1/48 xwing. Blue Leader. Bandai

[TristanR]

Hello. This is the ‘moving edition’ from Bandai, comes with lights etc.  no super interested in that, but it was this or the fine molds one that I couldn’t find on eBay at the time.

 

one thing I don’t like much about these Bandai kits is the soft edges on many of the panel lines,  so I’m thinking out removing them.  At least on the nose.

 

anyway, I’m trying to figure out if I need to create sub assemblies for painting, since it’s difficult to dry fit these kits.

 

 

Very nicely detailed, 

 

 

The ‘power brick’ that contains the wing motor and the leds.  Very toylike,  I’m not a huge fan of the base either...  we’ll see how this goes.

 

 

Cockpit assembly, added few bits to it... not much.

 

 

Pretty interesting how they engineered this around the red5 paint scheme.  But I don’t like the massive panel gaps,  so... I’m going  to at least sand down the differences in the fit of the panels relative to the surface.

 

 

I’m not sure what to do here, I think I’m going to glue these parts together to I can get rid of the seem.  I’d rather do it to just the upper fuselage,so I have good sanding access.

 

 

I think think I need to keep the canopy separate for now.  Bandai give you an option for a framed one (here) that comes with a glazing piece that snaps in, but it’s very thick, and interfere’s with my shortsighted cockpit additions, that I am attracted to now.  You also get a fully glass piece, like a traditional model kit, this version is thinner and allows you to pose the canopy up.  I’m going to punt on making that call.  Meanwhile, I joined the front and rear fuselages together.  I hope this isn’t a huge mistake.

 

 

Using superglue to fill the gaps (green zap a gap).  Sorry for hand texture.

 

 

A bit of primer to see where i’m at.  I sure did blow away a lot of panel lines...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2020 by TristanR

[TristanR]

Pilot figure is nice. Although my primer was a bit thick, filled a bit too much.

 

 

Primed the cockpit.

 

 

Base orange for the figures, tamiya flat red + flat yellow.  Nice that you get a standing figure also.

 

 

Had a crack at the cockpit painting.  Needs some tidy up.

 

 

With the canopy frame.  Frame is a little thick, might attempt to thin the frames down.  Maybe not.

 

 

 

[TristanR]

Now that I’ve sanded off and filled all of bandia’s surface detail, I now need to attempt a describe.

im going to use these chisels and this thick selotape.

 

 

The chisel I’m using is very fine,and hopefully very sharp and tough, I don’t know how to reshape it.

 

 

Staring with the panel line the follows the canopy, so far so good.  A bit crunchy around the superglue fills...

 

 

Keeping things symmetrical, so I can bail on this whole recriminations business if it starts going wrong.

 

 

Bit more, using an enamel panel line wash to see the effects.  

 

 

Another shot.  Hopefully this is worth doing...  

 

 

 

 

 

[Stephen W]

Looking real good and am enjoying seeing the process you go through from a vanilla model to adding more detail and your own creative spin.

 

 

[TristanR]

Hey thanks Stephen! 

 

A little bit bit more work on the cockpit, I gave a few parts a bit of metal pigments to give them some ping.  Can’t really tell from photos...

 

 

I think I got the fuselage where I want it, to now I need to replace the raised details that I removed for sanding,

 

Going to use my chopper to get some clean shapes.

 

 

Came me out pretty well, I will sand them down a bit too, but try and keep the crisp edges.

 

 

I also have to think about the painting process.  This model/toy being push fit make it difficult to dry fit.  Or rather, dry un-fit.  Once pushed together the parts are difficult to pry apart without damage.

 

the electric block that controls the wing movement is only activated through the stand, that is to say, you can’t manually move the wings.  The fuselage top and bottom only fit with the wings stowed ( non x), and fitting The wings is tricky since you have to thread the engine led through a bunch of parts.

 

I want to keep the wings separate for painting, which means I have to modify some parts  to make it so I can glue up most of the wings for painting, and still be able to thread the leds.  There are some parts that sit inside the wings that serve to clamp the wing in place.  But I don’t know how I will paint those with it all together, so I’m modifying them and glueing them to the electric block.

 

As it stands now, these parts are all glued, And dry fit pretty well (apart from the fuselage, which will definitely break if I try to uninstall it.

 

 

So here, I am painting a dark grey into the wings roots, in case I won’t be able to access them easilyonce the fuselage is on.  I’m also painting the canopy parts, inside and out, so I can  assemble the canopy.  And the engine nozzles, just for good measure.

 

 

Fuselage assembled, canopy is not glued but fits well enough that I will paint it along with the everything else.  Despite being careful, there is a gap between the upper and lower fuselage, it just needs a bead of filler I think.

 

 

 

 

Ready for painting.

i think I’m going to hit it with some Matt White from a can.

 

 

Edited September 27, 2020 by TristanR

[TristanR]

For the next part, I think I’m going to paint the yellow parts, although to my eye they often look better in a beige.  Going to attempt some chipping with some masking sol.  

I’m also going to try and be faithful to the execution of the ILM models.  This one will be based on what I understand to be the first xwing they painted, Blue leader, which became red 2.

 

You can also see the hull red nose, I plan to do some chipping on that.

 

 

Pretty subtle in this photo, but I imagine i’ll Get darker once I weather.

 

 

I added some darker spots into these side pieces, just as I has a bit of beige left to use up.

 

 

Other side.

 

 

 

Wing stripes with masking sol removed.  Took a wet cotton bud to get it off.

 

 

Ok, onto some red bits. The engine intakes (?) has nice red hoops on blue leader, I think some survived onto red 2. Masking sol chips.

 

 

Made a little mask with a vinyl cutter for the torpedo tube arrow, also in red.

 

 

Off to the paint booth! With some flat red and a bit of German grey to dull it.

 

 

Chips hips were a little blobby, but actually pretty close to some of the ILM reference I saw.

 

 

 

 

 

I also did some regular hairspray chipping on the nose.

 

 

Cheers!

 

 

[StevenBills]

Saw this on Reddit! I love blue leader! The first Bandai X-Wing I built a few years ago was a 1/72 blue leader. There's just something about the white ship and blue markings that I love. And that vinyl cutter looks like a super handy hobby tool!

 

Looking great so far!

 

SB

[Mike]

Ahah!  I've been wondering how I'm ever going to make mine up, as I'm a bit nervous of painting snap-together kits.  I shall be following along in anticipation of the day I finally get round to doing mine Keep up the good work

[TristanR]

Thanks guys!  I’m not sure I’m too keen on these Bandai kits.  I don’t think I like the push fit business. I do have a gap between the upper and lower fuselage that comes from something stopping a good fit, but I can’t pull it apart to see with out it breaking...

 

Here’s a shot of the blue leader reference I’m using, I’m going to try and recreate the chipped grey panels.

 

 

 

 

Going to to try the masking sol again.

 

 

 

Cameout ok, I used medium grey.  Chipping is a bit out of scale, but consistent with the ILM model I hope.

 

 

Im going to attempt the ‘droid strip’ using watery life color paints.

 

 

Turned out a bit muddier than I hoped.  I think the Matt White base wasn’t quite Matt enough to absorb the paint so it all blended together when dry.  I might airbrush some white over the top to knock it back and go over it with airbrush.

 

 

I was drawn to blue leader because of this color scheme.  I prefer it to the version in Rouge One.  From the reference it’s like a royal blue, but slightly teal.  I’m going to see if I can make it out of flat blue and sea blue.  With some medium blue and white if I need it.

 

 

It looks a lot darker than it is in this photo,  but I may still lighten it.

 

 

 

 

There is also this nice hazard striping detail on the canopy.  I cut a little mask for it.

 

 

 Pretty successful! Sorry about the thumbnail.

 

 

And another at the front.

 

 

Cheers!

[TristanR]

First round of weathering.

I mixed a medium grey, plan is to sort of post shade some of the darker parts.  Blue leader has a blown out and repaired engine, I bet i’ll Overdo that.  

 

 

Second round,

is just flat black. I feel like I should be bold, and go for high contrast, hopefully I can knock it back afterwards.  Black is spitting a bit, I need more practice.

 

 

Black, yes I shall need the black. Blaack. Blaaaaack!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Round 3.

Using lifecolor washes, I’m am painting in some detail over the airbrush work, I just can’t get the detail I need with an airbrush.  It could be that tamiya acrylics is a bad choice. 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FG2Si]

Catching up on your X-Wing and it's coming along nicely. 

 

Bandai and Wave make a tool for prying apart press fit kits. It looks like a wide flat screwdriver tip. They're about $5 CAD from many of the Japanese online shops. I have the Wave one as it a bit cheaper. 

 

Carl

[TristanR]

Hi FG, thanks for the tip on that tool I will definitely check it out!

 

A common technique I see on a few of these studio models are these small black squares, usually between panels, like they are temporary latches or something,  anyway they add some nice detail so I’ll get myself some vinyl masks for them and see how it goes.

 

one interesting part, seen on the engine, appears to be the bottom third of the tamiya logo, harvested for some decal sheet no doubt.  

 

 

Quite a lot of these.

 

 

Close up of the little star.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers!

[StevenBills]

Dang, that vinyl cutter is handy! This is shaping up beautifully!

 

SB

[TristanR]

Thanks Steven!, The vinyl cutter is very handy for someone like me who doesn't get on with decals too well.  It's amazing the detail you can get.

[GMK]

Tristan - lovely work! Thanks for sharing. 

[StevenBills]

@TristanR which vinyl cutter are you using? I amassed a few gift cards over the holidays that are burning a hole in my pocket...

[TristanR]

Hi Steven,

I have tried a few cutters, the one I am using now is a Roland camm gs24.  As far as I can tell it’s the one most able to do the finest details, which I think is expressed by ‘mechanical resolution’, but in comparisons between cutters, this is often not mentioned.

there is a new cutter on the market callled a Prismcut P28, in demonstration it was also able to do very fine work, 2mm lettering. 

I’ve also used a cricut, which struggled with fine details. Often rounding corners on small lettering, but was able to cut styrene sheet which was useful.  (I have it tied yet but I don’t think there would be any reason the Roland or prism cut wouldn’t be able to cut styrene also)

 

The software is another issue.  I use adobe illustrator, because it’s what I know, but getting the Roland exporter to work was extremely painful, now it is all set up it’s really quick to use and works well.  The cricut and cameo type cutters all come with their own software that is trying to sell you stuff, but is usually able to be persuaded to import files from other software.

So far I have only cut the Oracal, stencil vinyl.  There is the grey stuff that is flexible and is likely the same stuff if you‘ve ever bought those precut  masks.  There is also a less flexible blue oracal, that is useful when you want less deformation, but this one isn’t supposed to be used with lacquer paint.

 

[StevenBills]

Wow, thanks for the in-depth answer! I'll have to take a look at other options, though. I've heard the cricut software is a bit janky. It seems like the various manufacturers would make their software compatible with .ai files, as that's pretty much the standard for the graphic design industry. Interesting.

 

SB