The Y-Wing "Green Leader" Project - NOW OPEN SOURCE!

Jamie M said:

I had the same issue when this project started however being a single parent i didn't have the other half point of consideration.
But after pricing up the parts on shapeways i decided that purchasing my own 3-d printer was the way to go and i havent looked back. It's a steep learning curve but boy do you have fun. Not only have i printed off several Ywings for myself but have also helped a few other members along the way. Aaaaaannnnndd i accidentlyed a 1:12 Y wing for ****s N giggles so do it. Do it now !!

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Heh-heh, at 1/12 scale you can put Ken or Barbie in a Y-Wing Outfit and have some serious fun with Pop Culture Meta-Commentary on your build. I recommend building it like an American NASCAR race car, with corporate sponsorship logos all over the place!

Studio Kitbash said:

Heh-heh, at 1/12 scale you can put Ken or Barbie in a Y-Wing Outfit and have some serious fun with Pop Culture Meta-Commentary on your build. I recommend building it like an American NASCAR race car, with corporate sponsorship logos all over the place!

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Now that's an idea ! However the plan at the moment is to super detail it with as many prints as i can muster and add loads of plastistruct / kit parts but it's early days and i need to finish grey2 before i get too carried away hehe

By my estimation, the actual 2017 cost of acquiring the original nurnies from Confirmed Donors is about 6k. I spent 5k only because I naively thought it wouldn't cost that much since I already owned roughly 30 of the 55 kits necessary.

Oh, 55 kits? Dream on. More like 137.

Check the Project Runs for a Limited Run of 30 sets of Studio Scale Y-Wing nurnies if you want to save a lot of money.

Want to say thanks again to DaveG for kindly allowing me to use his 3D files to print out his forward fuselage and have a chance to study and pre-plan my own 1/12th scale nose version, which will be made from a renshape-type of hard foam.

Here is DaveG's Open Source Y-Wing Project forward fuselage printed out at double-studio scale size with a FineMold's Y-Wing Fighter model:



( For more on my 1/12th scale build-up see: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=253344 )

Thank you, DaveG!

The Saturn V shells. Both Air fix and Revell sell a 1/144 kit. Will either work with the nacelle cores? I am finding the Revell kits cheaper.

Re: The Y-Wing "Green Leader" Project - NOW OPEN SOURCE!

Carnet said:

The Saturn V shells. Both Air fix and Revell sell a 1/144 kit. Will either work with the nacelle cores? I am finding the Revell kits cheaper.

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The Revell isn't "accurate" but definitely works. It's like 99% right.


Edit. Sorry I thought you were just wondering about the shells, they'll work
The rest not so much as Kokkari pointed out.

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Accurizing your Y-Wing build starts with reading all of the reference material, then reverse-engineering from the confirmed donor nurnies, then getting it right down to the millimeter...

Two of the reference books confirm that the ILM studio prop Y-Wings were 38cm wide by 71cm long. As many have discovered, the LENGTH problem is easy enough to solve -- just add more spacers, cut longer T-bars, or modify (as Scott Peterson and DaveG both have so kindly done) the Open Source Files to stretch things out.

But the WIDTH of the Y-Wing is a different problem. To accurize your build using DaveG's open source code and armature, you'll need a different Tee Plate.

Old Tee-Plate (32.4cm) below, New Tee Plate (34.0cm) above

After six iterations, I am of the following opinion:

A 33.8 cm wide Tee Plate will give you an exact width of 38cm after build-up (from tip of Left outer engine nurnie to tip of Right outer engine nurnie), IF you're using the Roco 1/87 anti-tank obstacle trapezoids as your outer engine nurnies.

A 34.0 cm wide Tee Plate will give you an exact width of 38cm after build-up (from tip of Left outer engine nurnie to tip of Right outer engine nurnie), IF you're using DaveG's super-accurized trapezoids (which is what I recommend, and what I am using). His trapezoids are 1mm shorter than the Roco trapezoid height.

If you want one of these, I have a limited number of 34.0cm Tee Plates available in the Project Run thread. I may later produce 33.8cm Tee Plates if there is interest. If you have original Tee Plates that were 32.4cm wide, and you haven't started building yet, now is the time to get the right one. Other than a trip to the Lucasfilm archive itself with a metric ruler, I don't think I can get more accurate than this.

One question remains: did the reference book photographer/measurer use measurements that were "rounded up" to the nearest cm, or even possibly "round down"? If the Y-Wing is not precisely 38.0 cm wide from outer nurnie to outer nurnie, then I'm guessing they rounded up by 4mm or less. This estimation is based off my reverse-engineering of the nurnies, and of the gap between the end of the Hummel wing plant-on and the Kettenkrad track link at wings edge. This means if my measurements are off, then the tee-plate width is too long by either 2mm or 4mm, depending on trapezoids used. Still, to my mind, that's closer than we were a year ago, which was too short by 1.6cm

Many Bothans died to bring you this information...

Carnet said:

The Saturn V shells. Both Air fix and Revell sell a 1/144 kit. Will either work with the nacelle cores? I am finding the Revell kits cheaper.

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If I remember correctly the cans are very close and work on Dave's cores, but this part which you will need is all wrong on the Revell. I know, because I made the mistake in getting the Revell kit.

Also, depending on which Y you're making and if you are using the full LEM on top, is not right on the Revell.

I use to have a Revell kit (gave it away) and did a test fit to my cores. The Revell shells will work with either the 3D printed or laser cut versions. However, the Revell shells are slightly larger in diameter than the Airfix shells so the fit will be a little looser on the cores. Also there are cuts and recesses in the cores for clearance around the interior tabs and ridges on the Airfix shells, some minor modifications to the cores might be necessary to get the best fit to the Revell parts which are different on the inside. For those of you that have my L'Eggs cones, they were made to match the diameter of the Airfix shells so they are not going to be flush to the Revell cans but it's not likely to be very noticable.

Encouragement from the trenches:

If you think your Y-Wing is coming out poorly, you're finding it insanely frustrating, you can't seem to see the forest for the leaves, or worse you see the leaves and the trees but can't get the forest right, then here's some encouragement for you: Just 10 years ago this article (Jpegs below) was amazing enough to get into Tamiya's International Model Magazine. The author gets the dimensions, the Saturn V cans, the L'eggs pantyhose containers right, and hand carves a pretty decent fuselage head, but every single nurnie is inaccurate -- and yet it still looks pretty good! So when you're fretting over the last three nurnies and where they may have come from, I hope this article helps give you some fresh perspective.

View attachment Tamiya 2007 Y_Wing Build Cover.jpg View attachment Tamiya 2007 Y-Wing P.1.jpg View attachment Tamiya 2007 Y-Wing P2.jpg View attachment Tamiya 2007 Y-Wing P3.jpg View attachment Tamiya 2007 Y-Wing P4.jpg

Kind of amazing how much has been learned in ten years, when you think about it. At the thirtieth anniversary of Star Wars, this was the best you could get. Now, at the 40th anniversary (coming up on May 25th), our models are stunningly accurate when compared to the screen-used originals. That's worth celebrating.

Somebodys a busy little bubble of modeling madness. Total koolness.

jawsmodels said:

Somebodys a busy little bubble of modeling madness. Total koolness.

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You have no idea. Been breathing resin vapors for the better part of a month now... taking a small hiatus for summer, but meanwhile if you need a nurnie let me know.

I decided the easiest path was to buy the Gold Leader kit and cast my missing parts off of that!

satazius said:

Just the 15 or so Sealabs, 16 plus Bandai Panther Gs and the Bandai 1/15 stuff would probably put you north of 20K at today's prices (not to mention the years of searching). But we do have the advantage of resin, 3-D printers, and people like DaveG and all who have contribute to the SS community to help get things made. Some kits have become very expensive for sure, but there sure is no better time to be a SS builder than now I'd say.

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For your photographic reference files, here is the original NSU Kettenkrad: tow hook, track link, and "bump" courtesy of the Bundeswehr Military History Musem in Dresden, Germany.

Does anyone know where to find ABS tees for the struts? 1/4" right?

The Plastruct website has lots of goodies. Here's a link for the ABS tees

https://plastruct.com/shop/structural-shapes/90086-t-8/

RSWillett1 said:

The Plastruct website has lots of goodies. Here's a link for the ABS tees

https://plastruct.com/shop/structural-shapes/90086-t-8/

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Perfect. Thanks!
I was using the Plastruct styrene tees and they weren't cutting it.
Thanks again

Just for reference, back in the 70's Plastruct (also known as EMA, Engineering Model Associates) only made structural shapes in ABS. They wouldn't have the finer styrene shapes until the 90's. Likewise, Evergreen, didn't have structural shapes at that time, only strips and sheets.

"2-seater" version of the cockpit for Green Leader Y-Wing and some pilot variants to come with it:













Please note, the cockpit will not fit into the forward fuselage with the armature provided. Either the cockpit floor or the armature will need to be modified.

Damn, that's nice!