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I've always wanted to build one of the Star Wars ships and got the chance when I found one of the AMT/ERTL kits on eBAY. I did a
lot of research looking at the various X-Wings that are posted on Culttvman.com and the vast numbers of Star Wars web pages out on the web and finally decided that I wanted to go with a paint scheme that
borrowed a bit from here and there. I don't know that my version of the Star Wars X-Wing resembles any particular ship. And some modelers go for the Luke Skywalker version and others go for a version of
the ship they might have liked in the original episode IV.
For my version I wanted some really old and beat up looking X-Wing since I didn't think that the Rebel Alliance had a lot of
money to throw around on making their ships look clean and polished like the Empire's. The base coat of my version of the X-Wing is Model Master Light Sea Gray (FS 36307). I looked at the decals that
came with the kit and just tossed them because I didn't think they looked very good and wouldn't stand up to the abuse I was about to put the assembled kit through in order to get that weathered and
beaten look.
Instead of the decals I used a blue Sharpie pen to draw blue striping along the sides of the hull and on the top and undersides
of the wings. Once that was done I started to abuse the ship. I used some rust colored paint (Testors 1185) for spots that I wanted some wear to show. For the charred areas around the engines and the
nose of the ship I used charcoal bits from burnt candle wicks and smudged it on with my finger tips or a Q-Tip. This created a nice burned oil look around the engines and on the wing surfaces.
For the other worn down looking areas of the ship I used chalk in various dark shades and again just smudged it on in random
areas until I was satisfied with the overall look and feel of the ship. Then to set all of the chalk, charcoal, and Sharpie coloring I lightly sprayed dullcoat (Model Master 1260). This has to be done in
very light coats because I have found with disastrous results that Shapie ink will run very easily and ruin your paint job. Then I used a weathering solution of one drop flat black paint, a couple
of drops of dishwashing liquid, and about ten millimeters of Testors (#1156) brush cleaner and used it with a large brush to go over the fuselage, wings, engines, and guns to bring up some of the raised
details.
Finally once all of this was completed I dropped in the R2 unit, the cockpit with pilot, and the canopy. I chose not to weather these areas too much because I wanted to have them stand out a little bit to catch the eye.
Tim Roy
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