The basic kit was the a recent reboxing of the old kit by AMT. There is
alot of work involved in making this kit look like a convincing X-wing, but it
does have some good points. It's large, with good proportions and has
engraved panel lines. A good start, but there is not one part of
this kit that hasn't been reworked, modified, or even replaced. The kit comes
pretty bare, so I went to my spare room, Benjo's plastic
boneyard for parts. Old and dead 1/48 tomcat cockpit parts, 1/32 FW190D-9
engine parts, 1/35 M1A1 parts were cut, rearranged, and used in the
cockpit. I did the same with 1/48 F-14 undercarriage parts, rearranged,
shortened with the X-wing feet added. Main landing gear wells were
detailed with various spare 1/32 German fighter weaponry. Belly
cargo bay was opened and also detailed with pretty much anything, mainly 1/700
battleship parts and 1/35 armor parts.
Click on
images below to see larger images
I have always been partial to the recon version of the X-wing, drawn
in the X-wing comics and described in the X-wing novels. Any data
found on this fighter is conflicting and even drawn slightly different
from frame to frame in the comics. Which is good for me, I made all the
changes I liked most about this fighter, and added some of my own touches.
Artistic license! These parts also donated from the plastic boneyard.
Apart
from the obvious differences in paintwork, there is an AWACS style of nose,
some kind of underwing bulges or pylons, overwing fairings to facilitate the
towed sensor array which deploys much like the marine Tu-142 Bears. My
favourite part of the mod is the cargo bay with recce equipment. Other
differences that don't make any change to the build are that the S-foils are
locked shut, and they are meant to be unnarmed to save weight and precious
power. So I can only assume the cannons are dummys to disguise this
fighter as a standard model in the heat of combat.
This took a year to build, on and off. Interestingly, I picked up this kit
at SCALE ACT 2010 swap and sell, and completed the model for entry the night
before SCALE ACT 2011. It won the 'Best painted model' at the show! A test of my
abilities, but I can stand back at the finished model and be think, I am okay
with that!
Benjo
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