Disney Parks Luke’s T-16 Skyhopper prop/model

[Funky]

I just got these yesterday for my birthday from my beautiful wife. From ESB/Mandalorian, the ice cream maker which we find out it’s really a safe. Pretty neat!
But the reason for this post is the long sold out T-16 Skyhopper model. I have to say, I’m very impressed, though I’m not intimate with this particular prop. A couple of questions I hope you kids can help me with.
1. Is this in fact studio scale? To my untrained eye, it looks pretty dang close to me, right down to the brass stand.
2. Is the two pilot seating accurate? If so, talk about your blind spots!
3. Really? Red jumpsuits?
4. Not directly related, but come on. Does everyone really believe that we see a full sized Skyhopper in the background of the Lars garage? I mean, it “kind of” looks like the center back of the T-16. However, there is no Grffin decal and in order for it to fit that garage must be huge! Heck, for all we know that could be a dishwasher!

Pleas any and all thoughts are welcome.

 

[eegah]

Yep, from what I saw it is really close to studio scale, right down to the two pilots and red jumpsuits!
Yeah, that’s gotta be a big garage to fit a sky hopper!
It took me two of the, before I found one without damage to one of the griffin stickers tho!
Congrats, it’s a cool piece, especially for the price!

 

[Dann]

Dang, that actually looks pretty good.

I mean, I'm just going from memory, I haven't looked at reference in a LONG time. But it sure looks the part. The panel lines look a little on the deep side, but maybe that's accurate. The pilots look mostly correct, to me.

And yeah, the Skyhopper in the garage background always bewildered me. I just assumed there was an open ceiling in that area of the garage.

I remember starting an attempt to build one of these YEARS ago. I think I still have a bunch of the cut styrene pieces, and the heatsink and griffin and yellow stripe decals. Obviously, I never finished it.

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

3. Really? Red jumpsuits?

I don’t know much about the real prop. There was this on exhibit in Madrid. I have no idea if it is the real prop or not

https://flic.kr/p/6xXXBo

Additionally, I have to wonder if Disney made this product because a prop had to be made for The Obi Wan series. So now they probably had either a prop or already computer scans that LFL could provide to help create the product.

 

[phase pistol]

A couple of comparison shots between Colin Cantwell's screeused prop and the new Disney toy.

Here's a video of somebody comparing the Disney toy to the Jason Eaton replica of the prop.

 

[Funky]

Okay. The Disney T-16 IS studio scale! I love mine even more!

 

[beowulf573]

I was really happy to grab one on our trip this Sept. I just ordered the decal sheet, I'll updated those and add some weathering. I do wish the cockpit was accessible to add the other control decal, though to be fair I haven't tried very hard to take it apart.

It's amazing for the price.

 

[CatfoodRob]

Ive just got one of these beauties.
I intend to modify it slightly to be more accurate...mainly darkening the top grey parts , but a decal sheet has been mentioned in a post above ... does anyone have any info on it ??Also , is there any easily available kit parts that could be substituted on the toy ? parts from still available models, not super expensive unobtainable vintage models lol.
Im assuming people have already done mods to this .
Cheers folks.

 

[beowulf573]

Decal sheet. I have not yet had time to apply and weather but looks good.

I do wish there was a way to open the cockpit for updates.

 

[CatfoodRob]

ok, so all you losers are scared to take a screwdriver to it are you ?

well I manned up ......

There are foru screws on the bottom section , remove them and it falls away , exposing the middle section with six screws . Remove them and that section falls away ...no glue.
the center two screws hold the pilot seats in , and are ever so slightly longer than all the other screws , which are all the same length .
Next there is a spacer piece that comes out (no glue) allowing the dashboard to fall out .
For applying decals, this is as far as you need , everything simply comes to bits .
The glass is glued in , so will need masking for a colour change, but might come free with a little persuasion .
If you are really keen, the brass stand comes out with a little tab .

There, simple to pull appart and equally simple to re assemble. Allowing the pilots to be simply detailed , and the extra decals to go on the dashboard .

 

[beowulf573]

Well, I know what I’m doing tonight…

 

[beowulf573]

The exterior decals are perfect, but the cockpit ones are slightly oversized. I probably should have left the existing ones and only added the control panels. But once the microsol dries and I reassemble it, I doubt anyone aside from members of this forum would notice.

I assume the studio scale kits are slightly different. I’d still recommend the decal set, many left over for future projects.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

The exterior decals are perfect, but the cockpit ones are slightly oversized. I probably should have left the existing ones and only added the control panels. But once the microsol dries and I reassemble it, I doubt anyone aside from members of this forum would notice.

I assume the studio scale kits are slightly different. I’d still recommend the decal set, many left over for future projects.

View attachment 1881280View attachment 1881281

Did you spray the plastic with a paint of some kind before applying the decals?

Waterslide decals tend not to adhere to bare plastic very well.

 

[beowulf573]

No, I did not. I haven't done decals in many, many years and it did not occur to me. Hopefully the texture, it's not perfectly smooth, and the Microsol gives it enough bite to hold. I can always hit the exterior decals with a bit of matte spray if need be. Thanks for the suggestion.

I'm happy with how it turned out. It's not 100% accurate, so those who are more detail oriented than I might not be happy. But I imagine those people would go for a more accurate studio scale model and not a Disney toy. I damaged the cockpit decals slightly but it's hard to notice through the clear plastic.

I might add a bit more weathering later. And since it's Life Day I made a Dagobah Slug Slinger to finish everything up.

 

[Landocycle]

Some of these models are really cool. On a side note...i recall lately seeing a video or commercial for a star destroyer model. It looked really cool on the exterior. The interior opens up and is supposed to be a realistic interior of the star destroyer. It looked really cool until i saw the tie fighter that was inside. They made the tie fighter so much larger that it somewhat ruined the imaging for me. Still super cool...yet goes to show that sometimes the imagination of the actual toy companies are not as syrong as some of the talented prop builders.

 

[teecrooz]

I’ll be doing the decal upgrades soon. I started with flipping the gun to the original position, just to see if I could. It’s a bit precarious breaking some of the glue bonds, but was pretty easy to cut off the plastic knurled nut and sleeve and replace them with real brass. Still need to paint them, but this was a test fit and it has to come back apart for the decal work anyway.

Orientation I’m going for:


Pressure tab holds the metal rod in place.



Need to remove the plastic sleeve and washer. This part is inside the gun housing, so it’s hard to break free. Have to cut these off and also create a larger flat spot for the sleeve to sit flush.

 

[Halliwax]

I’ll be doing the decal upgrades soon. I started with flipping the gun to the original position, just to see if I could. It’s a bit precarious breaking some of the glue bonds, but was pretty easy to cut off the plastic knurled nut and sleeve and replace them with real brass. Still need to paint them, but this was a test fit and it has to come back apart for the decal work anyway.

Orientation I’m going for:
View attachment 1881937

Pressure tab holds the metal rod in place.

View attachment 1881938View attachment 1881939View attachment 1881946

Need to remove the plastic sleeve and washer. This part is inside the gun housing, so it’s hard to break free. Have to cut these off and also create a larger flat spot for the sleeve to sit flush.

View attachment 1881942View attachment 1881943View attachment 1881945View attachment 1881940View attachment 1881941View attachment 1881947View attachment 1881950View attachment 1881948View attachment 1881949View attachment 1881951

Wicked nice job flipping the gun

 

[CatfoodRob]

I don’t understand , are you saying the whole engine block that the gun attaches to … is upside down ??? Looking at your photos that appears to be what you’ve done ,
Some guy in the Disney design dept got his references mixed up !

 

[teecrooz]

I wanted mine to be closer to the original construction, not how it currently is in the archives. I might also attach the parts that have been broken off.

 

[teecrooz]

I had started this project to make the gun flippable to match either orientation on the skyhopper. I originally kept the main base and slid some brass over its. Now I fully swapped out the base on the Disney skyhopper for all brass. I know I have too many knurled nuts on there, but they did move over time, so I have one in each location. I’ll do some of the other mods later. Update the decals, add a real heat sink and some real model parts where I can. Thanks Edraven99 for the push to finish what I started.

Need to drill out this hole and the one in the gun:


Then it all threads together.