SPA Modeler

A LONG TIME AGO, ON A WORKBENCH FAR, FAR AWAY...


Oh wait. Its NOW. And that workbench isnt too far away. From my point of view at least. Now that the Heinkel "Salamander" and the Tau "Devilfish" are complete, its time for another wingy build. Of course I like SciFi a lot (as most of you know ), so its no wonder that I got the new X-Wing from Episode VII here.

The kit itself is an "Easy kit". I plan the following:

-a complete repaint
-maybe a reworked cockpit (original pictures are rare these days, if you have some, please let me know - would be great.)
-and a special setting.


Some words about the special setting:

Id like to keep it simple,. but different. I found a picture on the web thats just perfect:



A small, but powerful scenery and a bit off the movie-based sceneries probably most modelers will do (what doesnt mean at all that this is a bad thing ).

The kit is in 1/50 scale and so I had to look for smaller figures than my 1/48 figures in the stash. First idea were some Hasegawa NAVY ground crew figures, but theyre too big. Who is famous for too small figures in that scale? Right - TAMIYA always does.



Found two suitable ones and rebuild them in civilian, based on two soldiers from the "US infantry at rest" set (No. 32552).


Not sure about the blue scheme, some early scribbles show other colors too:






Stay tuned...

I find it interesting how JJ Abrams went for the look of the X-Wings from the original Ralph McQuarrie concept art from 1976/1977 with the half circular intakes.

Theres even a orange one? Very interesting.

The half-circle-discussion is a bit strange imho. "How can that work", "Look at real engines" etc are the most common sentences here.

Who knows how it really works - do we have to know it? Guess not. It looks like a X-Wing at least.

Done some more painting. Like the cvockpit for example, the exhausts were repainted (not shown here), and I rebuild a X-Wing-pilot helmet made from an USAF helmet.

Deploy X-foils in attack position - yeahaaa!

Great work Lucas!

Thank you Portman.

Sorry to disappoint you, but the X-Wing will stay grounded. A few details were added for the scenery, and my carpenter did another fine base for my projects (I was very happy with the one he did for the Devilfish project).

For example the ladder (please note that the laser cannon dent is used as a step too), a barrel and of course figures like shown above. A bit tricky was the remodeling of the pilot. All figures came from Tamiya here - theyre well known for their small size in 1/48, so theyre more perfect for the 1/50(ish) X-Wing.



original:





my attempt:




the base:




details, details...












more soon.

those are some fantastic details you are adding!

Is the X-wing going to be sitting on the tarmac (as it were), or sitting out by a swamp?

this is just a thought, but perhaps you might angle the X-wing on the base? Having the model and the base out-of-line helps add more visual interest vs things lining up square.

anyway, neat stuff!

The swamp idea is great, but not the target here - its supposed to sit on the tarmac/sand like in the picture above, surrounded by a little scenery such as the pilot (of course!), and two film makers.

Prime time! With white of course.

To avoid crackles in the surface of the sand - theyre unwanted here and I made some bad experiences in the past (Heinkel 162, for example), Im a bit more careful here. No thick glue/sand mix this time, but a thinner version. Takes longer to dry of course, but it should work. Fingers crossed.





PS: Decided for the not-in-line-version, because it looks really better. Thanks for the hint, btw!

no problem! Im looking forward to what you do with this one. all your stuff always turns out so cool!