This week I have something a little different than what I usually show off here on the blog, X-Wing minis! The X-Wing miniatures game has taken a lot of game stores by storm, its popularity due to its ease of play, complexity, and of course, the Star Wars universe. Another probable factor contributing to its success is that the minis come pre-painted. But, just because a piece is pre-painted that doesn't mean it can't be altered! That's exactly what I did for new customer, Donovan, who requested a fresh look at his Millennium Falcon and Slave 1.
Both the Falcon and Slave 1 are duplicates in Donovan's collection and he wanted models for "vanilla" versions of those ships, ones that don't represent the craft popularized by episodes IV, V, and VI.
With a little bit of art direction I was ready to go and broke out the airbrush for a base coat.
The classic M. Falcon uses a red palette, so I wanted to go in the other direction and use a blue based gray and rich royal blue. Yellow was my choice for headlamps and cockpit glow, a nice natural contrast color.
I mentioned to Donovan that a "bomber babe" on the cockpit would be a nice touch and he jumped on the idea, eagerly requesting that she be a Twilek.
"Trudy the Twilek" now graces the newly re-christened "Trudy be True!"
Can you guess what inspired the design for Trudy's paint scheme? You might just push one at home or work every day...
I stuck with the classic sky blue engine glow for Trudy. Some times you just can't beat an oldie.
It was definitely a blue week, as once again the Slave 1 draws upon a red palette. I happily used the chance to paint with my favorite color hue again.
I stayed on the dark end of the blue spectrum, inspired by the idea of a "stealth" coloration, perfect for hunting down bounties and committing space piracy.
Though the paint scheme was a stealthy one, I still wanted to add something bold to the design. Alien-tribal seemed like a fun way to add some complexity to the repainted Slave 1 while not breaking with its subtle approach.
I used my Badger airbrush for both base coating each ship and adding their engine glow. I went back with a bristle brush and added more highlight to the effect, and was done in minutes!
I hope you enjoyed checking out my X-Wing alters, come back next week to see what else I'm working on here at the Lab!
Gorgeous work!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much!
DeleteLooks good. Did you strip them first or just paint over it? How did you find them to paint? I've thought that I would like to paint a few using my airbrush, but I am a bit hesitant about the quality of the plastic and adhesion and detail quality and things.
ReplyDeleteI didn't strip them for fear of possibly warping the plastic. The most I would do if stripping them, would be to brush on simple green and not go for the deep soak. They painted up just fine, the airbrushed coat held well, and I didn't feel like I lost detail from excess paint. For most any repaint I would suggest simply painting over them.
DeleteAwesome custom paint jobs! I've been wanting to convert one of my Falcons to a YT1300C (I think), the one with the cockpit in the middle. With a custom paint job I think it would rock. I'm not sure about adding the huge thrusters that the other Falcon model had as that would be a resculpt of the entire back of the ship.
ReplyDeleteI just looked up the pics of the YT1300C, that looks like a fun project. It's definitely possible, if you need someone to do the conversion or paint I would be happy to do it!
DeleteThanks for the kind comment!
Great job, Matt! Those look really cool.
ReplyDeleteThank you Aaron, have you tried X-wing yet?
DeleteYep, I had bought two starter sets. I picked up a Ywing and Tie Advanced and have been playing with my son. He's not the most patient, so the rules get tossed aside sometimes. Only issue I have with the game overall is space is 3D, but they don't allow for ships ramming or being able to fly through other models.
ReplyDelete