Ok, I had 2 goals for the Mk II:

1. Paint 1/2-2/3 of the surface in bone white to get it more in line with the Nebulan B.

- It took me a few coats to get an even color, mostly due to the red patches.

- Finished with a black/orange wash, that I let dry "dirty" in places, to get that Rebel used and abused look.

2. expand the engines so they actually look like they could push the beast at speed 3.

-Added 4 metal cones from the bead department of the local craft store. 2 above, 2 below.

-Primered onto toothpicks, then snipped off so the end of the toothpick sits about halfway up the length of the cone

-Built up 5 layers of orange in the engines to match the now center engine.

Nice! It looks much better with the extra engines!

I've also done an engine addition, I'll have to post pictures of the process myself soon.

Frankly I also had to re-purpouse the "wings" into additional armor plating for the hull because if there's one things Star War's implausible silly ships were always good it it was avoiding putting wings on their spaceships! (Yes, yes, I know, X-Wings, but those are clearly just weapon mounting points!)

Thanks! I love seeing how the Mk II is personalized. It seems to be the ship everyone is the least satisfied with as is.

I just assumed that the wings were a convenient place to put communications and sensor arrays. One of the things episodes 1 got right was the clunky external dishes and antennas on capital ships, before they were able to internalize them.

I like the mk2 the way it is, but I am in the minority in that I donl mind the single engine. I have yet to see a good engine expansion to it though visually speaking.

To each his own TallGiraffe. I just like to see personalization in the models, and the mixed opinions on the Mk II are breeding the most adventurous modifications and paint jobs. I personally think it is a beautiful model, I just was never satisfied with that single tiny drive engine going back to Empire at War. It just never seemed to fit with the other Star Wars ships with the massive drive sections. I was thinking of asking Utar if he would sell me just a drive section from a Dreadnaught for a more nostalgic conversion.

I am with ya there, looks good. The single engine whale tale sucks.

Very nicely done! That AF looks awesome! I have two of the AF's and wanted to mod up one of them. You have provided some excelent ideas for re-working the single engine.

Thanks Space Cowboy! The flat ridge below and the nearly flat surface above the "whale tale" provides a smooth gluing surface. While this is by no means the only way to modify the engines, it was the easiest way I could think of that didn't involve chopping the model.

I like it, certainly makes the space guppy more streamlined in appearance.

What paint colors did you use if you don't mind? Especially the white you used. I don't see brush strokes, what was your technique?

I feel like I am the only one that really likes FFG's sculpt of the AFMKII. That said the bone white paint looks great and makes it match better with the rest of the Rebel fleet.

What paint colors did you use if you don't mind? Especially the white you used. I don't see brush strokes, what was your technique?

For the most part I use cheap craft paints "Delta Creamcoat". Best quality of any cheap paint I have ever found. In this case it was the eggshell white.

I use 2-3 layers of almost dry-brushed on white, to keep the coats as thin as possible, and to prevent brush stroke lines. The first coat allows the color underneath to show through quite a bit. Repeat until all is as white as desired. I followed that up with a black, (mixed with a dab of orange), wash.

Thanks for the complement BTW.

I feel like I am the only one that really likes FFG's sculpt of the AFMKII. That said the bone white paint looks great and makes it match better with the rest of the Rebel fleet.

Don't get me wrong, I love the sculpt that FFG made. It is the engine design of the ship itself that I have never been a fan of. I think that ship first showed up in Empire at War, and even then it never looked right to me compared to all the other ships with the massive drive engines. I did find the paintjob a bit uninspired, hence the repaint to make it look more like the Neb B.