Topic: Mr. Black's forray into scratch building

[Mr. Black]

Yesterday I suddenly had this crazy idea to try my hand at scratch building a SW starship. As a huge fan of the X-Wing games, I've always taken a liking to the boxy Delta Class DX-9 Transport (or TRN, for my fellow X-Wing enthusiasts). So, I looked up the stats on Wookieepedia, calculated the measurements in 1:18 scale and nearly had a heart attack: the length of the ship would be 1.11 meters!

Then it occured to me I could make it in scale to Hasbro's Legacy X-Wing, which happens to be in 1:25 scale! Phew, that means the DX-9 will 'only' measure 80cm / 31.5" in length.

I've found lots of pictures to work from and have uploaded them to Photobucket:

http://s740.photobucket.com/user/incomscustoms/library/Delta%20Class%20DX9%20ITT

This project is due to start in Januari/February 2014 and will probably be finished when it rains on Tatooine....  


I'd like to give praise to the experience scratch builders and skilled vehicle painters out there, whose work is nothing short of very inspiring. You know who you are  

[Tamer]

I am gonna add a couple pics to show folks here what you are talking about. I am very excited to hear about this project:

[Tamer]

On the front page. I already have a couple questions:

How large do you think this is gonna be in three and three quarter scale?

Are you gonna make sections of hull removable so you can get to the troop areas inside?

Do you have a timetable for completion?

[Mr. Black]

Thanks Tamer!

Firstly, that first pic you copied (the schematic view) comes from a site I just happened to find while searching for reference pics of this transport. It's called www.colonialchrome.co.uk. Do check out the starships section, which features dozens of starships' schematics! Not sure if these are truly accurate, but I bet they will come in handy for ship builders.

My initial thought was to make it in 1:18 scale, but that would mean the ship would be about 44" in length. That startled me a bit and I looked for an alternative scale. The Legacy X-Wing is actually 1:25. Having a transport in scale to that X-Wing works for me. The transport will be 31.5" in length then. Still big enough to house a couple of Stormtroopers and a downsized crew.

And yes, I do plan on adding playability to it, i.e. have sections removable, kind of like this:







However, I really like the cockpit layout shown in the schematics: 4 crew members sitting in line, as opposed to the mixed setup of the 1:72 scale resin model.

As for a timetable.... yeah, I really should figure that out. This is going to be a huge project. If I just work on it randomly, I fear it will take forever to complete it

[Tamer]

Sounds like you have thought of most everything. Looking forward to your start.

[hangarbay94]

This is a very unusual ship to go for, it never showed up that often in X-Wing Alliance and I don't recall it taking an offensive role in any missions, yet the ship must be a widely used imperial workhorse in the Star Wars Universe. I love the idea of seeing this take form.

[Mr. Black]

Thanks, Jules. You're right, it isn't you're typical go-to vehicle to customize, but I am kind of like that. Trying to find uncommon designs and characters to customize. I don't recall it having a significant presence in XWA either, but it did show up numerous times in X-Wing. If I recall correctly, a tough ship to tackle, especially when it was boarding a vessel and you had little time to destroy the DX-9

[Luke Sprywalker]

Oh yes, a new vehicle build. I have never seen this one so thanks for the images! A very ambitious project and one I can't wait to take shape.

[Clonehead]

I also am unfamiliar with this one but am no less juiced to see how you pull it off. Keep us updated.

[krztfr]

Oh yes I remember these ships good luck on the build. The fun part is that  its not a movie ship so  you get to play around with the greeblies instead of having to use certain ones.

[Tamer]

This vehicle reminds me of a flying AT-AT.

[Mr. Black]

This vehicle reminds me of a flying AT-AT.

Yeah, the body is pretty much an AT-AT's body turned around. Scummer Red_Two made a custom action fleet transport a while ago, which looks pretty cool.

http://forum.rebelscum.com/t1029246/

I do have the BIG AT-AT still MIB. I could take it out and see if I can use that body. But that'd would mean I have to search ebay for a 'donor' AT-AT body, or one from the old AT-AT. Not sure if that'll work out to my satisfaction

[Mr. Black]

Dayton pointed out some interesting options for CAD like software, which I want to use to draw the design of the DX-9. He uses Adobe Illustrator, but also gave a link to (free) alternatives. I first installed Inkscape, but couldn't really get to grips with that. I then switched to Google Sketchup and was immediately hooked! There's a multitude of tutorials for Sketchup and the first four introductionary tutorials by the people of Sketchup really get you started on the right foot.

So to make a long story short, I started designing the engine/torpedo bay module. Pretty nifty stuff. I even found a Sketchup 3D model of a Stormtrooper! Now, I'm drawing this in 1:1 scale. When I'm finished drawing the whole thing, I'll rescale it to 1:25. But I already kept in mind I'll be using 5mm thick foam core which means I'll make the different panels 0.125m thick in Sketchup.


Here's the first pic of the design phase:



(The Stormtrooper is standing next to the front side of the torpedo bay).

[Luke Sprywalker]

Very interesting! Can't wait to see more on this.

[Mr. Black]

Totally forgot to update this thread   !

Haven't had much spare time and I have three commissioned figures on the bench, but I've been drawing a little bit more on the engine/missile compartment: