Assault on the Death Star: An Alternate Design Contest Rules    |    Entries    |    Home by Matt Jacobson Scale: 1/48 In this vignette, the Rebel X-Wing fighter Red 5 swoops over the Death Star, headed for an unshielded thermal port… taking Luke Skywalker and his trusty astromech droid, R2-D2, towards an appointment with destiny. However, this Red 5 is a little different than the sleek dragster to which we’ve become accustomed. This version is a little more rotund, with stubbier wings and a bubble canopy. She may look a little funny… but she’s still “got it where it counts”. When I first picked up an Apollo 27 model, I was struck by how much promise it had as “raw materials” for bashing into other kits. Examining the fuselage, I had a sudden burst of inspiration- could you take the Apollo 27 model and construct something like an X-Wing - “Red 27”, if you will? I had parts from a few classic AMT/Ertl X-Wing s left over from another project. At first, the mix of the two doesn’t seem so natural- the X-Wing is long and sleek, and the Apollo 27 is fairly round and stubby. However, a quick check of both modelsrevealed some surprising similarities. For instance, the wing mechanism from the X-Wing model actually fits well in the rear section of the Apollo 27 without much modification, and fits the circular cross-section like it was designed for it. (I did have to create a couple of interior walls, to keep from seeing all the way into the front of the fuselage. Also, I was unable to create a wing that could freely open and close evenly, so the S-foil “wings” are fixed in open position- not a problem, as my intent was to create a diorama of the fighter flying over the surface of the Death Star.) There were some modifications I had to make, both to make the model design feel “balanced”, and to incorporate as many design elements from the Apollo 27 kit as possible. I ended up cutting the wings down slightly, to balance and fit the shortened fuselage better. (I left the laser guns the same length- at least for now.) Both the back equipment “deck” and the cockpit from the AMT X-Wing fit into slots cut in the Apollo 27 fuselage with minimal adaptation. (As a matter of fact, the internal support for the R-2 unit- which is part of the AMT X-Wing cockpit part- serendipitously lines up perfectly with the hole I created for the R2 unit on my kit. The distance from pilot to R2 unit is exactly the same on both kits, even though they were made to fit wildly different fuselages.) The rear fuselage detail plate from the X-Wing kit was rounded to fit into the hollowed-out Apollo 27 fuselage, but works well in its new location. Justifying some of the design choices became a fun part of the process. The round hatch on the side of the Apollo 27 model? I flirted with making that the new location for the R2 unit, but eventually decided that that was the pilot’s stowage area, analogous to the “luggage area” underneath the old X-Wing . The pointy nosecone of the original Apollo 27 model got replaced with a larger targeting nose, again as a reference to the original X-Wing design. The new nose was made from a model rocket nose cone, strip styrene, and lots of putty and patience. A styrene stair inset into a slot became the “targeting window” on the nose. One thing I DID change was the staggered nature of the X-Wing engines. I took the Apollo 27 engines, cut off the “nose cone”, and cut a piece out of the bottom of each pod so it would just slip into place over the existing X-Wing engine “box”. I then fashioned details from sheet and rod styrene and no-slip tub ribbing to match the flow of the original X-Wing design, scaled up for a longer, in-line, curved engine pod. From the X-Wing , I took the intakes, hollowed out the back of each engine, and glued them ontocompression fans from the AMT/Ertl Pod Racer kit. To extend the engines andgive them a little more of the Apollo 27 “pointy engine” feel, I added compression cones made from Kotobukiya engine nozzles. The standard X-Wing exhausts went on to the back of the engines. The finished, curvy look was more appropriate to the new body (and, in my opinion, better suited to the overall size of the fighter.) A lot of the design cues for detailing this kit came directly from the original X-Wing model. This included the scribing of panel lines, the choices of panel colors, and the inclusion of the proton torpedotubes. I chose to make external proton torpedo tubes from 2 sets of some missile I picked up awhile back at a Wonderfest parts dump. Half of the missile formed the outside bulge, with some styrene half-rod and some no-slip strips; the interior of the other half, inset into the body, became the recessed half of the missile launcher. A third set of 1/32 missile nose cones, painted inTestors Stainless Steel, became the proton torpedo nose cones. This model was painted with Tamiya Fine White Primer, then airbrushed with Com-Art custom-mixed colors and Testors metallics. The R2 unit is made from an AMT-X-Wing R2 body with a AMT Naboo Starfighter R2 head, de-chromed and painted with Testors Stainless Steel. The pilot figure was a resin cast of an original X-Wing pilot sculpt, picked up at a Wonderfest parts dump awhile back (and I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on a few more- it’s really well done!) and painted with Tamiya acrylics. Decals (including those for the R2 unit) were from the Fine Molds 1/48 X-Wing kit, again from my stash. (Does anyone have a spare set of those decals? I need some, now…) If you want to keep access to the cockpit on the Apollo 27 kit until the last minute, you can use a Dremel cutoff wheel to carefully cut off the lower placement ring around the cockpit glass, so the cockpit just slips on and off. Sand the frame edge, dunk the finished item in Future, and you’re good. I flirted with making cockpit frames, but decided that the overall effect was best served without them. I wanted to use a Death Star diorama base for this kit, but started too late to just purchase one “off-the-shelf”. I decided to scratch-bash one from my existing stash. I started with four CD cases, separated with small pieces of strip styrene (which gave me the recessed “tiling” effect), then drew up a set of plans for detailing each, laying them out on a small wooden base I had left over from another project. I found two AMT/Ertl Virago kits in my stash, which provided almost all of the parts used in the layout. A Fine Molds base, a few other miscellaneous parts from the spares box (including two parts from an old MPC Cygnus kit- see if you can spot them!), and a LOT of sheet and strip styrene finished this off. Paint was Com-Art colors, custom-mixed. I cut off the edges of the tiles, but let some of the details overhang the sides, for a 3-D “feel”. Overall, I’m VERY happy with how this turned out. Image: Underside Image: Death star detail Image: Work in Prohress Image: WIP: Cockpit Image: WIP: Engine detail Contest Rules    |    Entries    Go back up | Starship Modeler Home | Site Map | Feedback This page was last updated 5 February 2012. © 2012 Starship Modeler