I have put the finishing touches on what is quite likely my last build of the year, my all-time favorite science fiction subject, the X-Wing starfighter. The kit is by Bandai in 1/48th scale and is the moving edition (which is quite likely what drew me to the kit in the first place).
Let me take everyone on a hopefully short history trip. I was nine when Star Wars first hit the screens here in the States. When I took one look at it, even at that age, I thought the movie would be utter dog doo and had zero interest in seeing it. Then one day, after my tenth birthday, my dad came outside where I was farting around, probably with some dirt and mud and maybe a stray GI Joe action figure or two, and asked if I wanted to go to the movies to see Star Wars. I really had no interest in it but what ten-year-old is turning down a trip to the movies with his dad?
To say that I was mesmerized is not even painting half the picture here. I know that I am not alone in this given how successful this saga has been and given that new movies are still being made (and I already have tickets to see Rogue One on opening night). I recall coming home from that movie theater, a building that no longer exists in Sugar Land, Texas, and scrounging about for as much cardboard, tape, and markers that I could get my hands on. When I had what I needed, as well as a trusty pair of scissors, I set to building from scratch a fleet of X-Wings and TIE Fighters. They were crude, sure, but MPC had not yet kitted anything from the movie.
Once MPC came out with their X-Wing and TIE Advanced Fighter, I of course got those as birthday or Christmas presents. If I had to ballpark it, I would say that by the release of Return of the Jedi six years later, I had built an entire squadron of those MPC X-Wings. Of all of those, I still have two, one hanging in my attic and the other in pieces in a grave box of old destroyed kits.
I actually did another one of their X-Wings about a decade ago, a smaller scale version like the one I have hanging in my attic, and built it into a Return of the Jedi Death Star attack diorama.
When I saw this Bandai kit, I knew that I needed to get it even though I have a Fine Molds 1/72 kit in my stash. It was the moving features plus the included lighting that did it for me. I had acquired this kit right before The Force Awakens came out, and it looked like it would sit in my stash for years - that is until I saw one of the Rogue One previews that features X-Wings doing what they do, looking awesome while shooting things and blowing stuff up. That prompted me to pull this kit out of the stash.
Now on to the kit. It is a decent kit, but like other Bandai Star Wars kits that I have done this year (Sandtrooper and Boba Fett), it is actually a snap-together kit in reality. It goes together all right but I think with these three kits there is something about them that I don't like. Not sure what it is. Perhaps it is the plastic. Something that makes them feel a bit more toy-like than they should be. But they are definitely not toys; they do make good display models, and this X-Wing is well detailed.
But my biggest complaint about the Bandai kits is the quality of the decals. They give you traditional water-slide decals and a matching sheet of peel-off stickers. The register is bad. The printing is pixilated, not solid coloring, and therefore not usable in my opinion. So I opted to mask the heck out of this thing and paint many of the panels that were intended to be depicted via these horrible decals.
Photos of the completed X-Wing
The engine lights are actually real bright as evidenced with this dark photo showing them against my back drop.
The other really cool thing about this kit is the moving wings that are accompanied by the sound effect from the movie. As well as the sound effect of launching proton torpedoes.
So I did quite a bit of research before building this. I looked for images on the net. I have some books that helped as well. The Art of Star Wars and Sculpting the Galaxy - Inside the Star Wars Model Shop. And then, twist my arm, I watched the Death Star attack scenes from Star Wars.
There is a good bit of debate as to what color an X-Wing actually is. I think it is really in the eye of the beholder. They are not white, nor are they gray. The models used in the movies were painted in a shade of white named "Reefer White" - sounds like a '70s thing to me. I could not find that paint anywhere, so I mixed up a custom mix of 90% Tamiya flat white, 2% Tamiya sky gray, 2% Vallejo flat brown, and 1% Tamiya flat black. Again, eye of the beholder, nothing hard-and-fast as we would find on a British Mosquito bomber, for instance. I used Tamiya medium sea gray, Tamiya dark gray, Tamiya insignia red, Model Master RLM 04 Gelb, Vallejo radome tan, and Vallejo blue gray to finish out all the painting. The engines were painted with Tamiya sky gray, Model Master dark anadonic gray and Model Master burnt metal. I then used a variety of Tamiya weathering compounds, mostly oil to effect a lot of the streaks and stuff, as well as burnt blue along the engine thrusters and the interior engine surfaces (these don't show up well). I followed all of that with a generous use of ground black pastels and a coat of flat clear.
This will not be my last science fiction build. I have all of Fine Molds' 1/72 scale Star Wars kits, including the Falcon, awaiting their time on my bench. I also have a Revell Star Destroyer (from Attack of the Clones/Revenge of the Sith). But I am returning to my forte, aircraft, next, with a couple of F-86 Sabres. I don't expect to finish either prior to the end of the year.