RubiconLJ

Red 2 as of this afternoon. Might do a tiny bit more weathering on the exhausts. Starting Red 3 soon.

Thanks Dave. All 6 will be the Bandai 1/72. There are several releases (3, IIRC) with different decals and amounts of pre-colored parts. Some of the kits have all the lower panels of the upper fuselage in red and some have white sections in place of the several of the red depending on which one it was released as. Bandai kits can be built out of the box as snap-tights but I build them glued with Tamiya Extra Thin so I can fix the join lines. Bandai plastic doesn't react well to enamel washes unless you glue (which seems to relieve the stress of the friction joining of the snap fit) and paint all exposed surfaces. I also thin the pins of the joints so that I can realign if needed, but these kits are so well engineered and extruded that very little is ever really needed.

WIP picture of the difference between the raw harsh paint and with the over spray.

Red 2 loosely press fit in preparation for the over spray of thinned SMS White. Final glue up will be after most of the weathering is complete. Hoping to have the over spray done this afternoon and a coat of gloss down tonight. Panel lines penciled in and Tamiya Black and Brown panel line wash are after that with a flat coat following. Final weathering will be with Tamiya weathering powders and a second flat coat to lock it in.

This evening I got the red stripes masked off and painted. Tomorrow morning it will get a light misting and drybrushing of white to tone everything down. Then the fun part, weathering and bringing this thing to life. Will post pictures later.

This morning before I laid down the red striping.

Been plugging away on this for the last week. Last Sunday ready for primer.

I created an assembly line for the next three interiors and pilots. Red 2, 3, 4 are complete and all the flight helmets were hand painted. My eyesight is not what it used to be and the hands are not as steady as they once were. From here I will work on each one individually with the goal of completing one a month (at least).

First time posting any of my work here. I'm attempting to build the first 6 X-Wings of Red Squadron as they appeared as filming miniatures in the original release and not the CGId remasters. Red Leader - Garven Dreis is the first up and is mostly complete. I decided after looking at these quick pictures that I want to remask the front fuselage panels, cockpit windows, etc. then give it an overall misting of Tamiya Smoke. Panel lines were done with a Micron Grey technical pen and are not as dark as I would like either, will probably go over them with a mechanical pencil as well.

There is also Granite Con in Mid October in Manchester NH. Not strictly autos though. http://granitestatemodelersclub.org/pdf_files/GraniteCon29flyer.pdf

RIP Sgt Dohun. The Longest Day would be the only WW2 movie with a better cast than A Bridge Too Far. Been a long time lurker, first post.