Rescaled (1:50) Paper-Replika Snowspeeder

[Tirick]

I have a great fondness for the Snowspeeder; with a fondness second only the Falcon, it is one of my favorite Star Wars ships. Small, compact, and indelibly marked in my 6 year old memory along with the towering AT-AT's and Luke's frightful leap from the ruins of his.

It was in fact the first paper model I'd designed myself. Scaled then in fairly close approximation of 1:50, planned and measured manually in Visio and Photoshop, and designed to compliment the impending release of the AT-AT gaming piece from WotC several years ago. I'd avoided an interior, partly due to my lack of skill, and partly because I knew I could not (at the time) do justice to the figures inside. I've always kept in the back of my mind a plan to redo the Snowspeeder entirely, with 3d software, better detailing, and a full interior. I'd waited, mostly as I did not have a design for the figures, a fact that eluded me until most recently.

Of course, with Jules' newest release, I am freed of the burden of designing a Snowspeeder myself. You can see my original design in the pictures below, but it will pale next to his brilliant model. He's designed it in 1:20, but as I like all of my models in the same scale, I've reduced it to 1:50.

I've begun the process of assembly, and will over the next few weeks post progress shots. I'll not consider it 'complete' until I have pilots for it, the progress of which will be contained herein as well. I'll be using my latest design, applied to the ARC-Pilots, which is a posable paper miniature in 1:50. I am very nearly done the release of the ARC Pilots, just completing the textures and final test-print, which can be followed in a separate thread.

My original Snowspeeder

A shot of the cockpit assembly (sans seats) next to my final ARC prototype:

Shot 1

Shot 2

The cockpit assembly, again, without the 'seats', with my first prototype ARC Pilot in the pilot position. I had to remove his feet to get him to fit, as the cockpit was designed 'flat' behind the panel. I was concerned at first that I'd mucked up the scale, but after looking at production shots, it is pretty clear they used a shoehorn to put pilots into the cockpit, I think it will fit without too much finagling. I intend to assemble the canopy this afternoon, which will be the final proof of fit.

Shot 1

Shot 2

Sample of Cockpit Shoehorn fit from side, courtesy of Starship modeller):

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/starwars/jb_sspdr2.jpg

Enjoy!
Sean

[Tirick]

Spent a few hours putting some more sections together. After build up, I have some fairly obvious scaling conflicts with my 1:50 protagonist. I'm not certain the source, either a measurement conflict (the speeder is supposed to be 5.3 meters long, but measured from where?) or a scaling error. with both equally possible, I will have to wait until the entire assembly is complete, and either build a second larger one, or rescale my figures to suit this model. Knowing me, I'll likely make a second one, fudging the scaling to suit at need.

Jules' model fits up really well I must say; even with paper (I assume he designed such a large model for cardstock) the fit is clean.

Canopy dry-fit

Wing braces in place

With canopy

Canopy with obvious scaling conflict

Another angle

Top down measurement.

The whole assembly is about 7 cm long at this point, to scale about 3.5m. I can see at least another 2 cm with engines and leading edge, maybe even more. With weapon tips, that could easily add another cm + half, bringing the assembly to 10.6 cm, which is right to scale. I suspect however, that the 5.3 m measurement is sans weapon tips, but I'll have to see. If the whole assembly only comes to 9.5 or so, I'll know if the rescaling of the images failed.

Sean

[bigfan321]

wow, Tirick, your miniaturization is absolutely fantastic. I wouldn't even Dream of making somthing only about the area of my palm out of regular printer paper.
EDIT
Looks like your paper pilot's a Little too big to fit, maybe place a pilot in it, all hunched over, top not placed and call it a "clownspeeder"

[Millenniumfalsehood]

This was a problem with the original Snowspeeder design, and in fact, you can see a *very* large metal box which is totally inconsistent with the filming miniature coming out of the bottom of the ship when it lifts off in TESB. That was the only way they could fit pilots into it.

[Tirick]

I suspect very strongly that you are right, Millenniumfalsehood. I imagine that I'll have to build 1/2 pilots (no lower legs) and slouch them a little to get them to fit.

At any rate, I've assembled the wings, which were not so fun. Rescaled they are approximately 1 mm wide, something very hard to keep flat. In retrospect I should probably have put some cardstock in between the layers, but perhaps for the next build (if I do). As you can see from one of the pictures, the wing - Leading Edge to Trailing Edge - is 9 cm or so long, which strongly supports to first of the only two available measurements: 4.5 meters for an 'unmodified' T47. I assume unmodified means no guns, but that's impossible to confirm.

I've cut out the laser and power coupling sections, just taking a break to assemble. With over 100 components, this is a monster kit, but already clearly worth the effort.

Hinged canopy; I plan to assemble with only the gunner actually glued in place. I hope to leave the pilot seat empty for future wargaming needs.

9 cm measurement

A few shots with the wings attached (note the canopy is still only loosely fitted):

Shot 1

Shot 2

Shot 3

Enjoy!
Sean

[Tirick]

After about 4 hours, between cutting, folding and gluing, I have the gun assemblies complete. Laminate paneling is not done yet, so it is a little bare looking, but the shape is there and the detailing on Jules' design is apparent. I only had a few problems with fit up, most due to the wings, which did not assemble perfectly flat (due to my own lack of skill and foresight). Had they done so, I doubt there would have been any issues at all. I did omit a number of parts, mostly the ring bits capping the laminate cylinders that make up the assembly, particularly on the barrel. Someone building at full scale would probably have left them in, but at my scale it is hardly noticeable.

Starting the assembly

All the bits

Buildup of the couplings:

Shot 1

Shot 2

Guns in place:

Shot 1

Shot 2

For those of you who have built my 1:52 Snowspeeder, here are some comparison shots, showing the massive difference in detail and general part fitup. Jules' model is quite well done; it puts my efforts a few years ago to shame.

A bit washed out, but top down showing size difference

From Port

From Starboard


Overall length is getting closer to the 10.6 required, no doubt with the thrusters in place it will easily be exact to stated scales.

Enjoy!
Sean

[Fargo]

hey Sean great work so far!!! but...

Originally Posted by Tirick

I suspect very strongly that you are right, Millenniumfalsehood. I imagine that I'll have to build 1/2 pilots (no lower legs) and slouch them a little to get them to fit.

hmm... well... I don't think it would be necessary. let this pic speak for me:



basically, this is my "superpostponed" Snowspeeder (to a remote future time in my life when I'll have some spare time to assemble it ) or, better, a half of it...
years ago, when I used to work whit plastic, I got this idea to realize models using this scale reference => 1 m in the real fighter/ship = 1 inch in leght for the model; so, this one would be 5.3 m in reality (measured sans weapons tips ), therefore my model is 5.3 inches. as you can see, those pitiful red guys inside are perfectly sat on their seats WITH their legs on :D and, as I chose myself as reference for human pilots, those are 1.8 m/1.8 inches (ok, the rear one needs to change the angulation of the knees, but there's empty space enough for him).
if you ask me how I'm so sure about the real snowspeeder measure without counting the guns, well, it's beacuse for my 3d model I used all the reference pictures I could find online even for the seats (also used the old MPC kit instruction sheet!) AND I tried to put a single seat with just one pilot in my Y-Wing cockpit (16 meters long, so 16 inches the model)... result: it fits in the same way, considering that the original sketch wanted the snowspeeder to be the cockpit of the y-wing

[Tirick]

I certainly agree that a snowspeeder can be made to fit pilots; for the scaling doubts cast long shadows. If I'd build up mine (as marksolo has done) with an interior, I would be unsurprised to find that my pilots fit just fine into it.

That said, your pilots shown in your screen shot are quite smaller, relatively, than those used in the model (and would as well in my example if I used my stock speeder). The pilots' shoulders in the model are just below the window-line, and their heads (with helmet) consume nearly the entire canopy envelop (height). My pilots heads' nearly exactly match that evidence without modification (leading me to believe the scale is correct), but compared to the remaining room in the cockpit, there is little option but to truncate the legs.

I've run into similar problems when I was examining the potential for a Falcon interior, and I am frankly not really surprised. Model makers, while very talented, are not design engineers, and form rules over fit.

Of course, opinions will vary wildly, and mine by no means is different. For my build up, I will likely try to present pilots in the 1:50 scale and see how close I can get to the model shots. If that means sacrificing lower legs, so be it.

Scale discussions are always such fun!
Sean

[bigfan321]

wow, I'd never think ILM's scale modeling dept. would cheat in their shots of the miniatures.

[legion]

I guess you never noticed the stormtrooper figure in the Super Star Destroyer kibble either!