***COMPLETED**** Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

mmhnc said:

It looks so cool! I saw this today and thought I would share as I had me seen it before. My guess is this may be the prototype (blue leader) as it looks like it is in the process of scratch building as the others where cast parts.
http://www.therpf.com/webkit-fake-url://fa3b7d2c-e03b-4ccd-a3e6-17a7546ee1d0/imagepng

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Is that link broken ? I couldn't see it or open it....

- - - Updated - - -

now I got it.....

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

Back with some more... Didn't get a chance to get the post up last night. Had to watch Better Call Saul....priorities


moving on to the cannons



I divided the cannons up for alignment






Destroyed my old wooden dowel approach and found some aluminum tubing and rods during my visit to Lowes. I'm sure I got some strange looks as I brought the original plastic cannons in for reference.



Ah, and as you see in the pic above, I kinda drilled a hole into my finger...




using the aluminum rod as the center and the tubing as a sleeve allowed me to get this pretty straight






So I've seen some heat sinks by others but I honestly couldn't figure out what to get, so I just decided to scratch build them....We'll see if worls out or not







super glued them to the sleeve and then sanded to size.









slid the tubing on and checked the fit



not great, but much better than the wood












repeating the process X4



I also didn't know how I was going to finish the ends of, so I enlisted some help !



1" PVC looked about right, so we chopped it up






I guess that'll do....



ok, back to finishing the rest






And that's where we are at this point. We'll glue the ends on tonight and see what we can get done next.

Thanks for looking !

Pcoz

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

What thickness did you use for the heat sink fins? I also have a bunch of diffrent heat sinks in my Amazon wish list and can't decide what looks best, I feel you may have the right answer here!

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

mmhnc said:

What thickness did you use for the heat sink fins? I also have a bunch of diffrent heat sinks in my Amazon wish list and can't decide what looks best, I feel you may have the right answer here!

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I'm pretty sure it was 2.0 mm

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

Pcoz, your build is just awesome. Thank you for doing this. I know you're enjoying it and I'm trying with my version, but every time I see you do something, I think...wait, I really should do that also...but then I see it will drag out any kind of completion date, I wish I had more time and your dedicated skill.

I still have to finish my rear engines and cast them. I've started the gun pods, but jeez, I'm so behind....

Thanks again...love your work!...please keep going, no one has finished this bird in a way that will be frigging awesome like you are doing.

Love your pilot helper....:lol

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

yaris said:

Pcoz, your build is just awesome. Thank you for doing this. I know you're enjoying it and I'm trying with my version, but every time I see you do something, I think...wait, I really should do that also...but then I see it will drag out any kind of completion date, I wish I had more time and your dedicated skill.

I still have to finish my rear engines and cast them. I've started the gun pods, but jeez, I'm so behind....

Thanks again...love your work!...please keep going, no one has finished this bird in a way that will be frigging awesome like you are doing.

Love your pilot helper....:lol

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Thanks Yaris !

I've got a bunch more done and have tried a mold myself....so I'm putting some pic's together now to put up.

Pcoz

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

ok, quick update....






didn't like the ends so I replaced them with some wheels I had left over from a kit...Unfortunately no tanks :cry



ok, so I ran to the craft store and bought some mold material and some plaster



I figured I'd mold the interior engines and then add the details to each after....









"Say hello to my little friend !" Sorry, couldn't resist...and I'm extremely tired...ugh




coated this inside



mixed my rubber mold material and poured in. I spent a good 5 minutes lightly banging it on the table to bring all the bubbles to the surface.



broke away the foam....



and my first ever mold is near perfect !




So I mixed some art plaster and poured it in....



and a near average to crappy casting ! lol.... Actually not too bad, I can clean it up a bit when it's completely hardened.



then I turned my attention to the rear end.....uh, stop :facepalm



adding the details and



building some supports for the rear engines



and leveling. I glued them on taller and sanded them down until engine was level



and that's about where I am now....

going to post some shots of the wings loosely assembled in a few minutes.

Pcoz

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

Just a few pic's of the wings....getting closer

Also, the rear engines and the cannons are not glued in place yet so they look off in places or sag a little. I believe it may be easier to paint this in pieces and assemble at the end. There are a lot of tight spaces and nooks and crannies in this bird.


































Well that's it for now. Almost ready for filling and sanding....

As always, thanks for looking and let me know if you have any suggestions !

Thanks !

Pcoz

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

Hey PC, looks super nice what are doing with the internal engines?

I got these, if you need a cast off them let me know.

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

yaris said:

Hey PC, looks super nice what are doing with the internal engines?

I got these, if you need a cast off them let me know.

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Yes, I saw yours...very nice. Thanks for the offer but I've already cast 3 and I'll do the 4th today if I have time. That will be my next post. Completion of the internal engines, details on the cannons, fill and sand.

Pcoz

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

Pcoz said:

Yes, I saw yours...very nice. Thanks for the offer but I've already cast 3 and I'll do the 4th today if I have time. That will be my next post. Completion of the internal engines, details on the cannons, fill and sand.

Pcoz

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I don't think you've shown us the internal engines here??....I'm sure they'll be awesome, can't wait to see them

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

yaris said:

I don't think you've shown us the internal engines here??....I'm sure they'll be awesome, can't wait to see them

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Just the castings

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

It's been a while since my last post.

The wings are almost complete, internal woodwork for the stand support and x-wing position supports are done. I absolutely despised the balsa wood butt plate so I rebuilt the entire piece in styrene. Man, if I could just leave well enough alone.....:unsure

Just started on the cockpit. I've got to start ordering my LED's and fiber optic lighting and I will be pushing this thing to the finish line !

Updates coming today !

Pcoz

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

Hello people....

Finally found some time to sit down and post some progress pic's.

I have to say before I get started, I think I've come a long way and learned a lot in just this project alone. In the beginning, I was using balsa, foam, etc and it made things extremely difficult. Now that I'm learning techniques with styrene and greeblies that I've learned from you fine folks, things are going a lot smoother. Unfortunately for me, I wasted a LOT of time figuring things out and rebuilding things.

Lastly, in hindsight, I now definitely believe working around the existing Hasbro structure and crappy plastic is probably way more difficult than scratch building this thing.....

Anyhow, let's move on, shall we ?



I finished casting the internal engines



Then turned my attention to the lasers. Styrene sheets cut to install the paneling on each laser body.





For the top of the heat sink, I was looking at different reference photos and decided to use a good old foam sheet.



I'm going to show you another one of my screw ups. So I started building out the internal engine compartments from the left over balsa wood from my original wings so they wouldn't go to waste....BIG mistake....lol. You'll notice that the tops of each bay have a wide section of the toy that needs to be cut out. I also noticed that when I put the panels on, it covered up a lot of the bay and needed to be trimmed.....start over



I cut back the panel to reveal the tip of the wing that needed to be removed to line up with the engine compartment. I then cut even more of the toy frame off at the top.



Since I was worn out on that part, I needed something new to rejuvenate me.... probably the most exiting part of my build right here. I will rebuild the cockpit hatch later.



As I moved forward, I thought I'd better decide on how I'm going to display this x-wing when it's done. I settled on a table top presentation so you could actually see the details that I've been working on. If it was hanging from the ceiling, why hide all the work I've done ?

I cut a 2X4 and notched to fit inside the fuselage. I then drilled a hole in the bottom for maximum support.



Oops, hit my pic limit...

I'll be back.

Thanks for looking

Pcoz

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

hey pc, looking awesome. love your build, keep going!!......my internal engines are a mess:rolleyes

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

yaris said:

hey pc, looking awesome. love your build, keep going!!......my internal engines are a mess:rolleyes

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Thank your sir. Tonight I'll show you guys my Butt............Plate

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

I'm back...Happy Friday !

I snagged a 3/4" aluminum rube from Lowes and scuffed it up with some sandpaper. It fits nice and snug with plenty of support for the x-wing.

I also ****** to one side so the x-wing will be tilted. When I mount the rod to the base to be built, I'll tilt the angle slightly back as well so the nose points up a little



Poor planning on my part, left me with no real plan to attach the wings. So instead of attaching the the wings together internally as a true "X", I just blocked it up so I can attach each wing individually. I cut 4 strips with 15 degree angles. I don't know if that's completely accurate but it looked right to my eye when I test fit the wings.




after screwing the strips on, I tested the fit of the styrene to cover. Then I assembled with epoxy for a strong bond. I'll still run some rods through the wing and into the block for even more support. Obviously these wings will be fixed open.



And without further ado, my butt....plate. I dismantled the 1st try and used it as a template to rebuild a better version. If I can give any advise, I'd say don't ever settle on something you don't like.....REBUILD it if you have to. Otherwise, if you're like me. it will cause you anxiety. So I realize it's not completely accurate, but I can live with it because it looks a thousand time better than my first one.





Sooooooo, please give me some advice here....UP or DOWN ?



Here it is fitted into the fuselage....



....and here is a profile of the wings opened



Anyway, that's it for now....Let me know what you think. And as always any tips are greatly appreciated !

Thanks for checking it out.

Pcoz

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

quick update:

Snapped together one of 3 the Revell SnapTite X-Wings I bought a few weeks ago. I'm going to clean it up a bit and use this to for practicing the x-wing paint job process....then I'll do the other 2, adapt to them to some other x-wing pilots and have them flying in formation in my next (hopefully quick) project.



Back to the Hasbro....Finished up the trim on the rear of each wing



Finished up the lasers with some greebly work....I know it's not exactly screen accurate, but it's fairly close and I'll sleep tonight.





So now, I will be turning my attention to the fuselage and the cockpit.

Thanks for looking.....

Pcoz

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

Fantastic work sir!.... your build I'm sure helps us all with this crazy big beast

Re: Pcoz's Hasbro Hero Star Wars X-Wing Conversion

Real quick update on the internal engines

So I ran into a few issues with supporting the wings as you can see in the upper wings in pic 2. I ended up running an aluminum rod through for support, but really had no place to hide it, so I camouflaged it best I could. The lower wings didn't need as much support, so wooden rods worked for them and eventually I will also use screws to add more support.

Anyway, Here is the basic assembly I'm putting together. Not completely screen accurate, and I will be taking some liberties to add to the detail.







I'm not exactly sure what these are, but I kind of copied them from the Red 3 reference pic's. I believe there will be a tube of some sort running out of the end to the main engine ?



Then I turned my attention to the headers I guess..... I simply used 95/5 solder, cut and bent to desired position, then glued.





I think once everything gets that first prime coat, things will start coming together.

That's it for now. Thanks for looking !

Cya

Pcoz