Yeah, that's what I was wondering, whether or not the wing wells in the Red 4 pics have the undercut, like those Red 3 wings, or are one solid casting like the pyro wings.
For those wondering what the heck we're talking about, by looking at decent pictures of the original models, it's clear that several, though possibly not all, of the "hero" models had wings built out of clear acrylic framing, for strength and durability, covered with sheet styrene for scribing and painting. As a result, the wings of the hero models are sandwiched, with the plastic sheet overhanging the frame and creating the undercuts visible in the wing wells, like this:
Since the pyro wings were intended to be cast solid using resin, these undercuts had to be clayed in on the original pattern. As a result, there are no undercuts or voids in the pyro wings.
So, Jason, based on what you know about the Red 4 pics you've been looking at, would it be safe to say that we might need to adjust our assumptions about what separates a "hero" model from a "pyro?"
For example, it seems to me that not all of the hero models required wings that open and close, which was one of the more time consuming and expensive parts of the job of constructing a "hero" model. It may be that only Reds 2,3 and 5 were built this way. I leave out Red 1 because I'm not sure about that one. Do we know if Red 1's wings were motorized?
What if, after building several heroes essentially from scratch, minus the fuselage, which was likely the first - and perhaps for a time, only - component to be cast in resin, the modelers simply reached a point where it was no longer efficient or even necessary to be building all of these armatures, guns, wings, wiring harnesses, and/or applying custom surface detailing by hand for the remaining complement of X-Wing models?
What if the idea of casting up combinations of parts as discrete components and gang molds for everything was not simply a way to get the necessary pyro models built, but one or more of the remaining hero models as well?
