around, complete with their goofy pilots.

But he looked a bit bizarre just sitting in there with about a mile of space between the chair and the control panel, so I chopped it off and scratch built a bit of an extension. It's a bit rough, but I built it with the cockpit frame hiding most of it in mind...

I did have to amputate the pilot's legs below the knees to get him to fit properly. It wasn't that he was too big, just his seated position didn't work for the shape of this chair.

As anyone know is familiar with this old X-wing kit knows, this pilot barely looks human, much less anything like an X-wing pilot, starfighter pilot, or anything else. Normally I'd put a lot more effort into painting the pilot and cockpit (I spent almost as much time on the cockpit of my Snowspeeder as I did painting the exterior), but again, the frame of this ship's cockpit really obscures most of the interior. Still, I tried to somewhat mimic the cheesy white "flight" suits of the show by using a pearlized white paint. It's sloppy, but it'll do...

Cockpit and engines finished, panel lines scribed, it was time to assemble this beast...

I had heard horror stories of this model being horribly warped -- it is a really old kit, after all. And I while trying to test fit this, I was worried I was going to have some major problems getting this to fit properly. Turns out the solution was to just use practically every small clamp I had...

And thus began what I thought was going to be an endless task.... filling and sanding. While the body halves fit together surprisingly well, there was still a significant amount of clean up work to be done. Man, does working with Bandai kits spoil a person...

Anyway, about 87,000 hours of filling and sanding later, I finally had the ship ready for a final coat of primer, so here we are, primed up, and with the engines test fit. A note on the engines: I know the actual model was pretty monochrome in terms of detail on the engines -- they were basically just a dark grey with some black weathering -- but that felt boring to me. So I added some metallic (including heat discoloration) details...

It was at this point that I was really debating whether or not to bite the bullet and try to scribe the lines on the curved surfaces. But in the end, I still just chickened out.

And next, the really fun part begins...

 

[TazMan2000]

Nice!

These models are going for about $200USD and up on eBay.

TazMan2000

 

[Jkirkon]

An easy(er) way to scribe panel lines on curved surfaces, is to use Dymo plastic label maker tape...the plastic embossing tape. You can make it follow the curves, and use a needle to gently scribe the line. Then, follow with a scribe tool.

 

[division 6]

Looks good in grey.

Wish I still had mine from when they originally came out.

 

[modelcitizen]

i remember this one. makes me realize even 40 years ago i had a problem completing my model projects.

 

[Zuiun]

Nice!

These models are going for about $200USD and up on eBay.

TazMan2000

Yeah, I got lucky and got a pretty good deal on this one.

I've seen some pushback in some forums on actually even building this thing because of how "collectible" it is... but models were meant to be built, not sit in boxes forever.

 

[Zuiun]

An easy(er) way to scribe panel lines on curved surfaces, is to use Dymo plastic label maker tape...the plastic embossing tape. You can make it follow the curves, and use a needle to gently scribe the line. Then, follow with a scribe tool.

I'll have to keep that in mind for the next project I have that involves complicated scribing (Batman Batwing and original Cylon Raider... I'm looking at you)...

 

[Zuiun]

So if you looked closely at the photos in my last post, you may have noticed... as I did... that after what I thought was a final primer coat for painting, I hadn't completely successfully filled and removed the join on the main body at the end where the engine modules connect.

Thus.... even more filling and sanding.... *sigh* This model was truly a test of patience...

Anyway... another 74,382 hours of sanding later, and I was FINALLY ready to really dive deep into the painting. I decided to do add a bit of pre-shading, to see whether or not I liked it....

That was a first pass... I went back and hit the panel lines more.... but, really, it didn't matter... once I put the base coat on, I didn't really vibe with the pre-shading, so I wound up mostly covering it up anyway.

But that brings me to the Huge Decision I needed to make on this model.... WHAT COLOR IS IT?!?!???

Prior to starting this project, I went back and watched about half of the first season of the series. In a lot of the effects shots, the model seems to have a definite off-white, yellowish appearance. This seems to be supported by the fact that the full size sets were built with a sort of 1970's-early 80's beige.

Gross.

But was the model really a weird beige / off-white? Or was that just an artifact of the production standards of the time? I mean, we know a lot of the Star Wars models were mostly white, but appeared slightly off white and yellowish in the finished shots. Even the full size X-wing sets looked a bit yellowed....

Pretty much every image I found of both this model and other kits showed the builders had elected for whites and grays.

I did find a couple of really crappy resolution photos that appeared to show the actual model being filmed.... and it was white, with just a lot of dirt and grime applied.

So.... a white base it is....

Awesome! Great! And now all I need to do is mask this thing for the gray panels....

It took me exactly 163 minutes to mask this, which was simultaneously faster than I expected, but still really tedious. How do I know it took exactly 163 minutes? Because that happens to be the run time of the film Troy, which I started on my iPad when I began masking and I applied the final piece of tape just as the end credits faded out...

(Those weird bright spots? Yeah, pay no attention to those. It's the sun shining through the pegboard backing of my work bench at that time of day...)

Once masked, it was time to hit it with the gray. But after I pulled the tape off, I felt the gray I used was just too dark, so I dusted over the entire thing with the white base coat. Much better....

Now it's starting to look like something....

 

[wannab]

If you look close at the helmet in these pics (they are white), it seems the main color of the ship is def not white. Now as far as what hue, looking at these two pics it could be anywhere from the reddish-orange to green? lol

And yet another "monkey in the wrench"...

 

[modelcitizen]

according to old and long gone threasds from this very site, the base color was basically the color it was molded in there in your pics.
but if you want to paint it purple i say paint it purple....

 

[edge10]

Yeah, I got lucky and got a pretty good deal on this one.

I've seen some pushback in some forums on actually even building this thing because of how "collectible" it is... but models were meant to be built, not sit in boxes forever.

Didn't those people learn anything from Toy Story 2? Toys were meant to be played with, and models were meant to be built!

What do they expect you to do? Hand it down to your children, when you pass, like the Fine China? Perhaps our duty is, to have our collection end up on eBay, so someone else can keep it in the box, until they pass.

 

[Analyzer]

Excellent work and so glad to see someone building one of these

I am definitely in the camp of those who think it is bit silly to have a model that can't be built because of it's collector value. What fun is having plastic sprues sitting on a shelf in a box. At least with toy collectors, you can at least see the final product even if it is in packaging

I'd gladly buy the parts in a bag, they can have the box

I would love to see a reissue of this kit.

 

[INVAR]

I would love to see a reissue of this kit.

Me too. Maybe Moebius would be so kind as to grace us with a quality kit ala their Galactica '78 line? I would definitely grab a pair or three.

 

[Analyzer]

Me too. Maybe Moebius would be so kind as to grace us with a quality kit ala their Galactica '78 line? I would definitely grab a pair or three.

Unfortunately the licensing for Buck Rogers has been kind of a mess

Buck Rogers IP And A Possible Armageddon 2419

The U.S. will oversee the bankruptcy resulting from the fight over the rights to "Buck Rogers."

www.forbes.com

Is 'Buck Rogers' Finally Back in '2491'?

/PRNewswire/ -- It's been almost forty years since Buck Rogers captured the hearts and minds of a generation obsessed with aliens, heroes and battles beyond...

www.prnewswire.com

 

[Hunk a Junk]

I love what you're doing, Zuiun! I scored an original release of this kit and the Draconian Marauder back in the early 00's and started on them before shelving them to finish my E-refit hell project. Besides the scribed and raised panel lines being wrong, to me the main proportional error in the kit in the cockpit. It's slightly too narrow at the base where it meets the top hull. It took some major surgery to change. This gives it a wider front profile that I think improves the overall look a lot, IMHO. Unfortunately, it also means the kit cockpit no longer fits -- which isn't too much of a loss since it was inaccurate to both the studio model and the full-size set. I'll be printing up a new one and a pilot (Wilma, of course!) once I get proficient with the Elegoo Mars.

 

[Zuiun]

If you look close at the helmet in these pics (they are white), it seems the main color of the ship is def not white. Now as far as what hue, looking at these two pics it could be anywhere from the reddish-orange to green? lol

[images snipped]

And yet another "monkey in the wrench"...

Yeah, this is one of those ships that just doesn't seem to have been super well documented (I wonder whatever happened to the original models?) with definitive pictures or notes.

I found the following two images with a copyright watermark of Ken Larson, the guy who actually built them. Supposedly these are both the same model (although if so, it appears that by the time the double cockpit was added, the model took some damage to the lower wing structure -- the tip seems broken off), and again...white? Beige? Camera / photo discoloration? The image of it being filmed definitely skews more toward the white / gray color temp. The double cockpit version looks like it might have been more of a warm off-white... But either way, was the final color a product of the actual base color or extensive weathering?

I figured I could drive myself crazy trying to get a definitive solution to this... or I could just paint it a way I think does it justice.

 

[Zuiun]

I love what you're doing, Zuiun! I scored an original release of this kit and the Draconian Marauder back in the early 00's and started on them before shelving them to finish my E-refit hell project. Besides the scribed and raised panel lines being wrong, to me the main proportional error in the kit in the cockpit. It's slightly too narrow at the base where it meets the top hull. It took some major surgery to change. This gives it a wider front profile that I think improves the overall look a lot, IMHO. Unfortunately, it also means the kit cockpit no longer fits -- which isn't too much of a loss since it was inaccurate to both the studio model and the full-size set. I'll be printing up a new one and a pilot (Wilma, of course!) once I get proficient with the Elegoo Mars.

Oh, I was definitely not ambitious enough to try to accurize this beyond my limited panel scribing ability... lol And yes, the cockpit in this kit almost feels like they realized as they were boxing these for shipping that they forgot to include one, so hastily cobbled something together.

I look forward to seeing how yours comes out!

And I agree with everyone else -- I would LOVE to see a modern version of this kit. It's such a great starship design. This model isn't terrible (despite the weirdly lazy cockpit), but it definitely is a product of its time. Also, it's a great size. The box doesn't really give a scale, but it's pretty similar to the Moebius Viper, so I'd put it around 1/32nd or so. It'd be cool if some company managed to sort out the licensing and felt there was some demand for it...