Original ILM Studio Scale X-Wings-How many? (Archive please)

You guys really should get the new Japanese Chronicles book - all those pics and more are in there.

Thanks Jason, I may do that as an early birthday present to myself

Don't know if this helps, but for the original Star Wars (1977, later called Episode IV) there were 14 X-Wing models built, though I have no idea how many were "pyros" and how many were not. I would guess about 50/50, but that's pure speculation. Here's the "proof" of the number 14 claim:
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Q. How many different "miniatures" were built for Star Wars?
A. According to Grant McCune, chief model maker on Star Wars, there were 24 different types of miniatures designed. These included space vehicles, such as the X-Wing Fighters (14 models), Y-Wing Fighters (8 models), and TIE Fighters (20 models); surface vehicles such as the Jawa's Sand Crawler (1 model), and Luke's Landspeeder (2 models), and detailed sections of the Death Star such as the trench, the target area, gun towers, and the docking bay.
The scale on the models ranged from 1:8 (on the Lifepod and Lifepod Bay) to 1:16 for most of the space vehicles to an incredible 1:180,000 for the Death Star (making a full-size Death Star 102+ miles in diameter)

- Bantha Tracks #6, Autumn 1979

I have seen photographic evidence of:

1. Blue 1, Red 2 Hero
2. Red 1 Hero
3. Red 3 Hero
4. Red 5 Hero

Pyros:
5. Red 1
6. Red 3
7. Red 4
8. Red 5
9. Red 6
10. Red 10
11. Red 12
12. Red 1 body with Red 3 wings
13. Red ? - seemingly unpainted bird with a blue stripe (?) running down the top of the fuselage from cockpit to nose (you can see it at the very very back in the famous ILM "line up" photo that made the Topps card). Note it has a red colored cannon body, so maybe this is 6, 10, or 12 mid-paint? Perhaps that blue line is the seam that's been filled?



Which leaves:
14. ??

Also keep in mind, Red 6,10, and even 12 seem to share wing cannons and other elements - it's all a bit murky still as to which came first and when, which is in line with various accounts of ILM reusing/recycling intact detonated pieces.

Also, one of them was smashed to bits according to the story of Dykstra slamming one on a table to show it's breakaway-ability!

moffeaton said:

I have seen photographic evidence of:

1. Blue 1, Red 2 Hero
2. Red 1 Hero
3. Red 3 Hero
4. Red 5 Hero

Pyros:
5. Red 1
6. Red 3
7. Red 4
8. Red 5
9. Red 6
10. Red 10
11. Red 12
12. Red 1 body with Red 3 wings
13. Red ? - seemingly unpainted bird with a blue stripe (?) running down the top of the fuselage from cockpit to nose (you can see it at the very very back in the famous ILM "line up" photo that made the Topps card). Note it has a red colored cannon body, so maybe this is 6, 10, or 12 mid-paint? Perhaps that blue line is the seam that's been filled?

View attachment 791078

Which leaves:
14. ??

Also keep in mind, Red 6,10, and even 12 seem to share wing cannons and other elements - it's all a bit murky still as to which came first and when, which is in line with various accounts of ILM reusing/recycling intact detonated pieces.

Also, one of them was smashed to bits according to the story of Dykstra slamming one on a table to show it's breakaway-ability!

Click to expand...

I always thought the one on the table was this one, since the yellow markings and canon match it also has that dark streak along the bottom, though I'm not sure which one this is since you can't see the wing markings Red 10? And even though the table ship isn't painted you can see the tape on the wing where it's masked for the stripes (looks to be masked off for 5 stripes?)

As for the 14th, were there 2 Red 6's as the markings on this one don't seem to match the one from the video


Another shot of the table ship, ever think this might be where your mystery astromech is from?

Yes, it's Red 10! Awesome. As far as everything else, we won't know until pics surface... I love a good mystery!