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Camron Crouse's Tydirium |
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I did make a couple modifications to the kit Tydirium: The Kit Cockpit, when viewed from the side, I felt was too
"tall", so i narrowed its vertical profile by power sanding +/- 1/8 inch from the bottom of the upper cockpit part. the result is a narrower-angle "wedge" shape in the nose, Which I believe more closely matches the photos of the studio model in the "Lucasfilm Archives" book I had used as reference.
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Another nifty mod I made was to make the folding wings link together so that hey fold at the same time! It took me a while
to figure this out, but I ended up raiding my childhood Lego collection for the proper parts, and using half-twist looped piece of heavy drawstring, made a sort of belt-drive mechanism... Now
when you lift one wing up to landing position, the other wing moves up un unison!
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The last set of mods I made - lights! Landing lights on the bottom (as seen in
the photo on the kit box), Wingtip nav
"blinkers" (whch unfortunately quit working shortly after I finished the kit :( ) and Blue engine lights. I made the back end part removable for access to the inside of the hull for batteries - two nine-volt batteries (one each driving the engine lights and the nav lights), and four AA batts which together drive the landing lights. Yes it is a tight squeeze! All the bulbs I used were micro flashlight bulbs from Radio shack, except for the engine lights, which were old blue Christmas tree bulbs. The back piece I carefully cut out openings for the engines and fixed drafting paper into it, so as to scatter the light from the cheesy christmas-bulb effect.
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The rest of the assembly was pretty much standard, but I constructed in "gear-up" mode, and I did add a few "guts
on the
outside" parts, particularly in the leading edge wing channels. I airbrushed the entire model flat light grey using Testors Enamels (except for the clear canopy, which was painted black from the inside), then, after drying thoroughly, went crazy with little rectangles of masking tape all over the model. Next I applied a clear "Satin Kote" spray over the entire model for a light-cathing gleam. When that Dried I pulled off all the masking tape squares... "Cool now it has paneling!"
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Almost last, I airbrushed tiny, diffuse bursts of black paint where I wanted weathering to appear, then took a thinner-soaked
tissue and streaked the black along the wings, hull, and cockpit. The black soaked into and adhered to the maksked-off panels very easily, but did not do so as well on the satin-koated
portions, so the effect of
paneling is somewhat exaggerated, but in all I think it makes for a believable "heavy-duty use" shuttle, though perhaps not the one we saw the rebels use in "Return of the Jedi". the very last thing i did was minute detaling (blasters, hatches, etc. and very tiny amounts of rust in those weathered crevices).
Well, here it is, I hope you enjoy!
-- Camron Crouse
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