Studio Scale A-Wing

3d-builder

3d-builder

Sr Member
One of the biggest secrets or the odd fighter out in the Star Wars Galaxy is the A-wing. There have been some kit offerings in small scales but nothing shows of the beautiful lines of the A-Wing at the studio scale.

It's a big fighter in studio scale 60cm long x 40cmW 22cm H this little beast ends up around 2ft, which I believe is around the lenght of an ugly x-wing!:lol

The A-wing is full of compound curves so it's a hard model to build. It's a lot of building patterns that will end up vacuum formed.These include the top and bottom hulls, canopy, canopy bulkhead, engines, vector rings, canopy rail, rear cowlings,

I built one of these for a client, and I love this model so much in Studio scale I have to build another.!!:lol

Big shout out to Ralphee for letting me use is hulls to start on mine!!!(y)lol
 
This first picture shows the hull master I built it out of pine so it would be around for a while!:lol This one had a wonky angle down the centerline in front of the canopy and it had to be fixed later.I was able to fix it and move on.The hulls I am using now came form this pattern, but I may make another for the future.This hull was covered in bond and smoothed out before forming.
 
These pictures shows the pattern rough with bondo and then smoothed out ready for forming.Hrs spent smoothing = MANY!!!:lol
 
Ok so I had a nice pattern to form but no vacuum former big enough fo this job.So I had to build one.......another issue was a heat source because this sheet of 3mm styrene was not even close to fitting in my home oven!! So I set off to make a former and frame work to hold the plastic....but where would I heat it?
Because I have an electric range with a glass cooktop I figured the frame work might go up on top supported over the burners.This worked well!:love

The frame work and former are made out of wood.The frame work was made llike 2 picture frames, one frame has drilled hole where nutserts were installed, the other frame has drilled holes that corrospond with the nutserts in the opposite frame.Then I could simply screw the two frames together with the piece of 3mm poastic inbetween.
 
When I was left with some cool spots because of the lpacement of the glass burners on top.So I simply supplemented some heat while it was warming with a professional heat gun....you know one of the big mothers!!:lol

When it was formed it looked like this and I was happy!!
 
3d-builder said:
When I was left with some cool spots because of the lpacement of the glass burners on top.So I simply supplemented some heat while it was warming with a professional heat gun....you know one of the big mothers!!:lol

When it was formed it looked like this and I was happy!!
Click to expand...



Ill take two, and throw in some F-117 parts.
 
Once the pattern has been formed it's time to de-mold, pull the riser out and cut the flash away at the equator , leaving a nice clean edge on the bottom of the formed hull.

When this step is over I begin to find the centeline of the model.The center lline of the model will allow me to make the cuts and remove the shoulders of the hull.My pattern has more than is neccessary to create the A-wing this is done so I will not have to deal with a great drop off. Big drop offs do not go well with vacuum forming......Well not with home made jobs where your not pulling big mercury!!:lol Instead the area is just cut away after forming to create a nice sharp curve on the side of the hull.

If your wondering all the reference lines are coming off the kit to mark the pacement of areas to be cut away.
 
When the time comes for cutting I use a little trick to keep a straight line. I take a piece of Evergreen channel and tape it down on the line, as the channel has a 90deg side it's a perfect place to run the exacto knife along.

This is even better when cutting curves which the A-wing has plenty of.I don't use the cutting side of the knife I use the back side and run it very lightly until I have a good track.Then I can begin to add more pressure until I scribe through.So I don't cut it because you can easily cut into the evergreen strip while passing the knife blade.I also use this technique for scribing all my panel llines.

The first picture with the pencil shows you the roll at the end, just a common problem with vacuum forming(AT HOME) it's just not sharp and clean!! To overcome this problem the master patterns hull was created to be longer.This would allow me to cut the rolled edge away and have a clean crisp line at the currect length 60cm in length.
 
With everything clean and sexy it was time to cut the shoulders on the lower hull to match.it's important to attach the two hulls to eachother before doing this to make sure the center lines match up and the points where the shoulders will be cut match up.Then the same was repeated for the lower hull.You can see in the last picture, I used a protractor to make sure I was coming off 90deg and then center to the centerline of the lower hull.
 
The lines on the lower hull that mark the areas to be cut away are pictured below.When the lower hull is all cut away everything should match up nice, this is the reason for taping the hulls together before starting any cutting.
 
Now it's time for the A-wings huge Event Horizon J-tt engine set!!!:love Ya I need a vacuum pattern for this also, this plug is made out of PVC very STRONG I like things that will stand up to 350 deg of hot plastic draped all over it!!! it is filled in the middle with Apoxie sculpt a two part modeling clay, it does not shrink or wink or ask any questions thats why I like it!!:love

For this pattern I have a smaller machine which I made also.However the frame work for this machine does fit in my oven.......and there was much rejoycing!!!:lol The pics below pretty much explain the process, becuse this is THICK styrene 3mm the plastic is spending a good 8 to 9 min in the oven.How much droop is needed before it comes out of the oven.......?WELL fellow glue sniffers that comes from experience and the sze and shape of the pattern to be formed!:lol

Under the vacuum pattern's riser I placed 4 coins to let a little air flow through.The riser that the vacuum pattern sits on allows me to pull past the equator, so i can achieve a perfect midpoint latter by cutting away the excess.
 
This will cover de-molding the engine which is repeated 4x !!!:angry Hey thats life maybe I will spend the money to have 4 made in resin and pop them all at once on my big machine?

To de-mold these I remove the riser,then scribe the sides and break them away.Then the front and rear are scribed and cut away, when this is done it is still impossible to remove the pattern by shaking it out!! I have to use a flat head screw drive to dig one end out then it will release for me.
 
Ralphee and Alen your VECTOR RINGS ARE TO SMALL!!!:$ They need to be around 32mm in length!! I have created a new pattern yesterday and will form these next.......so ah ya Lee I owe you two hulls and new vector rings!!!

Tihis is a part that would be easier cast in resin but I want a all plastic model!!!:angry I just don't trust resin to be snadwiched between the two stabllizers on the top and bottom hulls. So I will form this in 2mm styrene as well. It will create a issue with encapsulation for sure but I have a plan for knocking this little ring away from the pattern.:love

This is for another day so no pics sorry party people maybe friday!! I have the new pattern built however!:love
 
Well I got up early and started to sort out the vecotr ring dilema! I needed a new riser as the vecotr plug was finished and inreased from 24mm to 32mm.I cut the riser out of pine on the bandsaw I cut it about 1mm outside my line and decided to sand it in to the line.

I decided to find the center first, to do this I used a nice little tool I got for christmas that takes all the mystery out of finding the center.After I found the center I drilled a hole through it and ran a long pice of shaft that had threads on the end.I spun down a nut on the end over the riser and just touoched it with a bit of CA glue.Then I inserted the shaft into my drill, the drill was carefuly placed in my vice in the full auto positon.Whith the drill spinning the riser I carefully wrapped the sandpaper around it and let the drill do the rest of the work.

Once this was finished I drilled two small pilot holes through the riser and into the pattern, then I screwed the riser to the pattern.This would make sure the patttern would not move off the riser during forming.

Next step was forming which is the same process for all of this build.

De-molding is next because encapsulation makes this this impossible to remove with my hands, I needed to make a punch/press.Before punching out the pattern from the formed ring the riser must be removed, then the extra flash cut away. I sand both sides of the ring until I can see the top and bottom of the master pattern flush with rings edge.Then it is loaded into the press and punched out leaving me a perfect 2mm ring very strong!!
 
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