The DEFINITIVE X-wing thread?

[jedimaster]

Ok i Know these things have been done to death , but with the recent new kits ie Poseiden Young and the new RodMart kit coupled with pm's ive been getting and new threads looking for info , i thought it may be time to have a new thread collating all the different birds together including paints , colors , differences etc. There are more than enough experts on here and more than enough ref pix of most of the models.

Is there room for a definitive thread or is this just another stupid idea? I need more coffee!!!!!

[ralphee]

Isnt a thread much like this already live on this board Simon?
Not much new in terms of ref has turned up since, just two more resin kit offerings and the fact they were not white lol.

Be better to see you guys with Pyros building them and showing those lovely birds off, than the same old ground discussion, just my two penneth, and i need less coffee heh.

Lee

[jedimaster]

Trust you to come up with common sense. Yeah I know we've had Carstens ANH pyro thread which covered a lot but with the Cantwell and Maquarrie builds
I thought it may be good to start at the beginning and go throughout the history right up to ROTJ. You're probably right. Please ignore this thread...... Oh wait , we know what happens when you title you're thread with that.

On the other note. The pyro build is underway. I've been testing base colours for the red 4 pyro and settled for insignia white over dark Grey primer. On the red 3 hero I' m still messin with the right grey but have all the other pastel colours sorted.

[ralphee]

Ah dont listen to me bro, as i said im caffeine infused lol.
Get that bird in your thread though, i wanted to see Insignia used big time on an X wing.
Love to see the Red 3 pyro too, very nice paint on that one, so much prettier than the Hero.

Lee

[jedimaster]

I will get it up soon. It's been pissing down here and to best illustrate the colour I need to show it in Daylight as well as artificial.

[Jeff Herne]

Just sprayed my CC X-wing with a 50/50 mix of Dunkelgrau 50 and Schnellbootweiss, both German naval colors. I'm really happy with the shade.

Note that this is pre-weathering, so it will be much brighter. Panel lines will be done with both washes and pigments, and then individual panels will be changed with an overall pigment application...

[Tsophika]

Looks like it just came off the assembly line! The clean look is pretty striking.

[Jeff Herne]

Not anymore - spent most of the night (and well into the early AM) doing the weathering...I applied a black acrylic sludge wash to the model, wiped it down and let it dry, then did the panel lines with pigments. After that, some subtle paint chipping...



Now that I look at it in photos, I wonder if I didn't do enough...course, the white background does a lot to wash out the weathering. To the naked eye, I think it looks good...Don't know if I want to over-weather it just to get good photos... Maybe I'll try a different background.

J

[CSavaglio]

It looks good, Jeff....but I'd def. weather it more if you're going for the movie look....they look pretty whooped in the films and the actual models.

The background would wash it out, but I think it needs more in addition to the washes.....

Now, if I can only manage to get a legit one....

Chris

[ralphee]

Id love to try out this Dullcote to pigment mix ive been using on an X wing.
Some of you guys need to give it a whirl maybe, i reckon it could work really well on the stark colors used on these birds.

Lee

[Jeff Herne]

I use it all the time Lee... works great...

Sorry for the thread hijack, btw...

J

[Laspector]

I never get tired of looking at a good x-wing. IMHO still the most beautiful ship in the SW universe.

[jedimaster]

I use it all the time Lee... works great...

Sorry for the thread hijack, btw...

J

No hijack.. Please post away. If this just ends up being a showcase for builds then that's great. It gives people the chance to see and ask questions and maybe learn something then that's a win.

[ralphee]

Its basically a case of mixing a powdered pigment or pastel to Dullcote Simon.
Thin it down for shooting with Cellulose thinners, but always sieve with gauze before you do so, it still dyes the Dullcote.
Its pretty much an opaque coating of whatever color you like and seals automatically with the Dullcote.
Ive used rust and black hues on the PD and it worked very well.

Lee

[Jeff Herne]

I actually retail my own line of pigments, called Warpigs. If you're in the UK, Jay Laverty at Mastercasters carries them.

Mix pigments with a carrier (thinner) and spray them to create dust, soot, exhaust, etc. Mix it to the consistency of a wash and spray away. Just be sure to use small amounts in the airbrush as the pigments will settle if you allow them to sit for anything more than a minute or two. Best of all, if you don't like the results, you can wipe them off.

J

[jedimaster]

Damn! no distributers in Oz. May have to go through sprue bros. maybe I'll pick some up when they release that 1/35 b-17.

[ralphee]

I actually retail my own line of pigments, called Warpigs. If you're in the UK, Jay Laverty at Mastercasters carries them.

Mix pigments with a carrier (thinner) and spray them to create dust, soot, exhaust, etc. Mix it to the consistency of a wash and spray away. Just be sure to use small amounts in the airbrush as the pigments will settle if you allow them to sit for anything more than a minute or two. Best of all, if you don't like the results, you can wipe them off.

J

Jeff thats why i sieve out the pigment once mixed, you get zero sediment etc.
Also, i mix it direct into the Dullcote so it seals right up. Right now im mixing MIG smoke black to tone the droid, that works very well.

Lee

[MonsieurTox]

I used Tamiya Insignia White on my Red 4 and the color was way off, so I changed the base color.



You really need an off-white, Tamiya's insiginia white is not one for me, just a light gray.

[jedimaster]

So that grey in the pic was your base colour Julien? Looks like the tamiya primer.

[MonsieurTox]

No that's AS-20

It's just a tad lighter than the primer (and it's shiny)

Here's a comparison with primer and AS-20.

Primer :



AS-20 :



I ended up doing my own mix using flat white and neutral gray (or black ? I think I used neutral gray).

A few drops (5-6) of neutral gray for a full jar of flat white. You need a really white base coat because of all the airbrushed weathering and heavy washes you'll put over it which will darken it a lot.

Take a look at Blue Leader (Jason's is wonderful), it has almost no washes on it and the airbrushed weathering is very light, the final model is almost white. Once converting into Red 2, it received the same treatment than the other and it ended up being more gray (more washes and airbrushed weathering).

[MonsieurTox]

Here's another pic, the R-4 unit is flat white, you can better judge how dark is the Insignia White :




Here's a picture in progress, you can see the barely untouched basecoat on the nose and compare to the weathered fuselage :

[Jeff Herne]

I like the effect along the side of the fuselage Julien. I've been thinking about doing that with mine using Tamiya Smoke, just to bring it down a touch more...

[MonsieurTox]

I like the effect along the side of the fuselage Julien. I've been thinking about doing that with mine using Tamiya Smoke, just to bring it down a touch more...

Thanks Jeff,

I use to use the Tamiya Smoke and it's very good ! I used it ons everal model with good result, but for the X-Wing I used around the torpedo cannons gray and brown.

But the key is to rub the weathering gently with steel whool to get that ILM finish.

It's very visible when you put your nose on it, but from a good distance it gives a very nice finish !

Here are some close up :










From a certain distance, every thing is blended and the scratches are no more visible :



It's a bit scaring to use steel whool (fine steel whool) on our model when we think it's finish, but just rub it gently and the result is awesome !

[edit] Hmmm I still need to put the struts into the intakes !

[jedimaster]

I never get tired of looking at this bird julien. It is my inspiration for my red 4 pyro. In Jasons pix the studio model is a bit washed out from over exposure at the time taken so it's quite hard to nail the exact colours from them alone. Especially the yellows on the fuse and nose. Although the canopy is giving me grief as well. In the ILM pix the canopy appears to be a watered down version of the fuse yellow but I should also wear my glasses more often so it could just be my eyes. It's always good to come back to yours to correct my vision. Now go fix those struts.

[Watson]

Has it been too long since I built anything to contribute to this thread?

Fantastic work Julien, I wish I had the time to build. I had to turn down a commission job this morning becuase of work, school and baby on the way

I can still live through others though

greg