So first thing to do is to start working out the design of the cockpit. The crazy thing is that there is actually very little reference out there for the cockpit of an x-wing. Despite the popularity of Starwars and all the hundreds of books and websites that go into so much detail about the ships in the Starwars universe, there isn't much in the way of photos and plans of an X-wing cockpit.
I thought I would have some luck with the scale modelling guys, they go into crazy amounts of detail and go to great lengths to make sure that they capture everything in a model. Only one problem...The actual models used in the filming of Starwars have completely different cockpits to the live set that were built. Most of the models match the filming models rather than the sets.
I knew early on that my cockpit was going to match the live ones. You never really see the inside in the model shots and I really want to match the famous shots from the first film.
"Look at the size of that thing... Cut the chatter Red 2!"
I assumed that plans would exist, either the originals ones or fan made ones, unfortunately I haven't been able to find any. I found a rather interesting forum where someone had actually contacted the person who owned the company who made the live action full scale x-wing props for the first film. Unfortunately the plans no longer exist, although the original contract does, that describes some of the specifications of what was to be built and the budget. The scale models were built first by ILM in the US and then one was sent over to the UK for reference for the full scale prop. They did a pretty good job of it, although for some reason the cockpit is a different design.
Rare photo of the cockpit scenes being filmed.
Unfortunately I have never scene a photo of the front section of the cockpit which would be more useful for me. I have seen a pair of photos for the front and back sections of the Y-Wing cockpit. I initially considered building a Y-Wing instead as I though it would be easier, however I changed my mind when I realized that the curve in the canopy would be a nightmare to reproduce. The glass (or perspex) in the XWing canopy is all nice and straight.
So really, the only reference I have is from the films themselves. The actual screen-time between all 3 films is extremely minimal. It wasn't long before I realized that there are big differences between the films.
Comparison between the 3 films
Actually, I'm probably not going to worry about building the section behind the pilot that's in these pictures as its something you will never see looking forwards. However the picture does shows the differences in design nicely.
Here's some screenshots I took from the films...
This is the cockpit of the full size x-wing, look closely and you will see even on
this the details don't exactly match the point of view close-up small
section of cockpit was built separately just for those shots.
Empire cockpit. The area to the sides has changed quite a bit from ep4
I was lucky to find this, a continuity polaroid from Return of the Jedi
that was being sold on an auction website.
So that gave me another decision to make, which cockpit to build.... The original one of course! The one from Episode 4. This is the cockpit that gets the most screen time of any of the films, during the attack on the DeathStar. It was watching that amazing scene as a child that's caused me to do this whole bloody thing in the first place. (I had to stop myself there from going on a CG vs practical models rant)
Although the lack of reference seemed like a big problem at first, I've realized that in the end its a blessing in disguise. It gives me room to add to the design myself. And also, if I make the whole thing completely inaccurate then no one can ever prove it wrong, even the scale modellers.
Although reference is minimal, there is some interesting stuff from various books. Whether or not the artists of the books have access to better resources than me I don't know. But I do suspect there is an large amount of artistic licence involved.
This is from the book "Starwars Blueprints: Rebel Edition"
Very nice, they attempt to list what the functions are,
although my layout will probably be slightly different.
This is from one of the DK Cross Sections books. Doesn't
help me a huge amount but its a bloody great picture.
Construction
First Drawing of the control panel
The way to tackle any large project is to split it into a smaller task rather than to worry about everything at once. My starting point is the main control panel. Even if I only ever build this and never finish the rest, its a nice piece to have and can sit on the desk in front of me whilst playing X-Wing Alliance. My plan is to make it into a PC controller. If I can make it emulate keyboard controls then the switches and buttons can control the functions in the game such as shields/lasers/sfoils.
This is the stage where I have to roughly work out what buttons will go where. Like I said in my last post, there are 2 aims, one to play the x-wing series of games, and one to make a new simulator from scratch. This can have far more controls and functions then the very basic controls in the original games. I have been looking at the original cockpit and trying work out what the buttons and lights all mean...
Ok when you start looking at something that closely, the flaws in the design start to show up. So I will have to modify the design a bit to make this work. Its quite funny really, I do wonder what the person who designed the original control panel would make of all this. For them it was just another job, no one expected Starwars to have any success, in fact most people working on it thought it was a load of old rubbish. There they were just putting a few flashing lights here and there, just trying to make it look cool. 36 years later, here I am trying to work out what button does what. Bet they didn't think that would happen...
Next I built a small 1/6th scale cardboard model of the control panel. The triangular shapes are quite complicated to work out the dimensions for, so a small model was the best way to work that out.
I decided to build the control panel out of 6mm MDF. I cut out the pieces with a jigsaw. I totally cocked up on the main piece and cut the top edge at a wonky angle which you can see in the right image below. I'm leaving it for now and will sort it later, with filler or something.
These are the holes where a small screen with go
behind for the targeting computer and display.
The angles of the triangle pieces was a bugger to get right. I haven't got it perfect but close enough that it all fits together. I filed the edges at an angle so that it all fits without wide gaps. For now it is all screwed together as it important that I can take it apart at this stage. You can see the screws on the outside but the plan is to eventually glue it all together and fill the holes and all the edges.
This is where its currently at.
Lots of holes drilled for LEDs and switches.
So its definitely getting there, and its starting to look a bit like a cockpit. Next step will be to start playing with some electronics. Thanks for reading...
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