by Ro Annis

Captain Cardboard's X-wing is an all resin kit and is intended to be a replica of the X-wing miniatures used in the filming of the original Star Wars movie.

For this model I created a studio style aluminum armature which has six positions in which a rod can be threaded into the model so it can be mounted on a stand.

Building was relatively straightforward for this type of kit. There was the usual grinding, filling and gluing. This kit is extremely well engineered and cast, so building it is "easy" considering the size, complexity and number of parts in the kit. Only one part needed to be modified, this was the rear fuselage cap, which did not match up well to the other lines of the kit. Ultimately this bothered me enough that I reshaped the part and cast a new one in resin. I made the model so the nose cone, rear deflector, port and starboard fuselage panels, the R5-D4 astromech droid and the bottom cargo hatch are removable to allow access to the six mounting hard points in the armature.

Forget it Luke: I couldn't bring myself to model yet another Red 5, so I chose to make my X-wing Porkin's ship, Red 6. Several changes were made to accomplish this. First, the Luke pilot was modified to resemble Jek Porkins. Next, the R2 unit needed to be replaced by a R5-D4 astromech Droid. This item was scratch built, cast, poured in resin and painted. Finally, six stripes were painted on each wing (to show the ships ID as red 6). There are no specific shots of red 6's ship, so the exterior panel details, fuselage stripe and weathering were created by looking at various X-wing models used. I also decided to glaze the canopy (which was not done in the original miniatures). I thought it just looked better and CG glazing was added to the re-release of episode IV anyway.

The model was primed with automotive primer and then painted with a base coat of Krylon Smoke Gray. Various panels were called out using Flo-quil railroad enamel grays and greens. Liquid mask was dribbled and splattered on the model and then it was heavily weathered using diluted blacks and grays. The liquid mask blobs were scraped off and then the surface of the model was distressed by scraping it with various tools. Next, it was heavily scoured with steel wool to give it a nice patina. A wash was then dropped in and wiped off to accentuate the panel lines. Finally the model was coated with satin clear coat to protect to finish and liven it up a little.

Image: Low, front/left view

Image: Rear detail

Image: Porkins