# Bandai Resistance X-wing T-70



## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

*Bandai Resistance X-wing T-70 (Force Awakens)*

As with all model builds, I start with painting the pilots first. I watched some tutorials on painting table top minis and was insane enough to try some of the techniques on 1/72nd scale figures. Actually worked pretty well.

I used Vallejo paints thinned with Windex which worked much better than thinning with distilled water. The Windex has less surface tension which allows the paint to flow very well, which is important for painting something this small.

I then used various Citadel washes and layer paints to accent details and add color contrast.


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## RB (Jul 29, 1998)

That's truly stunning work pixelmagic, congratulations. The insanity is working pretty well for you! What type of paint did you use?


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

RB said:


> That's truly stunning work pixelmagic, congratulations. The insanity is working pretty well for you! What type of paint did you use?


I have edited the original post to explain my process.


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## INVAR (Mar 28, 2014)

I bow in awe at the skill demonstrated there. I will have to perfect that skill considering I have the Bandai X-wing yet to build and The Force Awakens Falcon and T-70 coming.


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## Xenodyssey (Aug 27, 2008)

I'd say your works very well indeed. Best painted 1/72 figures I've seen.


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## Xenodyssey (Aug 27, 2008)

I'd say your works very well indeed. Best painted 1/72 figures I've seen.


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## mcusanelli (Apr 13, 2011)

Excellent work on those figures! 1/72 is a pain in the eyes for me, so kudos to you sir, can't wait to see the rest of your model!


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

Ok, started work on the actual X-wing. Wanted to attempt a chipping effect on the silver vent intakes on the wings. I also painted the back greeble detail.

I started by coating the vents in Alclad Gloss Black Base, letting it dry for several hours, then coating them in a thin layer of hair spray.










After the hairspray dryed, I sprayed Vallejo Model Air Aluminum because you need an acrylic metallic for the hairspray paint chipping technique to work.










After letting the Aluminum dry for several more hours, I took a soft wetting paint brush and burnished the surface on the leading edge surfaces of the vents, as that's where most debris would hit during flight.










I also used Citadel Shade Nuln Oil on the interior of the vents to darken edges and weather. This stuff is amazing and I will probably use it on all Star Wars vehicles. 










I then used various Citadel Shades on the back greeble to weather it. It's much too small to weather with oils effectively, so the Citadel Shades are awesome for this.


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

The weathering looks perfectly in-scale, congratulations!


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## robiwon (Oct 20, 2006)

Nice work. I'm at the point to start the weathering on mine.


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

Small update tonight. I finished the top of the X-wing greeble area. The base color was sprayed Tamiya Neutral Grey, and the details were hand painted with Vallejo Aluminum, Citadel Boltgun Metal (not made anymore. It's a gunmetal color) and then the weathering was done with various Citadel Shade washes (Nuln Oil, Agrax Earthshade, Reikland Fleshshade, Seraphim Sepia) similar to the back greeble. I then VERY lightly drybrushed some Vallejo Aluminum to add paint chips to the raised surfaces. You will notice there are more paint chips around BB-8s opening, as I figure the droid would bump the sides as he's placed in, and so the paint could chip there more.

Penny pictured as a reminder of the scale of this part.




















The cockpit is in progress, so I should have that done soon. Once that's done, I can start to assemble the fuselage and really dig into this thing.


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

Gotta say, thing of beauty, and you're doing a fantastic job! I'm feeling pretty good about giving in and grabbing an X-Wing and TIE Fighter when the chance occurred.


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## SteveR (Aug 7, 2005)

That's really nice -- it doesn't look 1/72 at all.


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

So the cockpit is now all painted and decaled. Pilot seated in. This allowed me to go ahead and start assembling the fuselage around it. 










Bandai Star Wars kits are fantastic except for the boneheaded way in which X-wing fuselages go together. They made the color panels as whole separate pieces instead of letting you paint the blue stripe or using a decal for it. This leaves some unsightly misalignments for a smooth hull and huge gaping panel lines. I have done my best to correct this by holding fuselage pieces at the correct angle while the glue sets on the pieces, even though it's a snap kit. I have also hand painted some Tamiya primer in the huge gaps of the panel lines to fill them in a bit. Then sprayed over with high build primer to fill them even more. Hopefully I can get the fuselage as one smooth surface by the time I'm done.











The wing assembles are also done and ready for primer/paint.


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## Daikaiju1 (Apr 26, 2005)

I really like what you are doing with this, it looks great.

Thanks for the step by step


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## starseeker (Feb 1, 2006)

PixelMagic said:


> The cockpit is in progress, so I should have that done soon. Once that's done, I can start to assemble the fuselage and really dig into this thing.


Yeah, I can hardly wait until you stop fooling around and finally get serious about this. 
Sigh.
You know, you are probably the single best painter/finisher of models that I've ever seen. Absolutely jaw-dropping work. Love to know a couple of things: do you use any vision aid to see that small? and what size/kind brushes or paint applicators do you use? I mean, we're talking pretty much single sable hair width strokes on those pilots. For some of us, that's microscopic. 
Making me contemplate giving up modelling at taking up drink. Man...
Amazing work! .


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

starseeker said:


> Yeah, I can hardly wait until you stop fooling around and finally get serious about this.
> Sigh.
> You know, you are probably the single best painter/finisher of models that I've ever seen. Absolutely jaw-dropping work. Love to know a couple of things: do you use any vision aid to see that small? and what size/kind brushes or paint applicators do you use? I mean, we're talking pretty much single sable hair width strokes on those pilots. For some of us, that's microscopic.
> Making me contemplate giving up modelling at taking up drink. Man...
> Amazing work! .



Wow, thank you for your kind words. I take so long to finish a model I figured most people forgot about my last one in between. 

I do not use vision aids when I'm painting. I have a magnifying visor, but I have not actually used it.

As for paint brushes, I pretty much use the ones sold at my local hobby shop. Sable hair brushes seem to be the best quality. If I'm weathering, then I use whatever is the right size as the quality isn't so much of a concern.


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

This post is a little long because it's a mini-tutorial on a weathering technique I wanted to try, and it came out pretty successful, so I wanted to share.

If you look at the Star Wars studio models, they all have a grimey speckley texture on them. Word has it this was done by flicking paint off a toothbrush onto the model to create the speckles. However, this model is 1/72nd scale, and I was afraid the globs that flew off the toothbrush technique would be too large and hard to control.

So I came up with this idea and I tried it and it worked great. It gives you really tiny grime/speckles, and it's very easy to control to give you the exact effect you want.

I bought an air conditioner filter for 50 cents at Walmart. This material is very thin and has lots of small open texture to shoot an airbrush through. Basically using it as a stencil to shoot a grime texture.



















After the wings were primed with white, I laid this material over the dried wings, and shot Flat Black through the foam filter material. You have to hold the airbrush right up to the foam almost touching it. Surprisingly little paint goes through, so you can build up the effect gradually without worrying about spraying too much at once.










After doing a few passes on the wings, you end up with this. A really nice small scale grime speckle texture...










Obviously it is too harsh in some places, so I mixed up the base color for the X-wing hull, Tamiya Flat White with a few drops of Tamiya Sky Gray to darken it slightly to off white. I then sprayed this hull color in light coats over the wings resulting in a nice subtle grime weathering effect that will be combined with other weathering techniques later. I exaggerated the contrast in the photos to make it show up, but it's perfectly subtle in person.



















Even though I sprayed the grime texture as an undercoat to the main hull color, you could easily do this ON TOP of the base coat. As I said, the effect takes a few passes to build up, so you could do this on top of your final paint job without worrying about going to far. You could also use a lighter gray instead of the flat black I used here, and it would give a nice subtle effect. This would especially look awesome on the base coat of a Millennium Falcon.

Anyway, just wanted to share, and I highly encourage you guys to try it if you want small scale grime and speckle effects.


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## Dr. Brad (Oct 5, 1999)

Thanks for posting this! I've been wondering how to pull that off, and this looks like it will be perfect! Now I just have to hope I can find a similar filter at our local Waltmarts near Vancouver BC!


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

THAT is f'sking brilliant! I bet that would be fantastic on the new 22" Eagle as well. 

Hey, do you think that can be done with a rattlecan, or does the spray spread too much?


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

Steve H said:


> Hey, do you think that can be done with a rattlecan, or does the spray spread too much?


If you just use a larger piece of foam to catch the overspray I don't see why not.


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## Hagoth (Mar 12, 2015)

Great looking build and weathering technique. Provides a lot more control and looks way better than my old 3 feet above spray can misting technique.


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

I'm trying to find the right words. It's much more controlled than even a wash, it looks more like realistic paint wear, the grime of real-world use. 

I think the key visual difference is, a wash collects in the low spots and corners, whereas this idea is more even in being uneven. The filter cells act to randomize the spray much more than simply misting. 

You know, it strikes me that washes and panel lining might be too much with this technique. I await what you do next!


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## robiwon (Oct 20, 2006)

I did the toothbrush speckle on my SS X-Wing years ago using black and brown. Looks lie a good technique. I have another T-65 coming that I will try this on. Thanks.


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

The filter technique looks great! I always wanted to try this after seeing it in Dorbou's blog:

http://dorobou.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2014-12-13

He used a stranded filter from a kitchen air cleaner, from what I could gather, to get a streaked texture. I think yours is even more useful, and far easier than weathering with salt.


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

Finally got around to painting the wings. Not terribly happy with how it came out in some places, so I'm gonna do some touch up. Hopefully weathering will blend it all together a bit better too.


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## spock62 (Aug 13, 2003)

Looking real good so far. What color did you use for the blue markings on the wing?


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

spock62 said:


> Looking real good so far. What color did you use for the blue markings on the wing?


Vallejo Game Color Magic Blue with a few drops of white added to lighten it.


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

Got the wings fully painted, touched up the stuff that was bothering me, and the first layer of chipping and weathering laid down. Due to the way the model goes together, it's much easier to just fully finish the wings before attaching them. I will take their weathering to completion before moving on to the fuselage.


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## Jafo (Apr 22, 2005)

sweet. how do you like the air color paints?


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

Jafo said:


> sweet. how do you like the air color paints?


They are really nice. You can use them in the airbrush very well, but they can also be handbrushed right out of the bottle really nicely as well.


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## Hagoth (Mar 12, 2015)

Those wings are looking nice. Appears that the detail inside the wings are pretty much mirrored top and bottom. I wonder how accurate that is. Pretty subtle method to hold the wings together in the closed position with that little tab and slot.


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

Wings are 95% weathered.


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## crowe-t (Jul 30, 2010)

Very nice!

How did you do the chipping on the blue areas you painted?


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

crowe-t said:


> Very nice!
> 
> How did you do the chipping on the blue areas you painted?


Just painted the chips on with a tiny tiny brush using the hull color.


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

After painting the wing interiors and weathering them, the wings are now fully finished. I've also painted the fuselage. No touch up work has been done on the fuselage yet to fix a few unsightly errors. After touch up, I will weather the fuselage in a manner to match the wings and blend the whole piece together.


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

I did a little something different on the base than the kit intends. It's clear that the base is meant to be the sand of Jakku, but it occurred to me in the film you never see an X-wing flying over Jakku, but you do see them over Starkiller Base. Therefore, I elected to change the base from sand to snow.

Firstly, I painted the base white, then painted the edges black for a nice contrast. I bought a pack of Scene-A-Rama snow, but I wanted the snow to have that shimmer and glisten that you often see in fresh snow. Therefore I mixed in some extra fine iridescent glitter.










I poured all of the Scene-A-Rama snow into a shaker. I then simply added 3-4 pinches of the iridescent glitter and mixed it up until it had the right amount of shimmer. You don't want to add too much glitter. A little goes a long way.

Next I masked the black sides with tape to keep glitter off them.










On the next part, I could have used PVA glue, but I had already had mixed up a custom thinner I use for Vallejo hand painting, that could also be used to adhere the snow to the base. The way you make it is mixing matte medium and distilled water 3:1. Then you take that mixture and put a TINY amount of flow aid into it so it spreads evenly. The matte medium/water is mixed with the flow aid 20:1.










I then took this matte medium/water/flow aid mixture and painted the base with a wide soft brush. I then immediately took the shaker of my snow/glitter mixture and heavily shook it over the base. I let this sit for about 30 minutes, and then held the base upside down shook off the excess snow. I was left with a nice shimmering snow base. The effect is hard to photograph, but in person looks awesome.



















Also completed the first weathering pass on the fuselage.


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## Hagoth (Mar 12, 2015)

Wow, nice touch. That came out looking pretty cool. :thumbsup:


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## robiwon (Oct 20, 2006)

Looks great. When I do my second T-70 I want to have it flying over water with the spray coming up.


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

robiwon said:


> Looks great. When I do my second T-70 I want to have it flying over water with the spray coming up.


I wish I had the motivation to build multiple versions of the same kit. Once I build a kit, I never want to build it again.


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## Dr. Brad (Oct 5, 1999)

This is looking great! Thanks for posting!


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## S4Simon (Dec 24, 2006)

I found this kit much more taxing than the Bandai 48 scale X Wing. Maybe because its smaller and more finicky. Anyway, half way through the detailing on mine. Can't fault the Bandai kit for quality. Another top notch kit.

Loving your detail on the pilot PixelMagic.


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

And done.


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

And a couple with space lighting...


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## robiwon (Oct 20, 2006)

Great build. Just saw it on FB. Very nice indeed.


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## crowe-t (Jul 30, 2010)

Awesome build! The weathering looks realistic and I like the snow on the base.


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## Hagoth (Mar 12, 2015)

That looks fantastic! The detail on the pilot is great. Nicely done.


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## S4Simon (Dec 24, 2006)

All finished now  - Great little kit.


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

As always, I do a composite image with my final build.


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## Xenodyssey (Aug 27, 2008)

That is very well done, both the model and the composite.


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## Hagoth (Mar 12, 2015)

Very nice, as always.


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## stowe (May 29, 2003)

Very Nice Build, alas it just confirms that JJ Abrams RUINS everything IMHO. First the UGLY new Enterprise, now the Rustic looks of the X-Wing..../sigh!

Nice build though, thanks for the step by step, I love following builds!


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## PixelMagic (Aug 25, 2004)

stowe said:


> Very Nice Build, alas it just confirms that JJ Abrams RUINS everything IMHO. First the UGLY new Enterprise, now the Rustic looks of the X-Wing..../sigh!
> 
> Nice build though, thanks for the step by step, I love following builds!


I'm usually no fan of JJ's ships either, but the new X-wings are sexy as hell.


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## Hagoth (Mar 12, 2015)

The new T-70 is not as rugged looking as the older T-65 which looks like it can take a beating and keep on fighting. The designers did manage to keep the distinctive look with a dramatic twist. I like the new look even though it has a more delicate feel. Nimble and deadly. It reminds me a little of a wasp.

The new Star Destroyer? You know what it is but it totally lost the distinctive profile to me.

The new Trek ships? Blah!


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## Joel (Jul 27, 1999)

Hagoth said:


> The new T-70 is not as rugged looking as the older T-65 which looks like it can take a beating and keep on fighting. The designers did manage to keep the distinctive look with a dramatic twist. I like the new look even though it has a more delicate feel. Nimble and deadly. It reminds me a little of a wasp.
> 
> The new Star Destroyer? You know what it is but it totally lost the distinctive profile to me.
> 
> The new Trek ships? Blah!


Really? The new X-wings look pretty much just like the old ones to me. Other than the obvious change of a single intake engine look that splits open with the wings.

And that only harkens back to the original Joe Johnston sketches/Ralph McQuarrie paintings of the pre-production X-wings from the original Star Wars.

The new Star Destroyer? Well, it did look just plain bulky.

The new Trek ships? I agree.


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## Hagoth (Mar 12, 2015)

Joel said:


> Really? The new X-wings look pretty much just like the old ones to me. Other than the obvious change of a single intake engine look that splits open with the wings.
> 
> And that only harkens back to the original Joe Johnston sketches/Ralph McQuarrie paintings of the pre-production X-wings from the original Star Wars.
> 
> ...


Yeah, that's the point. They managed to keep the overall look and yet change the way the wing splits. With the wings splitting on a vertical plane instead of across the horizontal plane you get smaller split wing profiles with no change in total wing area. That was a first as far as I know and to me was the dramatic twist. Looks a lot more nimble and deadly to me in attack mode. There are still 4 engines so the splitting intake is less of a change to me. The shape is just a half circle so it looks like one when closed. Ok, that's cool looking, but not really any change in base function like the wings.

My only bug (just a little one) is that the intakes and the engine nozzles seem a little out of balance to me size wise. Overall the configuration of the X-Wing was advanced nicely. At any rate I really like the look.


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## marcejef (Feb 21, 2016)

Excellent work man!! I have already bought this model kit by bandai and I am trying to find the correct color reference because the bandai guide is in Japanese hehe. Could you please give me some help on that? do you have some brands of basic colors? or some codes? what did you do the mixing of them?

Thanks very much !! 

regards.


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