The E-Wing.... again

Yeah, I know this will only be the fourth E-Wing variant that I have done. What can I say, for some reason I really love this ship, and people keep making them.

The only E-Wing that has ever been seen is known as the Mk I. It was created for the Dark Horse comics "Dark Empire" story line. The idea was to introduce a new fighter that would take the place of the aging X-Wing,  after all it is not like the military still uses the F-14 Tomcat just because we thought it was cool in Top Gun. But we fanboys refused to accept it, so even though current Star Wars novels are some 20 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, the X-Wing is still king of the fighters.

My E-Wing Mk I

Then I found this image online... and I was in love all over again. It took the idea of the E-Wing and made it sleek and mean.

So I tried to make a model just like it. And I failed... epically. I didn't have the skills for the task. I started with a X-Wing body and for the first time cut and added styrene parts to try and reshape it. Not bad for a first attempt and I learned a lot, but I have never been happy with it.

My next E-Wing was a complete scratch build. I started from my own set of blue prints and build the whole thing.  I entered it in to a contest at Starshipmodeler.com and did quite well for my first time. I choose the E-Wing because it didn't have a lot of curves, making it ideal for a first scratch project.

I was moving on from this ship when a new kit was released. It was "grown" on a 3D printer from the CGI files of the "Fate of the Galaxy" design I loved so much. I just couldn't stop myself. So here it is...again, the E-Wing.

This is the .jpg models 1/72 scale E-Wing Mk II, mastered by nicholassagan. This kit comes with decals, vac-form canopy and pilot.

 This is the only pour stub on my cast. Even the mould seems are placed along leading edges to make them easy to clean. The casting on this kit is simply amazing.

 To remove any residual mold release agent on the model, I always wash resin kits with warm water and dawn dish soap. This keeps the paint from peeling off later when masking.

 Then guns... yeah, resin parts will warp in the heat. Plus these were cast a little to thick for my tastes, so I replaced the gun barrels with some spare styrene tubes.

 They are sample loops I pulled from an expired box of test cartridges that I had to through out at work. I cut off the tip, and drilled the barrels out with my pin-vise. 

 Much better.

 The only other problem area was the thruster bells on the engines. The detail just wasn't as crisp as I would like it to be.

 I dremeled off the kit resin and then replaced them with plastic bells from the 1/72 Fine Molds X-Wing kit extras I had laying about.

I'm not going to build this kit straight out of the box, so over the next week I hope to finish a few more little modifications.