Model Builds with Archive-X Paints (Star Destroyer, AT-AT, Falcon, X-Wing, Slave 1, and other projects).

[2tall]

Alright, I finally have started in on my X-Wing. My 'idea' here is that I am finishing it 'just enough to show up on camera from far away. I have zero no what ILM would have done, but in my mind and for this build, I was attacking this from the standpoint that it's just for a far-off shot, not the close-up hero shot. So I filled in some of the seam lines but left others. I am just painting the canopy windows black, etc. It was more just a fun exercise to think like they 'might' have back in the day as they rush to get a few of these X-Wings built for distant shots.

With the above in mind, I am also going to take some real liberties in the paint job and just do something that I think will look good and just using other reference X-Wings as a guide.

At first, I was not really a fan of this kit with all the flashing and other issues, but the more I built it up the more I liked it. I think this is probably my favorite size kit to build. It's a good deal larger than the 1/48 Bandai X-Wing I finished a while back.

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Have fun with it I say.

There is a cool article by a guy named James Blackwell called Painting Panzers. He called his technique "post shading" and it basically uses an airbrush to shade shadow areas and apply oversprays. No Dry brushing or washes in his technique. Possibly quite similar to the ILM style. His tank builds always look realistic to me.

ILM also uses paint chips(use some liquid mask to create these), and I believe an ILM guy talked about scrubbing the paint with a greenie or something to wear back the off white base coats to reveal a black coat underneath. I'm going to try these techniques on my x-wing build.

here's the article.

missing-lynx.com - Articles - German WWII - "Painting Panzers" by James Blackwell

www.missing-lynx.com

 

[skahtul]

Have fun with it I say.

There is a cool article by a guy named James Blackwell called Painting Panzers. He called his technique "post shading" and it basically uses an airbrush to shade shadow areas and apply oversprays. No Dry brushing or washes in his technique. Possibly quite similar to the ILM style. His tank builds always look realistic to me.

ILM also uses paint chips(use some liquid mask to create these), and I believe an ILM guy talked about scrubbing the paint with a greenie or something to wear back the off white base coats to reveal a black coat underneath. I'm going to try these techniques on my x-wing build.

here's the article.

missing-lynx.com - Articles - German WWII - "Painting Panzers" by James Blackwell

www.missing-lynx.com

Nice, thanks for the info and the link!

 

[skahtul]

These turned out pretty good and so much better than the kit parts, well worth the effort:

 

[skahtul]

Here are the chosen colors:

The first few coats of Alliance White are down, just a few more to go. Don't get me wrong, I really do like this paint but every time I use it I have to remember to get a good finish takes much more patience. You can't just willy nilly throw in a few drops of thinner, shoot at whatever PSI sounds good, and throw down 2 coats and have it cover everything 100% like you can with the Tamiya. However, the longer process does provide amazing results.

Small little base I whipped up out of some wood:

 

[StevenBills]

Great job on the guns! Paint looks good, too!

SB

 

[skahtul]

Okay, all the primary colors are down. I have to take care of some overspray and a few other small repairs, along with getting the canopy painted black. But it's pretty much onto to weathering now which is pretty much the only reason I build these

While I am in no way trying to re-create some kind of ILM paint job (even if I could), I do want to keep the black area's light. It seems that with almost every kit, the engines are jet black and the top part is silver, grey, or black. In all the references I have, this is not the case.

 

[skahtul]

I still have a little work to finish up on the base, but I am calling this one done. It ended up being a super fun kit, maybe even more so than that Bandai because it's not perfect.

Anyway, I stuck with 99% weathering with the airbrush. I could not help myself and used a tiny bit of my favorite washes in a few select spots but otherwise, it's all airbrush.

 

[Jaitea]

Love it!

J

 

[2tall]

The overspray gave it the subdued ILM look. What color did you use for the overspray?

Looks great!

 

[skahtul]

The overspray gave it the subdued ILM look. What color did you use for the overspray?

Looks great!

Thanks, I ended up using a lot more colors than I originally pictured. Normally I would go back in with the base color and use that as a dusting (Alliance White in this case) but for this build, I used Light Grime and Earth. I also gave it just a tiny bit of the Dark Grime.

For me, the key was to really build up the layers so I went back and forth just a bit with each of those. I also used Weathered Black and Engine Black for all the really dark stuff.

Honestly, I think the Earth is my new favorite color.

 

[Analyzer]

Nice effects. Love the colors!

 

[skahtul]

Okay, this Falcon has been sitting on my bench for a long time, I started this before both the Star Destroyer and the X-Wing. The main reason it's been sitting unfinished is the decals. My normal process is to gloss coat my models and this seems to really help them stick. I also normally use Micro Sol with helps a ton. However for some reason I just could not get them right, they just don't seem to be conforming like they usually do. I am not sure if it's because I skipped the gloss coat, if it's this paint or I just have no idea what I am doing, etc.

I started to do some paint chipping but when I re-applied the Micro Sol they really got wrinkly... Anyway, that's enough about the decals.

Since I really liked the way my X-Wing turned out and I wanted to skip all the gloss/flat coats, I grabbed a stiff brush and bye-bye decals! This paint is VERY tough. I had a very, very stiff brush and the paint had zero damage. The only 'damaged' spots were from the razer blade. But, that's the nice thing about Star Wars kits, damage is good and only adds to the character

And in comes Archive X paint instead, it's really the way it should have been done anyway

 

[skahtul]

I am glad I changed directions, painting the panels is literally superior in every way. Well, except for one small item, I have no idea how to wether this without my normal oil and other washes

And yes, a few of the panels are not 100%, it's okay

 

[skahtul]

Finally found some time today to get back into this kit and I started off by getting the rest of the panels painted in.

 

[skahtul]

Once the panels were in I did a bit of weathering with an Exacto blade, sandpaper, and some 'paint chipping' with Alliance White. I followed this up with a dusting of the base coat, you can see the difference here, the one on the left has been knocked back a few notches.

Here they are both with some of the dusting.

 

[skahtul]

Got out some of the weathering black and rust to start really getting after this.

I finished this part of the weathering by going back and forth between the Earth color and the base coat:

 

[skahtul]

The last step is to get some streaking down. I have never found a technique that really works for me, there are a ton of different ways to do this I just have never been able to master any of them so I will be doing some experimenting this week.

Lastly, if anyone has any leads on 3D printed window replacement let me know. I have seen the one on Shapeways that you sort of 'overlay' onto the clear part but I am not a fan of that (I did try it out on my last build of this kit). It seems by now that someone would have a file that is just a 100% replacement part that gets rid of the clear part altogether.

 

[skahtul]

In a rare moment of inspiration, I was looking at the front window on my 1:24th TIE Interceptor and thought, I wonder if that would work for the Falcon?

I just need to correct the middle part so that it's round and it will work perfectly!

 

[skahtul]

I scaled the Gamebody files down to 80% and I think this will work! I printed it in PLA first as it took a few tries to get the right size.

Fit's great! Now I just need to fix up the window if I can and it should be good to go.

 

[skahtul]

This one is just about done. I just need to do a final mist coat to knock back a bit of the new weathering and streaking.