Y-Wing Gold Leader "Tie Killer"

kokkari

Sr Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
I had a couple of people ask me to post some photos of this build of my Studio Scale Tie Killer Y-Wing. It's a kit from Galactic Resin. It measures in at about 27 inches and has lighting in the cockpit and engines.
 
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Re: Studio Scale Y-Wing Gold Leader "Tie Killer"

I found this kit to be a great starting point for creating my version of Gold Leader. There were some things I wanted to add and change to look more like Gold Leader. No, every piece is not exactly like the filming miniature, but I did add quite a few that are. The most noticeable changes I made from the original kit were adding some width to the rear section of the head to look more triangular like the original. This required me to add styrene and re due the panel lines and greablees.
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I also shortened the neck a little and made it skinnier to look more like the filming miniature. This is easiest to see from above.
Top Comparison.jpg
The kit is set up for 3/16 T-bars at 12 inches, I went with 1/4 at 13inches, so I had to do some modifications to make them fit.
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This transmission piece was backwards, so I had to cut it out and turn it around. Major pain!
 
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Re: Studio Scale Y-Wing Gold Leader "Tie Killer"

These photos are of the finished bird. They are a little more yellowish and saturated than it actually looks because my sinc chord for my photo strobe lights was not working and I had to use what I had
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- - - Updated - - -

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Re: Studio Scale Y-Wing Gold Leader "Tie Killer"

I also did my own brass tubing for the forward guns.
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Re: Studio Scale Y-Wing Gold Leader "Tie Killer"

The back of the engines were hard to find good reference photos of, as was the case for the whole bird. I've seen different versions and interpretations of it here on the RPF. I used thin styrene and bent it to do the octagonal (or whatever 7 is called) shaped ring.
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Re: Studio Scale Y-Wing Gold Leader "Tie Killer"

And my favorite photo...
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I had to try and impose it and my other Y into the trench run Haha!
 
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Really lovely paint job, can you give us a step by step break down of your approach and what colours you used please?
 
Really lovely paint job, can you give us a step by step break down of your approach and what colours you used please?

Thanks! I really appreciate that. Painting is my favorite part of model making. I start off with a dark primer, usually a flat black krylon primer for plastic. I really make sure I get the primer paint in the scribed lines and recesses of the model. this will help the detail pop later. This particular model I used Tamiya Insignia White as my base coat on top of the primer. I've heard guys say that insignia white is too cold or grey, but I find if I apply multiple coats it warms the color up. I will also give it a light, light spray of my airbrush of a mix of deck tan and white to further warm it up on the flat panels. I then added the yellow stripes with the airbrush with Testors daisy yellow. Again the more coats the darker the yellow gets. I used Tamiay Haze Grey for the cockpit canopy and the grey on the engines. All my chips in the paint are a combination of using liquid mask and me beating it up with the Dremel after all the base colors are down. Before the weathering process began it looked like this.
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Ill post more later.
 
For weathering I do a combination of the dremel, brown and black washes, airbrushing, oil paints (because they go on beautifully), and pastels (for the streaks and grime). It's all about the layers of each to make the weathering look good and natural. Don't try and do it all in one night. I even will use a sharpie and ruler to draw in lines and marks like these:
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To best illustrate what I do for the dremel and washes, I like this video. You can't understand anything he says but he demonstrates the techniques starting about 2 min. in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLVDKqcdbgQ

For oils and pastels I really like FichtenFoo's tutorials. There are like six parts. All are good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wreblsPaUhU

Really Important! If you use oils and pastels make sure you use a clear matte acrylic non-yellowing coating at the end to seal everything or else they will smear. I look at tons of photos and look at all the details and try and imagine how the ILM guys did it using these techniques. Always look for subtle changes in shades and color to emulate. For example if you notice the above photo the cockpit canopy actually fades to a darker color towards the back. The actual model does this also. Stuff like that, in my opinion really makes a difference. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks! I really appreciate that. Painting is my favorite part of model making.

Thank Kokkari for taking the time to detail your technique, and the tutorial videos will be essential too.

Using a Sharpie for the markings is a revelation ;) I thought they were decals!

I have an MR Y-wing that needs a repaint (the factory paint job is so heavy it's almost all black!). I have the confidence now to give it a go. Mine will be a Gold 3.

Many, many thanks!
 
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In the Japanese Millennium Flacon video, once he's put on the thinned Tamiya wash, he takes a cue-tip and seems to be able to wipe it off and blend it in easily. In my experience, even heavily thinned Tamiya acrylics dry instantly leaving stains.

Do you think the cue-tip has some abrasive, or paint remover on it - such as automotive polish?
 
In the Japanese Millennium Flacon video, once he's put on the thinned Tamiya wash, he takes a cue-tip and seems to be able to wipe it off and blend it in easily. In my experience, even heavily thinned Tamiya acrylics dry instantly leaving stains.

Do you think the cue-tip has some abrasive, or paint remover on it - such as automotive polish?

You know I've had the same experience. That's why I use oils. They go on and off easy, blend, and make it easy to do subtle effects. I did see a video about acrylic washes once and they used a spray bottle of water to dampen the are first so they don't stick.
 
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Speaking of weathering techinques, check out FichtenFoos tutorial on using oils for weathering. A more time consuming technique than the wash that is used in the Japanese video, but the results are spectacular.

Millennium Falcon weathering
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wreblsPaUhU

Y-wing and X-wing
http://fichtenfoo.net/blog/completed-»-x-wing-and-y-wing/

Hope it helps :)

PS. Kokkari, it appears you don't need any tips on weather techniques... your model looks awesome! :thumbsup

That's funny you you referred grahmT to the FichtenFoo videos. I did the same thing in post 10. I love those videos. The guy is incredible I've watched them many times. Thanks for the complement!
 
top notch weathering job!!!

the paintjob but especially the weathering is what makes or kills a model and you did a outstanding job at achieving both.:thumbsup

Gerardo
 
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