nicholassagan
sippin on gin + juice
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2011
- Messages
- 2,013
A few months back I designed some conversion/update parts for the Fine Molds 1/72 X-Wing and the prints arrived recently. Today I took the time to do a quick little sanding, priming and sealing. They are all wrapped up and ready for casting!
The two long tubular parts are expanded proton torpedo launchers, the 3 strips are replacements for the droid strip (flat, paneled and detailed versions) and the trapezoids are wing mounted booster engines. The parts are going out for casting this week and there should be a 1-2 week turnaround...meaning they will be available in January! Price you ask? Not sure yet. Cheap.
But ho-ho! That’s not all! I actually ordered a first draft of these parts so rather than wait for the castings, I decided to use these on the kit itself. Boy am I glad I did because this kit is a GEM! I’ve never built it before but it assembles super-easily, detailing it was fun and overall it’s a good quick project. However, I had cannibalized some parts for a few other builds so I had to rebuild the cockpit (which is partly hidden by a tinted canopy), the droid strip and the cannons.
With the upgrade parts, I’m calling this a special strike modification, say X/S-Wing. There are:
engine boosters on the wings (for narrow escape maneuverability)
larger ion burner nozzles (for speeds the match an A-Wing)
super-charged cannons (same drivers found on the E-Wing)
extra fusion torpedo launchers
and the droid strip features an array of communications antennas. Also, the astromech brain is integrated into the avionics system so the socket is retrofitted with a multi-spectrum imaging device (under the clear dome!).
The stand is from ModelBaseGuy and I added magnets in the wings to get them to stay closed.
oh yeah, for some reason there was a bit of a gap between the end cap and the fuselage so I added a strip of thin styrene to fill it
Ready for preshading!
Full Gallery
http://nicholassagan.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/bench-update-172-x-wing-with-xj-upgrade-parts/
The two long tubular parts are expanded proton torpedo launchers, the 3 strips are replacements for the droid strip (flat, paneled and detailed versions) and the trapezoids are wing mounted booster engines. The parts are going out for casting this week and there should be a 1-2 week turnaround...meaning they will be available in January! Price you ask? Not sure yet. Cheap.
But ho-ho! That’s not all! I actually ordered a first draft of these parts so rather than wait for the castings, I decided to use these on the kit itself. Boy am I glad I did because this kit is a GEM! I’ve never built it before but it assembles super-easily, detailing it was fun and overall it’s a good quick project. However, I had cannibalized some parts for a few other builds so I had to rebuild the cockpit (which is partly hidden by a tinted canopy), the droid strip and the cannons.
With the upgrade parts, I’m calling this a special strike modification, say X/S-Wing. There are:
engine boosters on the wings (for narrow escape maneuverability)
larger ion burner nozzles (for speeds the match an A-Wing)
super-charged cannons (same drivers found on the E-Wing)
extra fusion torpedo launchers
and the droid strip features an array of communications antennas. Also, the astromech brain is integrated into the avionics system so the socket is retrofitted with a multi-spectrum imaging device (under the clear dome!).
The stand is from ModelBaseGuy and I added magnets in the wings to get them to stay closed.
oh yeah, for some reason there was a bit of a gap between the end cap and the fuselage so I added a strip of thin styrene to fill it
Ready for preshading!
Full Gallery
http://nicholassagan.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/bench-update-172-x-wing-with-xj-upgrade-parts/
