Howdy gang!
When asked if I’d, “Like to build one of REL’s Y-Wings?”, I jumped at the chance since I don’t have one for myself.
The parcel arrived and within the box were no more, and no fewer, components than I’d want to see to accomplish the subject and all with nice crisp itty bitty lil details that I quite admired!
Thought the canopy could stand a lil thinning so went to work to do so from the inside until all framework was relatively closer to scale.
Then turned my attention to lighting the engines by hogging out the front of each nacelle to accept a battery holder (for 3 lil "buttoncell batteries) cut away from ‘TeaLights’ along with drilling a wire path end to end.
To control the electronics I chose microswitches that would hide behind the ‘rear body face plate’, then come up through that with aluminum tube and styrene caps which mimic the ‘stepped’ details originally cast in place. Hogged out a pocket and the whole thing will just “snug” into place to allow servicing if needing. Again, holes were drilled for wiring through the body and then out to where the nacelles will mount.
To light up the engines I thought about boring out the “nacelles” and sinking the LED waaaay back down in there (compare where the engine is to the vectoring vanes on an FM ‘exposed’ Y-wing) and while I still might for now I’ve taken the easy way out and will sink a refelctor just to house the LED and disperse the light.
Here’s that reflector cone (pirated from a keychain flashlight) sunk in place:
Since my only goal was to light the engines, the components are now in place along with wiring paths so next is assembly and actual wiring.
Having bored the nacelles entirely through I now saw a need for a reflector ‘cone’ that would span the entire inside diameter and lacking one I took a larger one meant for a “bulb”, cut down to overal diameter and then placed atop my original one that accomodates an LED. Lines the inside of the nacellewith self adhesive detail foil and condcuted a light test.
There’ll be two modes for lights- constant full intensity OR a ‘flickering’ effect, just for variety. Oh, of course, there’s also OFF.[;)]
Is this the same scale as Fine Molds 1:72 Ywing? I’ve been wanting to build a piece with the same Y-wing, showroom-new and later hotrodded by the rebel alliance, and this seems like it would be a lot easier than fairing in the Fine Molds model. ^.^
edit I see that it is. how much does one of these run?
Thinking that the engines can’t be “all there is to light” I started to look at the AstroMech:
After the LED was turned down to fit within the hollowed out Droid I have some holes drilled while a couple of those are waiting for brass sleaves to represent their “lens housings” too:
And then the body will be prepped to receive the components and some form of activation switch again.
If I understand it correctly REL (Sovereign Replicas) is releasing his new Tie Defender through Skidmarks while this ‘Clone Wars Y-Wing’ is something that he isn’t actively marketing now. When I wrote to him that current interest was being expressed he replied you can contact him directly since he is ‘able’ to pour fresh ones if the need arises.
I believe he’ll at least be pouring another one or two for myself so I can explore some alternate paint schemes after I complete this one the way it has been requested.[dinner]
A fair question that could use clarifying though and I also thank you for the kind words.[8D]
There was a thread at Resin Illuminati, in one of the Vendor’s Section forums where Skidmarks was talking about selling the kit. I’m fairly certain that it was also mentioned by REL himself in a thread at R.I., maybe where he was building the master? Anyhow, I think Skidmarks had it marked up something like $10 over what REl was selling it. Seems something changed about that. If you do a user search for Skidmarks Diecast, checking the threads he’s started you should find it easily enough.
What a fantastic build up, this is going to look great.
Skidmarks doesn’t sell my products anymore, not for any bad reason though. The Y Wing is basically out of production, but I may release it again in the future.
The TIE Defender is up in the air at the moment, I’m actually thinking of just selling the master, I don’t know.
Decided to go ahead and excersise the Dremel some more by hogging out a cavity within the body to allow a cockpit plus additional room to the sides to route wiring and fiberoptics. Here’s the roughcut-
Wound up with the canopy just the size of the opening so that it will eventually rest upon the ‘cockpit walls’ when they’re built wihich will aid the making and mounting of hinges.
Also changed a side body detail from raised to sunken to evetually match a reference shot, after some inner details are added.
