Splashcoat
New Member
This is my build-up of the old MPC Snap-Fast 1/89 scale kit of Koensyr BTL-A4 Y-Wing Fighter/Bomber. This kit is much loathed by Star Wars modelers due to its complete inaccuracy and lack of detail but I decided to go for it anyway and try to correct its problems to produce an accurate finished product. About halfway through this project, Fine Molds announced the release of its superb 1/72 scale Y-Wing so I decided to complete this kit but not focus on fixing all of its faults. What follows is a list of modifications to the standard kit:
As this is a Snap-Fast kit, the first step is to remove all the Snap-Fast features. Namely, all the locking pins were ground down and initial assembly was performed by lining up the parts by eye.
All of the panel lines on this kit are of the raised type so I first sanded off all the raised detail and re-scribed the panel lines according to reference pictures from the Lucasfilms Archive book and images found on-line. The cockpit module also has a prominent access door molded into the canopy which is not found on the actual filming miniature so I applied a heavy layer of filler to the entire cockpit module before re-scribing the panel lines. This filled in the access door and also a slot on the underside of the cockpit for a landing gear and provided a smooth surface from which to begin.
The cockpit interior is completely devoid of any detail save for the pilot so I busied it up a bit with lengths of wire, styrene discs and other small bits from the spares box. The clear parts for the windows are ridiculously thick and distorted so I replaced them with individual windows cut from clear styrene and sealed them in with heavy applications of future floor wax.
I joined the two halves of the cockpit together, filled any gaps and tidied up the panel lines before applying various thin sheet styrene panels to replace the raised detail which was previously sanded off. I also drilled two angled holes into the underside of the cockpit to represent the photon torpedo launchers which were totally missing from the original kit molding. The two laser guns at the front of the cockpit were made more accurate by drilling out the barrels and inserting a short stub of plastic rod which protrudes a bit from the front of the main barrel. The ion cannons on the cockpit roof were also refined by drilling out the barrels.
All of the raised panel lines were sanded off of the engine cones. Some of the filming miniatures had engraved panel lines on the engine cone; others did not, so I chose to save myself the effort of engraving new panel lines and left them off. I first glued all the spars surround the engine nacelle in place using a piece of brass pipe to keep everything aligned. The kit's thrust vectoring vanes located at the end of the nacelle booms are hopelessly thick and inaccurate so I replaced them with new ones fabricated from thin sheet styrene. The engine exhausts are also inaccurate so I rebuilt them from engine exhausts from a 1/72 scale F-18 jet kit surrounded by thin rings of brass pipe and styrene.
After masking out the cockpit windows I first airbrushed the entire airframe light grey. When this was dry, I masked off all the yellow and blue markings and sprayed them accordingly; the decals were just too think and poorly printed to be useable. After hand painting the astromech droid I weathered the airframe heavily with pastel powder and paint washes. I finished off the weathering with airbrushed streaks emanating from the engines and weapons.
Despite its faults this was still a fun little kit to build. It was interesting to stretch my abilities a bit and remake many of the kit's components from scratch.
"Yellow Squadron will cover for Red on the first run. Green will cover Blue on the second"
So reads part of the Death Star attack plan a.k.a., The Battle of Yavin in the novelization of Star Wars - Episode 4 - A New Hope. In the novelization, Yellow and Green were X-Wing squadrons and Red and Blue Squadrons were comprised of Y-Wings. During the production of Star Wars - A New Hope, it was discovered that a ship with green markings couldn't be used over a green special effects screen so Green Squadron was eliminated. The descision was then made not to film the first attack wave at all, a diversionary attack on the Death Star's main superlaser by Yellow (X-Wing) and Red (Y-Wing) Squadrons. The models were then painted to represent the attack force we saw on screen, Yellow (Y-Wing) and Red (X-Wing) squadrons.
That's the background for my descision to repaint this Y-Wing as a member of the unseen Blue Squadron. Also, Yellow Squadron Y-Wings and Red Squadron X-Wings get all the love... what about poor old Blue Squadron? Finally, I wasn't happy with the paint job I originally gave this model so this provided an excuse to repaint it.
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