nickdanger

@nicholassagan - Thanks ! Wings are painted and futured. Also set off one set of panels in a slightly different color: Happy so far. The gray is a little cooler (with respect to color) than the movie vehicle. Hope this doesn't push it into the realm of 'what-if'....

Preshading continues: Polished aluminum for Artoo Wings are painted and engines are set off in Alclad

I'd love to cut loose, but I do want to stay kind of close to movie canon. Nevertheless, exhaust can should be metallic ! Speaking of metallic, here's my NMF / BMF X-Wing with tons of non-canon decals: Must taken 2 bottles of Alclad for that one.

Starting in on the X-Wing. As much as the SW movies were a part of my youth and I built TIE fighters and Xwings out of whatever was at hand, I just can't bear to leave to kit in the true movie paint scheme. The all over gray of the X-Wing especially bugs me. I won't be doing one as wild as the one I made for my son a few years back.... ... but with that in mind I'll be strategically embellishing the paint scheme adding some panel shading and some bare metal where it makes sense. Preshading, future, plus Alclad:

Oh well, too many final details to make it in time: Just a few minor cockpit details to finish up and a flat coat...should be ready in a couple days.

Prepping the last of the fiddly bits: Hope to finish on time.....

Post shading and fading: With another coat of future to mellow the fading:

@CF-104 - You're exactly right ! I do most modeling at night so not missing the view. Well, the city lights are nice too. Got a great view of the airport and Hickam (now Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam). I love Hawai‘i but sometimes the cost of living get's to you, and the fact that it takes a lot of money to take the family on a trip to ANYWHERE.

Decals 99.9% done. Just that red thingie on the pitot tube and maybe 1 or 2 more; My scuba tank ran out of air (don't use a compressor) so I couldn't finish up post shading and fading/weathering. Will take it in for a fill tomorrow and see if I can't get to within sight of the finish line.

Just starting in on the Fine Molds 1/48 X-Wing. Looking forward to it. Been saving this one up for years (I think I even pre-ordered it when it came out way back when). I've only done one other Fine Molds kit which is the Savoia S.21 from Porco Rosso. Hands down one of the most amazingly well-engineered kits I have ever done. I never even bothered to glue the main sections together since the tolerances were so fine and the kit so well done that it stayed to together w/o any cement. Amazing. If the X-Wing is even close to the same quality I'll have a very enjoyable build.

I'm in with the 1/48 Fine Molds X-Wing. I've been saving it for years and this seems like the time to get it done. Just need to finish another kind of Starfighter in that other GB.

Dirty wash day. Before: During: After: Topside post wash: Closeup with some airbrushed postshading:

Decals are done but for a couple on the insides of panels, along canopy frames, and the like: Next step is to seal everything up with some future and do a panel wash. Had a very pretty sunset this evening as I worked on decals. Nice crescent moon to boot. Great decal quality but some of the placements were impossible to match up to the instructions. Seemed out of scale or just plain wrong in some cases. Plus in trying to cover 10 different schemes Italeri had no choice but to hand wave a little. Nevertheless, no silvering, in register, nice and opaque, and no cracking so gotta say t

What did you use for the orange? Looks great btw

25 more for the right side;

14 (or so) more decals added. Port side just about done.

Yet more decals:

So....many....decals

I wouldn't stress too much about affixing the canopies. A little white glue (ie. Elmers), prop it up with something, and it'll be ready the next day.

Most painting is done. Quick future check: Had to do a little surgery. Read the instructions incorrectly and installed the front landing gear in the wrong place. Had to disassemble a little. Fortunately the avionics (?) panel was in just the right place: Otherwise, progress continues. Time to future the rest and start in on decals:

Mixed up my interpretation of dark tan for the s.e.a camo And the dark green as well The real test is does it look right with future on it Looks good to me. Using this as one reference:

Time to mask:

I'm going to keep the engine separate and on the dolly but keep the tail section cemented on. I like the lines of the Starfighter too much to break it up by keeping the tail off and the engine is nice enough to display on it's own. So without the engine it's a nose sitter - didn't have to add weight at all. I'll double check before putting on the nosecone, but I don;t think I'll need to.

Staring on the flat white bottom:

@mingwin - have you tried Uhu Tac or another similar removable putty? $1.99 from Amazon I use it to mask wheel wells, to hold on canopies while painting, and do soft camo borders. Great stuff.