Millenniumf
Sr Member
So I've been working on converting the Kenner A-wing from the 90's into something that's presentable as a model of the ship. The proportions are not accurate to the miniature in terms of how big the cockpit ridge and canopy are, but other than that it's not a bad little toy! It was my favorite ship to fly around the room when I was younger. I wanted to do this back when I was like 12, but I FUBAR'd that one. However, it's 2020, and time for me to have a rematch! 
The very first thing I did was sand off all the panel lines and detail, since it's all raised and I plan on scribing it and replacing the greebles with model kit parts. I also filled in the landing gear holes and the gaps on top of the cockpit with styrene and sanded it all smooth.
I also separated the F-16 intake part on the back, removed the circular parts from the inside, and thinned it so it would look less toylike. I also filled the resulting hole with styrene.
I then sanded the canopy completely smooth. I'm going to use this as a buck to do some vacuforming later. This took forever, as the plastic is slightly gummy, and it ate up a couple of sanding sticks.
After that was done, I started the process of detailing it. I wanted to start with something easy, so I reworked the underside intake vent thing by replacing the detail with ribbed styrene sheet, and then built the vent from strip. I also added some tank tread for detail as I noticed detail like this in this area on the filming miniature. I'm not going to 100% accuracy, just the general impression of accuracy here, so you'll notice many of the detail parts are not what they used on the miniature.
Currently I'm working on detailing the cockpit and making it more like the film set. It'll be close, but I'm making it my own. For instance, I've scratchbuilt a targeting computer at roughly head level as well as a console which resembles the one from the miniature. The console will be fully lit with fiber optics.
Updates as the come!
The very first thing I did was sand off all the panel lines and detail, since it's all raised and I plan on scribing it and replacing the greebles with model kit parts. I also filled in the landing gear holes and the gaps on top of the cockpit with styrene and sanded it all smooth.
I also separated the F-16 intake part on the back, removed the circular parts from the inside, and thinned it so it would look less toylike. I also filled the resulting hole with styrene.
I then sanded the canopy completely smooth. I'm going to use this as a buck to do some vacuforming later. This took forever, as the plastic is slightly gummy, and it ate up a couple of sanding sticks.
After that was done, I started the process of detailing it. I wanted to start with something easy, so I reworked the underside intake vent thing by replacing the detail with ribbed styrene sheet, and then built the vent from strip. I also added some tank tread for detail as I noticed detail like this in this area on the filming miniature. I'm not going to 100% accuracy, just the general impression of accuracy here, so you'll notice many of the detail parts are not what they used on the miniature.
Currently I'm working on detailing the cockpit and making it more like the film set. It'll be close, but I'm making it my own. For instance, I've scratchbuilt a targeting computer at roughly head level as well as a console which resembles the one from the miniature. The console will be fully lit with fiber optics.
Updates as the come!
