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X-Wing

Bandai 1/72

Yes, I know. Another Bandai X-Wing. You've got my permission to yawn and go off to read a more interesting post. For what it's worth, I'm going to try and do something a bit different with it. There's been some great X-Wing builds on Britmodeller, but rather than do another Red 5 or other Red Squadron ship, I'm going to do this one in a non-movie scheme and maybe give it a few modifications too.

I won't bother with the usual sprue shots as everyone knows these kits by now, so I'll just jump strait in. As with most builds of this sort that I start, I've got no idea what direction I'll be going in. I just tend to go with whatever seems like a good idea at the time.

In that vein, I decided to start by removing a panel on the upper starboard wing to show some internal detail underneath. The centre panel on the wing extends right back to the trailing edge. I didn't want to remove a section that big, so I marked a new panel line, scribed it, then cut it out

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On the underside of the wing, I thinned the plastic to create a lip to which I added some thin plasticard framing. The separate insert panel that covers the underside of the wing will need chopping up, as I'll only be using the outer tip and the section that forms the leading edge. I'll make a new plate to go under the cut-out section, and add some general plumbing and wiring. I'll build the model grounded with the wings closed, so I don't have to worry about neatening the underside of the wings which will save time

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I'll probably be removing other panels on the wings and/or body, and I'd like to make some mods to either the engines or the guns. I'll see what ideas pop into my head over the next few days.

As far as colours go, I'm currently thinking of something red based. I've got a couple of schemes I'm working from at the moment, both from the animated Star Wars series. The first being a red and white scheme worn by the prototype B-Wing featured in Rebels

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The other being a red/black scheme on a transport from The Clone Wars

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These are just general ideas, I won't be reproducing them exactly. No hurry to make a decision though, as there's plenty of building to do first.

Andy

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Yes, I know. Another Bandai X-Wing. You've got my permission to yawn and go off to read a more interesting post.

Always room for another X-Wing. I often wonder if people yawn at my WIP/RFI's as I tend to do things others have done already...

Yours looks like an interesting idea though.

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Yes, I know. Another Bandai X-Wing. You've got my permission to yawn and go off to read a more interesting post. For what it's worth, I'm going to try and do something a bit different with it. There's been some great X-Wing builds on Britmodeller, but rather than do another Red 5 or other Red Squadron ship, I'm going to do this one in a non-movie scheme and maybe give it a few modifications too.

When I hear the words "another X-Wing" there is no :sleep_1: there is only :yahoo: ! Looking forward to this with enthusiasm.

Mods, alternate schemes, a red oxide finish...sounds good to me. Not that I will ever get tired of another Red 5.

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Fantastic! I really enjoy watching your builds and seeing the finished results! Tooo much X-wing!? No way, never ever, i have 6 of these lil beauties in my stash and i will never get bored of seeing/learning from them being built and seeing how other modelers modify them, so cool.

The black and dark red will be interesting, usually colours id associate with Darth Mauls Face or the dark side, so might give this one a more sinister look. May the force be with you! :popcorn:

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I really like the dirty/faded red and white. Super excited to see this one develop! Also, I really like the choice of blue for the background. Offers just enough contrast.

I've already saved about two dozen photos from your flickr page to use as inspiration for further builds. It's fun to pour over up close exactly how you go about painting.

Cheers and good luck!

-matt

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Thanks guys

I really like the dirty/faded red and white. Super excited to see this one develop! Also, I really like the choice of blue for the background. Offers just enough contrast.

Thanks Matt. I don't normally use blue as a background, but Bandai use a very pale grey in these kits, and it doesn't show up well on white.

I've added some detailing to the cutout in the wing. There's not really much depth on the wings (about 1.5mm) so everything has to be fairly flat. It still looks a bit empty so I might add some extra wiring, although I'll probably do it after painting. I'll probably paint this first, then mask it off to do the main finish

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Speaking of the main finish, I've done a few designs to try different colour combinations. I'm edging towards the red/black at the moment. The red/ white is OK, but keeps reminding me of Starsky and Hutch. I might use the black/white for the A-Wing when it's released

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Andy

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This is going to be good!

Andy, I like where you are going with this! Just my two pennies worth-I really like the first scheme, to my eye it looks like it belongs on an x-wing! Look forward to seeing more.

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Thanks guys

Hmm. Looking at these, the black an red does look pretty sinister. Are the yellow/green panels meant to represent a primer?

Yes, either primer or different colour panels scavenged off another X-Wing. I want to keep some of that patchy, mismatched look of the movie versions

Andy, I like where you are going with this! Just my two pennies worth-I really like the first scheme, to my eye it looks like it belongs on an x-wing! Look forward to seeing more.

Yes, I agree. The longitudinal stripe looks better on the nose. I prefer the triangular wing design from the others though, so I've combined the two. It's just a question of whether to go with black or white as the stripe colour

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I've done some panel work on the port wing. Rather than remove a panel on the main wing surface like the other side, I decided to remove the tiled section on the engine support structure. This area's meant to house the deflector screen emitter, but I'm just using it as a general avionics bay

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Quite a lot of the structure had to be removed from the underside of the parts, but non of this will be seen so it's not a problem. The fact that these kits are snap-fix does make these kind of modification harder as you don't have an empty shell to work with as you would with a regular kit

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At this point, I did think of adding the engine insert that goes on the underside of the wings, thinking you'd be able to see it through the open panel on the top, but in reality it's set too far back to be visible

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Instead I made a bulkhead from a section of styrene tube, which I attached to the rear edge of the cutout

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The detail parts for the bay were added to the under wing panel. I'll paint these (along with the bulkhead) before gluing the panel in place. I'll probably add some extra wiring to the bay to busy it up a bit more. At the moment I'm thinking of going with a yellow zinc chromate colour for the internal sections

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So this is where it stands now. Two wing panels removed and a little internal detailing added. I won't bother doing any panel work on the lower wings as it'll be sitting on the ground and you won't see any of it. I'm intending to remove some more panels on the fuselage, and I'm thinking of partly removing the casing on one of the engines to show some internal detail

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Andy

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Oh yes this is awesome! Loving the mods! I think red/black looks better, but red/white would show up more dirt and wear more and on a ship being worked on you could add oil spills and such to greater effect on the white. Can i ask what you use to cut the back of the pannels out with? It looks like youve used a razor saw for opening it up, but what did you use on the underside? A dremmel with a tiny head maybe?

Looking forward to seeing how this build progresses :popcorn:

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Thanks guys

Oh yes this is awesome! Loving the mods! I think red/black looks better, but red/white would show up more dirt and wear more and on a ship being worked on you could add oil spills and such to greater effect on the white. Can i ask what you use to cut the back of the pannels out with? It looks like youve used a razor saw for opening it up, but what did you use on the underside? A dremmel with a tiny head maybe?

Yes, I'm starting to think the same thing. I marginally prefer the black, but the white would give more scope for weathering, so I think that's what I'll go with.

To cut the panel out, I drilled all the way around the edge, just inside the line, with a 2mm drill bit, cut the panel away with a very small photo etched razor saw, then squared it off with a file.

On the underside, I did use a dremel to grind some of the snap fix mounts off and thin the plastic down, then I used a Trumpeter micro chisel, and a chisel knife blade to flatten the edge

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I've made a small mod to one of the engines by simply cutting it in half. I'll retain the front half and add the small grey thing, which is a little greeble that was left over from my BTR-60 build, which I think looks suitably engine-y

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I don't think I'll be doing any more mods to the wings, although I might add some extra surface detail. I am toying with the idea of shortening the guns but that may throw the balance out, so I'll have to draw it up first to see how it'll look before I start cutting plastic

Andy

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Mine just arrived in the mail! The detail is astounding when you can see it in person. Especially when you consider it's only 1/72! Remarkable that the kit can appeal to beginners and expert modellers. Kudos to the people at Bandai!

I'm loving watching this one come together.

-matt

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