The Tie Scimitar Assault Bomber is assembled and painted (as if in Rebel hands). It isn't finished, awaiting decals and sealer after a few small touch ups.

After being given a load of 6mm think A5 sized MDF sheets I decided to cut the hex and squares to build a "fuel pod" at studio scale from the Valley Forge, Silent Running.

The cut edges are chamfered to a close edge and glued. On the inside I have taped and epoxied the joins, a strong basic geodesic box.

The raised edges are 1.5mm thick spruce, wood glued in place. The corners will need filler since I couldn't get another width to keep the same edge width on two sides. The square edges other hang to be sanded back and become a little thinner - I think this is as per the studio model but that is difficult to tell. The best referance comes from Lunadude and only a single referance dimension is shown.

I will skin with glass fibre tissue and epoxy, that will hide all sins, bits of filler and make a strong box that should resist delaminating or exposure to moisture / movement.

I am selling the two ear receivers on eBay.
I need to fund a Captain Cardboard Studio Scale X-Wing........
One of the receivers is not quite studio, an error was made but it still looks great.
Both turned from solid aluminium, see....
Here on eBay
and
Here on eBay

Might as well doing something hot whilst it is cold.......
A raw brass 44" Eagle Spine so far made from the spares box (and I still have loads of spare fish mouthed bit left, but not enough to make anything else).
The spine so far, included about £100's worth of material. With luck someone thinks I have added some value to this, I will put it up on eBay.
It has come out really nice so far, flat and straight, just one or two tube to adjust the line of but looking ok.
I will definitely add the angled ends before offering for sale and will consider adding the 3/32" diagonals, I will check to see what material I have left over.

Quick Update.
I am adding the diagonals, the end sloped pieces and have cleaned up a little before finishing. Just waiting on some extra small diameter brass tube now. Looking good and will definitely be up for sale.

So, I went to Telford IPMS Scale Model World a couple of weeks ago......wow, quite an eye opener. A few Eagles (Round 2, small ones 1/48 scale). Quite an inspiration as well. I ended up buying a couple of kits. Some of my favourite, shiny silver coloured jets that fought based old fashioned dog fighting tactics with unguided weapons.
I purchased some Vallejo gloss black primer and their Silver Darts paint kit.
I am revisiting my own design of 1/72 Star Wars models, the Tie Scimitar and Crawler Tank.
All small enough to work on in the house during the colder winter months.
​I am even talking to someone about kiting my Star Wars models, that will be interesting to follow up

A drawing of the Tie Scimitar Assault Bomber. Free Download, enjoy.

Lifting some blue prints / plans from Wookieepedia again. Another unusual Tie variant from the wider Star Wars universe; the Tie Crawler or, The Century Tank.

The weather is getting better; soon I will be back on the big Eagle (it needs paint) but this Star Wars stuff has been a nice distraction this spring. Good fun; it is also helping me to learn Autodesk Fusion 360, also good fun and a change from my usual industry software Solidworks.

My finished CAD file as a short animation. Really happy with the way this worked out and it looks ok with an initial coat of primer. I haven't taken any wet or dry to it yet; just a wash in soapy water.

Additional tiles for the Death Star 3d wall art. The Primary Weapon, is a 3x3 / 9 tile layout and I will need to make some resin copies of those to make the full set.

The full set built so far is about 35 individual tiles. I will aim to design and build a few more just to cut down on the repetition with the finish piece. I can now start to see how the tiles can be group in sets of 4 (where I have built mirrored tiles) and I can see how the curved tiles can be arranged in a range of layouts for interest.

The shadows from the sunlight today are great and hopefully, the layout when finished in the correct lighting will have the give the same effect.

Next up for design and print is the trench. This I have decided will be inline with the edge of the tile (as per studio). I quite fancied the idea that the tile would be angled on the wall earmarked for the art but it just doesn't look right. 

I have picked up an old kit; an A&B Space 1999 Hawk. This will be fun, but a distraction from the 44" Eagle. The Hawk is in scale with a 22" Eagle; I guess this will go in to CAD and be the basis for a big Hawk to go with my Eagle.
The original bell and spare were both pretty much a solid block open topped casting; I didn't want to leave it like that.
This is a nice bit of work (the original); I have done a bit of research though and found out the filming model engine bell was the cap or lid from a household product bottle or something.