3/4 X-Wing: For Love

[TakenLightly]

Greetings, RPF-ers! Name's Josh. Long-time lurker, but I figured that in my most recent pursuit, I needed to get advice directly from the best, instead of just marveling over your creations.

Beautiful, isn't she? She's hanging over the Disneyland Starcade, practically hidden from view. (My cameraphone certainly hasn't presented her at her best, either.)

I sent this pic to my girlfriend after returning from the day at Disneyland. (She's obsessed with Star Wars.) Now, she's got a few odd & endearing quirks, one of which is that she hates all forms of jewelry. I've talked about getting her an engagement ring, and she's been quite clear that she wouldn't wear one, as it'd get snagged on things and just generally get in the way.

I teased her about getting to see the 3/4 Starcade X-wing, and jokingly asked her if she'd marry me if I built her one.

She said yes.

That was a grievous error in judgment on her part, mainly because, as she's slowly coming to realize, I have absolutely no sense of proportion whatsoever. (Well, at least when it comes to gifts. I'm not bad at physical proportionment. )

I've got years to work on it, as I'm not about to spring an engagement on her in the middle of her med school workload, but even so, it's a tremendous undertaking to consider. I was wondering who among the RPF-ers has experience with building stuff this huge, and what advice they have for getting started & keeping momentum for the time & resources required for such a massive project.

I won't quote the holographically-projected line from A New Hope, but you all know what it is.

Many thanks in advance for any and all advice that you guys can offer.

-Josh

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

If you have the room to spare then go for it. However it may be more practical to go with a Studio Scale X-Wing. There have been kits available or if you want you can find info on what real model kit parts were used and build one yourself. You can find that info on the Studio Scale section at the top. I forgot to add that Studio Scale refers to one or more scales that were used while filming the original movies.

 

[TakenLightly]

I'd thought about such, but, while she has an eye for craftsmanship, I don't think the model would have as much significance or impact as something she could sit in. It might be a good place to start, however, as duping Captain Cardboard's dimensions will probably be significantly easier than re-inventing the wheel.

It might also help w/ figuring out how to Ikea-jitsu the thing into something attic-worthy. While the first question is most likely going to be "HOW DID YOU...", the second one is probably going to be, "Where are we going to put it?"

-Josh

 

[fuelish]

If you want her to be able to sit in it how about doing just the cockpit? That would take up way less room. You could even put a screen in front of it hooked to old PC loaded with X-WING and a joy stick controller.

 

[nerftheherder]

If you want her to be able to sit in it how about doing just the cockpit? That would take up way less room. You could even put a screen in front of it hooked to old PC loaded with X-WING and a joy stick controller.

Oo Oo Oo....and then if you got real crazy, you could eventually turn it into a full size 1:1 X-Wing! Now that would be sweet....Esp. if it had working wings. I think the dimensions have to be floating around somewhere.

And I must add, what an awesome GF! I'm happy my lady tolerates my uber-dorkness, but what you and your GF got is another level of cool!

 

[TakenLightly]

If you want her to be able to sit in it how about doing just the cockpit? That would take up way less room. You could even put a screen in front of it hooked to old PC loaded with X-WING and a joy stick controller.

Interesting idea...I s'pose I have to build a cockpit anyways, so I could start there & see how I feel after it's completed. Thanks!

And I must add, what an awesome GF! I'm happy my lady tolerates my uber-dorkness, but what you and your GF got is another level of cool!

S'actually more stressful than you might think. We routinely get pretty pissed off at each other (as in sleep-on-the-@#$*-couch-pissed-off) whenever we bust out SW Trivial Pursuit, and there's no small amount of contention about the nature of the Jedi. (I think they're largely self-important traditionalist wankers, with occasional moments of badassitude. She hits me when I express such.)

She is pretty awesome, though. :love

-Josh

 

[ob1al]

I would use a studio scale model and scale it up - draw it out - as a base.

In terms of actually building the thing, I dunno - I suppose I would use thin MDF to build the basic shape then improvise the rest as I went along.

Whichever way you do it, it is going to be big, cumbersome and make a substantial hole in your bank account.

Nuts but cool.

An engagement ring would be a lot less expensive and far easier to display - but you already know that....;~)

 

[parabellum]

Beautiful, isn't she? She's hanging over the Disneyland Starcade, practically hidden from view. (My cameraphone certainly hasn't presented her at her best, either.)
-Josh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbSZHlajfCc

I haven't been to disneyland recently, but I was there in 1989 I believe,
and saw a large scale X-wing fighter.

I wonder if this X-wing is the same X-wing I saw back then.

20 years ago, it was in the Star Tour ride.
After you exit from the ride, there is a gift shop area you have to go through
to exit from the star tour building.

and most people missed the x-wing, since it was located just above the exit of the ride.

in order to see it, you have to make 10 step out of the ride exit into the
gift shop area, then make 180 degree turn, and look up.
most people just went through the gift shop and out the door, and didn't
see the x-wing.

anyway, that's 20 years ago.

and I agree with 1:1 scale suggestion, what's the point of 3/4 scale?

with 1:1 scale x-wing, you can ride it, and put your R2 unit in the hole too (if you have a R2 unit that is).


It would be quite a challange though.

full size X-wing is over 40 feet long, and steel frame is almost a must for such a large scale structure.

then again, British were able to build bombers out of fly wood in World War 2.
so I guest it is not impossible to build one out of lumbers and flywood.

 

[Jinyo]

I guess it depends on how realistic you want it, where you plan to keep it, how long you want it to last, and where you live.
I've never built anything like that myself, but on the many, many occasions on which I've planned it out in my head, the least expensive and most storable idea that comes to mind is making it out of fabric, stretched over a framework of PVC and steel. Painted well, it wouldn't look like fabric until you got up close. The same would be true of large panels of cardboard, which you can get as large as 4x8 feet, or plastics such as styrene or plexiglas, except they wouldn't be as easy to take down. Of course, you'd still want to make the cockpit out of something durable. But unless you need to climb on the rest of it, you wouldn't really need to make them out of anything heavier. After all, they used to make airplanes out of fabric.

Just a crazy, out-of-the-box suggestion.

 

[parabellum]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oggal7RY2ks

OMG! I found a video clip of Disney Land Star Tours X-Wing !

goto 1:37

as the people mover (which never operated each time I was at disneyland
for some reason) goes through the Star Tours building,
it eventually also go through the gift shop area (which apparently was
called Star Traders) and you can clearly see the X-wing hanging from ceiling.

according to some sources, people mover stopped operating since 1996 or so.
this video clip is from 1995 so it was almost last time this ride was working.

looking at these video clips, I'm certain now that these are actually one and the same
x-wing.

It used to be located in Star Trader area, but moved to Starcade area.
when that happened and why that happened is a mistery to me.

 

[switchblade_slinger]

I have several friends that work at Disneyland, and they all tell the same story. Dusneyland MUST keep it intact, however, since it was installed in the building during the 'Star Tours' construction, they have no way if removing it without serious reconstructive surgery to the structure or the X-wing. It will hang in the back of the Starcade like that until they can come up with a solution that won't break the bank (or a few windows)

 

[ironguts]

Cool video clip to watch. It's too bad there is no way to take close-ups/stills of it, I guess except of the bottom with a zoom lens - even still - not great. Hard to tell the level of accuracy etc from the clip. Still way cool to have something that size around.

While I admire the commitment to doing something original, creative, and challenging - and obviously something you are passionate about - I gotta say holy mackeral that is one big bite to chew on you are considering. Does your GF realize yet that this will take years "years" being subjective here 'cuz it may take quite a few... yikes!

You are one crazy brave dude. Or the craftiest commitmentphobe I've ever heard of.

 

[parabellum]

Does anybody have any photos of full size x-wing under construction?

I saw dozens of full size Millennium Falcon set under construction, but don't
remember ever seeing full size x-wing under construction.

http://www.rmff.net/x-wing/x-wingupdates.html

 

[modeleers]

There was a Sweet - 3/4 scale Xwing at CIII. I don't have pics but I'm sure they are out there...

 

[parabellum]

I guess it depends on how realistic you want it, where you plan to keep it, how long you want it to last, and where you live.
I've never built anything like that myself, but on the many, many occasions on which I've planned it out in my head, the least expensive and most storable idea that comes to mind is making it out of fabric, stretched over a framework of PVC and steel. Painted well, it wouldn't look like fabric until you got up close. The same would be true of large panels of cardboard, which you can get as large as 4x8 feet, or plastics such as styrene or plexiglas, except they wouldn't be as easy to take down. Of course, you'd still want to make the cockpit out of something durable. But unless you need to climb on the rest of it, you wouldn't really need to make them out of anything heavier. After all, they used to make airplanes out of fabric.

Just a crazy, out-of-the-box suggestion.

there are many many web sites devoted to plywood boat building.
some of their projects are pretty big like 38 feet long ships.
and its built entirely of plywood and some lumber and glued together.

I think full size movie set was built in similar technique.

full size x-wing fuselage would be around 40 feet long 6 feet tall
and 5 feet wide. probably doable with readily available material
with readily available wood working tools with no special skills.