FM 1:48 X wing WIP

Re: X wing models?

Regarding the equivalent paints between manufacturers, you might find these link helpful;

Ultimate Model Paint Conversion Chart - Paint4models.com

and

Color Reference Charts - Federal Standard

Hope that helps.

Re: X wing models?

Hey Guys,
Well I was going to wait to post until the model arrived, but it seems customs has got its money grabbing hands on it. Thanks so much for all the info, and especially the colour charts/conversion site.

Ive been busy though, I went ahead and used that paint conversion site to convert the tamia into humbrol (Thank Noumcea) But It turned out I had most of those colours anyway, so I used that as an excuse to go out and actually buy the Tamia colour plus a few extras. I also picked up some pigments that I though would be cool to chuck on the x wing for when I cant get in those small spots with the airbrush.

Hopefully the next update now will be with me working on the model, I will then either start a new thread or try and re-name this one.

Thanks again guys for the advice,

Welsh

Well guys,
After about 3 weeks, I received a battered brown box, Finally it arrived...and amazingly no customs charges. Luckily the model itself was in better condition than the delivery box.



My Initial thoughts of the model was that it is incredibly detailed, but whether its because ive been reading through a lot of SS X wing wips, it was a little smaller than I expected. So depending on how this kit goes, im really tempted to get a SS version, but thats a long way a way yet.

Now Im not going to do any extra detailing to this piece, Just a straight up build and paint. With it being my first go at something like this I dont want to ruining it. I may fill in any gaps/seams but that will be as far as I go.

So back on topic, I laid out all the pieces to see whats what. Then went ahead and washed them with warm soapy water. (Not sure if this was needed, but Ive seen others do this to get the mold release off the parts and did not want to take any chances)



As eager as I was to get building this thing, I thought It would be best to read through the instructions and see if any bits needed painting etc which I wouldnt be able to do with it built. So I started with the cockpit.

Like Jedimaster said, I went ahead and mixed my own blue up for the cockpit, then painted in the details with blacks, greys, reds etc... Didnt really go screen accurate with it, just sort of painted it on the fly :S



Then I had to see what it would look like in the canopy so I taped it in place. Really happy so far.



Thats all for now, I will be taking my time over this. Ive decided to go for red 5, maybe even get another to do Wedge and have the two together (again long way away). Ive looked at the decal sheet as well, and I think the only decals I will be using will be the blue details on the guns and the cockpit section. Other than that all airbrush.

Any comments and crit welcome, take it easy though as its my first ever model lol.

Welsh

Great job so far mate. If I could offer some advice and you probably already have but if ya mix ya own colours , I always mix a little more than I need and keep it in a separate jar just for any touch-ups you may need later on. Off to a good start man.

Simon.

Looks Great! I just ordered this kit and should receive it next week.. This model will be my fourth build.. After reading this I hope it even comes sooner but I have a kit to wrap up in the mean time. I have been researching different lighting options for the same kit were you thinking of installing Led lights? I researched on youtube and the engine lights they make for this kit is really nice but then cost does play a factor. Here is a link and juno is also a member of this site. Lightbenders

The FM kit images that I have seen and what I have read I can't wait to start.. I paid like 70 for mine in the US. I think I am going to air brush with the colors for-mentioned in this thread. I also read that comouflage grey works well but that the x wing is def not white!!

Keep the pics coming I should start mine next weekend and will prob post pics as well.
The colors in the dash was there any reference or did you just decide to go with the color's..
I just finished a small dash and did not go with any specific reference for the 1/48 snowspeeder. here is a pic, this was my second build so I am a noob as well.

Re: X wing models?

jedimaster said:

Lee is right on the base colour. I used insignia white over dark grey primer on my Ss x's it looks great. Lee also gets a buck from Tamiya every time he mentions them. In fact if you look at the pix in his posts , there is a Tamiya product placed somewhere in the background.... Go on ask him what airbrush he uses. He hehe...

No seriously I re kon Tamiya paints would be the way to go. I liked em so much, I bought a whole rack.. No seriously the whole rack.

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Click to expand...

Hmm, seems i now owe Simon a couple of bucks :lol. Just wait till i do another video, im going to overdose you with the big T now buddy, really milk it LOL.

lee

Will be watching this build! I've just finished assembly on mine and now have to decide which way to go on paint.

Robert

Youngwm:
I did briefly think about installing lights, but as you say the price of kits put me off and Im terrible with a soldering iron. There is tons of space under the cockpit and canopy for it:



I managed to get a spare hour to sit down and get some more work done on the piece. I finished painting the rest of the cockpit and installed the main control unit decal.





I installed the top detail strip, with a bit of sanding the fit was perfect. R2 will be installed and painted last along with luke.





I then went ahead and had a quick go of assembling the lower set of wings. Although the model dosent really require glue, I used a dab or two in places to ensure pieces were firmly attached. I also left some pieces free so I can take them apart for ease of painting later.





Hoping to get the wing sections finished by the weekend, I am also thinking of creating a set of guns using brass tubes.

Thanks guys for the compliments and comments,

Welsh

Totally forgot about this thread :facepalm
Thought I would post a small update. Ive had this put together for a while now, its just been sat in the workshop collecting dust. At the moment nothing that needs to be is glued, its all snapped/placed on for ease of painting at a later date (Hence the huge gap on the canopy). Im also not really happy with the detail on certain parts, and found a local art shop that sells a good selection of styrene near me so I will be picking some up soon. At the moment ive got two commissions I need to do ASAP, then I can get back to quietly putting this together. Im really looking forward to getting the airbrush on it

















And no I will not be using the stand, but it will come in handy when painting I feel. Im thinking of picking up a 1:48 TIE and doing a display. So what do you think, im pretty pleased for my first real go at a model.

Welsh

Hey guys,
Long time no post. Ive been looking over the model section for the last few days, I dont know why. Maybe because of the bad weather over here and wanting to do something.

So I built the fine mold as you can see in the last post a while back, but was never really happy with it. It was sat in my display, unfinished for a while. For my first real go at a model I thought I did ok, but I wanted to make it better.

So today I gathered some reference imaged of SS style X-wings, and had a look at what I could do to make it look better. As a small model I think the detail is great, but comparing it to a SS you can see its slightly off. The panel lines I feel are slightly different, yet I feel its out of my skill set to sand them all down and re-scribe them. So instead I thought about accurizing (Is that a word??) the raised detail sections you see on the fuselage.

So the one thing that bothered me was this piece



I dont know why, but every time I saw a SS model I would notice it, and on mine it was not properly there. So I cut the piece off and sanded slightly,



Then went and cut out my own version of it. Now I have never worked with anything so small before, and trying to get them kind of symmetrical was a nightmare. The swearwords that came out of my mouth as the piece jumped around, I was not proud of :confused But alas I got them stuck down and was happy with them.



Then came about doing the rest of the fuselage. After an hour or so I started to enjoy myself doing it. I tried to put them in the correct spots with relation to the panel lines, but the fine molds lines slightly differ compared to most so I had to adjust.





Then I went and put a light coat of primer on, I can see that I need to fix a lil spot or two, but for the most part I am really pleased with my first ever go at modding a model. Ive now started on the underside of the fuselage as well.







My next plan will be to fill in the nasty seam lines on the guns. The wings im leaving as they are as im quite happy with the detail. And I feel If I was to adjust them I would not be able to get them to a decent standard after. Im also still thinking about brass barrels for the guns, as well as a lighting kit I found. But I would really only go with the lighting kit if I was to do a dio with a Tie, also still thinking about.

Im no expert on X wings, so If anyone can see any glaring mistakes that could be fixed on the fine molds, please could you point them out

Progress will be slow on this as Im busy with commission work, and this was just a little fun on a rainy day. But I am determined to finish this, and im really looking forward to painting. But I will post up the odd update or two when I do eventually get time to work on it.

Means ive never worked on anything so small im pretty pleased with how the details have come out. What do you guys think?

I just love the look of primer...

Nice work so far! Looking forward to seeing the painting and weathering!

Sean

wow almost a year since I last updated this. Ive been off for the last two weeks so thought I would dust the old bird off and do some more work on it.

Cant say when I will next work on this but I will post updates when I get them. So I really wanted to upgraded the guns to brass tubes to add a sense of the SS models. So spent the last day or two working on them which im pretty pleased with.









Also picked up a revell easy kit Tie as it was on offer in our local model shop...and its actually a really nice looking kit. Its a little big compared to the 1/48 X wing but I think they can work together. Had a play around with a dog fight chase;



Would like to get another X wing to do a red 2 and red 3 getting chased by the TIE. With the X wing now, im planning on purchasing some 3D kit parts of the engine nossels, saturn detail pieces inside the engines, the gun tips, a new canopy, droid strip and end plate . Other than that im not sure what else I will really do in terms of upgrades. Next now will be filling and sanding all the seams. This will be a RED 5 as well by the way.

What do you guys think, does it look alright. Im pretty stoked for my first real model kit.

Welsh

Beautiful work. Its those little details you are adding that will set off the model rather nicely... especially the cut bits of plasticard on the fuselage.

The Revell TIE is admittedly a bit big in scale compared to the FM kit, but if you look at the footage in the first film, the TIEs looked HUGE. almost 15 years ago, I did a diorama called "Blast it Biggs, where are you?" where I duplicated that iconic SW poster of a TIE chasing an X-Wing. All I had to work with back then were the 1/61 scale MPC Snap X-Wing and the AMT/Ertl 1/48 TIE Fighter (and its Death Star detail base came in handy for the diorama). This was about two years before we got the first FineMolds X-Wing in 1/72 and three years before the TIE (and long before the 1/48 FM kits of both). The scales were a little off, but displayed in the manner I wanted, it matched up just fine with the footage.

Some nice improvements on detailing!

As far as the relative size of the Revell Tie and Fine Molds 1/48 X-wing...if you are to believe that the FFG got their scales right, and that the studio models for both the X-wing and Tie are both really 1/24th, than the ties are much bigger than most people think. That makes the Fine Molds ties are too small for their stated scales. In which case, the Revell tie is actually closer to the correct relative size for a pairing with the Fine Molds X-wing. FFG supposedly claims that most of what was considered the accepted sizes for the tie dimensions are not correct and they apparently went with just a straight scaling down of the studio models.

Looks great. Please keep us updated.

I'm in the middle of a 1/48 FM X-Wing myself - not nearly as nice as yours, I'm afraid.


-MJ

So I managed to get a weekend off to try and finish this thing. Its been sat in its box in primer for ages. Last time I got the guns all changed over for brass one, now I needed to attach the end barrel section. For that I just carefully drilled into the back of them with a drill bit the same size as the brass barrels. Little dab of glue and the guns were installed, not permanently though as I thought it easier to have them separate for painting. I also taped up the canopy.



Now for the painting. I did have some tamiya acrylics ready to go, but in the end thought I would wing it and use enamels. Im pretty much going with what looks good to my eye, not aiming for 100% accuracy, just a close enough job will do. So i went ahead and applied the off white/grey base;




Then once that was dry, I put the red down. I went a little bright with this as I will be toning it down with the weathering so dont want it to dull to much. The chips and damage will be better detailed with a brush later;



With the red done, I then put the yellow down, as well as the top red section on the wings. I still need to do the underside and the green;



Im pretty pleased with how this is going. I wont be able to work on this now until next saturday, by then I hope to be able to do the green and the underside of the wings, plus the canopy. So for my 1st Xwing, what do you guys think so far?

Welsh

For your first ever - I think it looks great!

welshwarrior123: Great build, really enjoyed the pics. Did you ever finish this bird?

SB