Finally found the time and courage to start my own painting thread. I started painting about a year ago after having done so for many years back in my teens, some twenty years ago. Suffice to say I needed some practice to get back into it!

My first venture was to start painting the complete Red Squadron of T-65 X-wings. Currently, I finished Red Leader and Red 2, Red 3 needs some finishing touches and his astromech done.

I try to keep the schemes as true to the original studio model as possible, damage and all. This seems to be more difficult then I imagined. I’ll keep this post updated on my progress!

Expect a personalized YT-1300 freighter in Rebel Alliance colors soon!

they look good. Barry Harker did some pencil weathering on a YT-1300 on page 1 (check it out)

32 minutes ago, bobafett1228 said:

they look good. Barry Harker did some pencil weathering on a YT-1300 on page 1 (check it out)

Yes, I know! He actually was my inspiration to start painting once again. So besides my skills with a brush I use his techniques as well for some weathering!

Those X-Wings look really good. I'm a sucker for a good Red Squadron repaint. Are they second edition flappies, or original fixed?

Did you completely repaint them base coat up, or have you added detail to and over the existing paint? And one last question, do you mind if I ask what paints you used? I'm slowly building up to doing some similar repaints myself, but I don't have any of the right colours and I'm not sure whether to go for Vallejo, Tamiya or something else.

23 minutes ago, GuacCousteau said:

Those X-Wings look really good. I'm a sucker for a good Red Squadron repaint. Are they second edition flappies, or original fixed?

Did you completely repaint them base coat up, or have you added detail to and over the existing paint? And one last question, do you mind if I ask what paints you used? I'm slowly building up to doing some similar repaints myself, but I don't have any of the right colours and I'm not sure whether to go for Vallejo, Tamiya or something else.

Thanks! I love painting them. Will be doing a step-by-step on the Red Four I'll be doing next. Then you can easily see what paints I use and how. These X-wings are the originals. When they are done (probably'll make it up to Red Nine), I'll buy the flappy ones for the last three.

Repaint is done base up. Citadel Corax White primer, the red markings I taped and sprayed with Mephiston Red, rest is done by hand. I use Citadel as well as Vallejo (prefer the latter more, it flows more easily and holds up better). For both the golden rule applies: always thin your paint. For weathering I always use Nuln Oil, but also use a sort of chalk for the engines and blaster marks. Works wonders, I think.

Found some time to get back into it, seeing as it is a long weekend. First up some more close-up pictures. Please excuse the quality. Still on a iPhone 4S, so the quality of the camera isn’t all that great... And the ships don’t look as grainy in real life as they do on camera, somehow...

Red Leader - Garven Dreis

Up next, everyone’s favorite rebel... 😉 Red Two, Wedge Antilles.

And for the final round of today, because then I really need to start finishing Red Three...

A rebel YT-1300 light freighter.

Back to business!

Red Three, reporting for duty...

And now onto Red Four, of which I will make a step-by-step photo review.

The first step I always take is to tape the canopy because the black of the cockpit is fine as it is for me. Then I spray the rest of the ship with Citadel Corax White. In this case I went on to paint (by brush) the metal frame of the canopy with Citadel Averland Sunset, mixed with a tiny bit of Abaddon Black.

The orange-yellow of the cockpit is a bit to dark for my taste in reference to the source material. Therefor, I will go over it again making the colour a bit lighter this time around, seeing as the weathering will darken it even further.

(on a side note... in the picture you see the white has a very grainy pattern. Though the image over-exaggerates the grainy pattern quit a bit, it exists nevertheless. This probably is because I normally spray a bit of paint on a paper when using the spray again after a long time. This cleans the left over paint in the sprayer. I forgot to do that this time around...)

Continued today with painting the yellow spaces of the ship. Used brush only, tried to keep it as close to the original as possible.

After rounding up the yellow I taped practically the whole ship in preparation for the red stripes on the side of the ship. I like to spray this part because it gives a smoother line.

As you can see the taping seems a little overkill, but it works best for me, as is seen below.

Currently working on the markings, which I hope to finish today!

Finished this days ago, didn’t get a change to post it though! First up: finished Red 4 without weathering and touching up.

And with weathering.

On to Red Six now...

So with the vacation the painting adventures continued! Started with Red Six, one of my favourite looking X-wings. I over-exaggerated the dark red on the model because I really wanted it to pop.

Started off by spraying the whole model with Corax White. Then added the yellowish and dark red with Averland Sunset and a mix of Mephiston Red and Abaddon Black, before spraying on the red line with Mephiston Red spray.

Wanting to try something different I had a go at my version of Inferno Squadron.

Inferno Leader, sprayed the whole model black after which I painted and weathered the remaining parts.

Inferno One, quite heavily battle damaged… Still need to find a way to attach the wing, wanting to use a few small pieces of metal wire, but still looking for a way to keep it properly attached.

Inferno Two, still needs the weathering and hightlighting fase.

For Inferno One and Two I also sprayed the whole model black before painting the grey with Administratum Grey (giving it a bit of that blueish hue), giving some highlights with Vallejo Basalt Grey, and painting the cockpit with Vallejo Dark Grey.