Shuttle Tyridium MPC Vintage kit

Scarecrow Joe

Sr Member
Just finished this one. As you may know this one is a nightmare to get ight since fitment is pretty bad. No aftermarket bits were used though so its not a 100 screen accurate model but it looks the part. Even the base provided was used. I did added some additional details between wing halves. tried to weather as closely to the screen seen model though. Overall a fun little kit to work on. I tried my unexperienced hands with this one as a kid in the 80's and it kicked my butt and ended in the thrash, not this time!

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20220409_153830 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

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20220409_153836 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

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20220409_153850 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

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20220409_153902 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

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20220409_153927 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

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20220409_153944 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

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20220409_153959 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

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20220409_154014 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

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20220409_154043 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

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20220409_154107 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

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20220409_154126 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr
 
I remember that kit! Brings me back to my initial heyday of model building in the 80's in the wake of Star Wars mania. I think of all the kits AMT and MPC sold, THAT particular one seemed to me to be the most accurate in terms of detail - mostly because I had a movie program book that I bought while waiting in line for 26 hours to see the midnight premiere of Jedi in '83.They had a few really crisp pics of the ILM model and a few beauty still shots for the promo of the film. You certainly gave it a life my novice hands were incapable of administering back in those days.

Thanks for the memories!
 
Scarecrow Joe - That's a damn nice build-up, especially considering how much extra attention this kit requires to look as good as you've made yours! I've never built one because I could never find one way back in the dark ages before the 'Net, but I have one now (unbuilt) and I hope when/if I finally get around to it that it turns out half as well as yours has! (y)(y)
 
Scarecrow Joe - That's a damn nice build-up, especially considering how much extra attention this kit requires to look as good as you've made yours! I've never built one because I could never find one way back in the dark ages before the 'Net, but I have one now (unbuilt) and I hope when/if I finally get around to it that it turns out half as well as yours has! (y)(y)
Its a handful this one. Mine had the wings warped a bit and needed some heat gun work to correct. Also have plentiful clamps to bring it to submission:

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20220311_190252 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

The top and bottom halves needed some putty to make them look right too:

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20220322_171920 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

After putty and primer:

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20220402_124634 by Oscar Baez Soria, on Flickr

Final basecoat was Tamiya Insignia White.
 
That looks really good. The nose is so messed up with this model, but being so old, I think we can forgive them.
I had the issues of things not wanting to fit together as well when I built mine years ago. Got it fixed, but I have noticed that some of the seams have split again....but it now hangs in my roommates room, so I don't even see it too often anymore. (suppose to have been a temp roommate, but yeah, thanks covid. Its been good either way though.)

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That was exactly what I did. Its poorly designed and I managed to get the wings positionable but at one point it started to separate again. I wanted to display it in a flight position so I glued the wings....problem solved. :)
I have one (at least I think it's the AMT kit) that I never built, and I'm probably just going to build it in the "landed" position with the wings up, especially since it'll just be a "shelf queen" anyway.
 
I had that one back in the day. I remember the pylon and stand was very spindly. Any bump against the ship and the whole thing would wobble really bad. Is it still the same?
 
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