Newbie question: Resources for scratch-building Star Wars ships?

Rofey

New Member
Hi folks,

Brand new to RPF, so sorry for the newbie question. Loving peoples' work around here :)

I was a keen kit-modeller back in the day, but have been out of the hobby now for many years. I'm keen to get back into it, and thought I'd try my hand at scratch-building some classic Star Wars ships - maybe starting with a TIE Fighter (TIE/ln) or an X-Wing from Episode IV. I'm on a tight budget (grrrr), so I'm probably restricted to constructing models from cardboard, foam and found objects at this stage, rather than kit-bashing or 3D printing.

Couple o' questions:
- Can anyone recommend good templates or instructions for scratch-building a TIE Fighter or X-Wing from such materials?
- Failing that, can anyone recommend resources for good Star Wars blueprints, dimensions, cross-sections and/or reference photos? Are there any freely available? Maybe that way I could hash out my own templates...

Cheers,

Rofey
 
Most of the ships are available as 3D paper models- you can download the pieces, scale them as you wish then print your ship components. These can be built as is of used on top of cardboard or as patterns for cut styrene. I have not made these in ages but there a a number of people on this forum and others who could proved you some links to the files if Google doesn't work well.
Some of these paper models are spectacular- especially the way they reproduce some of the complicated surfaces- some buildups are very hard to tell they are just paper
 
Thanks RB, much appreciated. More broadly, can you recommend any resources for good Star Wars blueprints, dimensions, cross-sections and/or reference photos? Cheers, Rofey.
 
Thanks RB, much appreciated. More broadly, can you recommend any resources for good Star Wars blueprints, dimensions, cross-sections and/or reference photos? Cheers, Rofey.

The Chronicles books are great for a beginners reference, and there are tons of photo collections floating around on the internet that people are sometimes willing to share privately. You will find that some modelers can be a bit protective about certain things, but it's really fun going on a hunt for reference material.

Here is a starting point.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/354691641311424/
 
For exterior references I like the Chronicles books (although they only cover the Original Trilogy and the Prequel Trilogy). For internal and hardware functions I like the Incredible cross sections books- well researched and do a good job resolving the sometimes oversized interiors (like the Falcon) with hull dimensions.
Some of the very best detail reference comes from photos of the actual models on exhibition- some like the Star Destroyer have close up images of every inch of the brim trenches and superstructure. These exhibition photos are usually buried a bit in different online forums, a Google search can help finding these. Unfortunately that mess Photobucket caused has made a lot of good photo links disappear.

A lot of members on different forums create papercraft in addition to cast kits- if you post a question on StarshipModeler, Hobbytalk of here you might find some specific links to a particular ship you are interested in. There are also forum sites which are focused entirely on papercraft builds, I have seen links to them in other discussions but have no current ones.
 
If you are interested in paper models then there are huge amount of them but the quality varies. From my point of view, there is a superb model of X-Wing by Imcold and with additional part created by BigPetr you can create an excelent looking model (despite the fact it's out of paper). Build thread is here on the forum. Also check UHU's site - there are some really interesting models (TIE Interceptor is also one of the best which you can find on the internet).

Hope it helps.
 
As Spendlik said Imcold X-wing is amazing and accurate paper model. Best paper x-wing out there in my opinion. I highly recomend it. For paper Tie-Fighter you can also go here: Shunichi Makino Tie Fighter. It is intentionaly not so detailed as UHU Tie-Interceptor, but can be additionaly detailed easily.
 
Take a look at my X-Wing Hasbro Build. I had never done anything like it before and I definitely evolved during the build. I started off with foam and balsa and ended up with plastics, mostly styrene. I'll never go back.
 
My advice is......while scratch building an entire ship has much merit, unless you're experienced, it can be a minefield where you could easily become frustrated and lose interest.

I would definitely recommend the Hasbro Hero X Wing for 3 reasons.

1. It's the largest commercially available X Wing you can buy.
2. It has many reasonbly accurate details
3. There is much you can scratch build, while still having an excellent foundation to work from, which is the fuselage.

 
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Thanks for the advice everyone. I was initially thinking a classic TIE Fighter or X-Wing, but UHU's TIE Interceptor looks amazing. It's hard to believe it's only paper! I'm not confident about being able to follow the instructions though - does anyone know if the instructions are available in English? Alternatively, I might start with the Imcold X-Wing or the Shunichi Makino TIE.
 
There are only the Japanese blog pages. Use Google translate to translate them. Imcold's X-Wing is the best paper X-Wing model available. It is 1:48, BTW. Shunichi recently updated his Millennium Falcon and AT-AT. He's working on a revision of his A-Wing - now with cockpit interior! :)
 
Thanks G, much appreciated. So I guess I'm looking at some papercraft initially, rather than a scratchbuild per se. Given I'm new to the hobby, and the limited resources I have available at the moment, that's probably a good place to start. Anyone have some advice on what weight cardstock is best for these types of builds?
 
there's quite a range of star wars models in paperform, but still missing a lot

I run a star wars paper models facebook group. I can't access facebook at the moment to send you the link, but message me and I will send you a link to it (or search for 'star wars paper models' in facebook)
 
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