Haystack's 1/48th Y-Wing Kit

Archive&Future · Aug 18, 2015

Seems to be something in demand by fellow sci-fi modelers, yet only one other kit is on the market and it ain't cheap either, so we'll be bringing this to you hopefully by the end of this year. We're working on a lot of different kit masters, not all SW ones either, so as you can imagine it's quite a hub of activity in my workspace.

I started out with a blueprint I drew by basing it off my corrected Revell Y-Wing in 1/72nd and also from information gathered through the RPF and various SW art books.

The wooden components are all mock-ups and/or vacuum forming bucks, the final masters are built in styrene and resin

The fact that the studio models were in 1/24th scale and mine is exactly half that size has been very fortunate when it comes to donor kits- I was lucky to already have a 1/48th Hurricane V12

5792z · Aug 18, 2015

Yes!

Looking forward to this!

blakeh1 · Aug 18, 2015

Awesome!

jake88 · Aug 18, 2015

That is so freakin bad ass! You are seriously making us all look bad so just pack it up brother! :lol

And send it to me!!!!! :devil

Seriously, fine work my friend. I love the Y and your doing her proud.

StevenBills · Aug 19, 2015

Haystack Hair said:
Seems to be something in demand by fellow sci-fi modelers...

This thing will sell like hot-cakes. Looks amazing.

SB

blakeh1 · Aug 19, 2015

You may or may not have already seen this, but here is some great reference on the Y variants
http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=70776

I believe the Revell version like the Bandai version is based on "Gold Leader/Gold 3", while the Fine Molds one is based on "Gold 2"

Archive&Future · Aug 19, 2015

blakeh1 said:
You may or may not have already seen this, but here is some great reference on the Y variants
http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=70776

I believe the Revell version like the Bandai version is based on "Gold Leader/Gold 3", while the Fine Molds one is based on "Gold 2"

I knew all the difference from my research but I never knew about this page, dang I wish I had though! So elegantly presented too...

Actually I didn't know which callsigns they were named after but I know that the Finemolds kit was based off 'Blue/Grey Tigersprocket' and the Revell kit was based in turn off the Finemolds kit.
The new Bandai kit looks to be based off 'MOM Tour'

rbeach84 · Aug 19, 2015

Well, awesome! I've been slowly gathering the data and materials to kick off my own stab at the Y-Wing in 1:48 scale, praying for Bandai to 'upscale' it aside. Your effort looks righteous out of the gate, so "bully"! I'm subscribed...
Regards, Robert

darth_daniel · Aug 19, 2015

Haystack Hair said:
I knew all the difference from my research but I never knew about this page, dang I wish I had though! So elegantly presented too...

Actually I didn't know which callsigns they were named after but I know that the Finemolds kit was based off 'Blue/Grey Tigersprocket' and the Revell kit was based in turn off the Finemolds kit.
The new Bandai kit looks to be based off 'MOM Tour'

The callsigns Gold 1/2/3 were invented by Fine Molds, so they´re not correct to the film as ILM used just any Y-Wing for any scene.
The Fine Molds kit seems to be based on the red jammer, judging from the head shape and the swapped left and right side neck side panels. They just replaced some details, like the LEM module for the tiger sprocket on the back. The proportions of fuselage-head-engines are wrong for any Y-Wing miniature though.

I have no idea where the guy on Modeler Magic got the idea from that the tiger sprocket Y ("Gold 2") has a wider fuselage (maybe because the lighting shows more details on the fuselage sides due to lighting in this one picture), they´re all identical except for some add-on details.
The fuselages of the MOM Y and TIE killer are very similar, but Bandai definately based their kit off TIE killer since it features many small details the MOM Y does not have.

Anyway, nice work on your scratchbuild! You may want to rebuild the canopy master though; wider, lower and the top (everything behind the front window) should be completely flat. Looking forward to your next update!

Archive&Future · Aug 19, 2015

darth_daniel said:
The callsigns Gold 1/2/3 were invented by Fine Molds, so they´re not correct to the film as ILM used just any Y-Wing for any scene.
The Fine Molds kit seems to be based on the red jammer, judging from the head shape and the swapped left and right side neck side panels. They just replaced some details, like the LEM module for the tiger sprocket on the back. The proportions of fuselage-head-engines are wrong for any Y-Wing miniature though.

I have no idea where the guy on Modeler Magic got the idea from that the tiger sprocket Y ("Gold 2") has a wider fuselage (maybe because the lighting shows more details on the fuselage sides due to lighting in this one picture), they´re all identical except for some add-on details.
The fuselages of the MOM Y and TIE killer are very similar, but Bandai definately based their kit off TIE killer since it features many small details the MOM Y does not have.

Anyway, nice work on your scratchbuild! You may want to rebuild the canopy master though; wider, lower and the top (everything behind the front window) should be completely flat. Looking forward to your next update!

Solid information, this is why I love the RPF. The canopy is definitely not correct, I just whipped it up on the belt sander to get an idea of size and shape, I'll be building the proper master out of styrene

newmagrathea · Aug 19, 2015

darth_daniel said:
The callsigns Gold 1/2/3 were invented by Fine Molds, so they´re not correct to the film as ILM used just any Y-Wing for any scene.
The Fine Molds kit seems to be based on the red jammer, judging from the head shape and the swapped left and right side neck side panels. They just replaced some details, like the LEM module for the tiger sprocket on the back. The proportions of fuselage-head-engines are wrong for any Y-Wing miniature though.

I have no idea where the guy on Modeler Magic got the idea from that the tiger sprocket Y ("Gold 2") has a wider fuselage (maybe because the lighting shows more details on the fuselage sides due to lighting in this one picture), they´re all identical except for some add-on details.
The fuselages of the MOM Y and TIE killer are very similar, but Bandai definately based their kit off TIE killer since it features many small details the MOM Y does not have.

Anyway, nice work on your scratchbuild! You may want to rebuild the canopy master though; wider, lower and the top (everything behind the front window) should be completely flat. Looking forward to your next update!

This awesome info. I've got a Finemolds Y sitting around and I'll probably pick up the Bandai and paint them accordingly.

HH, awesome work so far. *cough cough* my bank account hates you *cough*

ILMwannabe · Aug 21, 2015

[/QUOTE]

darth_daniel said:
The callsigns Gold 1/2/3 were invented by Fine Molds, so they´re not correct to the film as ILM used just any Y-Wing for any scene.

In a way, yes. But it makes it easier to individualize them & tell them apart. While it is true that the ILM cameramen definitely preferred some of the "hero" models over others (such as Red Five), and quite a few X-Wing shots in the film do not match the scene, when it comes to the Y-Wing's brief screen time there was some consistency in the film. The first Y-Wing seen from the back (fleet on their way to Deathstar, not Special Edition) has been identified as the "Gold Leader" ship (even though it had a black droid with large white panels). The famous shot of two Y-Wings in the trench, left side view, with the speeding backround (and no droids) seems to show Gold Leader closest to the camera, as could be expected. "Gold Two" is in the background. It seems that they planned it that way, and fortunately the shot did not end up in a wrong place because there was only one Y-Wing attack run. It is presumed that "Gold Leader" is more experienced, therefore the model with the tiny TIE Fighter "kill marking" on its nose is usually associated with "Gold Leader", which is pretty much the same as saying Gold 1. And the film does mention that he went into the trench with Gold Two and Gold Five. The Gold Five model is not discussed in the aforementioned website but it has been documented in various pictures & the BluRay special features. Apparently it was a well-detailed pyro model with four crosshair-like marks on the apex of each of its yellow-marked engines, and it did not have a bluish canopy. If you carefully pause the film, you might notice that the markings on the ship shown when Gold Five gets its engine blown off in the film seems to match the "Gold Five Model".

So I don't think it was too much of a stretch for Fine Molds to call them 1, 2 . . . with the exception of the one with the brown/green engine markings (the one that Fine Molds calls "Gold Three"). That one never appeared in ANH, but it seems to have appeared at the end of ESB. Lorne Petersen's book, "Sculpting A Galaxy" mentions an unexploded pyro which survived to see screen time later. But there seems to be no "canon" information to link that model to "Gold Three". The one in Return of the Jedi was scratchbuilt by a private modeler who was hired by ILM before ROTJ -Bill George. It was reported that they used it because at the time there were no more suitable "hero" Y-Wing models left. But that one has no documented assigned number either . . .

darth_daniel · Aug 22, 2015

ILMwannabe said:
In a way, yes. But it makes it easier to individualize them & tell them apart. While it is true that the ILM cameramen definitely preferred some of the "hero" models over others (such as Red Five), and quite a few X-Wing shots in the film do not match the scene, when it comes to the Y-Wing's brief screen time there was some consistency in the film. The first Y-Wing seen from the back (fleet on their way to Deathstar, not Special Edition) has been identified as the "Gold Leader" ship (even though it had a black droid with large white panels). The famous shot of two Y-Wings in the trench, left side view, with the speeding backround (and no droids) seems to show Gold Leader closest to the camera, as could be expected. "Gold Two" is in the background. It seems that they planned it that way, and fortunately the shot did not end up in a wrong place because there was only one Y-Wing attack run. It is presumed that "Gold Leader" is more experienced, therefore the model with the tiny TIE Fighter "kill marking" on its nose is usually associated with "Gold Leader", which is pretty much the same as saying Gold 1. And the film does mention that he went into the trench with Gold Two and Gold Five. The Gold Five model is not discussed in the aforementioned website but it has been documented in various pictures & the BluRay special features. Apparently it was a well-detailed pyro model with four crosshair-like marks on the apex of each of its yellow-marked engines, and it did not have a bluish canopy. If you carefully pause the film, you might notice that the markings on the ship shown when Gold Five gets its engine blown off in the film seems to match the "Gold Five Model".

So I don't think it was too much of a stretch for Fine Molds to call them 1, 2 . . . with the exception of the one with the brown/green engine markings (the one that Fine Molds calls "Gold Three"). That one never appeared in ANH, but it seems to have appeared at the end of ESB. Lorne Petersen's book, "Sculpting A Galaxy" mentions an unexploded pyro which survived to see screen time later. But there seems to be no "canon" information to link that model to "Gold Three". The one in Return of the Jedi was scratchbuilt by a private modeler who was hired by ILM before ROTJ -Bill George. It was reported that they used it because at the time there were no more suitable "hero" Y-Wing models left. But that one has no documented assigned number either . . .

Thanks, I know all of that because I´ve been looking through Y-Wing reference photos far too many hours... I didn´t know though that tiger sprocket was being explicitly referred to as Gold 2 in the film. Anyway I agree Gold 1, 2 and 3 might be better names for a commercial kit than fan-made names like "TIE killer", "tiger sprocket" and "MOM Y-Wing"...

I have to correct you though on 'Gold 3´s' engine markings, they are neither brown nor green. It´s just grey with yellow overspray from the engine dome marking shining through, so some people mistake it for brown.

A friend sent me a photo some days ago showing a Y-Wing being rigged for explosion in front of the blue screen, and the model looks like a 'hybrid' of TIE killer and triangles (Gold 5) so there might have been more Y-Wings (pyros) built for ANH than commonly known.
For ROTJ there were some more Y-Wings built in addition to Bill George´s model. A photo shows 4 unpainted Y-Wings with the MOM Y in the background and a TIE Interceptor panel which proves they´re not from ANH. 3 of those 4 are mounted from the front (tube into the nose), and 2 such nose-mounted Y-Wings can be seen in the model groupshot with George Lucas standing in the middle.
So the commonly known Y-Wings might make up maybe not even half of the number of Y-Wings actually built.

Did I mention I love Y-Wings?

ILMwannabe · Aug 22, 2015

darth_daniel said:
Thanks, I know all of that because I´ve been looking through Y-Wing reference photos far too many hours... I didn´t know though that tiger sprocket was being explicitly referred to as Gold 2 in the film. Anyway I agree Gold 1, 2 and 3 might be better names for a commercial kit than fan-made names like "TIE killer", "tiger sprocket" and "MOM Y-Wing"...

I have to correct you though on 'Gold 3´s' engine markings, they are neither brown nor green. It´s just grey with yellow overspray from the engine dome marking shining through, so some people mistake it for brown.

Did I mention I love Y-Wings?

Me too. Thanks for the info! I didn't know that the markings on "Gold 3" were not really brown or forest green. There are photos of that model in several different phases of construction (before some piping was added, after, different droids, additional weathering later, etc.). And I've seen it & photographed it myself on two different occasions. I find it amazing that they took what was probably a pyro model & were able to retrofit lights to it for ESB. As for names, since there's nothing official so it doesn't really matter, but we have to call them something, so I prefer calling the last one the "Bill George Y-Wing", and even though "Red Jammer" seems prevalent, simply calling it the "Red Y-Wing" seems descriptive enough to me. I never liked the "jammer" part. Amongst my small group of friends we refer to Gold Five as "Pops" 'cause he seemed older & more experienced, ironically (and got an instant promotion when the younger Gold One was pulverized! "I copy Gold Leader")

Getting back to the subject, can't wait to see the 1/48 Y-Wing finished. It's coming out great . . .

Archive&Future · Aug 24, 2015

Today I was mainly focusing on building the cockpit, and starting the head.
I must've spent at least 6 or 7 hours making the cockpit canopy, trying to get it right, but it's a tremendously strange shape to get perfect (or at least that's what I found)
I detailed the interior ceiling as much as I dare to mould, and then began creating the new styrene head, using the wooden piece as both a forming buck and a prototype. I'm not very keen on 'skinning' the wood pieces with styrene as it's just as time consuming as building entirely from sheet plastic.
Regardless, stay tuned for more.