Bandai 1/72 X-Wing "Red 2"

[garrettdigital]

This past year I've gotten back into building model kits for the first time since I was a kid. These Bandai kits are super impressive with their detail and the engineering to create them with no glue required. Love them so much that I've since bought several more of them to work on. Huge difference from the MPC Star Wars kits from the 90's!

I didn't want to do a standard version of Luke's Red 5 X-Wing, so I chose Wedge's Red 2 for this build. I did my best to follow and recreate many of the key characteristics of the Red 2 studio model but it's not accurate by any means.

This X-Wing build was the first time I've done real weathering on a model with an airbrush and liquid mask, etc. Mistakes were made, lessons were learned and I've got more techniques to try in the future as I work my skills up to be ready to tackle a Millennium Falcon build. For now though, I had fun building it and I'm fairly pleased with how this one turned out so I thought I'd share.

Let me know if you see any room for improvements, I'm always looking to learn more from all of you talented folks!

 

[starks]

I don't know all of Red 2s markings but by the looks I'm sure you've nailed it.
That being said, Awesome job! The flaking and chipping look great, the smudges and blaster strikes looks like ILM ones. If you had that against a black background it would look most impressive.

What did you use for your base white colour?
When I originally painted my Falcon I used a standard paint formula found online but it always looked so dark in person. When I painted my Red 5 I repainted the Falcon and used Tamiya straight flat white and allowed the weathering to dirty it out and it came up much better.

Cheers,
Josh

 

[Chrisisall]

This past year I've gotten back into building model kits for the first time since I was a kid. These Bandai kits are super impressive with their detail and the engineering to create them with no glue required. Love them so much that I've since bought several more of them to work on. Huge difference from the MPC Star Wars kits from the 90's!

I didn't want to do a standard version of Luke's Red 5 X-Wing, so I chose Wedge's Red 2 for this build. I did my best to follow and recreate many of the key characteristics of the Red 2 studio model but it's not accurate by any means.

This X-Wing build was the first time I've done real weathering on a model with an airbrush and liquid mask, etc. Mistakes were made, lessons were learned and I've got more techniques to try in the future as I work my skills up to be ready to tackle a Millennium Falcon build. For now though, I had fun building it and I'm fairly pleased with how this one turned out so I thought I'd share.

Let me know if you see any room for improvements, I'm always looking to learn more from all of you talented folks!

Cut the chatter. This is amazing work, bro!

 

[garrettdigital]

I don't know all of Red 2s markings but by the looks I'm sure you've nailed it.
That being said, Awesome job! The flaking and chipping look great, the smudges and blaster strikes looks like ILM ones. If you had that against a black background it would look most impressive.

What did you use for your base white colour?
When I originally painted my Falcon I used a standard paint formula found online but it always looked so dark in person. When I painted my Red 5 I repainted the Falcon and used Tamiya straight flat white and allowed the weathering to dirty it out and it came up much better.

Cheers,
Josh

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

For the colors I used Vallejo paints. I didn’t take the time to find the most accurate colors. I actually started with the Vallejo Star Fighters set of paints as it was cheaper than buying individual paints and gave me a good assortment to work with, especially for the X-Wing.

I used Vallejo 71.119 White Grey as the base. It was a bit bright, but I knew the weathering would darken and dirty it up. Out of the various shades of grays I had on hand, it was the color that looked best to my eye and how I remember X-Wings looking too. I’ll probably use it again for the base of the Y-Wing kit whenever I build it.

 

[starks]

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

For the colors I used Vallejo paints. I didn’t take the time to find the most accurate colors. I actually started with the Vallejo Star Fighters set of paints as it was cheaper than buying individual paints and gave me a good assortment to work with, especially for the X-Wing.

I used Vallejo 71.119 White Grey as the base. It was a bit bright, but I knew the weathering would darken and dirty it up. Out of the various shades of grays I had on hand, it was the color that looked best to my eye and how I remember X-Wings looking too. I’ll probably use it again for the base of the Y-Wing kit whenever I build it.

Yeah I think that sums it up, doing whats best to your eye. You have to look at it and everyones screen online will display your colours differently.

I look forward to seeing you do a Y- wing. Picking up a Bandai Ywing and lighting kit has been on my shortlist since new year. After running fibre optics into the R2 unit on my Xwing I dont know I could go through that again on the R5 though. You're giving me some inspiration here!

Cheers,
Josh

 

[JediMichael]

Bandai models are quite something in how they all go together so well, and without glue.
I was really impressed with the AT-AT, with movable head and legs like that.