Thanks for the kind words, everyone. Really, there is no pattern, just reference material that I used and made it up as I went. I did some drawings and used the Star Wars Chronicle and Sculpting a Galaxy books to determine proportions. My original plans had this thing being twice as big, but scaled it way back.
Anyway, my latest project (and last one for a while):
Razor Crest The main thing I was looking for at NY Toy Fair was an announcement of a Vintage Collection Razor Crest. Instead we got...another Troop Transport and a reissue of the Slave 1. With that disappointment out of the way, I set about making my own damn Razor Crest.
Styrene is the material, with curved surfaces roughed out using the same method I applied to my USS Enterprise from 9 years (!) ago...creating a skeletal rounded structure filled out with a LOT of thin styrene planks. I puttied and sanded the canopy and front, and opted to leave the engines unputtied to give the look of more panel lines and texture. The cannons were based around a wooden dowel that I shaped with my dremel to create a cannon tip.
On the show, there are hatches on each side and one main hatch in the back. I opted to create hinged and magnetized hatches for the the right side and the aft of the ship, and the canopy would hinge from the front. To simplify my life, I didn’t worry about having transparent canopy “glass” and opted to go for the same look with the window sections painted black.
The cockpit is pretty simplistic: I made it so I could fit Mando (and a Baby Yoda if they ever make a 3.75 scaled version), and there is a small hatch to the main hold behind where he sits.
The main hold has pretty bare-bones detailing...just a few control panels, the Vac-Tube, and Mando’s gun cabinet. Obviously, this thing is under-scaled, but I wanted this toy to be small enough for my seven year old son to zoom around the room, but big enough to fit the necessary characters and still look good positioned next to the Sandcrawler.
When I was determining the proportions, I had in mind the vintage Falcon and Slave 1 toys and their proportions.
That top square panel is removable, giving access to the interior from the top of the ship:
The wings should be more elongated, but in person this thing is really exactly what I wanted. As soon as I watched the first episode in November, I knew I was going to make this thing if Hasbro wasn’t getting it out there by the end of 2020. I happened to wander into the Wal Mart toy aisle when I was making my weekly trip to get groceries, and I nearly fell over when I saw Mando and Cara Dune on the pegs. Perfect timing to coincide with my finishing up this project:
I’ll still buy the Hasbro iteration if it ever gets released, but I am really pleased with how this one worked out.
Thanks for looking.