Bandai Rogue One X-Wing advice

I'm tackling my first Bandai ship kit, the Rogue One X-wing Special set with 1/72 & 1/144 ships, and was curious if the plastic out of the box will look sufficient or if I should actually paint the hull/wings.

I plan on using the waterslide decals, accenting panel lines, and weathering with Tamiya weather master kits (and the usual methods). From what I've seen online I think it'll look ok without painting the ship, but was hoping for some expert advice if anyone has time to offer a little input.

Of course I plan on doing paint work, but didn't know if I should lay down a base coat on the entire hull (hope this makes sense...lol).

Thanks.

Edit: I just found Moose84's thread on this very topic which will help lots. Sorry I started this thread, did a search and somehow missed it.

As mentioned by others in the past, only downside is that the bare plastic has a slight translucence quality that may be noticeable.




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Thanks, Darth.

Have you watched youtube vids of builds? Some people leave them unpainted, so you can judge how it looks.

Put it this way. I have done a few "bare plastic" models.

This was mainly for 1 of 2 reasons

- either I just couldn't get the right paint color and the plastic was the prefect color

or

-there was just so much complicated masking that would be involved and the plastic color was already the right color

In each case I had to put so much work into getting it prepped for weathering and to get it matted down to not look like plastic, that it probably would have been easier in the long run to just paint it if I had the patience to build it in subsections and paint as I went, or just bit the bullet and went with a "close enough" color

two of these models are bare plastic, two are fully painted.



Maybe because I know it''s just the plastic color, but when I look at the ones I did not paint, they somehow look different to me. I can't really explain it, other than something feels off about it and I find myself wishing I had tried painting them

These two are also bare plastic

Checked out some youtube builds, great idea Caymen Shen.

Thanks for info, blakeh 1. Those are some beautiful models, by the way.

I have decided to build the 1/144 going bare plastic and see how I like it as a basis for the larger ship.
I've built some Bandai droids and been happy with bare plastic (except for "metal" parts like domes) but this kit has made me realize it's time to make the leap to an airbrush.