B-Wing Starfighter

T

tiluchi

New Member
Jan 2, 2010
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Bolivia
Greetings friends!!!.
Here I am again to show you my next model, which is also from Star Wars. The B-Wing Starfighter. This heavy fighter made ​​its appearance in Episode VI during the attack on the second Death Star.



This ship has the particularity of rotate its cockpit 90 degrees (well, it can rotate 360), to adopt a horizontal or vertical configuration, according to need.



I found this little model for quite some time now, and its time came up. The file comes in .pdo so has some small errors in the model so you need to make some repairs or modifications on the way, no big deal. Besides, that's the beauty of this hobby. I built this one on August 2011.

Starting at the cockpit, this piece consisted of a cylinder without caps, so I had to add two round pieces of (1mm) cardboard with a hole in the center for the rotation axis. You'll end up with a drum-like piece, quite firm and solid, something that is very necessary as this piece is the one that holds the cockpit section to the neck of the ship and also allow the rotation of the entire cabin. Then I made another paper cylinder 1cm in diameter and introduced by the rotation axis holes. This small cylinder will be the rotation axis, which I made some tabs to serve as the contact surface and paste those to the parts that go to the ends of the drum and then the cabin
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The other parts of the cockpit need hardly any modification. I saw that this model comes also with interior cabin, nothing complicated, so this is my first model that will have visible interiors. The only problem was the glass of the cabin itself. But, following a friend's advice, I took a small plastic bottle of soda and after a few cuts, curses, cut another piece for a second attempt, more cuts, wrestle the piece and a little patience ... And voila!
dsc03021q.jpg



Then, I assembled the pieces of the cockpit's bottom and with the help of a small fine needle I made the guns that lodge in the nose. They are rather small, with less than a cm long and about 1 mm in diameter. So patience was the star of the day Then, I assembled all the modules to form what will be the whole section of the ship's cockpit.
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Then, I continued with the neck of the ship. It's a simple section that also features some minor changes and additions to improve the structure of the ship.
Here I added some cardboard internal reinforcements to give more firmness to the piece in addition to a better area of contact with the drum of the cockpit, so this assures that it's well stuck and firm for when the cockpit section needs to be turned.



Finally there are these little side pieces that need to be cut a bit to fit, which serve to secure better the drum to the neck and in addition, also hide some unsightly joints.





To be continued....
 
You're doing a great job on this! I like the reference pictures, especially the picture of the craft landed, something I had always wondered about.

Do you think you could post the .pdo link or name. This would be a nice model to find. :)
 
great model....
i looked for a B-wing paper model i saw at a russian site...super detailed.
But never found the building plans..
So, i what this with much interest.
 
I think this is Tirick's model, : http://tcfgaming.com/index.php/vehicles/wip-b-wing/

It is a work in progress. The little emblem that is almost a circle, red, on the cockpit matches the one on Tirick's B-Wing. I could be wrong. The model is almost finished but not quite.

If it isn't Tirick's, could you please let us know where you got the .pdo file from Tiluchi? :)
 
I feel so dumb. I have this model. I downloaded it from PapercraftMuseum thinking I could get my son interested. I remember how much I liked the way they did the intake vanes. That was a couple of years ago! Thanks tiluchi, you made our day. I really appreciate you posting the link. :)
 
You are most welcome zathros, and greetings everybody once again....
Well here we have the model central box is the biggest piece but simple. Here is where you fit and glue together the groups of pieces from the upper and lower parts of the ship so it have to be sturdy, for what I use 1mm cardboard reinforcements. so it will not deformed by the rest of the pieces.


The frontal nozzles of the ship.... here one have to be sure they line up corractly before gluing, so you have to make small corrections to the piece, then the paste and finally, close the case.


Here I grouped the photos of the nozzle's details, the divisions were made by wrapping the piece on a thin cardboard to give the desired thickness. Then mark the place where goes each division and then tested before gluing, so you can make the necessary corrections. Once everything fits as it should, add glue and that's it.






This piece is key to unite the cockpit and the "neck" of the ship to the central box, so I added some transversal pieces of 1mm cardboard, copying the same shape so they fit well. Then come two cylindrical pieces that go on the sides of the reinforced piece. They are a bit cumbersome to assemble and a lot of patience is needed, but I think it is a major requirement for this hobby isn't it? hehehe. Next, the turbines, these are a bit more simple to do, the only bad thing is that you must make 4 .... more patience. Once you have all 4, glue everything.






Well, not much to say here, you start to glue all the pieces and the upper part of the ship begins to take shape, the important thing here is that everything remains solid and firm. At the time of uniting the cockpit section to the "neck of the ship only put glue on the base of the central drum of the cabin section so the rest can rotate.




And here is the upper part of the ship ready, with the cockpit in horizontal and vertical positions. now it only remains the other 60% of the ship to do.



In the next chapter of the building thread.... the hardest part is coming. The making of the wings and some mechanism that i have to figure it out, so these can hold by it selves in both positions.... open and close.
 
Excellent workmanship! Your build skills are making this model really "POP"! :)
 
This is great!!! Thanks for taking the time to share with us your building process. The hints & tips you include will help others when they build this cool ship. Can't wait to see more.
 
First of all... a million thanks for your coments. I really apreciate your opinions and hope that someday this could be useful to someone.

Once the upper part of the ship is done, things will start to complicate a little bit, because is the turn of the wing section...
Starting with the hinges that will support and also provide the capability of rotation. These pieces comes in a very inconvinient way to assemble, so I changed the process to simplify this a little because it's very important that both of these pieces result well made, resistant and simetrical.
In this photo you can see the piece as it comes from the .pdo and next to it, the same piece but cuted and joined in a simpler order for a better result.


When all the components are separated of the piece I added a 1mm piece of cardboard to the parts that need to be stronger and resistent (the dark green ones). There is where I made the holes for the axis that will hold the wings. I will refer to this module as a "hinge"


Then I proceeded with the assembly of the wings. Here it was necessary to make an internal structure so they can keep the shape and hold the side cannons. Like there is no templates for this, I made them from scratch. Draw a template in a pice of cardboard and then cut until it fits and the wing adopt the right shape. One detail that I had to keep in mind is that by making the shape of each reinforcement, I had to try first to see that the piece wasn't twisted or suffered any deformation which then affects the final result. It's a bit laborious but it worth it to end up with a solid and straight wing.



Upon completion of both wings, I continued with the assembly of the box that houses the mechanism of the wings and join the top of the ship to the bottom, besides the wings of course.
Here, I use reinforcements for the entire piece because you have to make some cuts to place both "hinges" that hold the wings. So I had to secure the piece on all sides. Also in this picture you can see how the wings are attached to the "hinges" with a couple of pins.


After the middle section of the ship its concluded, the next thing is the lower section, where we have the large "blade" wing that also needs an internal structure, but its no big deal. Same procedure as before but a tiny bit more elaborated. Here I introduce a little magnet that I glued in the middle of the wing attached to the cardboard structure that fited perfectly. Once this piece closes properly, it can be attached to its upper piece and then let it dry resting on the upper base in a vertical position, so it won't get crooked.





Then for the piece that houses the lower cannons of the ship there was no complication or need for reinforcements or modifications. The only thing it was exasperating, were those small and thin cannons. But I already have mastered the use of three types of needles of different thickness for this purpose. Here is just the module, for the next breakthrough I will place the photo with the guns in place.


Well.... until here for today.... tomorrow i'll post the rest. It just remains the wing's side guns and the bottom ones ( more obnoxious little paper tubes) and it will be finished.
 
Your skills are amazing, thinking on the fly to work out the inner working that you want to put in the model. I love the B-Wing, it has a lot of potential.
 
Here is the conclusion.

These are the bottom cannons already attached to its respective casing. Fortunately this part it's easy. Some tubes, a few holes and that's it. I was a little bit concerned about the stability of the guns, because there wasn't much of a good grip from where these pieces could hold on in a fixed position... But, at the end there wasn't any problems.


This is the module for the side weapons that goes on the wings. This little piece of..... work, of barely 63mm (2.5") long, is very tedious to do because it is composed of a series of 7 tiny cylinders of paper and some of them are less than 1mm in diameter. This module also hides a small secret inside.


Lets see it step by step. In the main piece of the side gun, the one that will go attached to the end of the wing, there is a little cardboard reinforcement that will help to keep the right shape.
Another thing that I added to this part was a little piece of metal. This will work with the magnet from wich I refered before in the last progress, the one located inside of the blade wing. This will be the mechanism that ensures that the side wings snap into locked position.



Then comes the assembly of the guns, that with great patience, a needle and a new tool that I introduced to my growing arsenal of reinforcing elements for my models. This is nothing else but the clamps that are used in the office staplers. These thin little friends are easy to work and fit perfectly into small, thin paper tubes, giving them the strength to remain straight and they will not get crushed or bent by accident. They turned out great at the time of putting all together and the result left me very satisfied.


Finally here are finished both side cannons and with this ready I assembled the rest of the modules.


Once this was done.... I have another starship, and now its time for some final shots.

Here is in attack position with spread wings and vertical position.


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Here is the landing position or as Han Solo would say ... "fly casual" hehehehe



Cockpit always straight up....:thumb:



In this part of the ship is where is located the magnet that allows me to attach the wings to the body of the ship and remain in that position when it is in horizontal mode.



And this for the scale of the ship. It measures 27.5 cm. long and 9.5 cm deep. Beautiful model in deed.



And this is my B-Wing Starfighter with rotating cabin and deployable wings.

:thumb:

Hope you guys like it. Thanks for reading and posting. I'll be back soon with another model....


Next...... Blockade Runner "Tantive IV"
 
beautifull ship.
in fly mode standing up right it looks the best :-)
the magnet thing..great idea.

Super build thanks for this building thread.
 
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