ILM X-Wing Models: Timeline & Status

And I don't mean to suggest that the X-Wing (or Red 5) is UNimportant or unknow, by any means.

Switching gears...

I thing Jay placed Red 2 three years ago. Elsewhere its been mentioned that it is not in the archives at the moment (is this true?)... And that it is not known to be on tour any more.

So...

What tours was Red 2 on?
What was its latest tour?
Where is it now...?
 
Miniaturizer Ray said:
We might imagine all sorts of fanciful explanations, but it's extremely hard to come up with any story that fits those elements that we do know to be fact.
SNIP
We don't know, but we keep looking for pieces of the puzzle.
Click to expand...

In a funny sort of way his thread reminds me of one of those Shakespeare biographies. In both cases, a frustrating lack of historical information prompts the subject's respective fans and scholars to cook up their own theories, hypothesis, and back-stories. It's nothing if not entertaining.
 
I've had loads of requests for the Red 2 .Tiff, I don't mind sharing it with anyone at all but can someone recommend a sharing site so you can all download from a link??? I don't want to send so many massive emails.... its about 14 MB?

Any help would be ace
 
Miniaturizer Ray said:
In STAR WARS, the X-wing models are used interchangeably to represent the various pilots' ships, and most people wouldn't even notice. But later, through the comics and other media, it became fairly well established that Luke's X-wing was the one with five stripes.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say that.
The models are labeled in several vintage ILM model photos.
(still using the "blue" call signs before they changed to red for the movie)
- John D. Blue 4
- Biggs Blue 3
- Blue 12

Also I've seen Red 5, Red 2 and Red Leader (1) although I haven't seen those labeled within the pics - just going by wing stripes. Red 2 was the original Blue Leader (1) with the blue stripes.

So several models were assigned to specific pilots from the beginning. I'm sure they had little tricks to use the same models for the other ships they didn't build.

So isn't that 6 hero X-wing models? (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 12)
Or are one or two of those pyro? I don't know the pyro "tells".
I'm not a big modeler, I just find the topic very interesting.
 
The switcheroo of models happened during editing. The DS attack as edited is much different than as indended during model photography. If they needed a ship going left to right, and found a shot, the editors didn't much care how many stripes it had.
 
I've had loads of requests for the Red 2 .Tiff, I don't mind sharing it with anyone at all but can someone recommend a sharing site so you can all download from a link???
Click to expand...

Guy ... try MEGAUPLOAD. It's a file sharing site that's free. Uploading the
file is simple :

http://www.megaupload.com/

Where it says SELECT FILE TO SEND at the top, just point to the image on your
hard drive and check off that you accept the terms below. Click SEND.

You'll be given a URL that you can then post here .. it'll look like :

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=77777Q2J (this is just an example ..)


Hope this helps ...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I would also recommend MegaUpload or Flickr, and add http://www.mediafire.com/

When Ray said you could 'disguise' an X-Wing by painting over the stripes, I immediately thought of the ending of Maltese Falcon :lol "This is the Russian's doing!"


-Mike
 
I'm pretty sure all of the "John D Blue Squad" photos are pyros. They have engine cans close to the fuselage (indicating the absence of a movable metal armature), solid resin wings (same pyro chip details), and a few other subtle detailed tells. But here's the weird thing, and hopefully we can find out more about these X-wings - they are painted like heroes. Very consistent and deliberate work went into those birds, and some of the deco just isn't seen on the non-hero models. Decals, that black hash-marking, what looks like layered brown and grey washes in places... and there's that weird domed droid in the socket that's really out of left field, too.

I have a couple theories, but as Don has recently shown, even the stuff we've been told by experts is sometimes complete malarkey.

lonepigeon said:
I wouldn't say that.
The models are labeled in several vintage ILM model photos.
(still using the "blue" call signs before they changed to red for the movie)
- John D. Blue 4
- Biggs Blue 3
- Blue 12

Also I've seen Red 5, Red 2 and Red Leader (1) although I haven't seen those labeled within the pics - just going by wing stripes. Red 2 was the original Blue Leader (1) with the blue stripes.

So several models were assigned to specific pilots from the beginning. I'm sure they had little tricks to use the same models for the other ships they didn't build.

So isn't that 6 hero X-wing models? (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 12)
Or are one or two of those pyro? I don't know the pyro "tells".
I'm not a big modeler, I just find the topic very interesting.
Click to expand...
 
moffeaton said:
I'm pretty sure all of the "John D Blue Squad" photos are pyros. They have engine cans close to the fuselage (indicating the absence of a movable metal armature), solid resin wings (same pyro chip details), and a few other subtle detailed tells. But here's the weird thing, and hopefully we can find out more about these X-wings - they are painted like heroes. Very consistent and deliberate work went into those birds, and some of the deco just isn't seen on the non-hero models. Decals, that black hash-marking, what looks like layered brown and grey washes in places... and there's that weird domed droid in the socket that's really out of left field, too.
Click to expand...

John D's droid on the "Blue 4" model is R4-M9. The same droid seen on the Tantive IV in the beginning of the movie.
http://astromech.net/?q=gallery&g2_itemId=230&
The R4 series droids have a much taller domes than the R2's and R3's.

Those models are painted REALLY nice for pyros.

Maybe they are hero models built from pyro parts/molds with fixed wings only? If they weren't used in the first few shots of the X-wings approaching the Death Star there wouldn't be a need to build them with complex wing mechanisms (that were apparently troublesome).
Can any of these really nice models be seen exploding in the movie?
 
Hi Guy,
I've not uploaded a pic in tiff format to flickr. It appears from the upload dropdown that the tiff format is supported. The reason I like flickr is it's free, and pop-up free to those who wish to see your images, unlike other share sites which like to throw IQ pop-up tests and such.

I think the free version of flickr allows 100MB upload per month. Unlimited is not to expensive either.

Take care,
-DM
 
Guy Cowen said:
Here it is again for late comers
Click to expand...

Got it, thanks Guy!

Miniaturizer Ray said:
As referred to earlier, there is writing on Red 2 - "Bot L", "Top R", "FLOAT", etc, suggesting that the parts were marked for re-assembly (who needed these identifying marks? It's pretty obvious which bit goes where :confused)
Click to expand...

Just another silly guess, but we know Blue 1/Red 2 was sent to England by plane so that the full-size set could be constructed. I bet the writing was for the guys there who had to put it back together. I'm sure for them there was nothing obvious about what they were looking at.
 
lonepigeon said:
John D's droid on the "Blue 4" model is R4-M9. The same droid seen on the Tantive IV in the beginning of the movie.
http://astromech.net/?q=gallery&g2_itemId=230&
The R4 series droids have a much taller domes than the R2's and R3's.

Those models are painted REALLY nice for pyros.

Maybe they are hero models built from pyro parts/molds with fixed wings only? If they weren't used in the first few shots of the X-wings approaching the Death Star there wouldn't be a need to build them with complex wing mechanisms (that were apparently troublesome).
Can any of these really nice models be seen exploding in the movie?
Click to expand...

Chris,

There were two types of X-Wing models built for ANH. The first type were almost entirely scratch-built and each had:

  • hollow acrylic and styrene wings
  • upper resin/lower styrene fuselage construction
  • custom machined aluminum armatures
  • hand-scribed panel lines
  • hand-applied surface "chips"
  • hand-applied greeblies

These models took a lot of time to build and are generally referred to as "heroes." There were hero models for Reds 1, 2, 3, and 5.

The second type of X-Wing models built for the film were constructed from resin "kits" pulled from molds made from hero patterns and had:

  • solid resin cast wings
  • right/left resin fuselage construction
  • fixed wing attachment blocks on the fuselage
  • no internal armatures
  • identical panel lines and surface "chips"

and these models are generally referred to as "pyros," even though it appears that at least some of them were painted and weathered to hero standards. And while most of the pyro build-ups were likely destroyed by explosions during production, it's not clear that all of them were built for this purpose. As a result, the "hero"/"pyro" distinction is a blurry but still useful one.

I'd be happy to help identify the models in the photos you describe if you're interested.
 
I'm more of a visual person, so can we identify what models we see in the below pictures? One is labeled Blue 4, so that should be pretty obvious. But what exactly is Blue 4 again and how does it fit into the X-Wing lineage?

Pics are compressed for forum use.





 
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