Camron Crouse’s Tydirium updated
2011 Update: I constructed this AMT/Ertl Return of the Jedi Tydirium Shuttle model kit in 1995, several years before white (and even blue) LEDs were available to hobbyists, and is the reason why I used incandescent filament bulbs for the model’s illumination as described below. I still have this model to this day. It is generally in good shape except for the delicate wing blasters, which have not survived well through several household moves. Perhaps one day I will actually have the time to retrofit the illumination system to a modern LED system and upgrade the blaster tips to metal rod or some other more-durable material than the easily-broken kit plastic.
The original write-up from September 1999 appears as follows (with typos corrected and edited for clarity) :
I made a couple modifications to the Tydirium kit. First, the kit cockpit, when viewed from the side, I felt was too tall. I narrowed its vertical profile by power sanding approximately1/8 inch from the bottom of the upper cockpit part. When the upper and lower parts are assembled together, the result is a narrower-angle “wedge” shape in the nose, which I believe more closely matches the shape of the nose as seen in the photos of the studio model in the “Lucasfilm Archives” book I had used as reference.
Another nifty mod I made was to make the folding wings link together so that they 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 necessary parts. Using a looped drawstring with a half-twist (resembling a figure-eight: ∞ ), I made a sort of belt-drive mechanism…. When one wing is manually lifted up to the landing position, the other wing moves up in unison.
The last set of mods I made were lights. This included landing lights on the bottom, a pair of blue engine lights, and three wingtip navigation “blinkers”, which unfortunately quit working shortly after I finished the kit . I made it such that the aft end panel is removable for access to the inside of the hull for holding several batteries: two 9V batteries (one driving the engine lights, another supplying power for the nav lights), and four AA batteries which together drive the landing lights. Yes, it is a tight squeeze! All the landing and nav lights are micro flashlight bulbs from Radio Shack. The engine lights are blue miniature incandescent Christmas tree light bulbs. To create an illuminated engine effect, I carefully cut openings for the engines in the rear cover piece and fixed translucent white frosted drafting Mylar sheet into it. The frosted sheeting helps scatter the light from the bulbs for a more-even illumination effect.
I constructed the model in “gear-up” mode, and the rest of the assembly was pretty much standard. However, I added a few “guts on the outside” detail bits, particularly in the leading edge wing channels. I airbrushed the entire model flat light grey using Testors Enamels, and after drying thoroughly, went crazy applying little rectangles of masking tape all over the model. Next I applied a clear “Satin-Kote” spray over the entire model for a light-catching gleam. After the Satin-Kote was applied I pulled off all the masking tape squares. When I saw the result of the overall satin finish combined with the masked-off flat-finish rectangles, I though to myself, “Cool, now it has paneling!” The clear canopy piece was painted black from the underside so that the glossy clear outer plastic resembled shiny glass.
To finish the model, I airbrushed tiny, diffuse bursts of black paint where I wanted weathering to appear, then used a tissue soaked with paint thinner to streak the black along the wings, hull, and nose. The black weathering soaked into and adhered to the bare flat-paint panels that had once been masked off very easily, but did not do so as prominently on the satin-finished areas. Therefore 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 exact one we saw in the “Return of the Jedi” film. The very last thing I did was minute paint detailing – blasters, hatches, etc. and very tiny amounts of rust coloring in those weathered crevices.
