U-Wing

[Sturm86]

When the display recycled-cardboard ship that's supposed to go to the trash after 3 weeks looks better and is more accurate than the $50 official toy.

About 3D scanning and printing, maybe scanning the Revell model kit would give a better result as its proportions are more accurate and you can completely disassemble it.

 

[Caas_Sandhri]

About 3D scanning and printing, maybe scanning the Revell model kit would give a better result as its proportions are more accurate and you can completely disassemble it.

Right, but the thickness of the walls and the stability of the joints are made for a small ship only. If you resize that with no adaption, the weight is growing with the third power, the thickness only with the first (lineary). The wings will not hold (unless you glue them in the front position, where they are stabilized by the rump).

 

[Caas_Sandhri]

Well, if you lose a wing in a space battle, looks like you're not landing! lol

if you lose a wing, the landing may be somewhat abrupt anyway...

But the construction is just as logical as the X-Wing's ability to fold the landing gear into the engine housing (no, it's not folding into the boxes at the sides of the engine), as if there is nothing else in that housing, like, uh, for example an engine. Or the astromechs in the Jedi starfighters.

Magic folding tricks. Work since 1977.

 

[Sturm86]

Right, but the thickness of the walls and the stability of the joints are made for a small ship only. If you resize that with no adaption, the weight is growing with the third power, the thickness only with the first (lineary). The wings will not hold (unless you glue them in the front position, where they are stabilized by the rump).

Yeah I think a kind of cage or frame one the inside of the walls to hold the thing together would be needed, and maybe a few screws here and there. All of this would have to be planned before 3D printing the parts.

 

[DonWanKihotay]

This firm did the control panel designs in Rogue One. Note this close-up of the U-Wing flight controls and cockpit.

http://www.blindltd.com/rogue-one

Nice details, thanks for the link!

 

[DonWanKihotay]

Mocked this together with pizza boxes and Amazon shipping boxes. I scaled up 250% the plans for the 30 mm paper craft model, used as a template. This shows how large the U-Wing for the 3.75" figures would be had Hasbro scaled it closer to 1:20.

....

Wow that's terrific, please keep us posted as it progresses, admirable work!

 

[DonWanKihotay]

Here is yet another's \ take on one? - https://twitter.com/brandonrflores/status/784460262417965058

Scale?

 

[Lance_Quazar]

I think it's very possible Hasbro would have given us at least a slightly bigger version (not, of course, close to these models) had it not been for the ship's ridiculously large wing design.

Even in the puny version they made, the wings are huge and unwieldy. Anything more would have been too impractical.

 

[Julythrunov]

Hi, I have both a 3D scanner and two 3D printers. I'm going to keep this brief as last time I went into detail about 3D scanning and printing in the same context it's being discussed here GNT shut the convo down as he felt it was inappropriate for the thread because it's off topic.

You can scan the parts of the Hasbro toy and enlarge them but the problem you will run into is the sharpness of the scan. As correctly mentioned above, aside from the very expensive industry quality scanners, most consumer level scanners will have a difficult time with the straight lines and edges of the u wing. I have an isense scanner and it captures organic shapes incredibly, however when it comes to mechanical shapes it fails. Again this not the case with the industry level stuff Hasbro uses but these machines costs tens of thousands of dollars. As mentioned above you best bet would be to design the u-wing digitally and print it in pieces and then assemble it like this:

http://www.gambody.com/3d-models/atat-star-wars


Im going to stop here before gnt suspends my account for going off topic.

 

[DonWanKihotay]

I think it's very possible Hasbro would have given us at least a slightly bigger version (not, of course, close to these models) had it not been for the ship's ridiculously large wing design.

Even in the puny version they made, the wings are huge and unwieldy. Anything more would have been too impractical.

I don't know, if you look at the the way it's packaged in the box, (and as I understand it, the toy has to conform to a pre-determined box size) in the same box they still have room to expand the ships size about 2" to 3" in all directions.

The way the wings are broken down they could have packed them on the diagonal, expanded them those same 2" to 3".
Upping the scale evenly throughout, those same 2" to 3" would have easily allowed a proper two-seater cockpit. And also would have allowed for a working troop-cargo area, where at least a couple of Rebels (a gunner) could have sat at an opening cargo-bay.

Of course all that legit detail would have upped the tooling cost of the toy.
No, what they went for here was not to capture any authentic detail or function, but a a Nerf gimmick. The size of the wings had nothing to do with it.
The Nerf pretty much ruled out the cargo area, and detail, once that was gone, scale and any interior detail mattered little, to where they could just turn it into a one-man fighter, sitting on a Nerf gun.

 

[coeli]

Grabbed another one yesterday for $21 at Walmart!

 

[Masterfett]

Man that's a lot of empty space! Talk about waste...

 

[soulydyes]

I'd like to end-up with a few of these once they hit clearance in my neck of the woods : )

 

[Whills_Scholar]

Cardboard U-wing in 1/18 scale progress

Update on my attempt to build a U-wing toy out of cardboard in the proper scale of the 3.75" figures:


* I took the plans for the 30mm U-wing papercraft model, and scaled the major parts of the ship's body up 250%, printed them onto paper, and cut them out to use as templates for cutting pieces out of cardboard.


* The type of cardboard used: pizza boxes, and shipping boxes which are thicker.


* Everything is held together temporarily with tape.


* Eventually I hope to remove all the tape, glue everything together, fill in and shape joined sections and exposed cardboard edges with modeling putty. Then prime and apply brush paint.


* I'm going for a Hasbro Star Wars vehicle toy aesthetic, both outside and inside. This isn't meant to look realistic, like a model. So I've been studying photos (on Rebelscum) of various large Star Wars starships that Hasbro have released in recent years. In particular, the many Clone Wars ships have been most interesting and inspirational for me to study, especially the Republic Gunship.


* Keeping things simple and toy-ish, I plan to use the same limited color palette of the official Hasbro U-wing vehicle for 3.75" figs: white, gray, black, blue and yellow.


* The wings are in scale. To try to maintain rigidity and mitigate their weight, they consist of three layers of cardboard starting from the sides of the U-wing main body, then to two layers, and one layer at the tip. However, the wings still weigh heavily, tipping the vehicle toward its front, and putting strain on the main body of the ship. I may need to compromise and shorten the ends, just as Hasbro did with their versiom of the U-wing for 3.75" figs. The weight of the engines could counterbalance this. But again, weight from the wings and the engines could put too much strain on the main body.


* I do plan to make the wings swing back, and I modified the original papercraft model plans to accomodate some kind of mechanism for this, which could simply be a wide nut, bolt and washers. (The wings of the original paper model do not move at all.) The problem/challenge to figure out is going to be the weight of the wings.


* I plan to release more photos showing step-by-step details of the build process (e.g. the measurements), sometime after I've built the engines and figured out how to make the wings swing stably. I want to put this information online so others can make their own 1/18 scale U-wing.

 

[Whills_Scholar]

Cardboard U-wing in 1/18 scale -- engines WIP

The original plans for the papercraft model have plans for building the U-wing engines out of paper. Since it's difficult to construct stable and proper looking cylinders from cardboard, especially at a larger scale size, I did some hunting for food container shapes while grocery shopping...


It turns out a large plastic peanut butter jar is the exact diameter and nearly the same height as the main engine cylinder. And this plastic yogurt container is very close to the middle part of the engine. A glass shot glass completes the end -- so I am looking for a paper cup or plastic shot glass of the same measurements.

 

[Julythrunov]

Beautiful, keep us posted and thanks this is awesome and inspiring.

 

[VideoViper]

mc escher would be proud.

Nice Job.

 

[Cyko_Droid]

Grabbed another one yesterday for $21 at Walmart!

I'll have to keep watch. Wouldn't mind the small size at that price.

 

[Strobeeone]

I'll have to keep watch. Wouldn't mind the small size at that price.

I got one on clearance for the same price yesterday.

If you go to the brickseek WM inventory site,
lookup 49802129 and your zip code,

it will show what stores near you have it, and the price at each store.

 

[coeli]

First Homer flew a Gunship in AOTC's and now Bart is flying a U wing in Rogue One!

 

[Coreworld]

Came across this on e-bay (UK seller) toying with getting it to display mine. If you look at his other items for sale, he has some pretty cool LED display backdrops.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-x-Acryl...231316?hash=item1ebfb381d4:g:Qf0AAOSw5cNYettF

 

[Falcon_Gunner]

Have a question for you guys about the U-Wing.

I just bought one today and startled assembling the 4 engines.

All of them snapped together well except for one where it wont snap together properly.

There's a bit of a gap showing and no matter how much I press it down it wont snap **** properly.

Anyone else have this problem on their U-Wings? :\

 

[Falcon_Gunner]

*Started, not startled.

Damnu no edit feature! :twisted:

 

[Maleval]

.
Anyone else have this problem on their U-Wings? :\

The same thing with mine,
and here have it also )
http://www.rebelscum.com/Hasbro-Sta...ighter-rogue-one-star-wars-hasbro/IMAGE15.asp

 

[Falcon_Gunner]

The same thing with mine,
and here have it also )
http://www.rebelscum.com/Hasbro-Sta...ighter-rogue-one-star-wars-hasbro/IMAGE15.asp

Oh, so it must be a common problem then?

Just so annoying that I have managed to get 3 out of the 4 engines to snap together properly but one wont. :'(

 

[Coreworld]

Oh, so it must be a common problem then?

Just so annoying that I have managed to get 3 out of the 4 engines to snap together properly but one wont. :'(

Same thing happened to me, I got so annoyed with it, I put extra force and it clicked into place, you just need to persevere, it will go.

 

[Whills_Scholar]

Update on my build of a 1:18 scale U-wing toy:

* For the four main engine housings, I originally looked into 28 oz. plastic peanut butter jars. But peanut butter can be expensive -- about $4 for one. And the jars are made of a hard plastic that I found difficult, if not impossible, to safely cut with a utility knife.

Fortunately I found a much, much cheaper solution: salt containers. They are made of cardstock and cost less than 60 cents. They are slightly narrower in diameter than what these engine housings should be at 1:18 scale (about 8.7 cm), but wrapping them with three layers of cardstock expands them.

* I decided to build another U-wing from scratch. Due to me not noticing resizing inconsistencies by the two paint programs I’m using, the top half of the first U-wing I put together was not in correct scale. In fact, it was about 10+% larger than 1:18! Although the bottom half was in 1:18 scale, this threw several things off when it came to the sizing of the wings, engine mounts, and the middle layer that joined and structurally supported the top and bottom together.

Building the second, scale-corrected U-wing has gone by a lot faster, since I’ve become very familiar with how to build one at this point. And the results look far better. This also encouraged me to scrutinize and correct the templates I created (based on the plans for the 55 cm paper model).

I will post photos of this new build of the main U-wing body soon.

 

[indysolo007]

Hasbro needs to hire you as a lead engineer for these things! It's amazing watching your process.

 

[Sturm86]

This is awesome! Can't wait to see more of your build

 

[Julythrunov]

Without being too specific, does what you do for a living relate to this? Because your work is amazing.

 

[Nerdherfer]

Went to target looking for Hera's A-Wing and saw this on clearance for less than half price and they had many. TIE Strikers were still full retail and also plentiful.

 

[Trooper31]

Great work on the U-Wing so far.

 

[War_in_The_floor]

I Know it catches a lot of scale flak but this thing looks great gets the job done ... troop carrying not withstanding, and gets a TON of play at my house AND hasn't had any parts break or go AWOL so far. That is passing field qual with flying colors for a toy in my command!

 

[Whills_Scholar]

1:18 scale U-Wing UPDATE

Here it is. What’s left to be done is gluing everything down, adding finishing details, and painting.

As promised, I put together the templates I made into a package of PDFs and photos. I wanted to release these to the public before Rogue One officially comes out on disc and online later this month. You can download this package as a single zip from here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/n6j4s6jvabvrpl2/

As a bonus, this package includes a PDF to make an Imperial data drive (AKA the Death Star plans) for Jyn to carry.

To be honest, I’m so sick of looking at this ship -- because I spent a lot more time on this than I expected. LOL. I don’t know when I’ll get to gluing everything. So I look forward to seeing if others will try to build this 1:18 scale U-Wing. All put together, the ship is large: about 55 inches long (with the wings folded in), and its wingspan is 6 feet when the wings are swung back.

May the Force be with us!

 

[Whills_Scholar]

README.TXT that is included with 1:18 template ZIP

U-Wing 1:18 scale templates, version 1.0

* -- Initial credit should go to the creator of these paper models. I scaled up the major parts of the larger version to create most of these templates.

http://www.papierschnitzel.com/u-wing-transport/
info@papierschitzel.com

I made several tweaks for cardboard thickness and redesigned many of the parts, like engineering the wings to swing open. The wings of the original paper models don't move.

* -- This isn't a step-by-step. It's assumed you're familiar with using templates to cut cardboard to make models.

* -- All the templates are formatted to print on regular 8.5 x 11" paper. Any large templates that can be printed on a single sheet, or lesser number of sheets, is also provided in legal (8.5 x 14") or tabloid (11 x 17") sizes.

* -- Look through the build photos album to see how the parts that are cut from the templates are put together. This album also shows what the engine sections are made of (basically: salt container, yogurt cups, plastic mini shot glass). The photos also show how the engines and wings are bolted to the ship's main body, and changes I made to the wings' undersides to lighten their weight.

* -- The tips of the wings bow down, and much more so when the wings are swung back, unfortunately. Hasbro's designers made the wings of their U-Wing for 3.75" figures lighter by completely thinning out the wings' undersides, and shortening their lengths (by about 40%). My 1:18 scale version stays with the original paper model's wing lengths, which appear to be the original spec of the U-Wing.

TO DO:

* -- Glue everything together. Add detailing, and paint. I plan to release an update/add-on to this that shows the basic detailing pieces to add, and simple paint color scheme (it'll just be white, gray, black, blue and yellow, like Hasbro's version).

By releasing these templates, I hope this will inspire other Star Wars toy fans to build their own U-Wings properly scaled for their 3.75" figures. If you have questions or suggestions (which I may add to the update), you can email me directly.

And I'd love to see whatever things or improvements others add. For example: realistic detailing, finished out interior, play features, lights, sound (perhaps using the soundbox from the Revell model?), and, especially, strengthening the swing-wing mechanism and making the wings lighter.

Email: howardhwen@outlook.com (AKA Whills_Scholar @Rebel.com forums)

 

[Utinniii]

Thanks for sharing! You put a lot of work into this and it looks fantastic!

 

[wedgeswingman]

DO NOT DOWNLOAD. The downloader will set up a bunch of little programs on your computer. You'll have to find another way to get the PDF out there.

 

[Utinniii]

DO NOT DOWNLOAD. The downloader will set up a bunch of little programs on your computer. You'll have to find another way to get the PDF out there.

Good to know!

 

[Spassvogel]

DO NOT DOWNLOAD. The downloader will set up a bunch of little programs on your computer. You'll have to find another way to get the PDF out there.

What downloader? The link he posted has a .zip file on it that contains the PDFs. I didn't found anything weird.

 

[wedgeswingman]

What downloader? The link he posted has a .zip file on it that contains the PDFs. I didn't found anything weird.

That's not what I was getting. It told me my "software was out of date" and needed updates. Ended up putting a lot of junk pop up type apps on my computer which took me some time to get rid of. And probably some kind of virus.