MPC X-wing Build in Progress

newmagrathea

Sr Member
Hello all

I just joined the other day after trying to locate some reference pictures and came across this forum, and I've got to say I'm really impressed by everyone's skill. My build that I'm doing right now is the first model I've built in over 20 years, so I'm going to be going through a lot of firsts with this. Unfortunately I had already started on assembling my kit before I found this awesome cache of reference material and somethings are are just going to have to stay the way they are glued in place. That's ok, I'm using this kit to get back into the hobby and make mistakes on. So if anyone has any tips or recommendations feel free to clue me in. Here are some pics of my progress so far, thanks for looking.


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Rebuilding the guns in brass.
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I mounted a brass tube inside of the part that attaches to the wing with squadron white putty.
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Because I used squadron putty it melted the plastic on the outside of the housing, so I had to build it back up with more putty and Mr. Surfacer. It was a pain the rear but I think it came out ok. I wish I would have taken a picture of it melted.

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Next I moved on to the wings. This is where I was having a lot of trouble finding good reference photos. I eventually found some that were pretty blurry but good enough to discern what I did. I really hated the way the engines looked in the wings. So I added a small panel around the tube to make it look a little better. Also notice the gap in the wing to the right were the is nothing, I built that up too.

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I plan to add some hoses to the engine areas to give it a bit more realism.

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This was difficult to build inside of the already glued together wing, but I did it.

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More on the guns. Earlier I shaved off the two ridges and sanded the gun housings smooth and so now I added some very thin brass rod to replicate what I've seen in a reference photo I came across, I'm not sure if it's from a prop or not.

My reference photo.
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And my mod

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My next projects for this build are fixing the cockpit tub and figuring out how I'm going to mount this. The cockpit is pretty bad, I'm tempted to start from scratch, but I'll probably use most of it as the skeleton and build on top of it. The figure is pretty bad too but I'm not as concerned with that at the moment. Does anyone have any mounting suggestions? I was thinking a single rod through the bottom attached somehow, haven't figured how yet. And then bolted down to some wood painted black.

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I'm getting "invalid attachment" errors from every post except your first :(

I'm really curious to see your mods :)


-MJ
 
Sorry guys for some reason I'm having difficultly getting images to upload/save on the forum. The staff are looking into it. Hang in there and I'll get photos back up soon.
 
eh up buddy,welcome and can i say there is`nt alot i can help with ya buildin it looks mint,as for the filller i use milliput white it`s super fine,sculptable and heat resistant(use around lightin)is it worth thinkin about mountin it on some thick fibre optics or hoverin over magnets,which i have seen done but way out of my price range!top job on ya build though dude...cheers peza
 
I would avoid squadron putty (nasty stuff and takes forever to cure), use Bondo glazing putty instead (comes in a large tube)

As Peza said use something else for filler, my personal choices would be Magic Sculpt, Aves or Plumbers Putty (comes in a stick) and if you want it rock hard CA (Super Glue) and baking soda.
 
Has anyone used epoxy sculpt? I've had that recommended to me as well. I don't have a great need for a filler at the moment but I want to get something soon.
 
Pffft. And I thought the guys at ILM could build models. They couldn't even get the cannons on right on this. :D

Thanks man, I'm hoping that I can get the paint right too.

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This is my MPC/ERTL build that I did about 15 years ago. I bought the box at Disneyland's Star Tours gift shop. I think it turned out good.

You did a really good job with that. I'm hoping mine will turn out that good.
 
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