I waited a long, long time for Efx (I've already sent them an email, so now they know) to release the SS Y-Wing model via Nice-N Model Designs (I even met Steve at a Celebration with his Y-Wing Prototype) in an attempt to avoid another model project because I'm not anxious to breath in any more spray paint fumes or resin/modeling clay dust, but this is a model that is a personal favorite and one I've always wanted to replace because I had to sell my MR Y-Wing during the great recession to pay a major dental bill.
Of course the good news about building the model is that it can be built just like an original, screen used Y-Wing. The MR version is very nice, but it's solid resin, so it's extremely heavy and the paint job with detailing is a combination of two different versions of the Y-Wing (Gold 3 and Gold 2). Also, the MR version doesn't include an ILM pilot figure. It's true that the screen used Y-Wings didn't have pilots, but I was surprised to find out from Steve that they originally did have pilots before they fell out of the models at some point during filming.
My old MR Y-wing model:
It looks like their paint scheme came from the ROTJ version of the Y-Wing:
I poured over lots of reference photos and finally came to the conclusion that I liked the "Gold Leader" version of the Y-Wing the most, so that will be the one I will be building, with a pilot of course.
One of the great things about this kit from Nice-N Model Designs is that there is an instruction manual available online, in pdf form. Unfortunately, there are no step by step instructions on painting the model, but there are plenty of resources here on that.
The instructions specify that the first step is to examine and clean all the parts with soap and water. I'm skipping the cleaning part because once all the parts are cleaned up with X-acto knives and sand paper, they just get more dirty. Also, at some point the parts will need to be drilled, cut, bolted, etc.
Here's the larger parts partially cleaned up. One of the main sections was slightly angled due to the casting process, so I actually machined it flat although it didn't take much machining:
It was easier for me to machined the aluminum bracket rather than cut into the resin parts. This past weekend, I got to the cockpit with canopy and finished cleaning up the engines.
Detailed Parts with pipping from Plastruct:
Up next, more stuff from/about Plastruct and (ugh) more clean up.
Of course the good news about building the model is that it can be built just like an original, screen used Y-Wing. The MR version is very nice, but it's solid resin, so it's extremely heavy and the paint job with detailing is a combination of two different versions of the Y-Wing (Gold 3 and Gold 2). Also, the MR version doesn't include an ILM pilot figure. It's true that the screen used Y-Wings didn't have pilots, but I was surprised to find out from Steve that they originally did have pilots before they fell out of the models at some point during filming.
My old MR Y-wing model:
It looks like their paint scheme came from the ROTJ version of the Y-Wing:
I poured over lots of reference photos and finally came to the conclusion that I liked the "Gold Leader" version of the Y-Wing the most, so that will be the one I will be building, with a pilot of course.
One of the great things about this kit from Nice-N Model Designs is that there is an instruction manual available online, in pdf form. Unfortunately, there are no step by step instructions on painting the model, but there are plenty of resources here on that.
The instructions specify that the first step is to examine and clean all the parts with soap and water. I'm skipping the cleaning part because once all the parts are cleaned up with X-acto knives and sand paper, they just get more dirty. Also, at some point the parts will need to be drilled, cut, bolted, etc.
Here's the larger parts partially cleaned up. One of the main sections was slightly angled due to the casting process, so I actually machined it flat although it didn't take much machining:
It was easier for me to machined the aluminum bracket rather than cut into the resin parts. This past weekend, I got to the cockpit with canopy and finished cleaning up the engines.
Detailed Parts with pipping from Plastruct:
Up next, more stuff from/about Plastruct and (ugh) more clean up.
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