Tie Fighter Christmas Ornament Made From Wood

I've been wanting to make a wooden Tie Fighter Christmas ornament for quite a while now. After quite a bit of research, I finally got to work and made one. In my research I found an Instructable by WorksByaHurst ---> Tie Fighter Sculpture (Made With Hand Tools Only)Wooden Star Wars Model : 12 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables which not only served as a tremendous inspiration but is a really wonderful example of a wooden sculpture. However, it was too large for what I needed but WorksByaHurst did include some schematics that I found very helpful. I took his schematics and modified them a bit in Photoshop so that they would work for my build.

Laser Engraver/Cutter

3 mm Plywood Sheets - https://amzn.to/49KNtc5

Masking Tape - https://amzn.to/3ZFnX3G

Super Glue - https://amzn.to/4gI1TMn

Sand Paper - 100, 150, 220 grit https://amzn.to/4frTzzA

Sand Paper - 400 grit https://amzn.to/4frTFXY

Maple Turning Stock - https://amzn.to/49H6qg0

Lathe

Lathe Tools/Chisels

Calipers

Digital Calipers

Hand Saw

Black Paint

Mini Eyelets - https://amzn.to/3ZZI5i7

Pin Vise Drill - https://amzn.to/3ZZI5i7

Lacquer

The first pic is the schematic that was uploaded by WorksByaHurst on his Instructable. This is what I used as reference for the size I wanted. I wanted my ornament to be about 3.5 inches (90mm) tall, so I took the image into Photoshop and resized it. I also had to clean up the lines and drawn in the splines on the wings so that I could use my laser to engrave the details. I also decided to make a different version of the wing with more details. More so because I was curious to see how it would engrave on the laser. After engraving both styles I decided I liked the simpler version better, but I included the file either way.

I will not cover all of the Photoshop processing because it would make this Instructable twice as long and instead I will include the final version of the files so that you can make your own mini–Tie Fighter model.

I use LaserGRBL with my laser and it requires me to do a two-step process. I first engrave the wood then I have to use a separate file to cut the wood shape. The engraving files have all the details, and the cut files are just the silhouettes of the objects that have been engraved.

For example, to cut out the simple detailed wing I would first use the file named "Tie Fighter Wing Simple Engraving Details" to engrave the wood then I would use the "Tie Fighter Wing Silhouette" file to cut out the shape of the wing.

The Wings measure 90 mm tall

The Cockpit windows measures 17 mm round

The Wing Splines measure 90 mm tall

The Engine measures 14 mm round

For this project I used 3mm plywood for this build. I bought a set of 12-inch x 12-inch x 3mm (qty. 10) plywood from Amazon which is way cheaper than buying it from the hobby store.

The first batch I engraved I had originally planned to engrave two pieces for each wing and then sandwich them together to make one wing. So, I would need for wing piece in order to complete one Tie Fighter. But I didn't like how thick it made the wing look; it ruined the proportions of the model in my opinion.

Instead, I decided to engrave one side of the wing, cut out the shape, and then flip the freshly engraved wing over and engrave the backside. My laser doesn't have a "home" feature, so I had to be careful not to move the laser head or the wood when I flipped the wing over. This was a more tedious process because I hadn't set up my files to do multiple engraving, so I had to do them one by one. If I were planning to make a lot of these, I would create a file with multiple pieces on one file to make the process a little more efficient.

For the splines and engine, I just had to cut out the shapes since they didn't have any details.

*Use the laser masking tape to cover the entire piece of wood before engraving and cutting. It leaves a much cleaner finish than just engraving and cutting bare wood. I didn't do this for the first pieces I cut but did do it for the last pieces I cut.

Both of these pieces were cut with masking tape on the wood. It isn't very visible, but they are covered in masking tape. An easy way to remove residual masking tape is by using duct tape. Just cut a small piece of duct tape and attach it to the engraving and then pull it off. It will get 95% of most of the masking tape. This is way easier than trying to pick off each and every tiny little piece of masking tape.

With all my pieces engraved and cut I used super glue to glue them together. I used the engravings to line up my splines and glued on one set to each wing. Next, I glued the round engine to the outside of the wing.

I painted one set of the wings black. I used a fine brush and black acrylic paint. In the picture you may notice that one set of wings looks way more black than the other. That is because I have some Black 3.0 paint which is very expensive but is also one of the blackest black paints that are made. I had the paint so I used it for this project, but I would not go out and buy some just for this project as a 150 mL bottle cost $49 + shipping. Regular black paint will do.

Also it would be a good idea to paint the wings before glueing on the splines.

I used hard maple for the cockpit section of the Tie Fighter. I had some 1-1/2-inch x 1-1/2-inch turning stock left over from another project that worked out perfectly for this project. First, I found the center of one side of the turning stock, then I chucked it in my lathe. I have a chuck with pen jaws, but you can also just use a regular chuck and turn between two centers. The pen jaws are just more convenient.

The first thing I did was to make the square stock round using my square carbide lathe tool.

Working off of my schematic I used a pair of calipers to mark the wood. Its overall length is 62 mm wide however I do need a little more length on each side to compensate for the glue up. Basically, I need to allow myself some room to make turn in some dowels on either end to be able to insert them into the wings. I also marked the center and then off the center mark I added to more lines that would represent the ball section of the cockpit.

The first thing I do is start by isolating the main ball portion of the cockpit. I made sure to use a caliper to check the size of the cockpit which should be about 26 mm round. I am by no means an expert when it comes to turning and often overshoot my dimensions. But as long as you are close you should be good. After making the center round I focus my attention on what I am calling the arms of the cockpit. The arms are basically a cone and then a cylinder which attaches to the wing. Since this is so small there isn't a ton of room for detail, but I tried to add some high spots and low spots to give the piece some character. After making a few I finally arrived at a shape I liked.

Once I was happy with the shape, I sanded the entire piece with 180 grit, 220 grit and then 400 grit sandpaper. For the tight tiny areas, I used really thin strips of sandpaper. Then I used my mini hacksaw to cut the piece free.

The last pic is of a model that I made using Tinkercad. Ideally after turning the cockpit, would resemble the Tinkercad model. I made the model after turning the wood because I really didn't know what I could achieve on the lathe. After a few cockpits I realized what I wanted the piece to look like in the end. So for the next cockpits I turned I used the Tinkercad model as a reference.

I had forgotten about the cockpit windows, so I had to cut those out on the laser. I was surprised that the laser was able to manage such fine detail on such a small part.

I realized that the round surface of the cockpit wouldn't allow me to glue up the cockpit windows without breaking the tiny windows. So, I used the belt on my belt sander to sand a flat spot on the cockpit. I didn't turn on the belt sander I just did this by hand moving the piece back and forth until the shape and size of the flat spot looked right. Then I super glued the cockpit windows to the ball section. I used rubber bands to secure the cockpit windows to the ball section, but this was probably unnecessary as the super glue makes a strong bond especially on suck small thin pieces.

After glueing up the first windows I realized that they were off center so I used some acetone to soak the piece and remove the windows. Luckily, I had cut exrtas so I was able to re-glue on a new window piece that was better centered this time.

Once they were dry, I used my pin vise drill to make a 1 mm hole at the top of the cockpit so I could attach an eyelet to the piece. This would be for a piece of string to hang the Tie Fighter from on my Christmas tree.

I used a scrap piece of wire to hang the cockpits from so that I could spray them with a couple of coats of Gloss Lacquer.

I used super glue for all of these glue ups because it cures fast.

As I mentioned earlier, I was curious to see which version would look better; an all-wood version or the one with black accented version. So, I made two sets of each version with the different wing patterns as well. In the end I liked the simpler wing with the black paint.

I am super happy with how this turned out, it had been on my bucket list for quite some time and was nice to finally be able to see it come to fruition. I hope this inspires you to make your own mini Tie Fighter model. Thanks for reading!