Last January, I built Finemold's 1/72nd X-wing. Having just figured out how to post images, this seems a good time to share what I did:
With the body and main details painted, I decided to start on my custom Squadron symbol on the Left upper surface. For those who are not Star Wars geeks like me (read n-e-r-d), the upper wing surfaces (called S-foils) are usually where the Squadron symbol was painted, as described in the short X-wing series of novels. For the sake of simplicity, I only painted the upper left wing.
So with the blue circle painted (for a sense of the size, I traced an American Nickle for the mask), I got to work on the "High Flight" Squadron symbol: an X-wing flying over a mountain.
The mountain:
When that totally (and I mean totally) failed, I sanded off all the paint I just spent several hours painting.
Unfortunatly, this also destroyed much of the surface detail, but that was OK, with the squadron patch there, it wouldn't be visible anyway.
Therefore, with no idea what custom patch to do, I added what I always wanted to see on an X-wing: Green stripes!
And after a quick night's rest, Inspiration struck! I finally had an idea, a color scheme, even a name for my new Squadron patch.
First came the Base colors, about four of them, then a quick mask over them, and a coat of (iiick, shudder) Yellow, as shown below:
(Note: I was so eager to follow the image in my head that I forgot to take a pic of the base colors, so they'll just be a mystery for the moment)
After another mask, I painted the green final coat. In this picture--hey, there's my Nickle!--you see the final color on the verge of drying completely. The tape on the wingtips helped hold them still whilst I painted. Yes, this was all hand-painted.
And voila! The masks were removed, and after a few minor touchups, the symbol came out exactly how I saw it in my head:
(still in the final phases of touchups-some of my masks bled through a bit)
And then, I moved back to the Green stripes, adding some replaced panels, and touchups to the hull, without masks. I also added the painted canopy.
With those drying, I painted up the removable landing skids, the standing pilot, astromech (R2-D2 look-alike), and the laser cannons
With these complete, and the paint dry, I added the laser cannons, and stuck on the landing skids. Finished!!!
Final pics:
(Note: as of right now, it has recieved some more wear and tear weathering, but I don't have pics of that available for posting right now, but I will have more current pics up soon.)