Showcase: BTL-A4 Y-wing

Showcase: NT7-S power droid

 

Showcase: Sienar Fleet Systems TIE/LN starfighter

 

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Showcase: Blue Leader X-wing (Bandai 1/72 scale)

Bandai 1/72 scale T-65 X-wing in Antoc Merrick's Blue Leader livery. Completed with Mr. Paint and Alclad lacquers; Tamiya and Vallejo acrylics; Abteilung 502 oils, Mig Productions enamels and pigments.

Showcase: Protectorate Starfighter

Protectorate Starfighter in Philadelphia Eagles livery for the X-Wing Miniatures game. Completed in Mr Paint lacquers; Tamiya & Vallejo acrylics; and Mig Productions enamels.

Showcase: Bossk & BT-1

Bossk and BT-1 from the tabletop game Imperial Assault by Fantasy Flight Games. Painted with Tamiya and Vallejo acrylics; Alclad lacquers, and Mig Productions enamels.

WIP: Blue Leader X-wing (Bandai 1/72)

Screenshot from Rogue One, © Lucasfilm Ltd.

A friend of mine (who has already bought numerous pieces from me) asked me to build him General Antoc Merrick's Blue One X-wing from Rogue One. Since he was an awesome character with a killer mustache, I immediately accepted! After the break, I'll dive into my progress on the build.

Showcase: Bandai U-wing (1/144 scale)

Bandai 1/144 scale U-wing. Finished in Tamiya and Vallejo acrylics; Mig enamels; and 502 Abteilung oils.

Showcase: Bandai A-wing (1/72 scale)

Bandai 1/72 scale RZ-1 A-wing; finished in Tamiya & Vallejo acrylics, MIG enamels, and Tamiya pigments.

WIP: Bandai 1/72 A-wing, Part 2

With the enamel wash with some matte varnish, I can begin the next stage of weathering. First up is some chipping using Vallejo Model Air Blue RLM65 (71.008), which I am doing by hand with a paintbrush instead of a sponge. Using a brush allows me to make finer chips and gives me more control over placement. The downside is that it is far more time consuming, however, I feel the end result is definitely worth it.

WIP: Bandai 1/72 A-wing

To go with my recent R2-D2 and BB-8, my client also asked for a 1/72 scale A-wing. After talking over the paint job, we decided to go with the blue and white color scheme seen on the original Ralph McQuarrie concept art.

The base color is a custom mix of Tamiya Flat White (XF-2), Neutral Grey (XF-53), and Deck Tan (XF-55) over a German Grey (XF-63) preshade. I was hesitant to use the panel line preshade technique because it isn't the most realistic, but since this is an imaginary ship I decided to go ahead and do it. After the base color was down, I went around and picked some panels out and sprayed them with various Tamiya and Mr Color grays, similar to the studio model.

The blue areas were primed with white, preshaded with NATO Black (XF-69) and then given a coat of Flat Blue (XF-8) and Flat White (XF-2) mixed 6:1. I painted a few panels with some different blues for a little variation. All of the pure white areas (the triangle, the tops of the vertical stabilizers, and the rear of the cockpit) were painted with Flat White (XF-2) and the red stripes were painted with a mix of Flat Red (XF-7) and Hull Red (XF-9).

After a coat of Alclad Gloss Klear Kote, I added all of the kit-supplied decals. These little decals are pretty nice and add a little bit of detail to the model. Bandai decals are a little on the thick side but respond well to MicroSol and MicroSet.

The decals were sealed in with another coat of Gloss Klear Kote and some washes were added to add some depth to the panel lines. I used MIG Neutral Wash for the white/grey areas and MIG Dark Wash for the the blue areas. This also brought out the fantastic rivet detail that is present on all of the panels; the end effect is really quite nice.

After the wash dries, everything will be sealed in with a matte varnish and I'll move on to more weathering!

Showcase: Bandai Slave I (1/144 scale)

 

Bandai Slave I (1/144 scale); completed in Tamiya and Vallejo acrylics, MIG enamels, and Secret Weapon Miniatures pigments. The stand is from the Fine Molds version of this model.

WIP: Bandai Slave I (1/144 scale), Part 5

I sprayed the first coat of green, which is the going to be the darker of the two on the hull, over the entire area. It's essentially the Tamiya equivalent of RLM 02 and I made it by mixing RLM Grey (XF-22) and Khaki (XF-49) in a 1:1 ratio with a tiny extra bit of XF-22 added.

Using the studio model as a guide, I applied masking fluid with torn pieces of sponge. Give the nature of the original paint job, no model will ever match it exactly, however, the goal here was to just get close. This color is Tamiya J.A. Grey (XF-14) with a tiny bit of Deck Tan (XF-55) added to it.

After I painted the dark green panels with J.N. Green (XF-11), I did a quick dry fit of the major hull pieces just to see how it looked. I thought that the RLM 02 color was a little dark so I sprayed the entire hull, sans the dark green pieces, with a very thin coat of J.A. Grey to tone them down.

I weathered the wing supports with a handful of MIG enamel washes stippled on with a sponge and then blended into the surface. This was probably overkill because they are barely visible one the "fenders" are added and the entire assembly is inserted into place.

The panel lines were done with a mix of MIG Dark and Neutral Wash, and once everything fully dries it will be sealed with some varnish and further weathering will begin. This will mainly consist of some filters and streaking on the hull, along with some pigments.

WIP: Bandai Slave I (1/144 scale), Part 4

I worked on the fenders last night. The one on the left was painted with Tamiya J.A. Gray (XF-14) and had liquid mask applied to mimic the weathering on the studio model. It was then given a coat of J.N. Green (XF-11) mixed with a touch of Field Grey (XF-65). The one on the right was painted with a witch's brew of Tamiya greens and had liquid mask splattered on it by dipping a piece of torn foam in liquid mask and using air from my airbrush to apply it. A coat of the same green color as the other fender was applied and the masking was removed. The underlying green was a little too bright so I sprayed some heavily thinned dark green over it to tone it down.

WIP: Bandai Slave I (1/144 scale), Part 3

I wasn't happy with the front skirt but I also didn't really want to change it. After sleeping on it last night, I woke up and was content with how it turned out. Not happy, but willing to leave it as is. I then spent the next twelve hours at work and my dissatisfaction with it grew throughout the day. After I got home and had a lovely dinner with my wife, I head to the studio and decided to fix it. Needless to say, I am much more pleased with the end result. I used the same grey-green base color, applied a layer of liquid mask, sprayed a coat of pink made with Tamiya Pink (X-17) mixed with a little Tamiya Deck Tan (XF-55), applied another layer of liquid mask, and finally gave it a coat of the same red-brown from the first go around only with a tiny bit of Flat Red (XF-7) added.

WIP: Bandai Slave I (1/144 scale), Part 2

Starting with the base coat of pale green, the "correct" color is supposed to be Tamiya J.A. Grey (XF-14). This was a little too green for my taste, I mixed in some Tamiya Medium Grey (XF-20) and Flat White (XF-2) in a ratio of 3:2:2 to get this wonderful pale green. Also, I took this photo while experimenting with a new 50mm lens I bought for my Nikon. I would like to take all of my work in progress shots like this but it's much easier to grab my iPhone and snap a few quick pictures.

I managed to get most of the front skirt painting done last night. It's pretty much done except for a couple of black panels on the top grey section. All and all, I'm not entirely happy with it. I decided to use chipping fluid instead of liquid mask applied with a sponge. It's not bad, it's just not the finish I was aiming for. I guess it will be cool because the chipping on the skirt is going to be different than the hull, where I will be using liquid mask. The colors I used were Hull Red (XF-9) and Buff (XF-57) for the red, Pink (X-17) for the chipping, German Grey (XF-63) over Medium Grey (XF-20) for the grey panels, and Vallejo Model Air Tank Brown (71.041) for the brown panel. After this picture was taken, I managed to get a panel line wash on with MIG Dark Wash enamel. Once that is sealed in with some matte varnish, I'll move on to more weathering.