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  • X-Wing T65

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The movies

x-wing fighter screenshot

Star Wars - Episode IV
A New hope

Who doesn’t know the X-Wing T65 fighter ? I titled “Star Wars – A New Hope” because it’s the first movie where it can be seen but the X-Wing does appear in more than half of the total movies of the saga if the Force Awakens ans Last Jedi T70 is taken into account.

The “historical version”, the T-65 is shown in the three movies of the original trilogy and in Rogue One, the 2016 spin-off. Its first exploit is of course the destruction of the Death Star. Luke Skywalker performed a blind proton torpedo shot to do so. Let’s recall that during the assault, many skilled pilots like Biggs Darklighter (Red 3) and Garven Dreis (Red leader) found their death. Others, less worthy, ran out like chicken cowards when things growned bad. Wedge Antilles, if you read me…

During episode V, The Empire strikes back, Luke Skywalker went to Dagobah in his X-Wing, seeking master Yoda. The movie doesn’t show the ship in combat but it’s in this movie that the X-Wing is assimilated to Luke for good. After that, in The Return of the Jedi, Wedge Antilles is seen again flying an X-Wing T65 during the rebel assault on the second Death Star.

Finally, the spin-off Rogue One is an opportunity to see a lot of X-Wings during the battle of Scarif striking imperial quadripodes (rhââ… an old geek fantasm : just tell me why they didn’t do that on Hoth ???). Let’s say that the X-Wing T65 ranks just behind the Millennium Falcon in the Star Wars iconic ships contest. Not having one in a Star Wars model collection is just inconceivable.

Related posts

Trench run

Sullust

The models

  • Model : : X-Wing Fighter
  • Maker : : Finemolds
  • First edition year : : 2001
  • Scale : : 1:72
  • Matter :: Injected plastic

I’m offering you not only one X-Wing T65 but two ! Well, when I say “I’m offering”, it’s a figure of speech, I mean I’m offering you photos of two X-Wing because the ships are mine in fact… These two starfighters will be included in a huge diorama of the rebel fleet just before the attack on Endor. I wanted to show the heterogeneity of the rebel fleet by creating an old and worn out fighter alongside a newer one but not out of the factory, you can’t do that in Star Wars.

Finemolds, the brand that changed everything

I used of course the same kit for both of the models, it’s a FINEMOLDS ! Yes I love this brand I found out as everyone in les early 2000’s precisely with the X-Wing. It’s a very small japanese company (6 peaople at this time I guess) which attenpted an unbelievable poker strike : to produce a T65 X-Wing and a Tie Fighter without proper Lucasfilm licence and show George Lucas himself their work. The tale says that George was so impressed by the quality of their work that he gave them a free licence, just demanding a percentage on each sale (generosity has a limit). What a kind man George must be…

And there is the Light

x-wing fighter câblage

All you have to do with a Finemolds kit is throw the pieces onto your workbench and the kit is almost assembled. The only complication is to light-up the model, it’s not easy to insert electricity wires up to the thrusters. If there was only one, it could be fine but light-up the four thrusters withour noticing the wires is pretty hard.

x-wing fighter éclairage

Lighting-up the cockpit was not easier. The hull is very thin éand inserting the wires and the LED is also very hard. I glued a fiber-optic bundle onto a white LED. Then, I had to insert the fibers into very small holes drilled in the dashboard. One fiber is also inserted into the astromecano droid. Everything is very small, for example the droid dome diameter is only 8mm…

Drilling the X-Wing T65 canons

x-wing fighter perçage du canon

Speaking of small things, Finemolds forgot an important detail, the canons are not drilled, which is not very realistic :

“-Hey Luke, hurry up, shoot this Tie fighter which is just beind me !

-All right Wedge, I’m on it…”

BOOOUUUMMM !!! The hero’s X-Wing blew up because somebody forgot to remove the canon corks. Don’t laugh, I’m pretty sure it happened many times during the real wars… So I had to drill a 0.6 mm hole at the center of a circular area of 1mm diameter. Believe it or not, it’s quite a transcendent experience !

Exhibitions of the T65 X-Wing

Like the A-Wing and the B-Wing, these two X-Wing T65 models have been shown during 5 conventions :

Today they lie in my personnal collection. They are inculded in a big diorama represanting a complete rebel fleet : ‘Sullust”.

You may click here to see the complete Sullust rebel fleet

by petersteven

Photos