Stay on Target: Yet Another 1/72 FM Red 3 X-Wing

Wow what a great job. Considering the scale of that thing, it's unreal what you've done with it. Simply incredible. I like how you walked us through, and the best part, telling of your mistakes or misfortunes along the way. The experimenting. As modelers, so much of this is technique that is learned through years of what/how to do, and probably more important, what/how NOT to do. You know what they say, half of knowing what to do, is knowing what not to do.

Beautiful piece. We need more posts like this one.
 
Spatter:

I forgot to mention a technique I used to get the detailed weathering to look right. There's a lot of spatter on the original ILM models. Here's a shot of the real Red 3 showing a pretty clear example:

kg-lucasfilm_archived-red3-reference-036.jpg

I first tried replicating this by flicking brush bristles, but that tends to get paint everywhere. I masked off areas where I didn't want paint to go, but I was rarely happy with the results. It's too unpredictable. Then I tried blasting air from my airbrush across a paintbrush dipped in paint. I had good luck with this technique on my AT-AT build, but it's very dependent on the thickness of the paint. If the paint is too thin it just goes on like it was airbrushed. I had to wipe off the fuselage a couple of times while I was trying to replicate this specific bit of spatter with that technique.

I should mention that after I was happy with the wash and the misting coats, I did apply a coat of matte varnish to protect everything I'd done so far when it came time to start doing the serious weathering which allowed me to wipe off mistakes without damaging what I'd already done..

I don't know how they did the spatters at ILM, but here's what worked best for me. With a double action airbrush, if you don't let the trigger forward to it's stop before you lift up to shut off the airflow, paint will build up around the tip. Then, when you next push the trigger down (but don't pull back!), that extra paint will blast out in a splatter of dots. It looks perfect! I discovered it by accident because I was trying to figure out a way to start and stop my airbrush while it was still pointed at the model without getting spatter. Then I thought I could use that spatter for good! Here's a detail:

Spatter Detail.jpg

Earlier in this thread I said it's really hard to match something that's a result of a random technique and this is a good example. I wasn't about to try and match every dot of paint to the original. My spatter is perhaps a bit overdone, but it gives the model the same general feeling as the original I think. If that makes any sense. And also, at 1/72nd scale, the dots are almost invisible to the naked eye, but you'd miss them if they weren't there.

Anyway, I recommend taking some scrap plastic, or even just paper, and trying to develop a good spatter technique with a double action airbrush. Again, the trick is to release the trigger abruptly while spraying. Then aim where you want your splatter and press the trigger down, but without pulling it back (that would spray paint everywhere). You should get a blast of air that blows out the trapped paint in the tip and gives you a nice small, and semi-controllable, spatter of dots.

I should mention that I use an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS with a .35mm needle, because no doubt that will affect things.
 
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Absolutely amazing work on such a small kit, I'm finally in the last build and paint stages of mine (my first model in years) and this has been very helpful and inspiring on the weathering front! Again really nice work!

Andy
 
Thanks, Stonky!

I keep remembering things I did on this build that I forgot to mention in the earlier posts. I did cheat a little and use something that ILM didn't. The little weathering kits from Tamiya are great for adding streaks of soot, spots of rust, a gleam of metal, and just general old grunge. If you haven't seen them they come in packs like this:

Tamiya Weathering.JPG

There are a whole bunch of them in different colors and they work really well. They're oil based pigment so you can work them over or even erase them with a bit of mineral spirits--white spirits for those of you on the other side of the pond.

They come with a small foam applicator that works pretty well. In order to not mix up all the colors I bought a bunch more applicators at a makeup supply store. I used the soot color to give a little life to any areas of the model I missed with the wash or the airbrushed streaks. The effect is really easy to control using this method and it allows you to be very specific about what you're duplicating. I found that using a plastic straight-edge as a guide (held slightly off the surface of the model) I could duplicate the long streaks that appear here and there, especially the bottom.

I also accented the engine nozzles with a few of the orange and blue shades meant to replicate burnt metal. The effect may seem like too much at first, but it gets toned down a bit when you spray a protective matte coat over everything when you're done. Here's a closeup of two of the engine nozzles. The effect is subtle but I think effective.

Engine 2.jpgEngine 1.jpg

You can also see flecks from the metallic gunmetal pigment, also from one of the Tamiya weathering kits. It helps add some texture that I like, though it's pretty hard to see with the naked eye on such a small scale kit. But all the little bits of texture and color help make the model look more like something real that's been used, and less like a toy.

If you want a cheaper alternative to the Tamiya weathering kits (these things are kinda pricey) joberg has been using eye shade powder (or whatever you call it) to age his amazing Studio Scale 2001 space station. You can get it in larger quantities for less money. Here's a link to his incredible build if you want to get an idea what I'm talking about. Prepare to be amazed:

http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=210841

As always, thanks for looking!
 
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