Star Wars Celebration Red 1pyro model

kh39 said:
Thank you for sharing great pictures! I have a question. The pyro Red Leader in these pictures and video look rather cool light grey to me. Did the pyro Red Leader look rather like Reefer White unlike these picture or light grey just like these pictures?
Click to expand...

I think the red arrows show the area where you are seeing the base coat color with little or no misting/grime over it

I may be totally wrong since I am going off pictures which may or may not be properly color balanced, but compared to the white background, it actually seems like a warm off white, basically a white with a bit of tan?

The rest of the X-Wing got darkened/greyed by mist coats and weathering layers

Capture02.PNG



Me personally, when painting mine, I aim for a base similar to that clean area on the wing and then as I add grime washes. mist coats etc... it considerably darkens the overall look. Using Tamiya paints (Archive-X acrylics weren't available yet when I did these) I mix White and some Deck Tan to get that color using more white than tan

Then, being 1/72 scale I find it easier, quicker to stain the base with oils, but on larger models this would be easier to achieve with mist coats of a darker color. Archive-X has colors for this, but I think they are basically mud colors and a blackish grime color. Not sure of the exact names
Also being 1/72, I did not go quite as dark as the larger studio model, but this kind of show the difference with that bare base coat patch on the top far side engine can on the Red 2 that I did

51632247947_5c2c53e6cc_k.jpg
IMG_5477 (2) by BLAKE HARTMAN, on Flickr
 
From what I recal this Red 1/3 looked like it had a base of reefer white.

I have a friend who worked on Star Wars back in 76 or 77 and he said that after one day they had boxes full of bits and pieces of exploded X-Wings and Y-Wings.
 
Thanks for the reply! When I first looked the You Tube video, I thought that the Red 1/3 looked whiter compare to the hero X-Wings, but for some reason, The pyro Red 1/3 looks warm grey. By the way, it's not a pyro model is it? What should I call it?
 
Is the difference between the pyro and hero that the pyros are from resin castings with a few greeblie plant ons, while the heroes are scratch built?

Or do the heroes also use a resin cast for the fuselage at the very least?
 
Yes to the first question, although a few resin casts of greeblie subassemblies undoubtedly made it onto heros. The hero fuselages had a resin bottom half and a vacuformed upper half. The pyros were light foamy resin, with the fuselage being in L/R halves.
 
The bigger difference is of course that the heroes had moving wings and lights, whereas the pyros were built in fixed "open wing" configuration, and had no lights. The early ones were beautifully painted though and I think they're great pieces of art.
 
The heros are cast resin tops and vacu-form bottoms, have an aluminum armature, movable wings, lights, better paint jobs, different details than the pyros, hollow wings, and are split top to bottom.

The pyros are a brittle foam for all parts, no armature, non movable wings, no lights, rougher paint job, different details (chipping) than the heros, solid wings and are split left to right.

I'm sure there are other differences that I'm not thinking of.
 
Last edited:
I wonder what type of foam they used, probably urethane ? Did they cast it in silicone molds. It's probably been talked about in the forum, but I've only ever heard foam, but no details. If anybody knows. Perhaps Adam Savage is lurking around and knows, ; )
 
It was a urethane self skinning foam. I don't think the exact one is still made today but you can get something similar.
As far as mold material, I would guess a urethane rubber was used as I don't think silicone rubber was in wide use in the mid 70's.
 
Oh ok. I forgot about the silicone thing. I think the urethane foam was also used on parts of the Draconia for Buck Rogers. Another fav of mine. You can see some parts flaking off in some of the restoration pics. This X wing looks really good for it's age. Wish I did, ; )
 
kh39 said:
There is a picture of hero Red 1 in the middle of the page:
www.creativebloq.com

The secrets behind Star Wars' special effects

It was the movie that changed everything. But Star Wars was made on an X-wing and a prayer, reveals Oscar-winning Richard Edlund
www.creativebloq.com www.creativebloq.com

Is there a bigger size of the pic?
Click to expand...

Apparently there is not a lot (at least publicly) on Red Leader

You probably have to be a member of the secret X-Wing cabal

at any rate there are these...

modelermagic.com

Red 1 ( Red Leader ) X-Wing Studio Model

As with the RED 5 Studio Model Photos, after posting these Red Leader photos originally back in December 2008, then pulling them due to the commotion they caused within the Hobby, then again with R…
modelermagic.com modelermagic.com
 
I helped authenticate this! It'd been in private hands for ages, and so amazing that it has surfaced publicly. Yes, hero Red 1 is still "in the wind".

Y'all hit the high points so I only need to add:

X-Wings were a medly of resin mixtures AND paint processes. I've been collating all the info I have gotten from the 4 or 5 Van Nuys era guys over the years, and essentially, they were experimenting. Foamed resin on the pyros, different mixtures, until they hit upon a good balance that would blow apart. And to the hero models appearing different - some were primed in black, some in grey. Some base coated in white auto primer, some reefer white, some hot rod white (another creamy white).... so really, we are kind of liberated in a way, because these birds are ALL OVER THE PLACE.

So with that in mind, you start picking up on those differences - Red 1 seems bright almots bone white. Red 3 is pretty tan. Red 5 is somewhere in between... it's endlessly fascinating.

Also, I have a casting of the AWOL Red 5 Hero shells now:

https://www.facebook.com/roboterkampf/posts/10160152131318156
 
Here are some short vids I snapped at Celebration. So cool to see this in-person! Really surprised at some of the colors and weathering effects!

Sean



 
In Adam Savage's video about this on Nerdist, he points out bits of weathering that look like knicks through layers and paint down to primer, but says they are the reverse, painted in layers to look that way, in progressively smaller specks until the "primer" is a dot in the center. Maybe in later eras, but on this one? Really? When they were literally letting a Dremel bit skip across the surface on ANH models? It seems like a lot more work than just gouging through paint with an X-Acto.
 
It’s a beautiful model but what’s the general feeling that someone might pay a million dollars for it. Overvalued?..... nuts? ......worth every cent?.
 

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.

Similar threads

curiouslysophie
Red 5 decal placement
Replies
4
Views
522
curiouslysophie
curiouslysophie
CosmicQuest
Scale Model Internal Structure
Replies
5
Views
464
CosmicQuest
CosmicQuest
darthbooth1978
Imperial Probe Droid studio scale model help
Replies
14
Views
1,079
Duncanator
Duncanator
joez2391
John Eaves Tie Fighter and X-Wing Production Model history
Replies
3
Views
620
PHArchivist
PHArchivist
GEEK1138
USS ENTERPRISE 11 FOOT 3D PRINTED MODEL
3 4 5
Replies
87
Views
8,240
joberg
joberg
Back
Top