Well it may be a little late with the Heroes of the Resistance coming fairly soon but I had started this just before its announcement. I’m still glad I did it and I have a Poe Dameron black and orange x-wing before the release. I wasn’t going for super detailed but I would have to say the quality is still better than a stock model so there is some satisfaction there as well. Here’s a look at mine and a bit of a guide if you want to do this repaint.
I obviously started with one of my T-70 models. First thing I did was clean off the mold lines. Next was giving some shape to the droid unit. It comes with something looking more like an R2 unit and I wanted to put BB-8 in it. With a little cutting and scraping you can round it out and give it a bit of a head like BB. I didn’t bother with priming my model at all. It already has paint on it that the new paint should stick too. I didn’t really clean mine either and it was pretty new but if yours is older or really grimy for some reason you’d of course want to.
I started base coating the white areas to be black with Eshin Grey. I was told a bit ago that you don’t actually paint black just black and it is true. If you did it straight black it looks unfinished and not very good as you have no shadow for depth or dimension. It starts out looking rather gray but after a wash it looks really great. I tried to not cover the blue stripe too much but I didn’t take a lot of care. Had I been a little more careful it later maybe would of made making the lines for the orange easier. I also base coated all the metal parts with Bolt Gun Metal (now called Leadbelcher). I could of also gone with a gray like the stock T-70 has around the cockpit and other areas but switching to a metallic really added to the model. I used some reference pictures from google to figure out the correct areas to paint because it is slightly different then the stock T-70.
I washed both the areas to be black and metal with Nuln Oil. The black areas were still looking a little too grey so I put one more Nuln Oil wash on them. This looked good and While it is now not pure black you still have the shadowy areas which make it actually look like something. At this point I thought of comparing it to the FO tie fighters that are black; I don’t think it could of matched closer! After the wash the metallic parts were looking very dull. I didn’t want to add any strong highlights so the ship would fit in with the other fighters as they come. This definitely needed to be brought up though so I did a quick layer of highlight with Bolt Gun Metal. This color is fairly dark and not representative of really shiny metal but looks really good when it catches the light and is then a similar tone to the flat grey of the stock ships.
Next was the orange stripe down the hull, around the engine intake, and the pattern on wings. I had Troll Slayer orange but that seemed too vibrant. I did some looking on the internet and found someone who did this same project. They had used Jokaero Orange and I agree that is the right color. Painting the wing sections was really easy because there is actually a little raised patch where the color goes. The stripe around the intake I have seen many variations on. I believe I looked at a photo of the set prop to make the final decision. I also thought it looked best. It was pretty easy to trace the thin line along the edge of the engine but I did need a little touch up of the metal color.
The stripe down the hull was more difficult to place since I had painted over most of it while doing the black base coat and washes. It wasn’t too bad to do using the body lines and referencing another T-70 model. I hear they actually us a stencil at the factory to do them. I haven’t free handed much before so I definitely didn’t get it my first try or super perfect in the end. I did have to clean up my lines and make touch ups multiple times. Unfortunately I didn’t want to try to touch it up with the grey and try to wash such a small area that probably wouldn’t end up matching anyway. I just used Chaos Black on the cockpit/hull which is noticeably different in the right light or if you look really close. On the table it isn’t really noticeable though so I guess it is alright.
Now on to all the of the little details. For BB-8 I did a quick base of Skull White and a light wash of Nuln Oil. I put the black spots to represent the lenses on its head. Then I did orange or metallic stripes, using the same colors as the ship, in roughly the appropriate spots on the body and head. It looks good and recognizable but I didn’t spend the time to make it super detailed and accurate to close inspection. I also added the sorta after burner detail to the engines. I did this by painting inside the rear of the engine and a little lightly around the edge in Skull White. Then I came back over it with a couple coats of Bloodletter glaze. The picture looks a little rough but the result looks good on the table.
Lastly I added in the squadron markings. These were a little tough and took a lot of touch up to get the spacing and size right. I used Chaos Black again for the touch ups of the black area. The grey color is Dawnstone, which is nearly the same as the grey used on the stock ships. I only did the markings on the wing foils on the top and didn’t bother with the bottom side because it was a pain and you never would see them on the table. I also added the grey section in the stripe on the left side on the nose of the ship. I’ve seen a few different variations in color or pattern in this area. Sometimes it is divide into sections but I figured that was unnecessary detail for what I was going for.
That sums up everything I did to do the Poe x wing. It has been pretty cool to have on the table. Now it also makes people look twice to make sure I don’t have the HotR set already. I have gotten many complements on it as well. It was pretty fun to do and also makes me consider other things I can do too my ships. I don’t have much for plans but do think I want to do a red marked T-70 and possibly add engine details to all my ships. I’m glad I started this before the HotR set otherwise I may not have ventured into painting anything X-wing but I encourage you to go for it.
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