Shuttle Tydirium MPC/Ertl with many modification's (Pic Heavy) Wip

As many of you I have a few items on the bench but after picking this up on the cheap at a used toy store I could not wait to start this project. First off, I want to thank everyone that contributed to past posts on the shuttle tydirium that gave me the ability to research other's builds and gather information from the RPF forum. I also found the image of the tydirium in , "Sculpting a Galaxy", fantastic. This is one of my favorite ships from Star Wars and I hope that I am able to learn from this build and have a nice model that I am proud of in the end.

I started with the main center wing and decided to work from primarily a clean slate not only removing the raised panel but I scraped and removed most of the raised detail from both sides of the main wings.



After scraping and sanding I was left with a clean slate to work with. I even removed the little round detail going up the side. I have not been able to find a clear image from the book or my research but decided to replace with small bits of styrene.



A pic with kit detail on one wing and the other cleaned.



I also scraped and sanded the front part of the ship and managed to get a nice sanded smooth look to start scribing lines in.



After filling in some mistakes and using styrene for detail I primed the first center wing and still have some detail to add and also still some minor scratches to fill. This is the first model that I have ever scribed of this size. I used several tools but found for this project so far that the Tamiya Scriber is doing a pretty good job. Here is some images of the primed wing. I still have some more detail but wanted to put a coat of primer on and see how it looked.



I am having problems trying to replicate the small retangle holes on the wing if they were round my pin vise would work well but even using my exacto I have failed to create small rectangle type holes. Any suggestions that may help?

I also started to scribe the main shuttle compartment



I will continue working this Weekend I have put a lot of time in the wings and hope to make more progress.

Thanks for looking any suggestions is really welcome!!!

_Mike

Great work Mike !

The main wing looks awesome now !

I think you should rework the shape of the cockpit, it's way too narrow (it replicates the 1:1 set), maybe you may find some details that you cant see in your ref pics in my thread :
http://www.therpf.com/f10/scratchbuilt-lambda-shuttle-65266/

Hope that helps, keep up the good work !

Looks good!
You gonna put lights in it?


Kenny

I agree with Julien on the cockpit, the stock one is too narrow and square. You may want to take a closer look at some reference pics on the top wing. The body is a little out as well, you may want to consider looking at the angle where the top vent is.

A fellow builder by the name of Marko built a real nice MPC shuttle, he did some major surgery on it and it just shines.

You're doing some fine work on her, I'll certainly be following along with your build up.

"I am having problems trying to replicate the small rectangle holes on the wing if they were round my pin vise would work well but even using my exacto I have failed to create small rectangle type holes. Any suggestions that may help?"

Have you considered using a fine-tipped chisel or some type of punching tool? If you are worried about cracking, you could just heat the area up a little with a heat gun to make it more malleable.

Why not get a piece of brass rod, file four sides and a bottom, heat with a flame then press the brass rod with the square shape into the plastic.

A modellers branding iron.

Once the plastic has cooled,... Sand the rough edges.

This is just a theory, so try it on some styrene first.

Wow, this is looking incredible!

Rich

Thanks for all of the feedback, Julien that build is outstanding!!!, I will def look at some of the images for references. I plan on building a new cockpit and hope to have it wider and detailed more than the stock part.

You gonna put lights in it?

Click to expand...

Thanks Kenny, yes I plan to put lights in.. I don't want blinking lights in the wings though, for one I am afraid of timing them to blink simultaneously might be difficult and blinking lights I think may be a little annoying I will stick with solid white lights for the wings and fiber and the blue triangle effect in the cockpit.

Thanks Scratchy, for looking it over and the idea you had as far as the square brass rod also gave me the idea of heating a flat head screw driver or I think I may have a small really small square bit at work that if heated I could drag along and scrape out a square hole. If it does not work I will fill and try something different.

Wow, this is looking incredible!

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot Rich really appreciate it. I have a ton of work yet to do on the wings..

Have you considered using a fine-tipped chisel or some type of punching tool? If you are worried about cracking, you could just heat the area up a little with a heat gun to make it more malleable.

Click to expand...

Thanks Cadeus, I know I don't have a tool that size but a really small flat head heated and I may need to scrape with the point of my exacto with a fresh blade.

I took a break from the daunting sanding and scraping, I wanted to start scratch building the cockpit but never got to it this afternoon. But I did manage to scratch out some new seats. I will picture the kit seats/chairs and if my cockpit works out as I hope it will be a four seater. So, I made four new chairs while I was at it. I really put in some extra little detail for the size. Here is some pics I had a good relaxing Sat making these little buggers.

Hope to get more building time in tomorrow, as always thanks for looking.

The seats that come with the kit.

Enough of this talk, on to something more important.....


How's the bottle of Guinness Draught, I never had it?

The Guinness Draught is great it's a treat for me as my wife does not like Guinness so I never get to buy it buy the case. Pizza for a late dinner last night I told her to pick up a 6 pack for me and one for her of her choice.. She choose Sam Adams October Fest. It's that time of year.. Sipping on a few Sams tonight thinking of how I'm going to scratch out this cockpit.

Try it Scratchy I think all Guinness is good tasting beer..

That's a large cigar, reminds me of the ones at the shop that used to be in Station Square. The shuttle looks really good so far. Out of curiosity where is this used toy store? There used to be one in the South Side that had tons of SW stuff and then you have the one down by the convention center.

Out of curiosity where is this used toy store? There used to be one in the South Side that had tons of SW stuff and then you have the one down by the convention center.

Click to expand...

Thanks Wes, I actually live a little east of Pittsburgh in a small town of Youngwood. It's kind of crazy but these two brothers put a sort of vintage toy warehouse in the residential part of my neighborhood. I can walk there in about 10 min. Wes, if you ever wanted to make the trip it's worth it but I stress to call first and let them know you are coming. It's about 30 to 40 min from the burgh and they do a lot of shows and seem to keep odd hours. Here is a facebook link with a lot of pictures.
Gene & Troy's Toys - Youngwood, PA - Comic Book Store, Toy Store | Facebook

If you were thinking of picking up some vintage models however don't make the trip they had a total of three when I picked up the Tydirium. I bought it for $18.00. They do however have a ton of vintage star war toys and the old ships not just figures, transformers, old lego sets, GI JOE, and a bunch of other stuff. The last time I was there something that caught my eye was a huge vintage ghost buster pillsbury doughboy new in the box. I didn't want it but could not belive they had it.

I am a hardware computer tech for UPMC and travel a lot through the South Side and pass that vintage toy shop but have never got a chance to stop.

Getting back to the build I will post more when more progress is made.
I will be going to Florida for vacation at the end of the month so I need to keep working at it.

Thanks for looking!!

Last post I deleted was a little off topic.