Rebel U-wing toy mod

This is a toy mod of the Rebel u-wing from the movie Rogue One, i made a few mods to it and added some stuff, the toy comes in about 1/48 scale and is close to the same scale as the amt x-wing.
i added some details that are found on the studio scale x-wing, both ships are manufactured by Incom and have similar engines, i thought by adding the details they would be closer related.
The toy was marketed as a fighter with one figure, which it isnt, it is a troop tranport and drop ship.
I removed the hinge and sealed the cockpit in and filled the screw holes and filled in the wings and the big hole where the nerf dart gun was underneath and scribed new panel lines.
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The toy measures about 21" long and 9" wide and 3" deep

Looks great! I picked up one of these recently on clearance and am going to repaint it. What did you use to cover the hole where the Nerf Gun was?

I placed sheet stock on the inside then filled with apoxie sculpt, then used sheet stock again.

Looks great!

Although I think scale wise, it might be closer to 1/48 than 1/72, especially if it is in scale with the old MPC/AMT/ERTL X-wing, unless you are referring to the smaller snap version, then it would be closer to 1/57 or so?

Something around that line, lol, but yeah I don't know why I said 1/72?

I have one of these as well. I've collected a decent number of reference images. The one thing that has me really stumped so far is how to rebuild the wings. They are too short by about three inches (I have the correct figure written down somewhere), but I would like to retain the articulation of the wings if possible. Trouble is that even the hollowed-out, too-short wings sag; is there any way to make the wings more rigid and retain the articulation? There isn't much external support for the wings, other than a small "shelf" to either side of the cockpit and that only offers support when the wings point forward. Even then, that only supports one edge of each wing, and only about six inches of the length, and the wings should lengthened to be about 19 inches long. I can think of lots of ways to add support within the wing structure itself, but not sure any of them would really solve the problem overall. Any ideas?

SSB

The wings need to be light as possible.
I would use a lightweight honeycomb structure for the core and skin it with very thin fiberglass sheet.

Jkirkon said:

The wings need to be light as possible.
I would use a lightweight honeycomb structure for the core and skin it with very thin fiberglass sheet.

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Okay; I've read about that idea (honeycomb structure) more than once. What are the best materials to make that? Is there a source for such a material that I could cut to the shape I need? I was previously thinking about using square steel rods (like shish-ka-bob skewers) inside the wings along the length, but I will certainly consider alternatives. I could also probably obtain aluminum rods or sheets if that would work. I won't be doing fiberglass, though; it will be sheet styrene for the external skin.

SSB

sbaxter said:

Okay; I've read about that idea (honeycomb structure) more than once. What are the best materials to make that? Is there a source for such a material that I could cut to the shape I need? I was previously thinking about using square steel rods (like shish-ka-bob skewers) inside the wings along the length, but I will certainly consider alternatives. I could also probably obtain aluminum rods or sheets if that would work. I won't be doing fiberglass, though; it will be sheet styrene for the external skin.

SSB

Click to expand...

When I was building RC jet airplanes, I used to buy thin fiberglass sheet and honeycomb material from McMaster-Carr. When glued together, they make a very strong, but lightweight structure. Overkill for a static model, but the material was easy to work with.

I MAY have some scraps of the honeycomb in a box somewhere. I’ll look around this weekend and see if I have any.