X-wing

**imcold** · #1 07-12-2009, 12:56 PM

Hi all, this is the model I'm currently working on. I started over a year ago, but I had several month-long breaks.
The base for the model is the X-wing model from PaperGrade by Zen , which looked to me as the best paper X-wing model I could find around that time. It's scale is 1/48.
It was clear to me from the start that I'll be doing many modifications to it: modifying or replacing certain parts, painting with synthetic colors (that I use on plastic models), carving panel lines, adding support ribs and so on. All in the name of creating the best paper X-wing ever

The fuselage
Modifications: custom nose, cockpit, droid plate and proton torpedo tubes; reinforcement ribs
I started with the fuselage. The overall shape is the same as in the original model. The lower part hides some 1mm cardstock plates and ribs, which give some extra strength to the forward section and serve as a floor for the cockpit. The "cage" for the wing axis in the aft is also built from 1mm cardstock.
The nose cone is completely scratch built, the original one is too edgy. The proton torpedo tube openings were moved a backwards a bit & the shape is changed, too.
Cockpit is scratch-built too, with many tiny buttons and useless stripes :D
The droidplate is built from scrap paper and a few balsa wood pieces.

Surface:
I painted the half-finished fuselage with black paint and then sanded it in places where the joints were visible too much. Then I printed the fuselage parts again, drew the panels on them according to the Finemolds' and real filming model references. Afterwards, I "draw" over the panel lines with a needle, creating a subtle negative plating like you could see on plastic models. Sort of an experiment of mine... and it worked out quite well. The model how has 2 or even 3 layers of paper on some places, so it's pretty hard.
Another important part of the surface are "greebles": in this case, over 50 paper squares of varius thickness that I glued all around the fuselage. Some of them are roughly in places they're on the "real" X-wings, but I put most of them in places where they looked good to me.
The visual improvement of adding greebles all around is huge, I highly recommend adding some if you're going to build your own X-wing, even if you're not going to paint it. And it's loads of fun, too - the pieces are too small, so you have to work with tweezers or toothpick or something similar all the time.

Painting:
I don't have an airbrush, and I can't paint large areas uniformly - but for a dirty X-wing it doesn't matter (that much) :D I The base fuselage color is a messy combination of lighter and darker spots, created trough mixing layers of black, white and gray (revell 76) to imitate weathering. Some panels were painted with dark gray afterwards. Masking tape helped a lot, mainly when I was painting the red stripes. Another prominent feature of x-wings are scratch marks all around, so I took a knife... and scratched the color down to previous layer or even paper. It's a bit drastic, but effective. As the last part of weathering, black watercolor was used to emphasize the panel lines.
The cockpit is painted with watercolors.

I have one prototype wing almost finished, but I'll talk about the wings next time.

**causticphlegm** · #2 07-12-2009, 01:43 PM

Incredible detail! I love it. Probably my 2nd favorite ship next to the millennium falcon.

Glad you posted this here. Tried to view your thread at the other forum, but like many others, i'm banned there. Thanks for the pics.

And welcome.

**cdwheatley** · #3 07-12-2009, 02:06 PM

Superb work and attention to detail! Can't wait to see the finished model

.

**ARMORMAN** · #4 07-12-2009, 03:00 PM

Sweetness! :D

**Fargo** · #5 07-13-2009, 04:08 AM

Man, that's what it comes to my mind when I think about an Incom T-65C A2 X-Wing! Double thumbs up :D
I've begun a rhino file about this beautiful ship (I think it's my favourite one...) some time ago, but never got to a real project stage, only sketches... now I know I'm not alone out there trying to develope an x-wing model that has nothing less than a styrene one. if you are interested in other SW ships (even fighters), pm me

**imcold** · #6 07-13-2009, 06:10 AM

Thanks a lot, guys!

causticphlegm: I like the Falcon's design too, but not enough to devote several years to recreate the intricate surface detailing like Rabe from kartonbau.de

I've built the small corvette model from the same page as the xwing comes from, though.

Fargo: some new, high-res pictures of the filming models appeared on net lately, so now it's better time to build a model of X-wing than ever

Well, I am interested, but low on time - I'm building the Ebon Hawk too, and I'm going to start working on a wooden snowspeeder, that may or may not be a base for a paper model once, who knows.

Part 2 - the wings

Here's the wing (upper left) prototype. I don't have much wip pictures, so I'll post the finished product first:

I'm building the other 3 wings atm, with some adjustments to the construction. As a result the other three wings won't be exactly like the protowing, but the general shape and dimensions will remain the same.
The wings are completely scratch-build, with the base skeleton made from 1mm cardstock. The engine pod dimensions are the same as in original model, so I'll be able to fit them to the unmodified wing axis "cage". The wing dimensions are taken from Finemolds' 1/72 X-wing. The skeleton then gets covered by paper layer with needle-engraved panels. The aft engine tube is from the original model, except from the exhaust nozzle, which has some extra detailing inside. The original model missed the openings on the inner side of wings, through which you can see the internal structure of the wing, so I added those. I painted the internals with somewhat darker color than the fuselage (revell matt 57, used on some of the panels too) and used black watercolor to make them look dirty.
Of course, the surface is heavily detailed with many stripes and blocks again, to imitate the filming models.

And some mockup shots at the end. The canopy and droidplate aren't glued on the fuselage yet, the wings will be mounted first. Then I'll make the backplate, the droid's head and finally the lasercannons. At least, that's the plan :D

**buffalowings** · #7 07-13-2009, 06:12 AM

this is looking pretty good, any chance you will ever build a y wing?

**Fargo** · #8 07-13-2009, 06:25 AM

interested?

it needs only to be built... :D

@ imcold: take your time

I'm even busy with my "normal" life and this is a hobby. anyway, great work, it's getting better every pic!

**imcold** · #9 07-13-2009, 06:32 AM

Y-wing? Maybe a betabuild, uncolored and without too much detail... but as I know myself, I'd started detailing it and adding splashes of watercolor pretty soon :D

**imcold** · #10 07-14-2009, 07:40 AM

In clockwise order, from the upper left photo:
1, 2 - two engine tubes in 1 hour, that's the easy part.
3 - 96 stripes of paper (no, it's not a stew), 60 9mm stripes for the "turkey feathers" on the nozzle, 36 5mm stripes for the "fans" in the nozzle.
4 - assembling the fans

Second picture:
5 - progressively adding more stripes
6 - the fans and inner side of the nozzle are painted with black watercolour, which has a nice matte finish
7 - detail photo of the finished nozzle
8 - T-wing?