Kit: Korbanth Sabers wings with rebuilt fuselage

The X-Wing is without doubt one of the greatest and most iconic of sci-fi designs. Both the original T-65 and the new T-70 versions are amongst my top personal favorite spacecraft designs. I love the scissors-split wings of the T-70, although I wish the tailpipes were visually larger I generally find it a great upgrade and very logical progression of the X-Wing.

I built the Korbanth Sabers T-70 kit a couple of years back. While the castings were superb (even though it was all solid cast so it was just way too problematic to install lighting), I always felt that it just looked really chunky. The fuselage interpretation just didn’t feel right. So I decided to break the model apart, and compare it to the official Revell kit (just marginally smaller than 1/48). I sized the photos so a side-by-side comparison could be made. I am no “rivet-counter” But I love the X-Wing, so I just couldn’t resist fixing it. Taking a closer look at the Korbanth kit’s problems, most noticeable was:

1. From the rear view of the fuselage it’s clear that the Korbanth fuselage was just way too deep.

2. From the top, the forward fuselage doesn’t nearly have enough taper, the nose is just way too bulky, and the canopy is too short.

While it wasn’t easy cutting a big solid cast finished model I managed to remove about 3/8″ from the middle of the rear hull, which was complicated by the wing openings. I totally discarded the forward fuselage so I can make a new version from scratch, with a new forward canopy section. I also changed the detailing on the top of the instrument panel cover and added a female pilot. I still wish that I could have lit the engines.