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1/144 Y-Wing


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I got some primer on the Gonk earlier today and, while I was waiting for that to dry, I thought I'd have a look at getting some of this together

 

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All these Badai box scale releases are pretty simple, with very low parts count (and very low prices too), but the detail they've managed to squeeze into the box is pretty spectacular. I posted some sprue shots a while ago, which can be seen here. You could easily just snap this together in 10 minutes and have a great looking model, but I've decided to refine some of the details a bit, starting with the two main guns.

 

the two cannon barrels come moulded to the lower cockpit section. They're not hollow so you'd need to drill them out (if you're bothered about that kind of thing). I hate drilling out barrels, as I always get them off centre, so I made more work for myself than was strictly necessary by rebuilding them from brass tube

 

Before

 

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After

 

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The front section is 0.6mm Albion Alloys micro tube into .8mm then 1mm, which then goes into some thicker stuff from Trumpeter. I just cut two slots into the bulkhead section, and stuck them in.

 

With that done, the top half of the cockpit was added. I'll be leaving the canopy off for painting

 

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The other bits I've replaced are the two U-shaped bars at the back of the main fuselage. They come moulded as part of the side panels, and look a little chunky, so I cut them off and replaced them with copper wire

 

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After that the fuselage fell together. It's essentially just a top and bottom section with 4 sidewall pieces that clip into place but, despite the simplicity, it makes a very intricate layered structure

 

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The level of detail on these parts really is amazing. For scale reference the wire I added at the back is 0.5mm thick

 

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The cockpit is a very snug push-fit onto the fuselage, but I'll leave it separate for painting

 

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Andy

 

 

Edited by AndyRM101
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19 hours ago, Mike said:

I'm still holding out for a 1:48 kit of this one, seemingly in vain

 

I don't think there's much chance from Bandai, but you never know what Zvezda might do if the SD sells well

 

19 hours ago, Madhatter said:

that's a lot of nicely molded detail there. How big is this?

 

6 hours ago, Blastvader said:

About half the size of the 1/72 one

 

Pretty much this :D

 

Actually about 11cm, but the photo probably gives a better idea

 

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Andy

 

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1 hour ago, M_Sinclair said:

Unreal what is possible these days.

 

It really is, but Bandai appear to be masters of the art, and are without peer in the clever design and superb detail that they cram into these little kits.  You should see their Real Grade Gundams... several colours of styrene on one sprue, faultless fit, and you end up with a model that required no glue, which can be posed however you want due to the clever engineering :worthy:

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Meng might be catching them up on that though with their new releases, I haven't seen a bad review of their snap together Mustang and I'm very keen to see how they've managed to make a snap fit 1/700 warship without skimping on detail :P

 

That said these little mechakits are lovely for the price, build whole squadrons of the things :)

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23 hours ago, Hockeyboy76 said:

I'm still trying to figure out how to paint the Astromechs!!!

 

You and me both. I'm just going to pick out the panels as best I can, and hope it looks reasonable from a distance, as I don't think it will up close.

 

4 hours ago, Mike said:

It really is, but Bandai appear to be masters of the art, and are without peer in the clever design and superb detail that they cram into these little kits.  You should see their Real Grade Gundams... several colours of styrene on one sprue, faultless fit, and you end up with a model that required no glue, which can be posed however you want due to the clever engineering :worthy:

 

It's even more astonishing when you consider the price they can sell these things for, all of which begs the (rhetorical) question, why can't everybody else do the same!

 

So, I wasn't quite sure how to approach painting this, as anything too heavy handed would look out of scale with something this small. I wanted to replicate the paint chipping from the studio models, but hairspray wouldn't look right at this size. In the end I went with masking fluid chipping, although I was a bit worried that the chips would just look to big and patchy

I gave all the parts a base coat of medium grey to start with

 

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When that was dry I applied the masking fluid as sparingly as I could with a sponge. Most of the fluid was removed on a paper tower first, which helped keep the chips small. The top coat was Vallejo Off White and once that was dry the masking was rubbed off. The effect is okay, but I'm going to add some tinted white glazes over the top which will hopefully lighten the surface a bit more (I think it's probably a little too grey still) and also tone down the chips. The chipping for the blue stripes and canopy was done the same way

 

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Masking out the yellow band on the cockpit will be a little easier as Bandai have added panel lines which outline the stripe(that's probably a relic of the 1/72 release, which had this section as a separate part). The rest of the fuselage will be done the same way, then it'll be all the detail painting. I'm doing this one as Gold 2, which was the one with the rust coloured plumbing on the back, so that should add a bit of visual interest to the finished thing.

 

Andy

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10 minutes ago, Misrule said:

Meng might be catching them up on that though with their new releases, I haven't seen a bad review of their snap together Mustang and I'm very keen to see how they've managed to make a snap fit 1/700 warship without skimping on detail :P

 

They do seem to have taken some inspiration from Bandai for the Mustang. I'm quite keen to try one.

 

Andy

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The base coats are all finished now, and I've started on some of the detail painting. I sprayed the engine nacelles with AMMO white rather than the Vallejo Off White I'd used on the cockpit and fuselage, as I didn't think the Vallejo was bright enough. The cockpit and fuselage both had an over-spray of the AMMO white to tie them in, which had the side benefit of toning down the paint chips

 

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The main nozzles have had a few glazes with Citadel Seraphim Sepia and Agrax Earthshade. Once they're in place in the nacelles, they're pretty much inaccessible so I wanted to get some weathering on before they're installed

 

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I've also started painting the pipework on the fuselage. These still need some shading and a few touch-ups here and there. I've also painted (quite roughly) the astromech. I've gone with the colouring that Finemolds show in their painting guide for Gold 2, which doesn't really correspond with any of the Y-Wing astromechs from New Hope, but the Y-Wing astromechs are a bit vague anyway. Tiree's (Gold 2) unit is R2-D0 but as far as I know there's no definitive colour for him

 

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Andy

 

 

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Thanks guys

 

Most of the main painting is now done. There's one more yellow panel to add on the nose and the glazing to paint, then it's just the weathering.. The fuselage has already had a grey enamel wash which has started to bring some of the detail out better. The rest will get the same wash, then a selective filter to vary the tone a bit across the surface

 

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Andy

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