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BanDai X-Wing


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I’m building the excellent BanDai 1:72 X-Wing.

This is a fantastic kit, designed to be ‘snapped’ together although I’m gluing mine, with a quality and sharpness of detail that leaves many ‘proper’ kits in the shade.

 

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My main job with this kit will be a painting exercise, I’ll probably paint over 90% of the kit and only use the smallest of the decals.

The main issue will be guessing the correct shades to use, so I’ll be relying heavily on ‘artist license’.

 

I made a start by assembling most of the sub assemblies and super-gluing them to cocktail sticks in preparation for a primer coat.

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One of the really inventive things about this kit, and other DanDai kits?, is the sprue can contain multi-colours, one sprue contains white, red, clear and clear red parts.

 

Everything was given a coat of UMP/Stynylrez black primer

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Next I’ll be spraying the main body colour.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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I’ve used Hobby Color H311 as the main body colour

First I sprayed a rough marble layer…

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Then a diluted, 80% levelling thinner 20% paint, coat was applied

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I’ll leave this to fully cure, over night and then workout what colours to use for the panels, stand-by for judicious use of ‘artistic licence'

 

 

Next I’ll be masking for the various coloured panels.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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So I’m going to paint, and chip, the various panels rather than use either the stickers or decals, when I was a kid we called decals “stickers” and most of the time I still think of them that way.

 

Anyhow, I think that as well as the ‘base’ colour there are 8 different panel colours, in alphabetical order not necessarily the order in which I’ll paint them.

 

blue - I’m going to use a darker blue for the base and a lighter blue for the main colour

buff - deck tan

grey - dark

grey - light

grey - medium

grey/green

red

yellow

 

To start I masked and then sprayed the darker blue base, Alkan AMT-7, that will be seen through the chipping on the canopy, when that had cured I sponged some Maskol for the “chipping” …

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…and then applied the lighter grey/blue, Alkan FS:35237 on both the canopy and engine intakes.

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Pale yellow was next, Alkan RLM:04 20% Alkan MK-7 white, once again Maskol was sponged.

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Grey/green, I used Alkan RLM:02, was sprayed in a few places, mainly under one of the wings and a couple of panels on the side

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There were a couple of buff panels, Tamiya XF-55 deck tan

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Light, medium & dark(er) greys were next, Hobby Color H51 Light Gull Gray, Tamiya XF-80 Royal Light Gray, XF-24 Dark Gray

Light…

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Medium…

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Dark…

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Finally the red markings, vallejo 70.814 burnt red 20% Alkan RLM:23 80%

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Next I’ll turning my attention to the engines.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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In preparation to start on the engines I removed all of the masking for the panels and I thought I’d show some photos of the painted (and chipped) panels and markings.

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Next I’ll be working on the engines.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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For the engine body and lower part of the exhaust nozzles I used vallejo acrylic metal color 77.703 dark aluminium

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The exhaust nozzles were sprayed with vallejo metal color 77.723 exhaust manifold

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masking tape removed…

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Next I’ll be painting, Luke, R2 and the cockpit.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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After a coat of black UMP/Stynylrez primer I brush painted Luke’s flight suit with Tamiya X-6 orange. Luke’s head/helmet, straps and chest plate were then painted with Alkan MK-7 white, Luke’s face was given a flesh tone using Tamiya XF-15 flat flesh. His goggles were painted with hobby color H92 clear orange

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R2’s ‘head’ was bush paint with vallejo metal color 77.702 duraluminium, his ‘body’ was painted with Alkan MK-7 white

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Both figures were given a coat of aqua-gloss and then Tamiya panel line black, the excess panel line was removed I applied the decals.

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I didn’t use the decal for R2’s ‘head’ as I didn’t think it would conform too well so I painted the blue panels with Tamiya X-13 metallic blue however, I’ll need to repaint them with a darker blue.

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The cockpit was dry-brushed and various pipes and panels were picked out with detail painting

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The instrument decals were applied

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The assembled cockpit

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Next I’ll be weathering the s-foils.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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So before I assemble the s-foils and fuselage I think it’ll be easier to weather the ‘insides’ of the s-foils before joining them making it more difficult to get at.

 

Firstly I gave everything a coat of aqua-gloss to protect the paint from the Tamiya panel line accent color black, the excess was cleaned with a cotton bud(q-tip) wetted with some odourless thinner.

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On the engines I used Tamiya panel line accent dark brown

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I wanted to give the leading edges of the s-foils a slightly more worn look so I added some sponge chipping with Tamiya XF-24 dark grey then I gave every thing a coat of matt varnish, masking the engines and exhaust to remain shiny.

 

On the inner panels I used some oil colours to add grime

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Up next I’ll be assembling the s-foils and fuselage and then carrying on with the weathering.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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Now that I’ve weathered the s-foils I can assemble the fuselage and “wings” (s-foils).

 

One thing that caught me out, entirely my fault for not ‘pre-assembling’ the s-foils. If i had I would have noticed that they were to fit a specific way, I’d assumed, I know makes an a*s of u & me, that they’d fit either way however the fittings that allow the s-foils to move has notches for the correct fit.

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Naturally, I got these wrong, the markings I’d painted would now be the wrong way, i.e. top on the bottom. It was easily remedied, I trimmed one of the ‘square’ tabs to fit where the round one should go, and everything works as it should.

You’ll also notice that the fittings are unpainted, they won’t be seen once fully assembled, and that shows the difference between the painted/weathered and ‘raw’ plastic, I’ve never seen that before and it made me realise how much we, as modellers, change the look of something. Should have been obvious I know but I’d basically tried to make my paint scheme close to the original plastic, but ‘more used’ and these photos show how stark the ‘before & after’ is.

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The fittings allow the s-foils to be moved into ‘attack’ position.

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The s-foils fitted to the lower half of the fuselage

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The top of the fuselage is a tight fit.

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The rear of the fuselage, before pin-wash and weathering.

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Next I’ll be adding the pin-wash and weathering.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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After a coat of aqua-gloss Tamiya black & brown panel line colours were added and the excess removed.

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Oil paints, black, dark brown, light brown and white were used to weather the fuselage and rear panel

After the pin-wash and weathering.

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Next I’ll removed the canopy masks, adding R2 and the laser cannons.

 

Ready for Inspection…

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235045154-bandai-172-x-wing/

 

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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