1/24 Rogue One U-wing

[Jkirkon]

1/24 U-wing kit from Korbanth just arrived. 41” overall when complete. This model was designed by Alfred Wong.

The castings are ok overall, but this kit is going to need a lot of work to iron out some kinks. There are a few places that need serious cleanup. The engines in particular are going to need a good bit of Apoxie Sculpt and tweaking to make them fit together properly.

The wings pivot on a resin pin, I don’t think that will hold up long term. Will have to be replaced with a screw. No build guide is included (yet), so this will be interesting to figure out.

Landing gear, pilot/co-pilot seats, and a bench seat for troops is included, as well as some interior details.
Wings are reinforced with metal rods embedded in the resin, that will help keep the wings from sagging.

Overall, this looks like a decent starting place for a U-wing. I think it may require some re-engineering of the kit, but nothing horrible. Should be a fun project, and really expand my relative newby skills.

Now, if I can just finish the 2 studio scale x-wings I have in progress, I’ll be able to get busy figuring this one out.

 

[Muzza]

Looking good! it is a good size.

 

[thepoynt]

It's an awesome ship design - looking forward to seeing how this model turns out!

 

[StevenBills]

I love the U-Wing design a lot. Can't wait to see what you do with it! Are you going for a Rogue One paint scheme, or something else?

SB

 

[kokkari]

I love this ship. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it. Any concerns about those long wings sagging? Are they reinforced with anything?

 

[Analyzer]

Looking forward to seeing this built!

Is this the same model that is in the Disney Star Wars Launch Bay exhibits?

That was a large one and quite impressive

 

[Jkirkon]

Thanks guys, I’m anxious to get cracking on this one.
There is a good bit of cleanup to do in some spots, this will take some time.
I’ve also heard of some issues with paint adhesion with the guy who casts this kit, so I’m going to do some primer adhesion tests before I go too crazy building this beast.

Kokkari, yes there is reinforcement built into the wings. Looks like 2 metal rods inserted lengthwise into the resin when it was poured. I don’t have too many concerns about sagging, but I’m going to make some paper templates for the wings before assembly, just in case I have to scratch build a set.

It is about the same size as the ship at Launch Bay. It will look awesome along side my studio scale x-wings/y-wing!!

 

[modelerdave]

It looks at least like there's a lot of nice built-in detail. Looking forward to seeing how this progresses.

 

[Jkirkon]

I’m thinking for paint job, I’d like to have my paint guru do scheme #2 or #4.

It will be quite awhile before I get to that point, but thinking ahead....

 

[greeble_gremlin]

beautiful workmanship!

 

[Analyzer]

For what it's worth, I think #4 is my favorite scheme

IIRC that was for the second U-wing that showed up on Scariff?

 

[Hunk a Junk]

My vote. #2 for the S-foils, #3 for the main hull, but in blue, not red.

 

[Jkirkon]

I thought about that, and like that idea very much.

I have a long way to go before I get to that point, I’ll probably change my mind a half a dozen times along the way!

 

[Padawan311]

I love the U-Wing and am tempted to get this kit myself. I am a newbie so it’s a little intimidating. Can’t wait to see what you do with this. Following!

 

[Jkirkon]

I love the U-Wing and am tempted to get this kit myself. I am a newbie so it’s a little intimidating. Can’t wait to see what you do with this. Following!

I too love the U-wing, and waited anxiously for it to be released in this scale. It will go nicely with my studio scale X&Y-wings.

I have built several resin models in the past, but this one will be more of a challenge in some ways than my previous builds.

The castings are bit rough in places, and will require a good bit of massaging to make them acceptable. There are quite a few pinholes in the wings, and some resin globs that will need to be cleaned up. One of the wings has a bit of waviness on the leading edge, but that shouldn’t be hard to sort out. The other has some of its metal reinforcement rod sticking slightly proud of the resin. I have a few ideas on how to fix that.
The wing mechanism as delivered is a bit flimsy, but I don’t think it will be too difficult to make it more robust.


As of now, there isn’t an assembly guide, but there is supposed to be one sometime next month. I’ve figured out where most of the pieces go, but there are several I don’t have a clue about.

For now, I’m just going to concentrate on cleaning up the castings, and correcting the flaws in the parts until the assembly guide is ready. The ‘meat and potatoes’ of this build will have to wait until then.

 

[kokkari]

I’m thinking for paint job, I’d like to have my paint guru do scheme #2 or #4.

It will be quite awhile before I get to that point, but thinking ahead....

View attachment 940243

I really like #2!

 

[Jkirkon]

I really like #2!

Yeah, I’m really torn between #2 and #4.

 

[Jkirkon]

I’m off until after the Thanksgiving holiday, and I’m SUPPOSED to be working on my studio scale Red2 to get it ready for the paint shop, however....
I couldn’t stop looking at the U-wing. I was thinking about the pinholes and imperfections in the wings, and complaining to myself about how much work needs to be done to make them look decent. Maybe I bit off more than I can chew? Discouraging.

I started sanding one particular spot back a bit to maybe even out the surface of the resin a little, then start filling the pinholes. To my surprise, I realized a lot of the ‘mess’ was a REALLY bad primer job!

A couple of minutes with a sanding block revealed much smoother wings than I thought, once I got rid of the bulk of that crappy, heavy coat of primer.

This tells me a couple of things.
1) I may not have to fill the wings as much as I had originally thought (although there is still a fair bit of work to do).
2) At least the wings don’t seem to have primer adhesion problems, like I had been warned about.

Pic 1 shows one of the really nasty areas I was looking at. Full of pinholes.
Pic 2 and 3 show after a bit of sanding. Still not pretty, but not as bad as I originally feared.

I’ll be able to spread a little pinhole fillet on that area and be able to clean that off in short order.

 

[akumazeto]

Jeff that is still just as bad. This debacle is blowing up on facebook. 4 people have contacted me with pics like this and its not the primer. Its the crap casting. he claimed only one kit went out like this.

 

[Jkirkon]

The issues with the wings continues.

This is the other wing. You can see the wire reinforcement sticking out in a few places.

Pics 1&2 show this.

Pic 3 shows the flawed casing in the other wing, how wavy the leading edge of the wing is compared to a piece of 1” square aluminum tube.

I hope Randy makes this right for all of the owners of this kit who received castings like this.