It's no secret my son Clay and I are big fans of Star Wars. So with all the hype over the upcoming film lately, we could not help ourselves. We needed a Star Wars-themed project that we could do on the cheap without waiting in line at Target at Midnight! We decided to give one of our favorite Radio Controlled cars a Star Wars-themed makeover.
Luke Skywalker's X-Wing Fighter, my son's favorite Star Wars ship, would be the inspiration. This would also be the first RC car that my son would put together by himself. He's pretty good at reading instructions thanks to years of building Lego kits. This was also a great opportunity to learn about different types of fasteners, thread-lock, nylock nuts, and spray painting - the safe, legal kind... no graffiti!
Here is the Frog Chassis in progress. The chassis comes in a tan color, which we changed to white by spraying it with Krylon Fusion, a special paint made specifically for sticking to plastic. Special thanks to Cindy for letting us use the kitchen counter!
Inside, you can see the Luke Skywalker X-Wing Pilot figure we chose as the driver of this buggy. We scored this old Power of the Force figure off Ebay for $1.50. Score!
NOTE: The body shell is still clear, painting it with special polycarbonate paint was the next step.
Here is the finished product. “X-Wing” aero wing on the back was custom fabricated by using polystyrene plastic heated up and bent with a torch. Wing end spars were also constructed with polystyrene tubing glued onto the ends. These are a bit fragile and will probably break off during “battle.”
Some Star Wars stickers from Wal Mart added some Rebel Alliance flavor, along with red and yellow squadron stripes thanks to Duck brand tape.
Here is our X-Wing buggy with the "real" X-Wing for comparison.