Pin Wash

I have continued work on the X-Wing this week.  I’m actually very impressed with myself.  I spent many hours on Luke’s chariot in my evenings.  As part of the whole trying new things theme I have going on with this build I decided to try a method of weathering called a pin wash.  This technique involves using an oil wash to fill the recessed panel lines by pressing a small brush to them and allowing capillary action to draw the wash into the grooves.  The brush leaves a small dot of the wash on the panel line.  After the wash has dried, a cotton swab dipped in mineral spirits is rubbed over the surface reactivating the oil paint.  The paint in the dot can now be manipulated to make greasy or dirty looking streaks across the surface. 

I tried pin washing out with limited success.  Part of my problem, I believe, is that my gloss coat was not smooth enough and thus gave the wash too much “bite” so it was hard to move around or even get out.  However, the results look passable and not too bad for a first try.  I’m going to try and add a bit more weathering with some powders and see if that gets it closer to where I want it.

I’m not far from being done.  A little more weathering, a clear coat, R2-D2’s head, the display stand and then final assembly.  I’m really looking forward to putting this thing on my shelf.

I can Play

You will notice the absence of “well” in the title.  Regardless, I finally made it out to the club for a game last Friday.  It had been months since I had been out.  I decided in the new year I would be a better nerd and make it out to the club more regularly.  I got a game in against Tyler who had brought his Circle army.  We played a Steamroller 2014 scenario, but I can’t remember which one. 

To make a long story short, I lost on scenario.  I still had lots of army left and could have given him a run if it hadn’t been for those damn control points!  I realized some of my mistakes, which didn’t make the loss any easier to swallow.  I misdeployed and couldn’t get my force to where it needed to go in time.  I was also not aggressive enough; a common failing of mine.  Finally, I rolled pretty crappy. 

I did have a good time and managed to knock some of the rust off.

Recharge

I’m back in the Frozen North again after a week hiatus on the south coast.  It was nice to able to run outside and just wear a light jacket for a while.  We even got some sunny skies in a region renowned for it’s rain during the winter.  We had a busy social schedule while down there visiting Jen’s family and friends, but it was still energizing.  But with beautiful vistas full of mountains to contemplate each day, it was hard to feel hard done by.

The warm weather is now long gone (it is currently –30C (-22F) outside).  The good news is that I haven’t reverted to video games and useless web surfing.  I have spent a couple of solid days at the hobby table.  I finished applying the decals to my X-Wing.  That turned out to be a long and painful experience.  The problem stemmed from my lack of skill and the steep learning curve as well as the quality of the decals.  The decals are very thick, so they don’t wrap over or around details.  They were tough to work with.   There was also the sheer number of decals.  R2-D2’s head had 5 decals all by itself and it is about the size of the end of your pinky finger.  But, I persevered and finished.

 

Now, I am about to put another coat of gloss varnish on the model and try my hand at weathering.  Like everything else on this project, it will be a learning experience and likely not turn out quite the way I had planned.  I’m trying to stay positive and see the journey as important as the destination.

By the way, a couple of parcels showed up on my doorstep just before we left for holidays.  It looks like I’m set for a while.

All In

I have been documenting the odyssey of building the Fine Molds 1/72 scale X-Wing fighter.  The difficulties are all mine and this kit is absolutely fantastic.  The engineering is so good.  Seems are usually hidden or made to look like they belong on the model.  The fit is amazing.  It makes me wonder why most miniature companies, especially the larger ones can’t match or even approach the this level of engineering.  Anyway, even though it has been a trial at times, I have had lots of fun and learned many new skills.

Now, I am not part of the scale modeling community like I am a member of the miniature war gaming scene.  So, I had not heard that Fine Molds had lost their Star Wars license at the beginning of the year.  Thus, I did not know until a week ago, that all of the amazing Fine Molds kits would be out of production by the end of the year.  I quickly hit the internet and found most of the kits out of stock.  When I looked deeper, many of the kits were selling for 2-3X their retail value.  I quickly made a decision and went on an internet hunt.  I managed to find four more kits to build.  This is what I bought:

 

There were a few others available for reasonable prices if you looked hard enough, but it was at this point that I ran out of hobby budget.  I’m now hobby broke, but if I add this haul to all of the minis I have to paint, I should be set for quite some time.

FYI, the Star Wars license was awarded to Ban Dai, which is best known for making Gundam models.  Their product looks high quality, but so far, not to my taste.  The ships seem to have too pronounced panel lines and look too toy like.  I really don’t nee to worry about it for a while though, given what is in the mail for me.

Of Trials and Tribulations

I’ve been working off and on (mostly off) on my X-Wing.  It is hockey season and the holiday season, so time in the Man Cave is limited.  Since last I posted I have assembled the cockpit and the fuselage.    I also filled some gaps that resulted from my inexperience.  I did a bit of a shit job filling the gaps.  I think they’ll look fine when viewed from an appropriate distance by someone who doesn’t know they are there.  Again, this project has had a HUGE learning curve.  I have been spending lots of hobby time watching YouTube videos about scale modeling, so I sort of know what I’m doing next time.

When it was time to paint, I tried my had at pre-shading.  For those not in the know, that is the technique by which you give the look of weathering by painting black along the panel lines.  Theoretically, when you paint your final colour, the shading shows through and looks like wear, dirt, etc. around the panels.  When done competently, it looks really sharp.  By now you know that competence is not my bag.  I started out well, but then started to suffer from dry tip.  The only problem is that it took me too long to realize dry tip was my problem.  So, the whole pres-hading looked like crap.  Luckily, I was able to paint over the shading and it looks ok, I think.  It is time to weather now.  More tutorials and probably more mistakes.  As I tell my students, everything is hard until you’ve practiced enough that it isn’t.

I Hate Decals

I have been making some small headway on my X-wing.  I painted up the pilot (Luke himself) and then I applied the decals to his helmet and to the control panel in the cockpit.  I hadn’t applied decals since I was a teenager.  For my first decal, my 13 year old self resurfaced and I completely botched the job.  I didn’t trim the decal and it wouldn’t stick.  There is supposed to be a red strip on Luke’s helmet with a yellow patch at the front.  It’s now in the garbage.  I did a bit better job on the rest, but it’s a steep learning curve.

The next step is to assemble the fuselage and do some priming.

As an aside, I have been getting some grief from my wife over my pronunciation of decal.  I pronounce it with a long e sound (deecal) while my wife pronounces it with a short e sound and hardly any a (decl).  She says I sound American and I say I don’t care.  How do you guys say it?

Outside the Comfort Zone

As I mentioned in my last post, I have started working on the FineMolds 1/72 scale X-Wing.  My progress has been extremely slow for a couple of reasons.  First, The process is quite a bit more complex than putting together a miniature the has 10 parts at the most.  I have taken a lot of time to read articles written by people that have built the model and what they did.  I have spent more time than was really necessary examining the instructions and thinking about how I was going to do things.  The second reason is that I haven’t built a scale model since I was in high school.  Back then I wasn’t very careful or patient.  I always ended up with glue on everything and would often put things in the wrong place because I hadn’t read the instructions through or very carefully.  So, now I find myself fretting every time I glue something that it will be in the wrong place.  I am totally mental!

Anyway, this is what I have accomplished in all of this time.  I just need to paint up the pilot and then I can install the cockpit in the fuselage.  Then I can get the airbrush out and start painting.    I hope I can loosen up and get more done in less time, so there is something to post in a shorter time frame.