Sheet styrene, various kit parts, vaccuformed parts, custom resin cast
pieces, and many plastic odds and ends
Model Specifications:
Scale = 1/24
Length = 68.2 cm
Width = 35.6 cm
Height = 9.6 cm
This
27" scratchbuilt Y-Wing Fighter was one of many Star Wars
vehicles constructed for
a movie theater display for the release of the Star Wars: Special
Editions in 1997.
This model is the same scale as some of the filming miniatures
of the Y-Wings used in Star Wars. It was also constructed using similar methods
and has a few of the same pieces as the original miniatures had.
The model, from blueprint to construction to finish took about
five months.
The overall base
color of the Y-Wing is Light Gray.
The
entire model was built from the ground up from a sheet styrene
base structure, to spare kit parts for detail. The detail pieces
where the wings meet the main body and the back plate of the
main body are actually the same pieces on the filming miniature
for the Star Wars films.
The engines are composed of the Stage 1 segments from the 1/144
Saturn V rocket. We had only one rocket model and two Y-Wings
were built, so we made a master shape from a hard compound and vaccuformed
the parts needed. The caps on the engines were dome halves from
a craft store. (I didn't have access to L'Eggs containers.) The
aft exhaust deflectors are the other dome halves with the ends
chopped off. The connecting rods are "T" bars from
model railroad accessories. The engine thrusters are Alberto
shampoo caps.
Most
of the tubing is sprue from model trees. The shaped pipes were
flame heated and bent to shape.
Flat Yellow was used as the Y-Wing marking stripes and several
tube piece colors.
The Proton Torpedo tubes on the bottom of the front segment were
holes cut with the Dremel into the plastic underbelly. The tubes
themselves were made from nosecone halves from a fighter
plane kit.
Partially visible in this bottom view are the only two Star Wars
kit pieces I used in the model. Look for C-3PO's back plate and
the wing attachment piece of Darth Vader's TIE Fighter.
The small pairs of spikes in four quadrants around the engine
domes are from a pack of Cribbage pegs from a department store.
There
was some weathering on the model which was accomplished with
washes and dry brushing techniques.
The cockpit segment was constructed from blueprints which
detailed a front-on series of 'slices' of that section. Thin
styrene was then skinned over the plastic skeleton after a 'U'
shaped trench was cut from the slices so a scratchbuilt cockpit
could be set into the front section.
This Y-Wing was built as a single-seater. The compartment behind
the pilot was filled with sensor gear and had machinery
connecting to the upper laser turret.
The
Y-Wing pilot was modified from a Tamiya race car driver. The
full-helmet driver had to have a significant portion of the
lower helmet Dremeled away to sculpt a face with a small bit and
the Dremel. The box on the chest was a small piece of styrene.
The straps on the uniform were made with Flat Black painted thin
strips of masking tape.
The instrumentation in the cockpit was detailed as
correctly as possible from screen captures from Star Wars. There
is even the swivel Targeting Computer on the front right side of
the cockpit.
The 'glass' enclosing the cockpit is made from the flimsy clear
plastic film that is on window-boxed toys.
The
R2 unit was used for my Y-Wing, another modeler's Y-Wing and two
X-Wings used in the theatre display.
The R2 unit was a (coincidentally) 1/24 scaled die cast R2-D2
key chain, from which a rubber mould was made and resin casts
produced. I painted my R2 unit Flat White with a Chrome Silver
Head and Flat Red details. The 'eye' was painted Gloss Black.
