Converted Kenner A-wing toys

I spent the last few weekends dismantling, rebuilding, and repainting a couple of old Kenner A-wings I had stashed in storage. I think these came out around the time of The Special Editions, not really sure. Found them in an old bin in the shed, been sitting there for a couple of decades, I guess. Anyway, I had a lot of fun tearing them down and redoing them. I thought they turned out pretty well. Here's a few pics (I either gotta get a better camera or a new phone).

Hardest part was getting the slant right on the stands and getting them to both be at the same angle so they would match. Also, since the stands all screw together, getting the ship and the rebel symbol to line up right where the twist was tightest was very tricky, but I finally got it right. Tricky, but kinda fun to figure out. Sorry, no build pics. Usually when I start a project I figure it probably won't work right or I'll just abandon it, so I kinda procrastinate on build pics.

But I want to give out a very special shout out and thanks to SofaKing01 for cutting the rebel symbols and sending them to me. They really make the stands pop! Thanks Sofa, I hope I didn't bug you too much with the PMs!

Very nice! What's the equivalent scale?

korben44 said:

Very nice! What's the equivalent scale?

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Honestly, I have no idea. Whatever the toys are.

And here is where they finally ended up.

When I started working on them I realized I had no more shelf space in the entire house to display them. So, I spent an entire Saturday building this entertainment center from scratch for my bedroom just so I would have somewhere to put them. About a hundred and fifty bucks in lumber and materials and a whole day of measuring, sawing, painting and building. All just for a couple of toys! How's that for dedication! :lol

korben44 said:

Very nice! What's the equivalent scale?

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I have this A-Wing as well as the new one they put out recently. Based on my calculations from the Wiki on the overall length of the A-Wing it is very close to 1/32 scale. In fact most of the Hasbro/Kenner action figure ships seem to be right around 1/32 in scale, although the action figure pilots are definitely not 1/32!

I'm on this huge 'matching scale' kick right now and am building a lot in 1/72 scale and 1/32 scale. The Hasbro ships might be slightly off, but they are really close to 1/32, at least close enough to make me happy. I just think it's really cool to see everything in the same scale so you can really get a size perspective between the different ships. In my 1/72 scale I have an X-Wing (of course!), building an A-Wing and Y-Wing, and I also have the 1/72 scale Moebius MK II Vipers. It's really interesting to see the Vipers next to the X-Wing and both in the same scale. The Viper is TINY compared to the X-Wing. In 1/72 an X-wing is around 7" in length whereas the Viper is 4.5". That doesn't really sound tiny, but the wing span difference really makes it look small. Then I am working on real world fighters in 1/32 and 1/72 and that's where it really gets interesting to see the Viper and X-Wing next to an F-4 Phantom. F-18, and Tomcat! Compared to the real world fighters the X-Wing looks small!

Sorry, I didn't mean to hijack your thread! Anyway, my best guess is the Hasbro A-Wing is around 1/32 in scale.

Laspector your A-Wings look great! I love the base. I see you opted to leave the raised panel lines on like I did. Some people sand them down and re-etch the panel lines but that's too much for me at this point. Besides, I kinda like the raise panel look, it looks more thrown together which is what I think most of the Rebel ships were. What figures did you use for the pilots?

I think the figures came with the ships. They were both in the cockpits when I found them in the storage shed.

Are they the action figures then? I have the same A-Wing but no figure. I also have the newer one with blue markings. The figure that came with the blue one just looks really big to me. I took a 1/32 figure from another kit and set it in the A-Wing and to me it looks just about right... although some people say in the reference photos the pilot's head takes up most of the canopy. Again though if you scale things I think that's too big. That could just be me though.

You did a great job! I love A-Wings.... they remind me of indy cars as a space fighter! Fast little hot rods! Then again, in scale, the A-Wing isn't that much smaller than the X-Wing- a little shorter and narrower, but looks squat and fat compared to it. How did you end up doing the angles? You mentioned that was the hardest part.

Yeah that was a thinker there. I wish now I had done build pics.

What I did was--on the bottom of the cockpit there is a rectangular opening where, on the original 1983 version, batteries would have fit in. The 90's version I have does not have battery capabilities but they left the hollow space there and the covering for it is still removable. I then cut out a small rectangular piece of wood that would fit in there pretty snugly but didn't insert it there yet.

Then I built this:

I used some small pieces of wood to build an off kilter box with the top being at the angle I wanted. Kind of weird looking, but it takes into account not only the sideways slant but also allows the ship to angle upwards slightly. I was then able to put this box on the drill press and put my piece of wood (for the "battery compartment') on top of it and then drill straight down through it. This made sure that the hole I drilled was at the correct angle and slant that I wanted it to be. Thus, I could insert and glue the smaller block of wood into the 'battery compartment' and the hole would be at the correct angle. Then just a matter of cutting a hole into the plastic 'battery compartment' cover of the ship for the pylon to stick straight into the hole in the little block of wood. Doing it this way assured that both holes on both ships were at exactly the same angle and slant.

The really tricky part was that I had to build the box at the exact opposite angles that I wanted the ship to be in since I was drilling into the top of the little block of wood that was going into the ship. Essentially building something right side up for something that was going to be upside down. It was kinda hard to wrap my head around that process but I finally got it.

I completely dismantled them, primed them black, taped them off and totally repainted them. I also rebuilt the cockpits. If you will note the consoles in front of the pilots. None of that was there. I built all of that out of stuff out of my greebly drawer. Took a lot of hunting to find two of each particular greebly, but I got lucky.

I also covered up all the screw holes and redid the areas where the landing gear went.

For some reason, I always like doing two ships or vehicles at the same time. If one is good, two is better, I always say!

OUTSTANDING!!! And the A-Wings look cool too! Just kidding. Well done, my friend.

Nice job. They turned out great for being a toy. Love the new display cabinet.

Those look great!

Pretty decent proportions for a toy as well. Doesn't seem deformed like many other of the old toys