Corran Horn's X-Wing: 99% FINISHED w/ PICTURES!

[Darth Brass]

Hey gang.

I'm finally getting around to building a 1/43 "Flying Display" X-Wing kit that I bought a LONG, LONG TIME AGO. (Yes, in a galaxy far, far away - Orlando.)

Anyway, I knew that I wouldn't be up to the challange of trying to recreate Red-5 or Red-anybody for that matter-so I decided to do one of my favorite heroes of the Expanded Universe: Corran Horn.

As far as I know, there's no "official" picture of his green COR-SEC X-Wing. I've seen a few of the custom builds - some are great, some are good - and I've got the kit ready to go except for the green coloration.

Now, I've already sculpted a new pilot (green-stuff) and painted him up. I'm pretty happy considering I've not worked with green-stuff before. I figured it wouldn't matter since he'd be stuck behind the canopy permanently anyway. (Not entirely sure I want to do that now - any ideas on how to keep it secure but not glued? Think the flight disk will hold it in place?)

So, Corran Horn (and Whistler):

Now, the reason I'm asking for help: I have two jars of green paint. One is "Flat Olive" (Which I've already put on Corran and Whistler) and the other is "Beret Green" (the more vivid of the two colors). Any thoughts from you, the peanut gallery, as to which I should use? Also, I'm weary on putting the "wing number symbol" on the wings (not sure my hand is THAT steady and I suck at water-decals), but they seem bare w/out them - any thoughts there?

So, the colors:

And a few views of the kit thus far:

Thanks for looking everyone.

EDIT: I had originally labeled this as 1/24. This is actually 1/43 as someone indicated below. I was just mistaken. My apologies.

 

[Darth Brass]

Anyone?

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

This was from one of the X-Wing comics while Corran was still with Corsec. I think the X-Wing novel covers just show an X-Wing with green markings in place of red.

JBOT Decals makes the Corsec logo marking and various other cool decals.
http://www.jbot.ca/sciencefiction/sw-rips.shtml

 

[Darth Brass]

Interesting - thanks for the picture. It helps with both the color AND the patterns.

You rock.

 

[Kuhn Global]

Darth Brass...

VERY KEWL. Neat idea.

What kit is that again? Almost looks like Icons... or the FX toy reconditioned. Pretty nice any way ya look at it.

I look forward to seeing your updates. Keep em comin.

 

[Darth Brass]

It's an old kit - the date I sanded off was 1989. That's when I bought it too. *blush*

I don't recall the company, AMT/ERTL this page says:
http://www.starwarsmodels.com/xwingfd.html

The kit's not amazing, but I've had it a long time.

Update on the paint scheme: I ended up mixing the two paints, though one was "Acryl" and the other was "Enamel". Not sure if that mattered - the color ended up being great, but went on uneven. I plan on sanding it as flat as I can and incorporate it into the weathering. We'll see how it turns out.

 

[Hand Solo]

I've had a couple of these kits in my time. It's the old 'big' ERTL X, alright. They can be made to look alright with time and patience.

Seeing your Corran Horn CORSEC X would be something new and different.

Your flight display X is actually 1:43, as it's simply a repackage of the old ERTL X originally released in '78.

 

[Darth Brass]

1:43? Oh. Cool.

The final clear-coat is drying now. I think I'll assemble it and just stick it in the display for a while. Weathering will have to wait I think as my wife is sick of seeing it out (we're in a small condo - not much room to work).

I'll try and get pics of the pre-weathered finished model soon.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

No problem. I don't think I've seen anyone do that version of his X-Wing yet.

 

[Darth Brass]

New problem.

I've finished the model except for the weathering and wanted to test-fit the display disk.

The gun holes were too small.

Okay, fixable - I used a tiny file and sanded the holes bigger so the guns would fit. I put the model into the display and the ***ker fell over. Busted one of the gun connections.

The damn thing doesn't support the weight of the model.

I'm officially stumped. I'm not a hugely creative guy when it comes to kit-bashing or jury-rigging stuff. I'm at wit's end.

Grrr.

 

[Kuhn Global]

<div class='quotetop'>(Darth Brass @ Aug 24 2006, 04:10 AM) [snapback]1306215[/snapback]</div>

Hey gang.

I'm finally getting around to building a 1/24 "Flying Display" X-Wing kit that I bought a LONG, LONG TIME AGO. (Yes, in a galaxy far, far away - Orlando.)

[/b]

Ahhh..the ERTL... THAT'S why it looked so familiar. The 1/24 comment through me off. I was thinking,..who made that scale back then? :confused lol. Both the ICONS and the FX Toy were in the late 90s so I was all screwed up and in great wonder of what I was looking at.

Kewl.. I feel better now..lol ... thought I completely missed the boat on a SS piece. :rolleyes

Can't wait to see finished pics. :thumbsup :thumbsup

 

[KnightAsylum]

*I know you already painted it but...
Being a Corran Horn fan myself I would say that from what I have seen normally his fighter is the same base color as the others and the stripes (much like his Jedi Robe later) is a "Forrest Green" - Kind of a darker green color in between the two you had - so that mix might have worked well.
I am looking to do a Studio Scale of his ship at some point myself.

 

[Darth Brass]

I'll take pictures of the completed but unweathered ship tonight. I was in a car accident today and have been desperately trying to get things done, but getting hit threw off my groove. I'll post pics later tonight.

Any thoughts from anyone on how to solve my display problem?

 

[Darth Brass]

First to answer comicasylum's concern about the color. I don't the way the paint itself went on and I hope to disguise the unevenness with weathering, but I DO like the end result of the green. It ended up being 50/50 with the previous colors.

Here's a shot w/the flash so you can see closer to the real color of the green (w/out flash it's a little "redish")

Here's a walk around the finished but unweathered model. (One of the guns is broken - I don't want to glue it until I know what I"m doing with the model RE: the display disk)

The fighter is only staying in the disk because I've really crammed it in there. I think I'll still use the disk, just find I way to stabalize the base. Perhaps a clear little free-standing pillar to hold up the butt too.

I think I'll weather it a bit tonight. I need some catharsis.

I'm pretty proud of it so far. It's no CC xwing and I'm no master-painter, but I think it's pretty swell.

What do you all think?

EDIT: Does anyone have any suggestions for black washes? I have black enamel and I also have india ink. I tried thinning the enamel down, but it still beads up and dries weirdly. Is there a special mix I should be using or something? Any protips or suggestions?

EDIT 2: Opinions on adding the "CORSEC" on the fuselage? Should it be in english or aurebesh? Let your opinions be known.

 

[altername]

It might look cool if you put some decals on the glass plate. You could put "Corsec" on that.

 

[Darth Brass]

Okay, it's not the day it was promised, but here are the 99% finished pictures. I don't know why it's so blurry - I'll try and get some better shots later on.

Here she is.

And with flash for better idea of color:

All I have to do now is find a way to make the display hold the damn thing. I'll post pictures again once it's all done.

Thanks for looking.

 

[KnightAsylum]

Looks good, nice job.

 

[Boxster]

Hello,

I think its cool to see the X-Wing in another colour scheme than the usual red tho I love the red ones.

I remember from long ago the X-Wing Vs Tie PC games and I can change the X-Wing or about any other rebel fighter's colour scheme from red to green to blue, purple, yellow. Ok, its been over a decade so I may be wrong about the yellow and purple.

B

 

[Darth Brass]

So, I ended up drilling small holes in the guns and the wings and pinning them to the model with pieces of wire hanger. Works great - I'm able to take them off w/out a hitch (for placement in and removal from the display).

The disk still doesn't support the weight of the model and I puttied up the slots on the bottom of the fuselage so using the other stand is out of the question. I think I'll have a little acrylic stand make up to hold up the back end of the fuselage.

All that's left is to weather the guns themselves. Oh, forgot to mention: Protip: Before you clearcoat the ENTIRE model, make sure you mask off the canopy. Otherwise, it frosts over and you end up not being able to see the pilot you spend hours sculpting from scratch and painting.

*sigh*

Anyway, here she is, 99.9% finished and "finished enough" for now.

 

[KnightAsylum]

Good job.
my condolences the clearcoat/window issue as I have a '89 batmobile model with "frosted windows" because of that very issue