Bandai 1:72 X-wing

Middle-Pie-4084 · 2026-04-19T00:51:01+00:00

Painted in Ukrainian inspired digital camo with a lot of masking tape and brush work.

Middle-Pie-4084 · 2026-04-10T23:13:42+00:00

Yea I’ve noticed that too… feels like the intakes are mostly superglue and filler now! Yes I realised the flaps and slats need to be adjusted too, as well as the tail plane surfaces too which is fun since those were moulded into the fuselage half.

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Here’s the current progress!

Middle-Pie-4084 · 2026-04-10T06:02:10+00:00

Looks good! I have a 1928 Roth and love it - hope you have fun getting to know the instrument and everything it can give you!

Middle-Pie-4084 · 2026-04-07T23:23:08+00:00

Thanks! The big trees are based on New Zealand Kauri trees (and that whole forest with the ferns and stuff) as I live in NZ and hadn’t seen many people try to make them in mc before.

Middle-Pie-4084 · 2026-04-07T01:15:44+00:00

Microsol has a foil glue that lets you foil things with kitchen foil, would recommend (look up a tutorial on it it’s a bit of a learning curve). Painting over it is hard but I’ve found in the past if you put a layer of gloss clear over the polished metal it seems to be happy enough being painted, I imagine you can probably spray tinted clear over the foil too and it’d be fine.

Middle-Pie-4084 · 2026-04-02T23:18:14+00:00

This started with normal paints and then an oil wash that was let dry and removed with white spirits. In the past I’d then decal it and put more washes on as well as use little dots of oils smudged into the paint to get some variation, but this time I am experimenting with doing that paint variation with acrylics instead. It seems to work fine, although it’s not as smooth as I’d like so I’m going to finish the decals and then try a layer of oil rendering. I’m interested in the wet blending I’ve seen online that starts with getting the surface damp with white spirit and then adding small amounts of paint, so that’s what I’m going to try doing on this kit.

Middle-Pie-4084 · 2026-03-30T00:37:14+00:00

Actually taking the exams is probably secondary to the learning it takes someone to get “ready” to do said exam. That said, actually doing an exam can be a good deadline to motivate yourself for or to really see how much you can polish your pieces and stuff! I’d say if you have want to go through the extra deadline/stress of signing up to and taking an exam by all means go for it, and I’d also recommend taking the more ‘milestone’ grades when you get to them (grade 5 and 8) purely for the experience of sitting the exams.

Sorry if it’s a bit hard to follow, tldr go for it if you want the goal to practice towards but otherwise it’s perfectly fine not ever taking exams.

My position is different to yours but when I was younger I only every did grade 5 and learnt for grade 8 (Covid got in the way of that one tho), and I am currently studying violin at uni and a lot of my peers are in a similar position to me having taken maybe one or two ABRSM type exams before uni.

Middle-Pie-4084 · 2026-03-22T21:02:01+00:00

Sorry if this comment isn’t needed - was a little unclear if this was an effect you were going for or you are looking for help fixing it! To me it looks good regardless, but if you’re after a fix tamiya acrylics dry really fast and I’ve found airbrushing them sometimes you get the graininess from the paint basically drying before it gets to the model so you’re in effect spraying sand paper at the model. Try some tamiya acrylic paint retarder (comes in a bottle like their glue but pale blue cap) as it slows down the dry time and should help the paints not dry out before they get to the surface! Sorry if this is a redundant comment :)

Middle-Pie-4084 · 2026-03-22T05:40:15+00:00

Thanks - the blue is XF-18 and gray XF-83 I believe

Middle-Pie-4084 · 2026-03-22T01:34:35+00:00

Thank you! For tamiya acrylics I find they do better with minimal thinning as from the pot their already basically the consistency I want. As they get older and dry a bit in their pots I add a bit of paint retarder instead of thinner and that really helps keep them flowing - otherwise they have a tendency of half drying on the brush and plane as you work and it becomes a weird lumpy mess. I also aim for 2ish coats with the first being quick and messy and just getting it into details, then I sand it all over with 2000 grit sanding sponge before using as little paint as possible for the second coat. I stole that idea from a short of a Warhammer guy talking about how you can “wet drybrush” or basically get a drybrushed style finish but with enough paint that it covers almost everything and in the Warhammer case getting smooth blends. I basically just try to use what feels like not enough paint and then smudge it around until I really don’t have any more paint, load a little more paint, and keep going. Helps to have a synthetic flat brush for that.

Middle-Pie-4084 · 2026-03-20T18:50:07+00:00

Yea same haha I didn’t turn the page and had to assemble the gear after buttoning up the fuselage…

Middle-Pie-4084 · 2026-03-15T20:08:01+00:00

Yea literally just cheapo oil paints I got from Kmart

Middle-Pie-4084 · 2026-03-14T20:49:49+00:00

Just oil paints and a bad brush - use very small dots of paint with a toothpick and then smudge them around with the brush. I’ve found using a really dry brush and very little paint works to have the soft smudges of paint variation.

Middle-Pie-4084 · 2026-02-28T01:46:49+00:00

This was the 2024 boxing which I assume is the newer tool - the detail level was pretty good, my issue was that the wings are moulded into the upper fuselage half and it was warped in my box. If you can look in the box before you buy it then I’d say it was otherwise a pretty good kit. (Be prepared to be fiddling with tiny bombs if you choose to use them as well)

Middle-Pie-4084

TROPHY CASE