AMT X-Wing Rebuild - Complete

You have my attention!  :D

OK, so I know it's been awhile but it took a lot longer to strip the paint job I did as a kid. I got it to where it's as good as it's going to get.  I've been slowly working on the cockpit. Here's the stock kit part: 

Not very accurate to what you see in the movie.  I'm not going to 100% accuracy, but anything would be better than this.  I cut down the spare instrument panel from my Revell A-6E that I just finished and grafted it on.  I also removed the "seat" and will be replacing it with what I think is a WWII aircraft seat, but I couldn't tell you what kit it came from.  It was just floating around in a spares box.  Here's where I am right now:

I filled in the spaces with Perfect Plastic Putty and it looks a lot better.  You can also see the seat I'm going to be using.  I need to check some reference pictures for the side consoles to figure out what I'm going to do there.  I still need to tackle the area behind the seat, scratch-build a targeting computer, and then hit the front panel.

I didn't take a picture of this, but I cut open a panel on the bottom of the ship, and plan on opening up a panel behind one of the proton torpedo launchers and build that.  I'm also going to have one of the engines exposed, and open up the nose.  I want to get more ambitious, but I don't think it would be good for me .  After all, there's still the rest of the diorama to build.

Just to prove I'm still plugging along on this, here's where I'm at.

I drilled out the proton torpedo launcher tubes and removed a panel so I can build the launcher inside.

I've also modified one of the engines so that it will be visible when the panel is open.  I still have a lot of work to do here in modifying the parts so that the panel would actually fit closed over the assembly.

Lastly, here are some card stock templates I made for the cockpit.  The plan is I'm going to use them to cut styrene parts from a sheet then glue them in position once the cockpit is in the fuselage and then putty up any gaps.  Then I'll paint it all up.  I'll get the hard to reach areas painted before I put it in.  I still need to build the targeting computer as well.

Still plugging away at this, getting all the internal parts together and finding suitable greeblies to stuff inside.  With just a couple of little things here and there, most of them are done.  They are mostly car parts with some absolutely random things I found scattered around my spares boxes.

The cockpit is also ready to go into the fuselage.  I'm going to do the coaming panel and sidewalls after it's inside, I think it will be easier to get everything lined up properly that way.  I rigged up some hoses by the seat and built the targeting computer.  You can't see it very well in the picture but there are some foot pedals under the instrument panel as well.

Great re-imagineering.

I have a lot of the greeblies put in.  Quite a few went in around the astromech port and I couldn't get a good picture of the area. Here's the completed engine:

The proton torpedo launcher:

Access panel under the ship:

And lastly, here's where I'm at with the cockpit.  I still have to fill some areas and sand, then add in some more greeblies and paint it.

Only a small update for now, bench time has been at a premium since school started back up this week.  I've finished the cockpit except for the coaming panel.  I'm going to save that until after I'm done painting and weathering.  I found a few gaps on the wing to take care of and then I should be able to put it all together and start painting.

cool job!

It's looking good. This was one of my first Star Wars kits I ever built, along with Vader's TIE and R2-D2 and C3PO.

I started working on the larger Poe Dameron black X-Wing. It is a pretty nice kit, although I really wish it came with decals and not pre-painted markings. It was a whopping $12.50 on clearance. I also got the two X-Wings that have lights and sounds for my son, one black and one grey.

Kids are very lucky with today's Star Wars model kits. Even these cheaper snap kits are very good model kits. MPC's original kits were quite tricky to build and much detail was simplified.

Thanks for looking in Rob!  The old kit of Vader's TIE was the first I built when I came back to the hobby.  I have Poe's X-Wing in the stash.  I wasn't sure about it when I first saw it, thinking it was too "toy-like" but it was on clearance so I bought it.  I was pretty surprised at the amount of detail in it when I got it home and opened it up.  My son is very interested in gettig the light up and sound kits that he can throw together and play with.  

The non-lighted/sound X-Wing is a pretty nice kit, biggest downside is no pilot and pre-decoration. Of the smaller lights and sounds kits, that TIE fighter is a pretty nice kit that might be close enough in scale to the larger X-Wing. It is huge compared to the other light/sound kits.

Bench time has come at even more of a premium now that school has started.  We have a new principal and his new requirements for us teachers is leaving me with less free time than before.  But I have been stealing a few minutes here and there and got some actual time tonight.  Here is the peg I was talking about:

And how it looks with the wings together: 

Then sanded smooth:  

And now it's starting to look like an X-Wing!  

I've been plinking away at the X-Wing.  I finally got a primer coat on and sprayed the first color: blue.  I used Testor's flat sea blue.  I'll mask it then paint a few different grays.  I need to find a good pale yellow color.  If I can't find a good color at the LHS I'll try mixing some light gray with yellow.  Then I'll get everything masked and spray the overall color.  It's kind of strange painting markings before the main color.  But I'm thinking this way there will be a LOT less masking.  Here's where she is now.

I'm sorry it's taken so long to update this, life keeps getting in the way lately.  The major painting is done, and I'll be able to start the fun part of Rebel ships: weathering.

Yep I like it.

T

With the approach of The Last Jedi coming soon and your rebuild of this old kit, I'm starting to get a Star Wars bug about me again.

X-Wings have always been my favorite and I've got a whole squadron of them stored away somewhere.

I think it's time I start collecting some of these newer kits. Those new Ban Dai kits look amazing!

As for the work you've got done rebuilding this kit.... WOW!! OMG I LOVE IT!

We have a closeout store in the KY-OH area called Ollie's that carries a 1/30th classic X-Wing by Revell. It runs $90 originally but was being closed out for $30.

Pretty nice kit that puts the old MPC kit to shame and the AMT/Ertl ProShop one as well. I just wish they had made the scale more inline with standard modeling scales like 1/32 or 1/35. It'd be easier to work other items into a diorama if it was in a constant scale.