The DEFINITIVE X-wing thread?

[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 ! :lol

 

[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

 

[stonky]

I am loving this thread and all of the great pics! The X-Wing to me is the definitive Star Wars vehicle and really can't get enough attention - for awhile there it kind of fell off the radar but it's nice to see that it's getting it's due.

I still remember the original 1:24 X-Wing thread that spawned the modeling forum here when before everything was lumped into one props forum, it must have been 10 or 11 years ago now...

 

[Rodmart85]

Hi JediMaster, hi everyone.
I think a new X-Wing thread is a great and fun idea!

I am about to paint one of my 1/24 X-Wings and the base color is always a good subject to review.
I painted my AMT X-Wing with Model Master's Camouflage gray mixed with flat white. I mixed it until I thought it looked good but I think it was still too dark for my taste and that after I airbrushed a cote of flat white with a lot of thinner. Here is how it looks, what do ya think:



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Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[jedimaster]

Rod mart that looks great. I think the most important thing is getting that base color right. Not too white , not too grey but then it depends on which bird you are building. My red3 hero build has a much darker grey than the other birds to match the studio model.

Of course it's been said before that if you keep trying to match the studio models using the ref available you will go nuts (see me) as a lot of the ref is over exposed and washed out. Still I have hundreds of ref and I think the most valuable stuff is the shots taken in the archives. Unfortunately not all the birds survive so you are limited to a few hero models but thanks to Jason we now have a few more complete pyro refs as well which has been my focus of late.
Can't wait to see you paint your 1/24th and can't wait to get my hands on a couple myself. Gonna go red1 and red2 heroes with them.

 

[STEVE THE SWEDE]

The best paint result I ever had on a SS X-wing was gloss white lacquer paint over a flat black primer coat. The key thing is to first dull the white with steel whool and then polish it up a bit with a soft cloth. Then drench it with several pases of enamel wash. I'm on my Iphone now but I'll try and post some pics later. Trust me though, it's the bomb! Until I find some pics of the prosses here's link to some finished pics of my old red-2 painted with this technique: http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=29434

Steve.

 

[jedimaster]

That is the most awesome red 2 Steve. I always go back to you're build for refs.

 

[jedimaster]

Ok ... Does anyone have any pix of the Maxi Brute cockpit ?

 

[Scott Graham]

Maxi Brute was just all one piece of van formed white plastic. Window area was just opaque styrene as part of the rest of the body.

 

[jedimaster]

Thanks Scott, does anyone have a casting of the original ILM cockpit? Not the highly detailed ie v3 version bit the basic one. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Junk Pilot]

Here's the Maxi-Brute fuselage, just for reference purposes, and shows the one piece fuselage (minus the nose cone).

 

[jedimaster]

Yeah thanks, I thought I saw one with a cockpit interior. Must have been a mod. What I am really after is a casting of the old ILM original interior. The pyro castings that were available on eBay some years ago had them . They were a solid fuse with the molded in cockpit . I know a few here have either the original masters or castings from them and have seen a few builds where people have gutted the cockpit due to it not been detailed enough. for ref see the Dave g thread.

Thanks anyway.