Joe's ANH TIE Fighter

[joewhite]

Here's a look at my slow start at eventually building my own TIE Fighter. I finally got some spare time to work on my wing stars. Here I'm simply observing the relation between the Koolshade and some of the parts. The Koolshade is super helpful in determining the dimensions of the star and various panels. Some parts are obviously unmodified.

I plan on casting all the parts and building each side of the wing separately. I don't have pressure pots or chambers to cast a single star with parts. I'd be left with copies full of air bubbles which is why I am building all four sides individually.

I originally thought of keeping everything symmetrical between all of the panels. Unfortunately, I quickly began to notice that some of the parts were beginning to spread out a little in some areas making it look off to my eye. So, it looks like I will try to capture some of the flaws made by ILM hand cutting the styrene.

I only have a couple of months to laser cut my stars as I will be moving later this year and will sadly lose access to the wonderful laser cutter I've been spoiled on for the last three years! Therefore, it's important that I push on with this.....at least complete the cutouts for the wings. I can always mold and cast when I settle in to my new home later.

Also, we're still id'ing parts HERE and there have been lots of cool people over there helping out! Thanks again, guys! More coming soon.

P.S. Any help with donor parts would rock! Please PM me...I have a list of kits and parts that I still need. I'll pay of course. Peace!





Joe

[JAWS]

This is really kool & youve sucked plenty of us into this build Joe,
Keep it coming & cut me a set of stars please.

[joewhite]

Thanks Jase!!!!! And sure thing on them stars!

Joe

[JAWS]

Bump!

[joewhite]

So, I've finally found some time to work on models. I told myself I'd be continuing with my 32" Falcon. But since I am waiting on a Plastruct order for it, it is on hold for now.

In the meantime, I decided to continue research on my TIE wings. Rob, (dsp5500) kinda nudged me to use Rhino for cad drawing. I'd been having a tough time using AutoCAD. Anyway, so for the past 6 hours I forced myself to learn Rhino. Here is my progress so far. I'm building all the plain surfaces, including the different Plastruct beams.

Below is my first 3D drawing ever! I'm quickly realizing the power of such a tool. See, I like saving money where I can. This way I can study things before I make my cuts.

The first thing I tested was figuring out the height of the raised center hub. It took about 30 minutes and I had the height measurements and templates for the side walls. I'm happy to say that all the kit parts fit perfectly in them!

Please excuse my enthusiasm! I literally needed to rip myself away from my PC before I pulled an all-nighter!

NOTE: I did not create the original specs, they were given to me, so I can't share them. I just created the 3D model from them. I did scratch build the H-Beams and the solid 3/16" beams on top of the wing stars, though! That was all me! :happy

Joe

[Wombat]

Nice work there, Joe. For someone like myself that cant do anything like that with a computer it looks PFG!!

Thats funny needing to almost rip yourself away from it, when ya in the mood it's very much like that for sure.

[daverep]

Do I smell cutting templates in the future? LOL!

Nice work! Makes me want to sit down and learn Blender. I've only had it on my computer for about a year and haven't opened it.

Keep going! It looks great!
-Dave

[joewhite]

Thanks guys! I don't know why it's taken me this long to learn a 3D program. Just in that one session, I've already answered many of the questions in my head regarding the assembly of the wings. Of course, many more questions were brought up but that's the beauty of it! In a perfect world, there'd be a Plastruct store down the street where I could easily get all my material. But with oil prices and shipping, I can't afford to make bad cuts.

I regret that I can't share any templates. I'm thankful for the help and I gave my word that I would not share it. However, I can definitely share the drawings I created from scratch before I got these dims. They are not accurate but are a good start, imo. The wings really aren't as bad as I imagined two years ago when I started gathering info. You can figure out the measurements really quickly if you lay the parts out correctly.

Joe

[joewhite]

Does anyone have any info on getting a sheet of acrylic milled or routed? I'm thinking of asking a friend in town to let me borrow the table so that I can make my own wing parts but I'd hate to show up not knowing what I have to do. When laser cutting, a honey comb surface is used in between the bed and the material being cut. Is there something I need underneath the acrylic? Certain drills? Speeds? Sorry, my friend hasn't gotten back and I am anxious enough to still ask and try to get an idea. LMK, thanks!

Joe

[joewhite]

I'm pretty much done with the wing. You can't see it in my screenshot but both sides of the each wing are there.

And, here's on of them questions that came up after all this. Now, keep in mind that I don't have good reference of a TIE from ANH. I couldn't get a good screen shot in Rhino so I drew the following by hand....not to scale of course.

So here are some of the layers. I'm coming up with a .060" empty area in between the wing star and the layer of Koolshade. The ABS H-beam #H-8 has a wall thickness of .060". So, do the wing stars sit on the H-beam? Or are the H-Beams cut at each intersection so the wing star arms can sit in between.

Cutting the H-beams at each intersection makes the most sense but without ref, I'm not sure if it is accurate.

Joe

[Stefan Hacker]

Wow that´s very impressive!

[joewhite]

I was finally able to get a wing star and hubs done! I'm so happy!

I only got one star done so that I could test the final measurements. It came out awesome! The beam took .007" off the edges but that is totally acceptable to me.




I reworked the hub image so that I would only have to bend the slanted edges and glue in place. Unfortunately, the guy used .080" styrene. I asked for .040" but I wasn't mad about it. I am going to build a buck for a vac-formed piece so that I can decide on what looks and works best. I will have the other stars made here soon and then I can start the casting process of each donor part I will need multiples of. Not looking forward to that but it needs to get done.



Joe

[JAWS]

Nice Joe.
Thanks for the update.
Glad to see this comimg together.