Uber Studio Scale X-Wing (Hasbro Hero Series "Star Wars Rebels" Toy) - Printable Version +- Forums (https://www.studioscalemodelers.com/forums) +-- Forum: Index (https://www.studioscalemodelers.com/forums/forum-623.html) +--- Forum: General Modelling (https://www.studioscalemodelers.com/forums/forum-680.html) +--- Thread: Uber Studio Scale X-Wing (Hasbro Hero Series "Star Wars Rebels" Toy) (/thread-2338.html)

Uber Studio Scale X-Wing (Hasbro Hero Series "Star Wars Rebels" Toy) - Troy Downen - 09-15-2014 This is my build, or at least “heavy modification,” of the Hasbro Star Wars Hero Series X-wing. This is the big 29-inch toy with the Star Wars Rebels box art released in the United States in late August 2014. WHAT SCALE? To my knowledge there are no “official” blueprints or measurements for the X-wing, despite the various “studio scale” x-wings available which are generally thought to be 1/24 scale. There are also highly detailed mainstream plastic kits from FineMolds which purport to be 1/72 and 1/48 scale, plus the various box-scale issues from MPC and newer ones from Revell. I have a number of these releases, but if I stick to the most recent 1/48 FineMolds and a 1/24 studio scale kit that I have handy, this Hasbro offering scales out to between 1:17 and 1:19 depending on the feature one chooses to focus on. The included R2-D2 diameter is less than 2mm wider than one of my Hasbro R2 units; the Hasbro 3-3/4” figures are generally referred to as 1:18 scale. All of this is good enough for me to call the new X-wing 1:18 scale (hence “uber studio scale”) and to plan some modifications to open the wings and to make it capable of accepting other astromech units (such as R3, R4 or R5 units) and pilots from Hasbro’s excellent line of figures. THE TOY This is, without a doubt, a toy! This has been the subject of great controversy on various forums, but I have to give Hasbro credit for setting forth a goal – make a toy suitable for ages 4+ and at a relatively low price point – and sticking to their guns when the temptation must have been great to make “just a slight upgrade here and there” to make the product more attractive to the collector (i.e. you and I). But they have made a great product for what they intended, and it’s up to us – if we so choose – to make the modifications necessary to turn it into something more along the lines that we collectors will be happy with. Hence my efforts here. The toy is very large; about 30” in length overall. The wings are molded shut – they will NOT open into an “X” shape. The cockpit is closed and represented by a sticker – so no pilot or cockpit detail. The R2 unit in the back is just the upper body. The wing roots / engines are molded as part of the main fuselage. The outer wing panels snap onto the root stubs. The cannons snap onto the wing tips. There is a nose gear that can be rotated up into the fuselage nose or deployed; there are no main gear under the wings. No lights or sounds. No working features to speak of. That’s about it! GETTING STARTED The first line of business is to tear the toy apart. Really, just tackle the various screws (a few take some effort) and pull off the nozzles and engine inlets. Note that one set of screws is hidden below the engine inlets so yank off the inlets (which snap on) to access this last set of screws. A note regarding the plastic used on this toy. It is apparently a plastic of the polyethylene (PE) family which means that – literally – modern science does not have a solvent that will dissolve the plastic. Yep, plastic glue will not work on this toy. And if you’re thinking contact glues such as CA, epoxy or Gorilla Glue (whatever it is) then you might as well just use chicken soup for all the good it will do you. This PE will shrug it all off (ask me how I know). So you’re stuck with two choices: there are some contact glues that are purported to work more-or-less to hold it together if you’re gentle: Weld-on 1829 and 3M’s Scotch Grip 1099. I haven’t tried them yet but I’m working on getting some. Or you can try an industrial strength double-side tape such as 3M’s VHB tape (very expensive). I’ll keep you posted regarding what I am able to end up using. But the upshot is that you need to keep those screws and will need to reassemble the toy at least partially using them when modifications are complete. Next it’s time to get out the Dremel tool and start to make irreversible changes to the toy. Here you can see that I have cut the wing roots / engine units from the fuselage: After a lot of planning and sketches, I built an internal wooden block to serve as an armature for mounting the completed x-wing and to attach a new set of scratch-built wings in deployed “X” position. Here you can see the early states of test-fitting the wooden block in the aft fuselage: In that same photo you can see that I’ve cut out the cockpit windscreen; I’ll be scratch-building a cockpit later in the build. Same story for the astromech slot behind the cockpit. But one thing at a time… Here you can see how much of the fuselage I have to cut away to make room for the new wing root structures that I’ll be building. The lower line is conveniently defined by an engraved panel line on the fuselage (so I know I can get that cut straight, at least!) but the upper line is a bit less well defined. The part at the top that I have shaded red is a “cut to fit” line that I’ll shave away as necessary to get my new wing roots to fit. I also cut an access hole in the bottom of the fuselage for a 1/4-20 insert nut so that I can mount it from the bottom (you see here the temporary mount for construction and painting). I will tidy up that hole and also make an insert to cover the hole so that I’ll have the option to hang the model instead of put it on a display stand. Once the fuselage sides were carved away, I made an overly-complicated set of wing root mounting blocks to attach to the wooden block armature in the body. Here you can see the nuts that have been secured in the body and to which the mounting blocks will be secured using socket head screws. The wings will thus be removable for easier transportation of the completed x-wing. Here are the right hand side wing mount blocks installed with the fuselage rubber-banded together. And finally for my efforts this weekend, you can see my wing prototype with one of the engines sitting on top checking for fit and placement. Now that I have the wing mount blocks pretty well built, I’ll start to tackle the wings themselves which will be scratch-built in the open position but using large parts of the toy’s engines with heavy modifications. Unfortunately I live in an area with no local hobby stores and thus I have to pretty much mail-order all of my supplies. Thus it will be another couple of weeks before my styrene sheet and brass bars arrive to start building the wings. These will consist of brass bar spars, plywood cores and sheet styrene skins. But more on that as time goes on… Thanks for taking a look, and best of luck with your modeling efforts! --Troy RE: Uber Studio Scale X-Wing (Hasbro Hero Series "Star Wars Rebels" Toy) - Red III - 09-16-2014 Really looking forward to seeing this completed! So far so good! I'm waiting for the Millennium Falcon to come out. RE: Uber Studio Scale X-Wing (Hasbro Hero Series "Star Wars Rebels" Toy) - Troy Downen - 09-18-2014 I’ve been worried a bit about paint adhesion with this PE plastic so I ran a quick test on a scrap wing part. I applied my usual methods: a quick sanding with 320 grit wet/dry sandpaper, Dupli-Color adhesion promoter, wait 5 minutes, then Dupli-Color lacquer scratch fill primer. I let both cure overnight. I applied a few strips of 3M blue painter’s tape and burnished them down. A few minutes later and I am happy to report that I had no problems with lifting of the primer coats. Whew! RE: Uber Studio Scale X-Wing (Hasbro Hero Series "Star Wars Rebels" Toy) - Cylon-Knight - 09-18-2014 WOW ! This is an amazing project. Watching with interest. RE: Uber Studio Scale X-Wing (Hasbro Hero Series "Star Wars Rebels" Toy) - JAWS - 09-19-2014 Very Kool. Keep it coming. RE: Uber Studio Scale X-Wing (Hasbro Hero Series "Star Wars Rebels" Toy) - Troy Downen - 09-22-2014 So here’s an interesting development that actually answers a question that I had. The R2 unit included with the toy (the top half that is included, anyway) has provision to be lighted via a small acrylic rod that appears to lead from the bottom of the R2 unit to the radar eye (see photo). Today in Sams Club (big box store here in the States) I noticed this: An electronic variant of the Hasbro Hero Series X-wing toy that includes a light-up R2 and sounds. Press R2 and he makes his standard “bleep-bloop” sound and his radar eye lights up. There is a button just behind R2 that fires the lasers by making the “blat-blat” sound that we all know and love. No lights with that one, though. You’ll notice that the price is exactly $10 more expensive than the non-electronic version, and one of the wings has been pre-installed to make the toy seem larger. But it is 100% the exact same toy, just with the electronic sound and light. So if “bleep-bloop”, a light and “blat-blat” are worth $10 – go for it! Otherwise I’d suggest sticking with the non-electronic version. Just watch out for which version you are purchasing either online or in the store. RE: Uber Studio Scale X-Wing (Hasbro Hero Series "Star Wars Rebels" Toy) - JAWS - 09-22-2014 I got a previous one for my son. Lights sounds etc. Wonder the shape diffences are, I'd ant. RE: Uber Studio Scale X-Wing (Hasbro Hero Series "Star Wars Rebels" Toy) - Troy Downen - 09-23-2014 Jase - a few rough measurements here and there don't indicate any serious deficiencies with this current large-scale toy. Well, other than the fact that the wings won't open! However, I would say that the level of detail on this current toy is less than that of the previous Hasbro, smaller-scale electronics version. And no cockpit on this one either. Not much time this past weekend to do more than some alignment checks and determine that my wood strong back (shown in the pictures with the wing stubs attached) is mounted a bit crooked in the fuselage. It's throwing off (or WILL throw off) the laser cannon alignment once the wings are complete. Nuts. So I'll build a new strong back next weekend. Not difficult - just time-consuming. Starting to work details on the wing prototype now and contemplating if / how to create a droid socket for a complete Hasbro 3.75" astromech. Hmmm... How do the scope of these projects tend to grow over time with me? Thanks for the interest and support, everyone! RE: Uber Studio Scale X-Wing (Hasbro Hero Series "Star Wars Rebels" Toy) - Troy Downen - 09-28-2014 This is another alignment check for the wings, with brass tubes representing the length of the wing cannons once they are built. Yes, this will be Red 6, which is Jek Porkins’ ride. Yes, I know; this doesn’t look like much progress for a full-day’s work, but it’s a totally re-built strongback (wooden block inside the starfighter) with an astromech slot and super-careful alignment to ensure (I hope) that everything is parallel. I believe that it is at this point. As I mentioned, I also cut an astromech slot into the strongback, including small divots for those newer astromechs (like R5-D8 shown in the first panel below) that have wheels on the bottom of their feet. As I test fit some astromechs that I had handy, I noticed that the R2 unit sat a bit lower within the slot. Maybe a bit hard to see here, but look at where the shoulders are relative to the top of the x-wing fuselage. I thought all astromechs from Hasbro had legs of the same length, but it turns out that some legs are actually significantly longer (or shorter) than others. I wonder why Hasbro doesn’t have just one leg mold from which all are made? Oh well… OH NO! My feet don’t fit. Please don’t chop them off – I’ll be Jawa fodder! :-) Actually, R5, my plan is to make a hatch directly in front of the astromech slot and have a styrene panel that I can pull off to get the droids in and out. I’ll work on that later. So here’s a close-up of how R5-D8 fits within the astromech slot. What do you think; does he sit too high within the slot? RE: Uber Studio Scale X-Wing (Hasbro Hero Series "Star Wars Rebels" Toy) - Troy Downen - 09-29-2014 Super-quick update: wing cores are cut. The wings will consist of a 1/4" plywood core sandwiched between 0.04" styrene sheets. That's a 16" rule in the photo. Each core is 8" from root to tip. Add another 2" of engine to the root (10" total semi-span) plus another 3-4" for the fuselage and wing mounts. The total wing span will be 23-24" when complete. The fuselage is 29-30" nose to tail. These new Hasbro toys are monsters!! Too cool... RE: Uber Studio Scale X-Wing (Hasbro Hero Series "Star Wars Rebels" Toy) - Troy Downen - 10-13-2014 Red 6 Gives You Wiiiiiiiiings! (Bad pun from an old Red Bull TV commercial) I’ve been test-fitting wings this weekend and you can see how happy that has made Jek! I keep telling him to settle down – it’s just a glider at this point, dude! Obligatory can of soda placed in shot for scale reference… Here are the wings laid up earlier in the weekend to glue the brass bar spars to the plywood cores. I use magnets on a steel sheet to secure everything while the glue sets. I’ve been using Gorilla Glue for the wood-brass bar joint and it seems to work well enough. Gorilla Glue seems to essentially be expanding foam mixed with an epoxy cement, and areas where the glue has seeped out of the joint as it expands can be easily scraped away with a razor. Here is the overall structural arrangement of the wings: plywood core with brass bar spars fore and aft. Styrene strips frame the wing circumference and then I will sheet the wings with 0.04” styrene sheet top and bottom. That will give me a good working surface to add detail and then paint, etc. In the first picture you can see that I’m still working on putting the styrene skins on the wings, but I wanted to do a quick fit-check to see how things were looking. I clipped some brass rods onto the wing tips as representative cannons; I kept bumping them around as I took photos so they’re not likely straight in any of the photos, but they do give some perspective regarding the overall look of the beast once it’s complete. That engine is just sitting on top of the wing in roughly the right position; again for some perspective of the overall final product as it is envisioned. As I checked alignment with the wings installed I became a bit worried that the angle of the deployed S-foils might be off: is the “X” too large, in other words? I measured from my drawings 17 degrees from the horizontal for each of the upper and lower wings (a total of 34 degrees separating top and bottom). Here you can see a front-view photo compared to my drawing and to a screen grab from ANH. I guess it’s not too far off… Another comparison from the side… Overall it seems to be coming together okay. Does saying that “jinx” it now? RE: Uber Studio Scale X-Wing (Hasbro Hero Series "Star Wars Rebels" Toy) - Red III - 10-13-2014 Looking Good! RE: Uber Studio Scale X-Wing (Hasbro Hero Series "Star Wars Rebels" Toy) - Jessie White - 02-05-2019 WOW! I know that this is an OOOOOLLLDD thread, but what happened to this build?