by Roger Sorensen

Estes released several model rocket adaptations of spaceships from Star Wars Episode 1. Among them was a 9.5 inch-long droid starfighter in attack mode (see “before” picture). I picked them up on clearance at a KayBee toy store and put them on my “someday” pile, intending to rework them into models from the movie. This is a rebuild of the fighter into the vulture droid of Episode 3. The main reference I used is the Incredible Cross Sections book from Episode 1. Frame-grabs from Episode 1 and Episode 3 provided additional material.

Disassembly:

With razor saw, I cut away the four wing / leg pieces and the “head,” then trimmed away the four body panels which, when closed, cover the leg struts. I used Dremel tools, files, and sandpaper to clean excess material away from the inside surfaces of the four panels and to open the “eyes.”

Head:

I reshaped the nose using sheet styrene and green putty to give it the correct squarish contour. The eyes are a clear resin casting painted a mix of Tamiya transparent red with a bit of Acryl pearl white. I scored the castings slightly to let more light through in the brighter forward area. Two white LEDS inside the head illuminate the eyes and are powered by 3 lithium coin batteries in series (9 volts).

I covered the bottom of the head with sheet styrene formed to a compound curve, made by stretching heated sheet over a suitably-shaped bottle. I added sheet pieces and parts box pieces to detail out the area where the neck attaches. I used strip styrene to build out the head's side-aft flanges so they have a more rounded contour, drilled out the inside of the flange and installed small bits of 1/16” aluminum tubing for detail.

Neck:

I made the neck from 0.06” and 0.1”sheet styrene cut to shape and detailed with other styrene stock.

Body:

I made an RTV mold off the bottom of the head, a resin interpositive, and finally a resin negative piece which matched the contour of the bottom of the head. I trimmed it to fit and glued it in place. I bored out recesses in the piece to (theoretically) accommodate the neck when the droid head is retracted. I lined and detailed the insides of the leg strut bays and panels using sheet and strip stock. More bits from the spares box serve as panel hinges.

Legs & Struts:

The leg struts are spare landing gear and various other parts-box pieces & sheet styrene. Once I had parts for one strut, I made an RTV mold and cast the struts used on the model out of urethane resin reinforced with wire.

The legs from the starfighter were lacking in detail and were too thin. I removed the walking claws so they could be detailed and placed in proper walk-mode position. The existing claw actuator detail was way underscale, so I replaced them with parts made from sheet & rod styrene, small springs, metal wire, and parts box pieces. I built out the inboard surface and edges of the legs with sheet and strip styrene to the proper thickness, detailed to match that shown in the cross-sections book.

On the outboard surface, I used strip styrene & putty to build out the set of small flanges. I added the cone-shaped laser muzzles using styrene rod which I had turned using my Dremel as a mini-lathe and an X-acto knife as a shaping tool.

Painting & Detailing:

Most of the painting is Model Master enamels and Metallizers. I masked off the various areas with blue painter's tape prior to airbrushing. The overall color of the body, head, and legs is neutral gray. Detail panels and markings are dark ghost gray, F-15 gray, darker mixes of F-15 gray/black. I used Blue Angel blue and 1:1 camo gray/white for the bar & triangle markings. The “shadow bars” are Tamiya smoke acrylic. The walking claws and laser cannon areas are gunmetal. The leg struts are stainless steel, black, and neutral gray.

The “Captain Droid” body marking hexagons are ALPS-printed decals. Weathering is a variety of techniques – mostly X-acto scraping, pastel dusting, airbrush misting, & black acrylic washes.

Final Assembly:

With all parts finished, the only remaining task was to put it all together. The head-bone cemented to the neck-bone; the neck-bone cemented to the body-bone... Likewise, I cemented the body panels and leg struts in place. The final step was to attach the legs. I built a cardboard jig to hold the body in its “standard” walk-mode position, canted at a 20° angle with the front lip about 5” above base. I then positioned the legs and used balsa wood & Sculpey for supports to hold the legs in position. Finally, I cemented the legs to the struts, and... finís!

Image: Starting point

Image: Closeup

Image: Claw detail

Image: Eyes

Image: Left side view

Image: Inboard leg detail

Image: Right side

Image: Looking down