"1/48" Bandai A-Wing

[INVAR]

Having become obsessed with the quality and fun of building the Bandai Star Wars Kits (and needing a sabbatical from the Zvezda Star Destroyer) - I bought almost all of the Bandai Kits except the PG Falcon. So I have a stack of them still sealed in a box and awaiting my grubby fingers to pop them open. The A-Wing is my next build after I finished Vader's TIE Advanced.

Since I am a fan of the ILM model shop, I always prefer to come as close to the original filming model as possible in my Star Wars builds. The Bandai A-wing however, is the wrong scale with the included pilot at 1/72. That would not do. Not for me. I liked the way the ILM filming model looked. To solve that particular problem, and because I like the idea of a much smaller fighter for that ship - what I needed was a 1/48 pilot to give it the same "scale" as the ILM filming model.

I did not want to spend funds on a Shapeways 3D printed pilot, as I needed funds to be spent on lighting. Soooo..... on to scour kits to find a suitable 1/48 pilot, whereupon my skills at carving and shaping styrene to turn 1980's Air Force Pilots into Star Wars A-Wing pilots was put to the test.... and I failed..... miserably.

Upon which after some despair and blood loss in left fingertips due to some X-acto blade slippage whilst carving said styrene to shape a helmet that was fantasy - I happened to glance over at my extra Bandai 1/48 Snowspeeder kit - and lo and behold - there be TWO pilots in there - and my extra kit only needed Zev to pilot it. Whilst they not be proper A-wing helmeted pilots - by Jorg Sacul! they are in Star Wars pilot suits - and who is to say that someone from Rogue Squadron wouldn't have jumped into the cockpit to go chase some TIE Interceptors?

So I had a 1/48 pilot figure, and I decided that in solidarity with the filming model that he needed to be looking to the Left, so I performed some minor surgery to get him to do so. And then I set forth the task of the build. I definitely wanted to light this kit - as Bandai graciously included clear parts in the engines for such a feat, and I also decided to wire up the cockpit for lights as well. The original ILM model had a single yellow bulb under the knees of their pilot - and I thought I would upgrade that since I was using a Rogue Squadron pilot anyway and I could not duplicate the ILM filming model exactly.

And so, over many months - I slaved away on the build and inserted the fiber and wiring to light it - and when I got the ship done, I looked at the base and thought about what I was going to do with that. I had seen some fantastic bases being done here on the board - but since I have yet so many other kits to get to and the Zvezda is crying at me with abandonment issues - I decided to simply use the base and gun tower it came with and just enhance it with some added greeblies.

I initially attempted to drill out holes in the gun turret tower for some green LED strobe lighting - and nearly destroyed the tiny left gun making the mistake to using a low powered mini drill with .03 mm bit. The heat softened the plastic and the gun twisted around the bit. Shoulda just suffered hand cramps using the pin vice for that - but live and learn I guess. So, I decided to forego the strobing LEDs in the tower. Bummer. But it is what it is.

I added some additional greeblies on the base to illustrate that this was DS II, and so some metal brass ship parts and styrene bits were used to create the under construction red girders as seen in the film. And so, I am relatively okay with how this turned out. Not my best - but it is not half bad - and it is a HUUUGE improvement over the MPC A-wing kit I built back in 1983. By far. Onto the next kit - unless the cries from the Zvezda convince me to go back into panel line stenciling hell.

 

[Analyzer]

Great work

A 1/48 pilot sure does look better in there when trying to match the look of the filming model

And the "1/72" pilot in the kit is too large for 1/72 anyway, unless he is supposed to be a giant. Try comparing that pilot to the 1/72 X-Wing pilot or any of the other Bandai 1/72 pilots. He is huge

 

[jusdrewit]

This is fantastic, love this! Great job, and great idea on upscaling the pilot, I will have to do something similar when i get to mine. Could you elaborate on what colors you used for the red and hull color? I'm in the same boat, just slowly chipping away at my OT SW Bandai collection, trying to improve my skills before I even think about the PG Falcon that's stashed safely away lol.

 

[INVAR]

This is fantastic, love this! Great job, and great idea on upscaling the pilot, I will have to do something similar when i get to mine. Could you elaborate on what colors you used for the red and hull color? I'm in the same boat, just slowly chipping away at my OT SW Bandai collection, trying to improve my skills before I even think about the PG Falcon that's stashed safely away lol.

I used gray Stynlrez for the base primer and decided to try something different than Tamiya Acrylics that I normally use with my Bandai Kits. Rebel fighters are somewhat forgiving given the weathering that might conceal some issues - so I decided to invest in some Vallejo Model Air paints for shizes and giggles just to see how they fared through the airbrush. Once the primer was dry I did several coats of Insignia White, and then a top coat of USAF light gray with a few drops of 119 white grey with thin coats on top. That gave me a nice base to build up from given the studio shots of the ILM model.

The burgundy sections are a mix of Vallejo Hull Red and Fire Red to match the existing Bandai color, which was airbrushed over the existing burgundy parts on the sprue before I clipped, sanded, touched -up and assembled the kit.

Then I sealed the existing base with a light coat of Future and got to making some washes in several sets of colors for some of the smudging on the studio photos base coat. I am not sure if those were the result of decades of age and storage - or if intended, but I liked how that looked so I mimiced the photos I had. Then the darker washes to bring out the details, then enhancements with some of the rust colors via washes of cheap acrylics. Blast marks added via brush for the initial pocks and then a quick airbrush for smudge effects and finally Tamiya Weathering masters via sponge tips for some streaking and stains. Added a hairline of white to the blast damage cores to create illusion of chipping through the paint.

Did another blast of Future through the airbrush to seal it all in, and then did 3 light coats of Vallejo Matte varnish to dullcoat the entire ship. Then dipped the canopy in Future and when that was dried, sealed the whole thing in.

Overall, tried to match the ILM studio photos as closely as I could given what I could approximate. I do say Rebel Fighters allow for generous mistakes given the weathering and battle damage.

 

[Guns Akimbo]

I like this! Wondering how you managed to finagle the fiber optic in the cockpit for the instrument panel, I know that there are interlocking pieces for the fit-together construction that need to be removed. I attempted to do just that on my own 1/72 build and gave up after getting tired of dealing with the sharp bends and near non-existent installation area for an LED.

 

[skahtul]

As others have said, nice work! I also cant believe that you stuffed fiber into that thing, well done! And you nailed the paint for sure. Its crazy how small these are yet they "sell" as larger in images due to the amazing details.

 

[INVAR]

I like this! Wondering how you managed to finagle the fiber optic in the cockpit for the instrument panel, I know that there are interlocking pieces for the fit-together construction that need to be removed. I attempted to do just that on my own 1/72 build and gave up after getting tired of dealing with the sharp bends and near non-existent installation area for an LED.

Was not easy for sure. I knew I needed the light source for the cockpit behind the seat in the only open area I could fit an LED to place a tube that could hold about a dozen fiber into the drilled holes for the cockpit instruments. Lots of dry fitting to see where I needed to bow the fiber without bending it to run back alongside the tub that fits into the fuselage. So where I could, I carved out trenches or drilled holes to run the fiber back alongside the edges to the rear area behind the seat where there was enough space to place the bulb and the tube with the LED. I only have two build pics I took at that stage of the build, as it was always changing with every dry fit. If you look close at the second pic, you can see a carved out section to the right of the seat near the rear, where the fiber was run.

Was not easy - but I was pleased that I could get the cockpit lit a bit more as I liked.