Trans Universe

This is not going to be an article, but a series of pictures of one of my current projects, a totally scratch-built X-Wing Fighter from the Star Wars movies.

Just a little history on this. I started building plastic kits when I was 12 years old, which is about 45 years ago. One of the first things I built was a kit that had small rockets and missiles that were in the US arsenal at the time. Over the years, I graduated to building many kits, until 1967 when a friend an I discovered model rockets. Centuri Rockets had its manufacturing facility with an easy bike ride from my house.

Over the years, I have built over 120 different kits and scratch-built rockets, launching them from many places, including underwater.

In 1977, the first Star Wars movie came out and I fell in love with the space craft in the movie, especially the X-Wing Fighter. In 1979, a kit came out and I finished building it in about 2 hrs, but something felt missing.

One day, while visiting my favorite hobby store, I saw a rack of styrene plastic that came in all shapes, sizes, sheets and objects, and I hit upon the idea of making a scratch-built model of the X-Wing that would be twice the size of the kit. It took me six months to finish it and it looked great.

The model had 17 lights in it and the wings opened and shut. I entered it in the Arizona State Fair for a few years and I got blue ribbons each time, including best in catagory.

Fast forward to the 21st Century. After living as Monica for 6 years, in 2004, I felt a need to take up some of the hobbies that I had enjoyed for so long in my life. To start the process of reintroducing myself to the enjoyment creating something with my hands, I decided to take on a project that would overwhelm me in many ways. I decided to build another X-Wing Fighter, but this time, it would be four times the size of the kit.

The body of this is about 4 inches wide at the widest and nearly 4 feet long. The wing span is another 4 feet across. This time, I’m putting less lights in it, but the wings will still open and shut. this time, I even have the canopy open and shut with the flip of the switch. But, the real kicker is at the tip of each of the wing laser cannons, I have a laser pointer that will blink off and on.

At this point, I am not finished, but it is coming along real well. I have the body completely done with the exception of the paint and battle scars, but the inside of the cockpit is completely done. I have some pictures of the progress so far.

It’s important to note that since this is made with white styrene, it has a tendency of washing out with a flash, so that’s why some of the images are a little yellow in appearance.

These are early pictures. The soda can gives you a size perspective. This is actually a bottom wing that is upside down.

(Left) Back of engine. (Right) Front landing gear assembly.

(Left) Engine without its “skin.” (Right) Wing frame.

Progress . . .

(Left) Rear landing gear. (Right) Front landing gear.

Many of the cockpit parts came from a 1:12 scale F-15 cockpit kit, including the chair.

The front of the cockpit came from movie stills. The “hoses” behind the chair are actually threaded rods that are bent to the shape I wanted.

This is the motor and gears to operate the the wings.

The R2D2 is removable.

(Left) Detail of the back of the body. (Right) The wings are removable for transport.

The body frame is now completely covered and detailed, with the exception of the paint.

This is the underside of a wing, unpainted.

(Left) The complete detailed underside of the wing. (Right) Front of the engine section on the wing.

This is a motor with reduction gears that when operated, the cams on the gear shaft will operated micro switches (Right) that will cause the laser lights on the tip of the laser cannons to flicker off and on.

This is what I have so far. I will post another piece when I get all of the wings finished and the entire model painted.