Blade Runner

Fictional / Behind-The-Scenes Background

The B-Wing, or to give its full designation, the Slayn & Korpil A/SF-01 B-Wing assault starfighter began as as a development of Prototype B6 or 'Blade Wing', a craft designed by Quarrie, a Mon Calamari engineer at planet Shantipole as a part of Project Shantipole. It was centred around delivering large amounts of firepower within a thin, narrow and agile profile. Several of its features such as S-foils and gyro-stabilised cockpit originated from Clone War-era starships such as the V-19 Torrent starfighter and the T-6 shuttle. The prototype was used by a Rebel crew of Hera Syndulla and Sabine Wren to break the blockade of planet Ibaar, destroying one of the blockading Arquitens-class command cruiser, Quarrie awarded the B6 and his expertise to the Rebel Alliance to improve the craft while Wren volunteered to redesign the Blade Wing's weapons and targeting systems.

As an assault starfighter, the B-Wing was relatively poor space close-combat fighter as it was primarily designed as a blockade buster to destroy or disable capital ships. The craft is basically a flying wing with a cylindrical cockpit at one end, a weapons pod on the opposite end and an engine cluster in between. Two S-foils mounted on the engine cluster can be extended in attack configuration. The heavy armaments package comprised of two Gyrhil 72 twin blasters at the cockpit module, a cluster of an Armek SW-7a ion cannon, a Gyrhil R-9X laser cannon and a Krupx MG9 proton torpedo launcher at the weapons pod plus another proton torpedo launcher at the engine cluster and an ion cannon at each end of the S-foils. The unique gyroscopic cockpit control system keep the cockpit module horizontal no matter how the rest of the craft was positioned. Avionics package was on par with small capital ships and advanced targeting systems allow the crew of B-Wings to co-ordinate their attacks together.

Impressed with the debut performance of the Blade Wing, Senator Bail Organa arranged to have a starship manufacturer to further develop the craft. Slayn & Korpil, based at the Roche Asteroid Field and owned and operated by renowned Verpine shipwrights agreed to build them for the Rebellion. However despite the prototype being described by it's creator as 'agile' and 'fast', the production B-Wings were the complete opposite, despite eliminating the defensive gunner's position and its associated system and the composite-beam laser. It was slower and more ponderous than other starfighters of the Alliance and the Imperial Navy. It was also tricky to control and the advanced gyro-stabilised cockpit can only be mastered by the most skilled pilots. Intended to replace the venerable Y-Wings, its weaknesses meant that the Y-Wings soldiered on until the Battle of Jakku. Nevertheless, with good space superiority fighter escort, the B-Wing proved to be an excellent assault starfighter and bomber and can even be quite a handful in ship-to-ship combat.

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The B-Wing was designed by Joe Johnston and Bill George for Return Of The Jedi. The B-Wing got its name after the production crew labelled two new Rebel starfighter designs as 'A fighter' and 'B fighter'.  The name 'Blade Wing' was introduced in the Expanded Universe (now known as 'Legends') and was canonized in the Star Wars Rebels animated series. The Legends continuity have the B-Wing designed by the Rebel Alliance (led by Admiral Gail Ackbar) following the Battle of Yavin and therefore was only 'available' during the Battle of Endor and therefore did not take part in the Battle of Yavin. However, the new Star Wars canon have the B-Wing designed and operated before Yavin and therefore leaving plot holes in the continuity. The Star Wars Rebels series explained this apparent discrepancy by having that the B-Wings (and A-Wings) were the main fighters used by the Phoenix Squadron in Rebels while General Jan Dodonna's cell, based at Yavin were primarily equipped with X- and Y-Wings and only during the Battle Of Endor that the entire Rebel Alliance comes together and therefore the presence of all the fighters in ROTJ.

The B-Wing model, with its unusually thin shape was hard to film for blue-screen photography as it tended to blend with the star field and as a consequence some planned sequences featuring the B-Wing were cut from the original release of Return Of The Jedi.

The Kit

The Star Wars geek in me had a 'whoopee' moment when I read that Bandai have released a 1/72 kit of the B-Wing. The craft occupies a soft spot in my brain, having piloted it my youth playing LucasArts' X-Wing simulation game (and also fighting against it in 'TIE Fighter' where that gyrostabilised cockpit played a bit of mind trick while chasing it). I wasted no time in heading towards the local hobby shop and there it was, on the shelf. I did not hesitate to part with RM! The parts are spread among eight sprues with Sprue A moulded in Bandai's signature multi-colour parts, this time including clear parts for the canopy. The display stand is clear plastic plus the tinted clear plastic for the laser bolts (I strongly believe that Bandai should have included electric blue-tinted plastic to simulate ion blasts). Initial browsing of the instruction sheet shows that the model is poseable either in a 'vertical' or horizontal' mode and the smaller wings can be posed open or closed. Markings as usual came either as stickers or waterslide decals. As with their other Star Wars kits, the B-Wing feature finely engraved and well-executed raised details.

Construction

Basically, construction can be divided into four sub-units : cockpit module, engine, main wing and secondary wing. And, as usual, construction started at the cockpit module. Also, as usual, the pilot's office was painted first. There are decals for some of the cockpit instruments but I prefer to paint them this time. The blaster cluster at the nose were also pre-painted at this time. Some dry brushing was done on the raised details inside the cockpit. The pilot figure and the canopy were however left off at this time. There was some gap at the rear of the module (perhaps due to the multi-part nature?) but it was nothing serious and can be easily overcome with a small amount of putty. The completed cockpit module was then placed in between Parts C2 and C5 which form the main component of the engine module. The cockpit remain moveable although quite tight due to friction between the module and the adjacent areas in front and the rear of the erm, 'throat'. Maybe I should've sanded it down.

The engine module include a clear part to be inserted inside the main 'bay'. Apart from adding strength and allowing the fitment points for the exhaust cones, it also functions as light conduit should you decide to add LED lighting for the engines. The secondary wings (which look like reversed and enhanced F-16, F-18 or F-5 wings) were next. No problems were encountered while joining the wing parts together but I do ran into a bit of a problem when trying to join the wings to the main body. Clear parts FB1-10 and -11 were used to join the wings and allow movement. This meant that the wings need to be aligned correctly when inserting the clear parts into the slots. This was to be quite difficult because of the very tight fit. I pulled the clear parts out and using a new blade, scraped lightly the grooves inside them. Afterwards, it was a bit more easier to push them into the slots. Oh, take note that the notched tab on Part FB1-10 and -11 is meant to be outward so that Part C4 can fit over them.

Finally the main wing (which looks like a wing from an F-14 or an F-111 kit). A word of advice first - if you want it easier to paint the junctions of the secondary wing, cut off the bottom of the large tab, leaving the semi-circles at the top so that the main wing can be assembled separately and inserted later. Anyway, I kept following the instructions to the letter and the main wing was completed and fixed to the main body. The main gun cluster was painted and assembled but it, along with the fairing and the light blue-moulded end of the main wing were left off at this time. The guns at the tip of the secondary wings were also left off to ease painting. Oh by the way, the fairing had a very tight fit and resulted in gaps towards the front of it. Again, putty was needed here.

Painting and Decalling

For painting, I resorted to the same colour used in my Y-Wing that is white with a bit of light grey (FS 36495) added although the ratio of the light grey is a bit less than the one used for the Y-Wing. The grey parts were painted a 70/30 mix of Tamiya XF63 German Grey and XF18 Medium Blue (effectively making it Panzer Grey). The blue parts were painted XF23 Light Blue. Unlike the previous starfighter builds, the B-Wing has quite a number of decals to be applied. This, intriguingly include a USAF-style shield-type unit badge and a number of stencils. While most of the latter are illegible, a few are quite big enough to read. I didn't due to failing eyesight and not having a magnifier at hand. They do look like Roman alphabet though. Anyway, all went in without any trouble except for a three-part roundel. You need to cut off the carrier film for that particular decals as much as possible to ensure a better fit over the raised details. I also elected to paint the decals near the wingtips of the secondary wings. 

Finishing

The pilot figure, which was done during the kit painting process, was placed inside the cockpit. His flight suit was painted German Red Brown as I think it closely matched the suggested paint mix. The skin tone is XF-57 Buff (as he is a Sullustan, not a Human, mind). Although I managed it during the Y-Wing build, I chose not to use enamel-based wash for this kit. Instead, I use water-color based sludge wash technique on all engraved panels and some of the raised details. Enamel-based AK Interactive stuff was however applied on areas not adjacent to connecting panels to avoid it leaking into bare plastic. And just to test my AK Weathering Pencil, I applied the Gun Metal pencil on the muzzles of the laser and ion cannons. The main cannon cluster was then attached to the main wing (again without the need for cement) and followed by the ion cannons at the end of the secondary wing. Bandai provided a different style of display stand for the B-Wing although the 'regular'-style stand is available separately. The clear sprue for the stand however include a number of items but there are no indications on how to use them and I just use the recommended stand. To conserve space in my display cabinet, the B-Wing was put in a vertical position.

Conclusion

Another fine kit from Bandai and I was not disappointed. The kit feature fine detail and a hassle-free construction. I think the area which need a little bit of effort is concerned with the connection of the secondary wings with the fuselage and the fairing of the main gun cluster. And by the way, you can customize and/or weather it the way you like it as (1) it was a sci-fi model and (2) it did not enjoy much screen time so NOBODY can say that your model is 'wrong'!