Salzo V5 X-wing build: Red Leader

Jkirkon

Sr Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
Hi all,

Over the long holiday weekend, I found myself with a few spare hours, so I started playing with one of my Salzo V5’s. In all honesty, I really didn’t start out to build anything...I was playing with the armature, and decided to see how it fit into the fuselage. Hours later, I wound up with what looks like the start of a build. Funny how that happens.

I took a spare belt from my tabletop belt sander, cut it so I had a long, continuous strip of sandpaper, and adhesed it to a piece of flat, thick glass. I sanded the mating surfaces of the fuse, so that the upper and lower halves fit almost perfectly. Only took a few strokes on the paper for each half. There is one small area right below the cockpit that will need a thin bead of filler for it to be a perfect fit.
Then, the cavity for the armature. Again, only a little sanding here to make the armature fit perfectly, and open/close fully without interference.

Had to mill out a slot underneath the droid strip, so that the armature tension screws, and engine light wiring can be accessed. While I was at it, I drilled some holes for some rare earth magnets, to hold the droid strip in place. I ‘recycled’ an old metal cigar tin, cut it in strips, and glued it to the bottom of the droid strip. Something for the magnets to grab onto. The rear hole for the magnet needs a little cleanup, but a spot of putty should make it look presentable.

Next thing i knew, I was sanding the inside of the fuse to fit the cockpit. It needs a little more work to get it to fit just right, but I’m getting close. It needs to sit up a little higher in the fuse, but a little more work should get it to fit all the way forward and a little higher.

Although I’m a long way from gluing anything together yet (other than the metal underneath the droid strip), the fusealage is starting to look a little like an X-wing. If the weather cooperates next weekend, I’ll take the wing parts outside and begin sanding and cleaning them up.

- - - Updated - - -

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That looks awesome! Thanks for posting! The casting looks pretty good to me too!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Exciting! I have quite a few on the build list before I get to my x-wing(s)...this will be great to see!
 
Cockpit is fitted, and I’m pretty much done sanding the cockpit frame smooth. Fighting one or two tiny little spots to make it perfect.

Sanded the wings square, and glued them to the armature brackets. Everything lines up as it should. I’m going to pick up some better quality screws to further secure them to the brackets. Won’t do much else until the weekend, headed out of town on business..again. Ugh.
 

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Worked on the wings today. Screwed the wings to the aluminum angle brackets, added some plant on parts to the outside and inside of the wings. Ran wires for engine lights. Will work on engines next.

A little progress.
 

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Added a little extra detail to the inner engine bays. Not 100%surr I like it. Thinking of re-doing it.

Thoughts?
 

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I decided I didn’t like the added piping in the inner engines, so I removed it. I added the brass tubes on the side of the fuse, these were originally contacts for the electrical for engine lights and motor power for the wing mechanism.
Not shown, I drilled the cockpit tub for fiber optics.
 

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Progress on wings. Inner skins added. Saturn cans built.
I’ll wet sand the wing panels tomorrow, clean up the panel lines on the wings, and start working on the Phantom engines/lights.

I think I’m going to use 3D printed parts for the cannon bodies, real metal Arvid heat sinks for engines and cannons. I’m also going to use brass tubing for the cannon barrels.

This kit really goes together well. Great engineering by Mike Salzo and Jason Eaton.
 

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Working on the Phantom engines. There are 2 outer halves that make a shell, which slide over an inner core.
Nicely designed. Some careful sanding of the outer shells make for a nice fit, with little cleanup of the seams. The Phantom shells look like injection molded pieces in a styrene kit. Impressive. Very little flash to clean up. Nice job on the castings!

I am using a 5mm flickering red LED mounted in a holder. This fits in a hole I drilled inside the core. I’ll take this all apart and squirt a little black paint inside the core, then put it back together. The putty and primer work on these pieces will be done before mating them to the Saturn cans and wiring everything up. It will make it easier to make sure what few imperfections along the seams look pretty.
I am using real Arvid heat sinks. They friction fit inside the engine cores.

Doing a ‘burn in’ on the LEDs. If one fails, they usually fail within a few hours. I’d hate to have to crack a model open after it’s built and painted to change a bad LED.
 

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A quick, light coat of primer on the Phantom cans reveal only a few imperfections.
LEDs passed the burn in without failure.

Time to get the wings finished out.
 

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I spent a little time cleaning up the imperfections on the Phantom cans, and I found I had sanded away some of the chip detail. I wasn’t happy with this, so I decided to re-do it.
The easiest way I could think of to replicate it, was to burnish down some aluminum duct tape over the area of the missing, or damaged detail. I then was able to use a #11 exacto blade to trace and cut the shape out. This allows me to replicate almost exactly the original panel chip, without driving myself crazy cutting a bunch of them out of styrene. Took about 15 minutes per engine.
An added ‘bonus’ from this technique is that you can scrape away the primer/paint to leave a little exposed metal in places to simulate wear.
 

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Another boring update. Wing plant-on parts are done. Wings wet sanded. Yadda yadda yadda...:lol
 

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Another small update.
Worked on the cannons today.
Used 3D printed cannon bodies from Gus76. I like these bodies better than the resin bodies provided in the kit, and the added bonus of less sanding. I used 1 Arvid heat sink, and a resin heat sink from the kit because I couldn’t make a styrene ring I was happy with.
My local hobby shop was out of the brass tubing I need to make the cannon barrels, so I’ll see if I can get the proper sizes through Amazon. The barrels will be a slip fit into the cannon bodies, so they are removable for painting. I had planned to attach the cannon bodies to the wings with magnets, but I think this might be more trouble than it’s worth.
 

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I’m working from home today, so between conference calls, the cannon bodies were added to the wings. Originally I had planned on using small magnets to attach them, but I don’t think it would work out due to the weight of the brass cannon barrels. I drilled and countersunk a small screw through the wings and into the cannon body to attach them. They will be glued in place in a later step. A small spot of putty will cover the screw.

I’m waiting for the brass tubing for the barrels to show up. I think I mentioned before they will be a slip fit into the cannon bodies, so they can be removed for paint. Also awaiting the cockpit back from my painter, Akumazeto (Ben), so that I can plumb fiber, and begin building out the fuselage.

I’ll probably secure the Phantom cans in a similar manner. In retrospect, I should have attached the Phantom cans using a screw from the inside of the Saturn cans, before I glued them down. On the build of my next V5, Red2, I’ll look in how to do that. Two engines are just sitting in place right now to give it perspective.

Another small pic update. It’s starting to look like an x-wing. It’s amazing to me how much the cannon bodies add presence to the model. Even more so when the barrels are in place.

In other news, I picked up a Salzo V4 from a member here. It’s always been a dream of mine to have a squadron of SS x-wings. Much like Kurt Kuhn has.....I think I might need an intervention.
Thinking of doing the V4 as Blue 3, so Ben can get a little creative and have some fun with the paint job.
 

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Last night I started on the brass cannons. They are pretty heavy in comparison to the resin/brass units included with the kit. Concerned they may, over time, contribute to wing twisting with that much weight so far forward.
I think I’ll ditch that idea and go with the kit provided parts. Nothing wrong with the supplied cannons..they look great.

Also working out the best way to route the wiring for the lights. I’ll be shipping this model to the painter with wings detached, and I need to be able to easily route the wires for final assembly. Thinking of drilling a hole through the round stock of the armature, between the wing brackets, and running a couple of ‘fish’ wires in the hole so I can pull the wing wires through later. It will be much easier for Ben to paint this bird with the wings detached, and I want to work out how to make it easy for both of us.
 
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