Star Wars U Wing Part 1

So, having not built a model for sometime, I felt I needed to get back to the work bench. This time it's the U Wing. 

I hadn't planned on this model at first, but then I found a great set of paper craft plans by Papierschnitzel.  I have in the past, used paper craft as a blue print for other models such as the MAKO. The plans made for a great start on the basic shapes as I can assemble the paper version to determine how I can make them out of styrene. Next of course is on-line and book reference to get any additional help. The Rogue One Visual Guide among others is very helpful. 

I scanned the image below and had it printed to the size of my model, approx. 24 inches long. It was used along with the paper craft to make a wood template.

This image was also used with carbon paper to transfer the panel lines onto the styrene parts that make up the top and bottom of the wings.
















The wings are made of three layers, a 2mm core and a 1mm top layer and 1mm bottom layer. The core is set back about 4mm from the edge. In this image I already used the template to cut the larger top and bottom layers (I made 4, twice what I needed, and good thing too. I'll explain later). The template is made by carefully tracing the shape onto a piece of MDF, then nailing strips of MDF on the inside of the line. Then using a bandsaw to roughcut, and a trim router to clean it up.

In these images I just cut the template back the 4mm to cut the core layers. The rough cut styrene is attached with strips of double sided tape. The router cut very nicely, I thought it would melt, but it didn't.

Next step was to determine how to make the body of the ship. I was finding something strange happening with the side window panel on the upper portion. It was twisted or something, It seems easy but it wasn't. So I made the paper version, then a card stock version, which helped me determine that the bottom edge of that panel has to have a slight curve in it. I did the same with the bottom section. 

 I began by building the bottom section out of styrene, which worked out quite well.The underside section shown up-side down. 

The inside is not fancy, I don't plan on building an interior. I added lots of bracing, especially at the corners. I don't want any seams coming apart.











Now, remember I told you I was glad I made extras? Well after just a few days the front tips of the wings began to sag under the weight, styrene is not very stiff. So I cut a new core of 2mm aluminum the same way I made the original. So now I have to re-scribe all the panel lines, make the two side vents and decide how to permanently glue the three layers together. It may be contact cement, which has it's own risks. I'll let you know how that went next time. 

Click here to go to part 2