My first Studio Scale Build! Green Leader Y-wing.

Carnet

Well-Known Member
Studiokitbash ecouraged me to start a build thread for my y-wing project. So here it goes. This build is based of of DaveGs open source project. I will be doing my best to take pictures as I go and upload progress when I can. This is my first studio scale build and I am very excited to get started. As much as I love the x-wing, the y-wing has always been my secret crush.

Update: As this project has progressed it has become it's own thing...so it most definitely shouldn't be used as a reference if you are trying to make a replica and referencing any of these photos, or my albums. It most closely follows the Tie Killer/Gold Leader scheme, but there are a few Red Jammer cues here and there as well as some of my own twist on certain areas. Mostly I have just taken my favorite bits and boops from all of the different versions as well as adding my own inventions here and there, especially when I run across a section that I may be missing pieces from. This has just been a ton of fun, and I have no idea how I am going to go back to regular modeling with instructions and kits that come with all of the parts after this is done...which isn't going to be anytime soon.

Thank you DaveG for making this project available to the community, and to all of the users that I have hit up for advice and tips and parts, thank you too! I hope I can find some way to make my own contributions to board to help others with their own projects.

thanks for reading!
Marc

Edit: As I mentioned, I'm trying to keep the thread trimmed down to the highlights. Here is a link to the full Album, if anyone is interested.
http://imgur.com/a/BVxl5 (part 1)

http://imgur.com/a/ZWV5p (part 2)

https://imgur.com/a/T3Qpg (part 3)

https://imgur.com/a/xHE6e (part 4, paint work)

work space
workspace.jpg

gotta start with the front fuselage right!
canopy.jpg

my last build, the Revell Master Series 1/72 M.Falcon (the fine molds kit)

mfalcon.jpg
 
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Nice looking FM falcon there. I'm also working on a Deago Falcon and Dave Gs Y-Wing and about 3 other things. I'm attempting to reason out how to trim the Saturn V shells. I'm a little nervous about cutting into those Airfix kits! The front fuselage looks great as well. Have fun!
 
Thanks!

Indeed, my shells are on the way. I was thinking that placing the shell where it is going to sit on the nacelle core and then spraying a color on the inside of the nacelle so it creates a stencil on the backside of the shell to use as a pattern.

Might work?
 
I have no idea what I'm doing! :p


Test fitting the printed fuselage! I am going to probably refrain from too many of these WIP pics on the building of the armature...they all look so similar to the other threads already going. Unless I come across something I haven't seen documented elsewhere.


testfit2.jpgtestfit.jpg
 
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Marc - Welcome to the party! Great to see another Y underway. A few recommendations I have to get you started on the right track...

Sand and fill the visible surfaces of the 3D printed fuselage shells BEFORE you assemble them. It'll be much easier this way. The way they are broken up into sections was also done with this in mind. Then you only need to putty and sand the seams once assembled.

You'll want to be able to take the nacelle cores on and off the armature a lot when test fitting the notches in the Saturn shells so don't glue it all together until you are sure you are 100% done with cutting the Sat Cans.

The easiest way to cut the Sat Cans to length cleanly it to tape them together around the nacelle core. Lay out your cut line with a couple wraps of masking tape. I set the line 3/16" back from the corrugated section (some have done 1/4", both are correct depending on which original model you refer to). Then using a NEW, SHARP extra fine X-acto saw, very gently run it around the shell using the tape as a fence cutting away very little plastic at first. Then go deeper and deeper with each orbit, eventually cutting through. A little dish soap as a cutting lubricant will help. The plastic where the two halves meet is a little thicker so beware of that as you go.

Cut the rectangular notch to fit around the armature Tee plate first, then file out the round notch to fit around the 1/2" wing spar. Go easy, lots of test fitting

Good luck!
 
DaveG, thank you for those tips on the Saturn V parts...I came very close to cutting them way too short, but I stopped myself because I wasn't sure. Would have been a bummer to have to buy two more kits! I am considering making molds of the shells before I lock them into the model so that others don't have to buy 2 full Saturn V kits to do the project. It seems really wasteful to me to canibalize a perfectly good model kit like that.

This is a bit off topic, but I thought I would share my 3d printing experience. Due to my printing snafu that ended up with a pretty much ruined hotend on my printer, I am replacing my hotend with an E3d, but I didn't want my build to stall so I decided just to pick up the fuselage pieces that I needed from shapeways. These two prints are a comparison of my Monoprice Mini (Malyan M200) and a Shapeways commissioned print of the same piece. The piece on the left was printed on my printer with the stock hotend (prior to my printing SNAFU) and the piece on the right is what I got from Shapeways.

I gotta say I am pretty impressed with the Monoprice Mini printer. For $200.00...it is providing better prints than the ones I paid for from Shapeways. This picture shows my print in PLA on the left and Shapeways print in PLA on the right. I do understand that there are a lot of different factors that go into the level of quality you get out of a print, and perhaps Shapeways doesn't attempt to achieve anything cleaner than what they provided me when they print in PLA, but I was a little disappointed. My print was not even peformed in the high detail settings. It only took about 3hrs. I was expecting a better quality than what I got from Shapeways PLA.


shapeway1.jpg
 
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Wow, that Shapeways print is pretty rough! While sometimes Shapeways' quality may be hit or miss, they are really good now with their "you're happy or we'll make it right" pledge. I'm sure if you sent them that picture they'd either give you a refund, credit or offer to run the part again.
 
Looking forward to your build!
Love the paintjob on that falcon also.

That Shapeways part looks really under their standard.
I have an Ultimaker 2 myself, and I have to have a really bad print to get it like that.

For 200 buck that isn't a bad print! And I even think you can get some more out of it (from what I can see).
 
Progress!

So! The dust has settled from my wedding and honeymoon, and I can get back to this build! Puerto Rico was amazing, thanks for asking!

Now back to more important endeavors in modeling.

I did say that I wouldn't be posting many of the boring base build up pictures, but then I realized that these threads are like a personal build journal...and I want that. So there might be a few more like these.

Full disclosure, Contrary to what I said in my earlier post...I totally did screw up on my first set of Sat V cans and cut them way too short...but I was too embarrassed to admit it at the time, so anyway, I had to order another two kits...big facepalm. That was a case of leaping before looking...so here are the new cans cut and fit!

nacelle1.jpg
nacelle2.jpg



Getting the base fuselage pieces set.

clamp.jpg
 
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I just received all the fuselage files from shapeways yesterday. I uploaded the STLs from DaveGs repository leaving it at the default material. The pieces are about flawless. a very minor sanding would get rid of any printing artifacts. I am curious why mine came out so much better. Perhaps yours was printed by a "partner" that isn't actually a shapeways facility?

DaveG, thank you for those tips on the Saturn V parts...I came very close to cutting them way too short, but I stopped myself because I wasn't sure. Would have been a bummer to have to buy two more kits! I am considering making molds of the shells before I lock them into the model so that others don't have to buy 2 full Saturn V kits to do the project. It seems really wasteful to me to canibalize a perfectly good model kit like that.

This is a bit off topic, but I thought I would share my 3d printing experience. Due to my printing snafu that ended up with a pretty much ruined hotend on my printer, I am replacing my hotend with an E3d, but I didn't want my build to stall so I decided just to pick up the fuselage pieces that I needed from shapeways. These two prints are a comparison of my Monoprice Mini (Malyan M200) and a Shapeways commissioned print of the same piece. The piece on the left was printed on my printer with the stock hotend (prior to my printing SNAFU) and the piece on the right is what I got from Shapeways.

I gotta say I am pretty impressed with the Monoprice Mini printer. For $200.00...it is providing better prints than the ones I paid for from Shapeways. This picture shows my print in PLA on the left and Shapeways print in PLA on the right. I do understand that there are a lot of different factors that go into the level of quality you get out of a print, and perhaps Shapeways doesn't attempt to achieve anything cleaner than what they provided me when they print in PLA, but I was a little disappointed. My print was not even peformed in the high detail settings. It only took about 3hrs. I was expecting a better quality than what I got from Shapeways PLA.

http://i.imgur.com/Ll6gBjR.jpg
 
Did you chose PLA or the Strong Flexible Plastic medium? Mine were done in PLA. After a bit of back and forth with the support team, I was able to finally get them to redo the worst of the prints in the Strong Flexible Plastic, and they came out perfectly, and I just paid the difference. Only 2 of the pieces were really bad. The rest were useable.
 
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I just looked at my order and it is the white strong and flexible. The print lines are barely visible, I was shocked that the surface was so smooth visually and slightly grainy to the touch. It is white and seems strong, but it isn't very flexible.

Did you chose PLA or the Strong Flexible Plastic medium? Mine were done in PLA. After a bit of back and forth with the support team, I was able to finally get them to redo the worst of the parts in the Strong Flexible Plastic, and they came out perfectly, and I just paid the difference. Only 2 of the pieces were really bad. The rest were useable.
 
"flexible" is a relevant term here...flexible compared to pla, which is brittle. I wish I had just gone with the WSF for everything, it wasn't that much more expensive, and my finishing work would have taken less time. It's irrelevant at this point, because it is done and I am happy with how it looks, but now I know what to expect.

On a side note, Shapeways flat out rejected the Nacelle Cores in PLA. They wouldn't print them, claiming there was problems with support material and the internal geometry. I had to find a local shop to get them done...in PLA...and they were perfect.

I have had quite a bit of print work done from shapeways in the Extreme/Ultra Frosted Detail and I have been very happy with what I have gotten, but this project is the first I have done with the other mediums. It seems like others here have had no issues printing the Nacelle cores with Shapeways in the past, but perhaps things have changed at Shapeways? I dunno?

Looking forward to getting my own printer back on-line.
 
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Working on the final foundations of the main fuselage. Based on some friendly advice I chose to widen the upper neck and droid shelf. I was considering leaving it alone, but when I saw pictures in a few of the other build threads it seem like the right way to go.

mod1.jpg
mod2.jpg



These cuts are proving to be the most difficult so far! I have recut them about ten times and I have two that I am happy with. Maybe I am being too critical? When the cut lines are so close to each other...if they aren't straight, you can really tell.

styrene1.jpg
 
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Yeah -- somebody should 3D design and print that part, make it available on Shapeways or Open Source it and share it. I've also found this section to be a pain in the neck (or at least, near the neck).
 
Out of the gates! I am enjoying this immensely! I have definitely placed the underside yolk a touch too far forward. It became obvious to me after placing the pieces at the front of the main fuse...oh well, a minor thing in the grand scheme. I'll just have to get creative in a few spots.

This picture shows the base fuselage with the additional styrene added primed and ready.
finalform.jpg

And here is where I stopped last night.
greeblie1.jpg
 
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