MonsieurTox
Master Member
Thanks Mike ! Now I'm not sure my canopy has the correct size... I think it's a bit undersized :/
Building a SS TIE cockpit ball
- Thread starter MonsieurTox
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MonsieurTox
Master Member
MonsieurTox
Master Member
Thanks Jon ! 
Unfortunatly, Allan found that ILM didnt use a 5" ball for the cockpit but a bigger one, than means that all my model is undersized. Gonna start over, thanks for looking and for you support !
Unfortunatly, Allan found that ILM didnt use a 5" ball for the cockpit but a bigger one, than means that all my model is undersized. Gonna start over, thanks for looking and for you support !
imaginager
Sr Member
Okay, before this gets completely out of control, a bit of explanation: Julien was concerned about the diameter, outside edge to outside edge, of his canopy. This morning Julien sent me 2 pics that include measurements of many of the kit parts on the hull. I pulled the images into CAD and resized them using the kit parts. In that manner I was able to determine that the canopy frame should be 82.0mm
This did not fit at all with what Julien had built. His was 77.5mm. A larger canopy looks wrong on the hull. So, we didn't know what to make of that. We're kicking ideas around and it occurs to me to measure the hull, itself. The hull measured 133.39mm. For people who are bad at math, just remember that 25.4mm = 1". So, 133.39 / 25.4 = 5.252, or 5-1/4".
This info matched very well with the discrepancy with the canopy frame. Julien ran a quick calculation between the ratios of the differences in the sizes of the canopies and the hulls.
I calculated 82mm
Julien's canopy measures 77.5mm
ratio: 1.058
I calculated 5-1/4" hull = 133.35mm
Julien's 5" hull = 127mm
ratio: 1.050
Proof positive? Of course not. But, I think Julien is sufficiently convinced that he's starting over. And that was a lot of work.
This did not fit at all with what Julien had built. His was 77.5mm. A larger canopy looks wrong on the hull. So, we didn't know what to make of that. We're kicking ideas around and it occurs to me to measure the hull, itself. The hull measured 133.39mm. For people who are bad at math, just remember that 25.4mm = 1". So, 133.39 / 25.4 = 5.252, or 5-1/4".
This info matched very well with the discrepancy with the canopy frame. Julien ran a quick calculation between the ratios of the differences in the sizes of the canopies and the hulls.
I calculated 82mm
Julien's canopy measures 77.5mm
ratio: 1.058
I calculated 5-1/4" hull = 133.35mm
Julien's 5" hull = 127mm
ratio: 1.050
Proof positive? Of course not. But, I think Julien is sufficiently convinced that he's starting over. And that was a lot of work.
imaginager
Sr Member
Also of interest, the armature pylon tube measured 31.68mm. That's 1.247 or 1-1/4"
MonsieurTox
Master Member
Thanks a lot for your help Allan, the fact that the hull could be smaller didnt hit my mind !
At least Ive learnt enough with this ball to build another, trying to do better !
At least Ive learnt enough with this ball to build another, trying to do better !
5-1/8" ball = 130.175mm
5" ball = 127mm
ratio = 1.025
GKvfx's hatch = 79.75mm (original part?)
Julien's hatch = 77.5mm
ratio = 1.029
Maybe the original ball wasn't a Plastruct Hemi?
MonsieurTox
Master Member
Thanks Gene ! That's close to what I found with my new drawings (79.5mm for the upper hatch). Cant wait to see and hear more, thanks for your help ! Now we're 100% sure that the 5-1/4" is correct for the cockpit ball !
Abihsot, the correct ball is 5-1/4" (133.4 mm) not 5-1/8" and Gene gave measurements of the upper hatch while my 77.5 mm came from my canopy frame, a bit confusing eh ! I reckon lol :lol Actually my old upper hatch is well undersized, it's about 72 mm... (instead of 79.75)
MonsieurTox
Master Member
Yeah that was not clear we (Allan and I) were speaking about the canopy issues and Gene gave the measurements of the top hatch (because I asked him yesterday).
Im pretty excited about building a new, correctly sized, TIE cockpit ball !
Im pretty excited about building a new, correctly sized, TIE cockpit ball !
MonsieurTox
Master Member
Yeah the canopy is the windscreen, sorry if I dont use the correct word !
If anyone has pics of original TIE Fighter under construction and he's able to share, I would love to see them !
If anyone has pics of original TIE Fighter under construction and he's able to share, I would love to see them !
MonsieurTox
Master Member
No worries.
No, fortunatly the cockpit dash is OK as I used kitparts to scale it (I didnt noticed it was oversized in comparison with the cockpit ball lol). That's something I wont have to redo !
No, fortunatly the cockpit dash is OK as I used kitparts to scale it (I didnt noticed it was oversized in comparison with the cockpit ball lol). That's something I wont have to redo !
imaginager
Sr Member
CAUTION.
Hey guys we need to be careful about taking any dimension as gospel until there's hard data - obtained from calipers on a real prop - available. At this point I am not comfortable with saying the TIE used one or another size hemisphere. Let's wait for more information.
Hey guys we need to be careful about taking any dimension as gospel until there's hard data - obtained from calipers on a real prop - available. At this point I am not comfortable with saying the TIE used one or another size hemisphere. Let's wait for more information.
MonsieurTox
Master Member
Yeah let's see for further informations !
imaginager
Sr Member
I feel I should adjust my "dimension" post so people see the bigger picture. So, I'll just make a new post so people will read it...:lol
Okay, I resized images of the TIE so that the dimensions of the visible kit parts on the pics matched the dimensions of the real-life donor kit parts. That's apples and oranges. Probably every TIE I've ever seen pics of is a casting from a mold of the original master. That casting will have shrunk. So, to adjust an image of castings of parts to match dimensions of real kit parts just doesn't work. And that doesn't even get into all the mayhem that focal lengths can cause.
Anyway, I've talked with Steve about this and he is as curious as the rest of us, and has asked that the props in the LF Archives be measured just to double-check what EFX is using for their forthcoming TIE. Their intent is to build a TIE that is as close to the props in the Archives as they can get.
Okay, I resized images of the TIE so that the dimensions of the visible kit parts on the pics matched the dimensions of the real-life donor kit parts. That's apples and oranges. Probably every TIE I've ever seen pics of is a casting from a mold of the original master. That casting will have shrunk. So, to adjust an image of castings of parts to match dimensions of real kit parts just doesn't work. And that doesn't even get into all the mayhem that focal lengths can cause.
Anyway, I've talked with Steve about this and he is as curious as the rest of us, and has asked that the props in the LF Archives be measured just to double-check what EFX is using for their forthcoming TIE. Their intent is to build a TIE that is as close to the props in the Archives as they can get.
MonsieurTox
Master Member
Gonna build one with the 5-1/4" and I will compare it to the one I built, I'll see which one looks better !
