by Frank Cuomo

The X-Wing is undoubtedly one of he most memorable and heroic spaceships to ever make it to the silver screen. Without the X -Wing Luke would never have been able to blow up the Death Star and save the galaxy. But enough about the movie…

The model is 1/24 scale which makes it about 24 inches long. I tried where ever possible to accurately recreate the original ILM model, including hunting down all of the kits they used back in 1977. (Thank you EBay!)

I started the model by shaping the fuselage from a block of balsa wood and matching it to photos of the original model. After I sanded the body down completely smooth I covered it in sheet styrene. I then scribed the panel lines onto the body. I then ran the fiber optics to the cockpit and R2 unit. I would go back and complete the fiber optics when I detailed the body.

I then created R2 from a plastic dome, styrene tubing, and sheet styrene.

Putting that aside I cut the original shape of the wings from ¼” plexiglass. I found the easiest way to go about completing the four wings was to tackle it like an assembly line. So if I did something on one wing I would do it on each of them at the same time. This definitely helped break up the monotony of it and helped keep some continuity to them. After the plexi was sanded I covered them in sheet styrene and scribed the panel lines. After all the panel lines we added to both the fuselage and the wing I wet sanded the whole model with 2400 - 12000grit sanding pads. This smoothed the surface and took away any scratches and errant glue.

At this point I dug through the mountain of kits that I had collected and started adding all the detail pieces. Many of which I had to make silicone molds of and cast because of the need for multiple applications. After all the detail was in place I primed the model in Tamiya Primer. Once again I sanded the whole model starting with 2400 and going to 12000 grit sanding pads. I made one last pass at the body and filled any imperfections with red body putty and then primed and sanded again.

I put the model aside and let the primer dry for a couple of days and then started the painting process. I used Floquil paints because I read that ILM used them for the originals. I had never used Floquil before and I have to say that these are great paints. The flat paint is just dead flat. So, I started by airbrushing the whole model in white and let the model dry overnight. The next day I wet sanded the whole thing with 12000grit sand paper to smooth out the paint. It was at that point that I began masking the various markings on the body and wings with frisket. Inside where I was going to paint I made a few splotches with liquid mask to mimic where the paint had peeled away. After I sprayed I pulled off the liquid mask and the base coat would show through. I then attacked the model with pastels in order to dirty it up and then put on a final coat of Testor's Dull Coat.

From there I moved onto the base. I wanted to place the ship over the surface of the DeathStar so I did some research and decided to approach it just as they did at ILM. When they created the surface model they made a series of square panels that the cast and were able to repeat over and over. So, I started by making 6 different 3” X 3” squares from styrene and detailed each of them differently. I then made a silicone mold of them and cast about 30 of them in resin. I made the base from a piece of plywood and covered it in styrene. I then scribed panel lines to make it interesting and began gluing the resin squares in place. I alternated their direction in order to hide the repetition. I painted and detailed the surface the same way as the model.

Although a brief description, the model took a year to complete. In the end it was worth it.

Image: Closer look, port side

Image: Left/front view

Image: R2, raw

Image: Right/rear

Image: Base

Image: Close up