diy star wars x-wing ornament

This year I have been fighting for ideas and what to do for the annual decorations gifts. Backstory -
Every year I make a beautiful decoration for the children.
They started collecting the heirheir decorations that I hope they like in the next few years.
The first thing was to ask me what to do and I told him I didn\'t know and needed inspiration so he suggested X-
Wing fighter: they may attack last year\'s dead star, which is much cooler than the yellow submarine of the dead star currently hanging on the tree. Duh. . . sold.
The design in my head is to use a cigar tube (
I used to decorate the plane with it.
Parts of the old pen and other bits and pieces.
After swearing it would be easy this year, I decided to play with the fiber. . .
Would it be cool to let the laser shoot out of the gun, etc. , etc.
This effectively turns a simple model into a somewhat complex prototype that uses a lot of design techniques, the entire table, the patience of the spouse, and more time I originally expected.
I always wanted to try some techniques like mold
Manufacturing/casting, optical fiber, etc.
This project will give me the chance to try something new so I\'m excited.
What you need: Tools: 1.
Cut the bottom of the cigar tube with the box cutter.
With the new blade it will be easy to cut.
The bottom part looks like Star Wars.
Y, so I think it might have to be X-
Wing power system or something.
I then flatten the cutting edge on the tube with a small needle nose clamp and curl on the circumference. 2.
Polish the tube to the metal to provide a solid and clean working surface for the epoxy. 3.
Draw a circle around the tube with a pencil, only half the distance from the nose.
Then mark the cutting line.
As we go, we are reducing the diameter of the nose, so we need to cut the long thin triangle and stick the two sides together.
I made 4 thin triangles that were evenly distributed around the tube.
Cut the triangle now.
I use my fishkars shop scissors and they work very well. 4.
Now stick your nose together with epoxy resin.
Everything I have is brown, so I use brown.
Epoxy is epoxy, even if I say it\'s wood. . .
I have to paint anyway.
Tip: wipe the area with alcohol first to make it clean and tidy, and a strong epoxy bond should be created with bare metal.
I cut a small rubber the size of my new nose and stuck it to my nose with tape.
The epoxy resin is then applied to the internal joint using a bamboo skewer to ensure some penetration to the outside.
About 3/4 walk to the nose
Once cured, we will end from the other end. 5.
When setting the epoxy, remove the rubber end cap and tape, fix the nose together with a rubber band and finish the bonding through the small nostrils.
I want to separate the back of the body, part for the look, part for later adaptation to the LED lights, I found and liberated it from the LED wristband I bought in the dollar store.
I hope that there is no need to disassemble the LED lighting unit, which looks appropriate.
No, so I had to improvise. 1.
Find something with a flat metal surface and hammer it gently (
More of a faucet, really)
Come out from the back of the body and turn to form each side.
I used a masonry chisel on the hammer, but I guess a flat strip will work as long as it doesn\'t exceed the shape you want. 1.
Scrap metal plate.
I have some samples of old metal siding, they are aluminum and they are great.
Any scrap thin metal sheet will do this, but since the cigar tube body is aluminum, it helps the Wings stay the same, otherwise different metals will be corroded at the connection. 2.
Make a cardboard template in the shape of the wing.
I estimate the size by looking at the other X.
Wings on the Internet.
Draw the shape on the metal sheet with a pencil and cut it off with tin.
Repeat 3 times to get 4 wings. 3.
Spread all the wings on the metal. 4.
Stick the first pair of wings to the body with epoxy resin.
I made a drilling rig with modeling clay and fixed them in the proper position when the epoxy device.
I saw more X.
Photos of the wings at the \"attack position\" angle between each pair are online. . .
I estimate less than 45 degrees but more than 30.
These wings won\'t hinge.
Maybe the upgrade idea of 2. 0?
Clean the surface with alcohol before applying epoxy. 5.
Once the first pair of epoxy resin is cured, repeat for the next pair.
I measured the tip distance. to-
The tip between the first pair of wings and make sure that the second pair of wings is the same-
Keep the right distance with a roll of clay. 6.
Once everything is cured, polish the epoxy weld.
I wrapped the sandpaper around a thin stake between the wings. The X-
The wing has a fixed nose cone, so I thought I would make a model of the nose cone with clay, then cast it with Bondo and polish it smooth.
It\'s fun to try new technology, faster than building the Bondo layer and trying to shape it.
I know there\'s a simpler way to do this.
Sugru or something like that will be a step-by-step process, but I stick to what I have and want to explore molding/casting. Here goes:1.
With clay and sharp knives (
I use a box knife blade)
Make the nose cone on the nose fashionable. 2.
Cut a small piece of 3/4 PVC pipe to hold the silicone mold (
Or use something else that can hold it)
Take the silicone tube, corn starch, and the stirring paddle.
You can read a very good article on silicone molding (
Unfortunately the hot link feature doesn\'t work for me or I will add it here but you can search for it)
But basically, add corn starch (
I used 1 corn starch to 4 silica gel, roughly)
Silicone to 100% (Type I.
Class II does not work)
It allows you to form under any thickness and quickly solidify in less than an hour.
A perfect reproduction of a very fast process. 3.
Mix the silica gel with corn starch and stir violently until it is evenly mixed.
It gives off a heavy acetic acid flavor, so it\'s better to do it outside.
Load it into the PVC pipe section, flatten/iron the top, then stick the nose cone to the top and iron/flatten around it until the silicone is set, which should not be very long. 4.
When the silicone is fully solidified, pull the main body down and then push out the silicone mold from the PVC pipe housing.
It will be good rubber, will deform when you push it out, will also pop up the clay nose cone and go back to its shape like a cylinder, perfectly indented the shape of the nose cone. 5.
Mix a small amount of Bondo (
Or maybe epoxy)
, Push it into the mold and stick it to X-
Wing, let it set.
Once set off, out will pop up a perfect replica of the clay nose cone, securely attached to the tube body and ready to Polish/paint.
For the gun on the outer wing, I use the head on the rivet and Q-
Tips for barrels. The Q-
The tip barrel is plastic and hollow
Hopefully my plan to transfer the fiber to the barrel will work and we will send out a red laser in the optical system of the barrel. 1.
Get some rivets.
I use a long head. it fits well.
Alternatively, I can use one of several plastic plug-ins in the pen mechanism, but I prefer the look of the aluminum rivet head.
I hold the main body of the rivet with pliers, knock out the nail on each rivet and keep the hollow head. 2.
Stick the rivet head to the edge of the wing with epoxy resin.
When the epoxy is cured, I fix them in place with a small clip.
Oh, I grind sand on the underside of the rivet and wash it with alcohol to get a strong bond. 3.
Take off cotton wool and fit Q-
Insert the tip into the rivet body.
Looks like an X at first. wing.
Gently polish the Q tip so the paint can stick to it better.
The goal is to have the red \"laser\" beam coming out of the wing gun, plus the red light at the back of the engine.
I ordered some fibers of different thickness from the fiber store.
There\'s a little extra to play.
There are also some \"side glow\" fibers (
It glows along the entire length, not the \"end glow\" that glows from the end of the fiber \")
, But don\'t think I will use it in this project.
I ended up getting fiber 1mm in diameter.
I can go through Q-tips/guns.
The fiber will need to run to their destination and all come together and be placed in front of the red LED.
I would like to make it easier for the light to point to the back, as this is where the fiber starts when it flows to the wing and engine exhaust. 1. Drill small (1/8\")
The holes enter the body and under the wings and enter the gun rivets to meander through the fibers.
Drill another set of holes for engine fiber. 2.
Drill holes in the engine (
Pieces of pen).
I drilled a few extra holes so that the epoxy would penetrate in and create a bond similar to the rivets when stuck to the body. 3.
Extend the fiber from the body to the top engine.
I fixed the fiber in the middle of the opening with a plug-in on the pen, and glued everything together with epoxy resin with hot glue dab. 4.
Extend the fiber from the body under each top wing to the wing gun (rivet)
Stick them to the underside of the wings with epoxy resin.
I do this in stages, clamp the fiber onto the wing and glue it in half, then finish after the clip comes off. 5.
Repeat for the wings at the bottom-
The first is the fiber and the engine, and then the fiber of the gun. 6.
I used some of the remaining Cabinet bumpers on the engine exhaust end.
When lightly polished, they help to spread the precise light into more afterburning effects.
Now, each wing gun has a fiber pointing forward and one fiber pointing at the back of each engine.
All other fiber ends point to the back of the body, ready to trim and attach to the light assembly.
I found a cheap optical wristband in dollar store and it should work perfectly
The red indicator light is already used for the wrist band for lighting so that it should be able to be X-of the light source-wing.
It turned out that I had to disassemble/reconfigure it in order to make it fit X-wing body. 1.
I need a very compact set.
Can be placed on the back of X-at most
The body of the wings, I can\'t think of anything I made myself.
First of all, I molded an end piece with clay and embedded a switch (
Candle from LED)
Then remove it and leave a blank. 2.
Now make a quick mold using the silicone method used earlier and cast a replica with Bondo.
After lightly grinding, the end should be close to X-wing. 3.
Drill a groove for the battery. Mine were 1/2\".
Alignment and drilling of wires from switch to battery and LED terminals. 4.
Finally, weld the LED to a circuit board and connect the circuit.
I drilled 1\'8\' holes in two corners, fixed it on the block with the screws on the wristband, and put the battery in their compartment. 5.
The LED and switch are now working, rigid and pointing forward.
Install to the back of X-
Wing Body, fixed with small screws.
I use a drinking water straw to connect the LED to the end of the fiber cluster in the body.
When turned on, the optical system on the wingtip laser gun lights up (
Gently polish the end of the fiber to make its side glow and end glow)
, The optical elements in the engine exhaust spread red light through the dome-shaped cabinet bumper.
End with some paint, flight deck with R2 unit and eye hook hanging on the tree. 1.
Rebel paint work.
I use tape, thin cut with exacto knife, loosely copied from photos on the Web. 2.
Remember the bonus found from the end of the cigar tube?
I cut out a square with a chisel/Mallet, the same size as the LED switch.
Now slide your parabolic thrust inverter onto the LED switch and fix it with a dab epoxy. 3.
I made a quick cockpit section with clay and cast a mold and replica with Bondo. 4.
After tapping and grinding, I stuck a trimmed waste LED R2 unit behind the cockpit
You have to have a robot in there. 5.
Paint the cockpit again and paint the windows again.
I used the tape again.
Glue the cockpit part to Xwing body. 6.
Finally, attach a small eye hook to officially turn X-
A hanging ornament. 2014 X-wing ornaments. Done.
Last but not least, the first and second, together with the year of manufacture, have a written inscription on the lower side of their decorative gift.