Incom T65 X-Wing - 1/63

Chaz Gordon
The intent is that this is just a no frills side project. It's one of the MPC Snap Fix kits from the 80's, and came with a set of 4 fighters I got on ebay a couple of years back. I bought the kit for the other three (Tie interceptor, B-Wing & A-Wing) and never thought I'd be that interested in doing this one as I have 11 of the large MPC X-wings to build.

Chaz Gordon
Literally Step 2, I broke my own rule, the Engine nozzles looked awful as molded. This may be a snap fix kit, but I'm going to be doing this with Glue and filler, so all the hex shaped snap fit sockets are being drilled out with a 2.2mm drill, which allows for a little twisting to get around some of the poor alignment on joins. The laser Cannons are a particular issue on this kit, and I am definitely NOT going to do anything about their Wing pods, I'd be tempted if the pod was solid plastic, but it's hollow, so any grinding to leave a big hole that would need to be fixed. Likewise the undercarriage lacks doors or wells, and they can stay that way. As this does not scale match with anything else I have, I may even display it on the flight stand and leave the undercarriage off.

JD
Go for it Chaz!

Łukasz Gliński
Isn't it the one reboxed later, whole thing in thick golden paint? Following.

Torsten
I'm in 👍

Spanjaard
1:63? Strange scale.....

JD
Isn't it funny how thinking a low detail kit will be easy and low stress, then realize it can be twice as hard, having to put one's skills to the test, to make up the difference...

Chaz Gordon
Spanjaard, All of the Star Wars kits back in the day were FTB (Fit the box) scale. The big X-wings are around 1/48, Vader's tie was around 1/29, R2 was 1/8, C-3PO 1/6, The Tie Interceptor is about 1/72, and the B-Wing closer to 1/100. I guess they did the small X-wing at 1/63 because at 1/72 it's skinny nose would have felt tiny, and the cannons would have been too fragile as it is clearly intended to be play worthy. Don't get me started on the Falcon. P.S I have two cutaway falcons, one still in the shrink wrap

Chaz Gordon
Lukasz, yes this is the one they soaked in gold Chrome......NOOOOOO!!!!!

Chaz Gordon
JD, I'm having to control my urges, there is so much with this kit that should be fixed, but I have enough of the large one that I can keep the urge mostly at bay. Then again I said that right before I started re-profiling the exhaust Nozzles.

Spanjaard
thanks Chaz

Dave Flitton
Brave! I don't think I could control the urge to help it somehow. Although, I might want to build a secret compartment for a firecracker or two.

Chaz Gordon
Hot humid night last night, so as I couldn't sleep, I started putting this together. As I expected, there are some issues I cannot ignore. and a Couple I fixed along the way

The inside detail of the wing, for some reason has a huge gap on the engine plate that need to be filled for all 4 engines. - Going to do that

1 of the 4 engine inners had to have it's locator pin bent quite a lot to get the engine to sit straight - done

The Cannon pods are a case of picking the best fitting for each location (all are slightly different) there are also three alignment points to look at on each. On half the pods you need to pick which 2 of the three you're going to align. The rest will be "fixed in post" with some careful filing. I also had to cut away some of the alignment pins to get a good fit (done)

The wings and cannons needed a bit of twisting and tweaking to get the cannons straight - Done

The details on the flat surface of the wing that are in the larger kit are completely smooth here. As I can fix it with some Plkas card, I'm going to add some light detail there.

The Intakes are missing the vertical splitter in the outer half, This is the same in the larger kit, Again, plascard fix, so that'll happen

The laser pod to wing detail is all wrong, and I'm not going to fix that, but I think I will do some filing and scribing to give it some detail, maybe add some pipe work too.

The worst issue however is the wing alignment and the rear panel. The forward wing pivot plate has the hole insanely off centre, so I'll have to grind it down a lot just to centre the wings. You can see clearly how far off when I close the wings, The wings do not open fully or evenly as a consequence.

The rear section is badly misshapen on the port side, It looks like a mold design flaw, not distortion. It's pretty bad up close, so I'm going to have to cut away the inner flange on that side and re-shape the side panel to match starboard.

I drilled out the hexagonal locator sockets to allow dry fitting. The one in the nose has such thin plastic at the end, I drilled right through to the outside! going to have to fill that when I fill the undercarriage mounts.

Starbase101
That's some crazy fit issues, but I guess the SnapFit target market (kids) wouldn't care much - they would have been content to run around holding an X-wing that they assembled.

Chaz Gordon
MPC made some massive glaring errors on the Star Wars Kits, Landing gear on the space craft is one of the biggest, although to be fair, ILM should take some of the blame. The Tie fighters were never seen landed, and it was only in Jedi that we even saw one in a hanging rack in a background shot. The X-wing was the worst ILM reality blooper, the Landing Gear retracts into a bay that should be housing a Turbine Core! The Tie fighter gear that MPC dreamed up had nowhere to fold away, and didn't even support the weight of the Model (Neither does the Stand on Vader's). It wasn't until the last episodes of the Mandalorian, that we finally see a plausible landing method for a Tie Fighter.

Starbase101
Such errors exist in actual studio sets/props too - like the magically appearing/disappearing staircase outside an Eagle's door hatch in Space:1999 whenever landing on a planet. Or a semi-truck trailer that is barely wide enough to drive a Firebird into, yet once inside Michael Knight opens the car door fully with plenty of space. Didn't ya know? Fictional vehicles are always bigger on the inside! (Tardis Effecticalus.) There is plenty of room for that landing gear!

Chaz Gordon
Ever seen the interior shots of the old airstream trailer in Grimm?

Starbase101
Probably similar to the interior of a classic Star Trek shuttlecraft - always bigger on the inside. And its landing gear retract right into an engine nacelle! You just go with it, being science-FICTION.😉

Tom ...
Best with Sci-Fi not to look too close alright. The whole "Galaxy Quest" premise is too much but it's one of my favourite movies. By Grabthar's hammer, If you've not seen that movie I can't recommend it highly enough.

Starbase101
That movie is freakin' hilarious. (That is, if you grew up watching Star Trek. My wife didn't get half the parodies in that film until she watched the original series with me, bad episodes and all.) Never give up!

JD
Ooo.. how about a diorama of a crashed X-wing with lots of twisted metal and wreckage and stuff..spare yourself getting all the details accurate.. hmm, what Dave said, insert firecrackers and get realistic explosion damage!

Tom ...
JD, I think we can get Greg in here on a consult... paging Dr. Mayhem... crash-cart, stat, in Hangar 10.

Chaz Gordon
Nope, no blown X-wings here, although I am planning one of my fleet of larger ones to be Swamp-Fresh

JD
Yeah Tom! 😄 Don't look too closely at it, (especially my work) The closer you look the more disappointed you'll be... 😛

Chaz Gordon
Sci Fi Story Telling Vs practicality! It can be got right without ruining the story, ST:TNG had a practical Starship with room for everything in it, and capability to move all that plasma to the right place, it even had a feasible and not yet disproven 23rd century science behind everything it did. Even the Transporters have Heisenberg compensators built right in.

Star Wars got most of their ship designs right in a practical fashion, the Falcon has space to fit all that stuff in there (except the length of the Gun Blister access tubes), the Big ships are all feasible, and even some of the ancillary small ships, but the X-wing and the Tie both have "Issues" The Tie for instance, packs so much power for its tiny size, one wonders why the ISDs are so ponderous.

And why on Hoth didn't they launch Red & Gold Squadrons with their X-wings, Y Wings, Laser cannon and Proton Torpedoes against the AT-ATs instead of converted landspeeders equipped only with Big Blasters and Tow cables - And what are those cables there for anyway?

Starbase101
Towing icebergs. (Ice planet...)

Chaz Gordon
Ice planet - No liquid water to tow Icebergs in?

JD
* Because the Resistance had great difficulties adapting their equipment to the extreme temperatures, Of Hoth, many vehicles never made it out of the hangar for the Walker battle, but eventually made it out...
* The T-47 Airspeeder is a cargo hauler. The tow cable ends in a magnetic head which is attached to cargo containers which is hauls. The Rebs adapted them for combat, and Luke came up with the idea to use the harpoons and tow cables in a manor for which they were never intended, like a mechanic, or engineer would...
* Nerd Alert

Chaz Gordon
Yeah, I've seen that, the rebels were having trouble operating SPACECRAFT in the Cold