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FineMolds 1/72 X-Wing


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I always wondered what it looked like in here! ;)

I was looking for something easy after the Lagg-3 and the big 109. Something quick and beautifully engineered, so it was to the land of the rising sun one turned.

My first SF thread on BM is the delicious FineMolds Incom T-65 as flown by Wedge Antillies, or Red Two as he was once known. I picked this up at Telford last year as an excuse to use Retro SF's resin cockpit. Turns out, I'll be discarding half of it in favour of the kit parts. The Canopy they supply is intended for those who want to make an ILM version i.e. no glass in the frames, so I wont be using that. The instrument console is like nothing I've ever seen in an X-Wing, so I'll be using FineMolds part. I don't know who they modeled the pilot on, but I don't think it captures Dennis Lawson's best side, so FineMolds it is again! Also, the cockpit doesn't come with a seat, so I had to butcher the FM's one and use it.

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Given the plethora of trunking the dominates the back of the 'pit, I used some coiled copper wire to turn it into a spaghetti free-for-all.

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Edited by MakingModelsAgain
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Fun to see another one (beside me) that take the opportunity for driling holes into tiny plastic parts. All that is needed is a really good aim. If the aim is a little off, some sanding on the edges around the hole can help make the hole align better if it didn't become perfectly centered at first.

Edit: Aheheh, I ordered myself this kit today along with the Tie fighter in 1/72 scale and the Millennium Falcon in 1/144 scale. :D I also ordered photo etched parts for the exhaust openings on the falcon.

Nice to know that the four blaster cannons can be drilled on the 1/72 X-Wing.

Edited by Decoman
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Got the cockpit finished and Obi-Wan's uncle inserted!

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I'm going to paint the red markings myself and am just waiting on some 40mm Tamiya tape to arrive so that I can make one-piece masks for the wing markings.

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Looks great, I think your mix of kit and aftermarket (and scratch!) in the cockpit works really well - definitely getting the best of both worlds.

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I felt the FineMolds decals were a bit thick looking - the damaged/weathered markings option looked positively textured - so I decided to mask them out myself and paint them myself!

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The starboard wing marking appears to be narrower, but it's just the perspective from the angle the wing's sitting at. The engines (and nozzles) are painted with Alclad 2's Jet Exhaust.

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Now comes the fun part - giving it the Star Wars makeover - no-holds barred weathering!

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Nice job so far. She's coming along nicely. :thumbsup:

Just as a bit of info for you, that resin cockpit that you have is a representation of the detail and pilot figures that were found in the X-Wing studio miniatures, rather than the fullsize mock-up cockpits used for filming the actors.

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One type of figure was a modified Airfix 24th scale Harrier pilot. Another appears to have more of a race car helmet.

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One thing that helped my build was I fully painted and weathered the wings (at least the insides) and installed them before finishing the paint work on the fuselage. The reason being is I was a little concerned about the seam from the rear plug as I wanted to take care of it. So, once I did that, I just masked off the wings, painted the rest of the fuselage and weathered it as normal, then got about with the detail painting and decal work.

Here was my result from 10 years ago (also a Red 2, just an OOB build). And no this is not a hijack attempt.

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I'll have to get one of these new cockpits as I've been pondering doing up a FineMolds X-wing to look more like a studio model as opposed to the full size set. The canopy without glass is also a very nice touch (which the studio models didn't have due to reflection issues).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got a little more done on Wedge's bird. Added the yellow bands that FineMolds make no mention of, but fortunately, the Sp.Ed of Star Wars now has lots of nice scenes with Red Two, so still pausing the DVD helps a great deal.

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After a little blending in...

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And after the first stage of weathering...

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  • Like 1
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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

That's looking really great, the finemolds star wars kits are brilliant.

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