1/48 MPC A-Wing

[Rulebreaker]

Hello,

i found a "classic" MPC A-Wing kit on evilbay for not a kidney.


Before starting with the kit, a "scale discussion" - there are a lot of rumors of its scale/size, but i came across this picture!

it has a ruler in front of the Studio Model, so "we" know how wide it is, with that i could measure and calculate the length in the Picture below.
paint shows the x and y pixel lengths, so i had to use pytagoras to get the length and width
width 538px = 16,5"
length 780px = 23,9"

23,9*2,54=607,06mm -> 0,60706m

next step, finding a reasonable scale, is it 1/3,75? probably not, so i tried the usual numbers of 48, 32, 24, 12
0,60706m * 48 = 29m nope
0,60706m * 32 = 19m nope
0,60706m * 24 = 15m nope
0,60706m * 12 = 7,28m we have a winner!

1/12 -> 7,28m

7,28m / 48 = 152±1 mm

The MPC Kit is finished 153mm point on 1/48 Scale

Here some pictures of the kit


i also have a couple of Bandai A-Wings(on the german revell site, they are still on clearence sale, 15 bucks each), the MPC is 15% bigger than the Bandai.
Bandai uses the 9,6m number, in 1/72 its 133mm long and overengineered with way to many parts, the MPC version has only 13 Main parts, not counting parts like landing gear.


The details are the same in almost all areas, the only big diffrence is Bandai has receesed panels and MPC has raised panels.

regards dave

 

[jake88]

I have this kit also. I’ve been considering sanding down and scribing panel lines. It’s a pretty nice kit. I have a wwII pilot set aside for it when I finally build it.

 

[division 6]

I built 2 of those back when they came out ($3).
1 I painted like the RMQ artwork in silver, white and blue.

 

[Analyzer]

I always considered it a roughly 1/48 scale kit

It is a pretty decent kit. The main area it is lacking in is engine details

First it is a bit out of round and missing a lot of details on the back. Had to do some scratch building and cutting away parts to open areas up

also, some releases have a tinted canopy and others untinted. I have one of each

here it is with the Fine Molds 1/48 X-Wing and 1/51?ish MPC Tie Interceptor (or whatever scale that winds up being. Same cockpit size as the original MPC tie)

 

[Rulebreaker]

i was drawing around a little
thats the current state, version 3, the simple parts are lookin good

the hinges on the vertical stabilisators are missing, and some smaller details

the next part is the hard part, getting the hull right, i already tried it before, but i wasn't happy with the results

 

[PHArchivist]

I always considered it a roughly 1/48 scale kit

It is a pretty decent kit. The main area it is lacking in is engine details

First it is a bit out of round and missing a lot of details on the back. Had to do some scratch building and cutting away parts to open areas up

also, some releases have a tinted canopy and others untinted. I have one of each

here it is with the Fine Molds 1/48 X-Wing and 1/51?ish MPC Tie Interceptor (or whatever scale that winds up being. Same cockpit size as the original MPC tie)

View attachment 1925011

That FM X looks... FINE!

They all do.

 

[Rulebreaker]

i finished all the small things like hinges and other smaller greebles around the rear and finished the guns

also played around with the front a little

bandais "red stripe" is almost straight, were mpc ones is closer to the studio model, also the stripe is a little wider at the cockpit than in the front, at bandai its complete straight - i dont like the straight design, need to draw a proper curve

 

[Haervek]

This looks awesome!

 

[rbeach84]

Somewhere in the mists of time is the understanding (suspicion?) that the MPC's production bubba's had access to the studio models. Even though the molding tech 'back in the day' wasn't always the best and the results sometimes clunky, they generally hold up well for accuracy, with some notable exceptions of course (the X-Wings underside nose contours, the Falcon's overly thick sidewalls, etc.) This is all reasonable given MPC was doing the kits for the mass market, aka cheap for 'the kids', and not for uber-fans such as we have here p). One nice fallout was the MPC A-wing tooling, which can be turned into a very nice replica but with some (not so hard) effort. Having built a few over time with various LOE investment, my latest WIP has fully scribed panels, tricked out cockput and detailed engines & enhanced, scratchbuilt rear fuselage 'deck' detailing. Plans are to have LED lighting as engine and cockpit enhancements to boot. Low tech solutions using sheet styrene, rod, wire, etc. makes for a quite econominal project. Even a careful OOB build with a good paint job makes a nice display piece.
Guess I'm a fan of the kit, eh?
Cheers - Robert

 

[Rulebreaker]

my idea is to digitalize the mpc kit as good as possible and then make an improved version, with recessed panels, its one click with the emboss feature u can diside if u want em recessed or raised and add better accurate greebles( i gathered around 90% of the correct greebles), i also planed to improve my old hasbro A-wing, fun fact it has exact double the length and width of the mpc, and the propotions are real good, only the cockpit section is 2,5mm to long and wide

here some progress on the white hull
first i gave the red hull a slight curve, then i started to draw the white hull

because fusion is stupid, i have/had to manualy make areas out of the lines

those areas are then "lofted" from one area to the next one, it creates a solid by doing this

this creates slowly the hull

next step, mirroring it down and to the other side as well

and finaly put the panellines with emboss on the red part

it still need some fine tuning, blending it a little rounder here and there but it looks promising

 

[Analyzer]

Interesting that the Hasbro might make a good conversion

 

[Rulebreaker]

this week i was searching and looking for parts, i found 95% some i already made, some need to be made and some need to arive

if i upscale the a-wing to 1/12 the greeble fits perfectly, how close the mpc is to the studio scale

there are two parts i haven't found
this one, looks like a car part, but i haven't found it so far, its unclear if the hinges are part of it or seperate

and this one, some might say its the M16 winch, but its not, u could cut them to length together but the coil count is not right
so i checked amt kits with winches, like the "wrecker" but it has a real string rather than a cast part

maybe its the amt American LaFrance Ladder Chief - cable drum

 

[rbeach84]

this week i was searching and looking for parts, i found 95% some i already made, some need to be made and some need to arive
View attachment 1953238View attachment 1953242
if i upscale the a-wing to 1/12 the greeble fits perfectly, how close the mpc is to the studio scale
View attachment 1953235
there are two parts i haven't found
this one, looks like a car part, but i haven't found it so far, its unclear if the hinges are part of it or seperate
View attachment 1953236
and this one, some might say its the M16 winch, but its not, u could cut them to length together but the coil count is not right
so i checked amt kits with winches, like the "wrecker" but it has a real string rather than a cast part
View attachment 1953237
maybe its the amt American LaFrance Ladder Chief - cable drum
View attachment 1953250

Could be one half of a coil/shock part from a car kit...

 

[rbeach84]

Also, you're probably already aware the two-lobed oval scoops attached to the rear bulkhead between the engines is made of two F-16 intake scoops stacked together. I suspect they came from the same source as the engine 'tubes' which are likely the intake trunks, perhaps a 1/32 scale F-16 kit made by Hasegawa:

General Dynamics F-16A, Minicraft Hasegawa 100 (1978)

Minicraft Hasegawa model kit in scale 1:32, 100 is a rebox released in 1978 | Contents, Previews, Reviews, History + Marketplace | General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon

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