My mind wanders constantly between projects and I always love a good challenge. During one of our NMRA meetings in the spring a new challenge was announced to take an HO scale Tichy hand car shed kit #7011 and do something with it. Some similar N scale kits were offered for those who modeled in that scale. Nothing was available in O scale, but that was likely due to the cost of comparable kits. Even though I model currently in O scale, I thought the challenge would be fun so I grabbed an HO scale box.
On the drive home I wondered what to make with it. Harrison and I have really been into Star Wars lately. Though he is too young to watch the movies, we still play with X-wing and the Millennium Falcon and Tie fighter toys and he knows all the characters. Since my end result would likely never go on my layout, I had free reign to do what I wanted and decided to make it in homage to him. But what could I do with such a little building that was Star Wars themed?
Then I remembered that in the 1990s Micro Machines made Star Wars toys. They weren't very realistic and the scale varied, but I looked online and found that the X-wing models were 1:282 scale. That's 1/3 smaller than Z scale! In that scale, my small shed would become more of a large warehouse. That opened up a lot of possibilities, and almost ensured that my building would be different from everyone else's.
For what it is worth, I selected a Micro Machines model because they are pre-painted and found relatively inexpensively on EBay. The original Final Fantasy Games' ships in their X-Wing Miniatures game are more detailed and more expensive, and per this site the X-Wings are roughly 1:270. I actually have a lot of Rebel ships from that game in my collection, but I didn't want to use them for this model.
Once the X-Wing was purchased I could use it to determine other dimensions like the openings and overall size. The X-Wing fit into the shed, but just barely.
I didn't want my diorama to be so large that the focus was taken away from the structure, as the handcar shed was the premise for this challenge. But, if I needed some room around it for ancillary support structures and a runway (do X-Wings need a runway?). In the end, I went to the hobby store and purchased a wood plaque that looked about right. I chose an octagon one because I thought it gave a more sci-fi feel. Like my other competition buildings, I stained and polyurethaned it to look nice. But it didn't fit the theme well, so I took the other (2 came in a package) and painted it black. That was perfect.
I wanted to use as many parts from the kit as possible, so I took the original floor and used that for a loading platform.
I then spent time adding lots of little details to the structures and base. Some had a logical reason, such as electrical conduits and lights, and others were just pure imagation. George Lucas coined the term "Greebles", which are small relief details that give visual complexity to a model. You don't have to fully understand what they are or what they do, but their presence gives the model interest. Nearly everything came out of my scrapbox and/or the actual kit, including sprues and waste. Perfection isn't important because the Rebellion made do with whatever they had, and besides... I'm not actually copying a prototype.
Various bits from my parts box were painted and scattered around the area. I used inexpensive glass beads to represent lights, canisters, and other such things. You can see here that the nose of the ship droops up in an annoying fashion. I might try to boil it in water and hold it in position to correct it.
The side of the freight platform has an elevator made from some more scrap from the kit, as well as four miniature 2-56 socket head screws glued to the bottom. I think it adds a real nice touch. lots of glass beads were stacked on pallets to represent fuel canisters and whatnot, and more details were put in the front. Those orange and black parts came from an HO scale trailer kit. When you are working in 1:282 scale, anything goes!
The roof was painted a rusty brown, and an antenna apparatus was fabricated on the rear using the frame from the push handcar that came with the kit. It looks intricate but it is all one casting. Anyone who actually builds the kit for its intended purpose will instantly identify the piece.
My project is tentatively titled "Luke's Flight School" because in my mind when Luke retired from saving the galaxy after Return of the Jedi he had to earn money somehow, so he opened his own pilot school. As later movies would show he kept his X-Wing until the very end (though not always in the best of locations). I am sure a hanger bay like this helped to preserve it.
To demonstrate how crazy my ideas are, I started making R2D2 models with rice and glass beads before I realized nothing good would come out of it. In the end, I painted the astromech droid "bump" on the X-Wing silver and blue and called it a day.
It is unlikely that anyone else will build their kit like mine, which is kind of the point. In any event, I really enjoyed this and appreciate the work and thought you put into the project. Sadly, I was out of town the night of the big reveal but I sent my building along with a friend for its big reveal.
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