Chiss Fighter under construction - new pics 6/17/04

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Nothing new, sorry! I fixed some of the links. I should have an update within a few weeks.

Ok for those that don't read the Star Wars novels this is a Chiss Fighter:

Fuzzy picture showing how everything fits together:

Wings, engines, and "tail" pieces:

Pilot. I figure since they use TIE cockpits, they would have to wear a standard TIE suit. The Chiss have blue skin, so uh I guess they would paint their helmets blue!

Cockpit and read mated:

Pylon with detail added, still not finished:

Piece that goes inside pylon, intake or something:

Side piece that will cover the latter piece from the side:

Main cannons partially complete:

 

[corranhornjje]

Looks pretty sweet Jason. I think you're going to need a new cutting board pretty soon.

 

[Robert McLain]

Ooooohh....me likey!

That's an awesome scratch build! Can't wait to see more!

Robert

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Thanks! This is my first full scratchbuild (well minus the cockpit ball) so it's taking a while.

Yeah those plastic cutters do a number on those cutting mats!

I was test fitting the wings to the pylons today, taping the lasers to the wings for the first time and discovered the clearance between the wing cannons are WAY to close, like 1/4"! (Check the pic of the fighter above, won't work!) So I'm gonna have to make up some new wings that will add about 3/4" to the part that connects to the pylons. I'm also gonna make the circular cutout in the wing more round like some other pictures. I don't have a clue how I missed this...
I'm just gonna trace the top of the wing because it's close, so it won't take that long. It's just a waste of time!

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

More pics!

I test fit the wings with the lasers taped on and found out that there wasn't a large enough gap to fit both lasers in, and that the wings were way to close together. So I decided to do new wings. There were several things I didn't like about the wings I did, but I figured I could live with them, so this let me fix those things.

I scanned a picture of the side view of the craptacular Essential Guide Chiss Fighter and scaled it to the size of the 1/48 TIE Cockpit. The wings are set at an angle of 69 degrees so I made a template by cutting out the wing on the picture and then adding some height and tweaking it a little to fit my model and account for the loss in the tilt in the picture. Anyway here's the new wing blank, it looks a LOT better:

Old wing at top, new wing on the bottom:

Old wing on top of new wing to see the size difference:

Engine pylon with old wing, note the wing over hang at the back:

Engine pylon with new wing, correct ammount of over hang at the back:

 

[badger]

Neat!!

I love the work you're putting into this..

badger

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Thanks! I got all four wings cut out. I decided not to mold and cast one wing like the last. So I might end up shooting myself sometime here...

 

[Robert McLain]

Looking awesome! The second wing looks spot on.

I know what you mean about shooting yourself....I actually shot myself two days into my star destroyer project......it's my ghost that is finishing it

Robert

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I have the new wings finished mostly, just some putty cleanup on the fairings around the imbedded guns. I rebuilt the main guns from the clear part in front of the wing back to lengthen them to fit the new wings.

I test fit all the major parts today so I figured I'd post some pics.

I decided to stack all my unbuilt kits next to the bench so I'll see them and work faster on this and get to them.

 

[Watson]

Looking great jason, most impressive.

JDH

 

[Robert McLain]

Dude, that awesome! Top notch work

Robert

 

[Skyler101]

Hey,

Looking great... Whats the board with the metal brackes you have the cockpit sitting on for? Is it home made, or a bought item?

-Skyler101

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Thanks for the comments!

That board is some kind of cutter that I got years ago from MicroMark. I just use it to sand stuff on because it's flat.

 

[Watson]

Any new Pics Jason?


JDH

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Not yet. I haven't had a whole lot of time the last week or two to work on it. I did get some more of the side nacelles detailed. I will have them finished and ready to attach pretty soon. I'll get pics ASAP.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I haven't had much time to work on this for the past month, but I did get a little work done this week. First, I've got most of the engine pylons finished; I just have some cleanup and to attach the pieces over the round part on the side:

I would have liked to have done different detail on the side, but the reference picture doesn't show much detail in there so I just stuck some photoetched pieces in there (the same on both sides).

I didn't get much done on the wing, just the vertical strip on the rear sides of the wing. I'm working on the supports and other detail during the rest of the week.

It's about 95% done. I should be able to mate the pylons to the TIE ball next week and then put the wings on.