Written by 2:42 pm On the Bench

WIP : Bandai 1/72 X-wing starfighter Pt. 2 – Painting and Finishing

The following is a general step-by-step on how I finish my model kits. First up is a primer base oF black. I prefer black now over other colors because if I miss some areas later with the main colors, it’s pretty much instant shadowing. The final tones definitely don’t look the same compared to painting over brighter primers but I’m not that hardcore about color accuracy nowadays.

Nowadays I also like to add some tonal variations to the color scheme and have been turning to using white for this purpose.

Then it was a thinned coat of the main color. In this case it was Insignia White which is a very very light gray. I would have stopped here if this was a 1/48 scale kit, but the patchiness look over-scaled for 1/72.

So I went over with an even thinner coat of Insignia White.

I’m modeling Wedge’s Red 2 and based on reference photos, it has beige color accents all around the X-wing. These were all masked and sprayed. Note the chipped paint on the inside of the bottom s-foil. Sure looks natural doesn’t it? 😀

Next are the red markings which I also masked and sprayed. I based the dimensions of the chevrons on the s-foils from the decal sheet, which cames with Red 5 markings only. Why didn’t I just use the decals and cut off 3 bars to make Red 2? It’s because I wanted the red color on the wings and the nose to match. The nose stripes on the decal sheet weren’t unbroken as needed for Red 2. Red 5 also didn’t have red accents on the engine nacelles.

Weathering is next and I begin with chipping. Ever in need of practicing making chipping look random, I went ahead with chipping by handpainting.

I used a 000 brush to do all the chipping.

I ended up using 5 different colors for my chipping do show various ‘ages’ of the paint chips.

Then it was my usual wash with a very diluted raw umber oil paint. I then added some black to the wash and added darker streaks.

One last detail I added was a clean panel on the top port engine nacelle. There are pictures on the Internet that shows the studio model of Red 2 having this particular detail. This was simply masked off and carefully sprayed white. I then added some light chipping with light gray. This replicates a newer replacement panel which I think adds more to the look of a heavily used machine.

Another thing I tried to replicate was the look of ignited thrusters with combinations of red, transparent red and white colors. I’m not sure I pulled it off that well though. Anyway, it’s all a learning experience.

In any case, I’m done.

(Visited 1,807 times, 2 visits today)
Tags: , , , , , , Last modified: 25 February, 2020
Close