Jump to content

Poe's X-Wing Fighter


ghodges

Recommended Posts

Finished this one up today for our club build. This is the Revell snap-tite 1/48-ish kit, which I was overall impressed with. The kit fits VERY well, with no slop in the parts once they're in place. The cockpit is nicely detailed and the canopy crystal clear. The parts break down on lines that match paint lines, so not much in the way of seams is visible when completed. The X-wing can be open or closed. The only oddity is that the nose gear can be retracted, but there's no option but on or off the model for the main gear, which means I left them off for the "in flight" attitude on the stand. The stand is from the spares box, and NOT in  the kit. The only major thing I did was rebuild the wing cannons with plastic, aluminum, and steel tubing. Even though the kit ones came cradled in a clear support box, they were still rather bent. Other than that, I painted and washed various details and put some belts on the kit seat.

The only complaint I can make on the kit is the type of plastic used to mold it. It's somewhere between rubber and styrene....the mold lines are tough to scrape off (much like a car kit tire) and tubular parts cannot be simply bent back straight. They're also harder to drill through, the plastic being more "gummy" during drilling. That said, it IS workable, but doesn't react like your typical injected styrene does. The kit doesn't come with a pilot, and is meant to display on its gear. However, that makes opening the wings up problematic, as the main gear is then canted awkwardly. The kit has some nicely molded details between the wings I wanted to show, so I grabbed a stand from the spares box and put it in flight attitude. By the way...the kit has a gimmick, in that the cockpit is molded as part of a sound box/device. If you push down on the R2 it'll play cannon fire!

Anyway, this was a quick build, yielding a cool looking model that allows me to have one to put in our club display at the local library next January, coinciding with the release of the new Star Wars movie around Dec/Christmas. Comments/questions/critiques welcome!

100_8501.thumb.JPG.6ca3c00ec80212a814107d80aa66d1c8.JPG100_8503.thumb.JPG.272970c48bfe0bf2ad0dc30fb2ec51b6.JPG100_8504.thumb.JPG.90ffb67686216abefacff5faf1b4120e.JPG100_8506.thumb.JPG.8bcc52ca0d5dd2019c7a0622b4fe949c.JPG100_8508.thumb.JPG.38571711a240b4b28415505a0437527b.JPG

GIL

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice work!  And kids who look at it will only see a cool model of an X-Wing...

About the same time Revell moved their molding to a the facility in China, their plastic also became softer--probably more vinyl and/or regrind added to the mix.  That's the main reason that if I want a vintage Monogram kit, I buy the earliest issue I can find in order to get that sublime Monogram styrene...

Edited by Ralph Nardone
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...