X-Wing tutorial : Repainting the Millenium Falcon

Would it help if I got out and pushed?

Starting from this line, I knew that to properly represent the Millenium Falcon I would need to push my weathering techniques to the max and get away from my confort zone.

Here you can see the various paints I used:

Main hull:

- pro-color white

- atronomican grey

- ceramic white

- chaos black

- shadow grey

- scab red

- codex grey

Cockpit :

- dwarf flesh

- Fluorescent orange

Weathering:

- mars black (oil)

- burnt umber (oil)

- raw sienna (oil)

The first step was to block out the main colors. On a black undercoat, I airbrushed pro-color white at an angle to keep some shadows, insisting on raised areas. Then I took my trusty raphael 1 brush and painted the colored pannels in scab red and shadow grey. The access holes and engines received a coat of chaos black.

Top:

Bottom:

Next came the weathering. Dipping a torned bit of foam in white and various shades of grey I painted a pattern of small dots on the hull:

The second step was the oil wash. The model was varnished with satin varnish then I prepared my usual mix of black oil paint + lighter fluid and applied generously:

Using Q-Tips damp with lighter fluid, I then removed the excess wash on the panels.
Sorry for the lack of pictures here.

I then highlighted the top edges of all panels with ceramic white:

Then I threw caution out the window, and started experimenting with oils directly on the model.

I first mixed a bit of umber and black to create a dark brown color that I applied lightly with a brush to the area close to the engines (use a special brush for that folks, you do not want to mix oil into your regular acrylic brushes!). You can be a bit sloppy here as the next step will cover mistakes. You should use a dabbing motion more than brush stroke.

Using a lighter fluid damp Q-tip, then I went over the oils, gently fading the edges:

I did the same on the bottom edge of the open access panels. Then painted the canopy with dwarf flesh fading to black toward the front.
At that moment the model was a bit too blue and lacked the characteristic rusty spots of the Falcon so I decided to try some oil filters. I applied raw sienna in small dots to the hull at random points:

Then gently worked them in a general rust stain shape with a dry Q-Tip:

If the rust stain is too intense, you can go over it with a lighter fluid damp q-tip to blend the edges.
That's when I decided it was good enough! Letting the oils dry over night, I varnished again the model with matt varnish.

To give bit more contrast to the canopy I finished by blending fluorescent orange to the rear areas then varnished it with gloss varnish.

I then posted the paintjob online and got quite a few positive returns, but with several saying that the weathering was not pushed enough, that the Falcon was too clean.

Challenge accepted!

First using a mix of chaos black and scorched brown I added lots of water stains, starting from the top of the panels and small details and going toward the edge of the ship. Then using the previous oil technique, I added a dark stain around the central round panel.

Now it really looks the part!

Hope this helps, don't hesitate to ask if you have questions in the comments.

Time to reload,
Ica

Battle report : Fat Chewie VS double Defenders

I'm terribly sorry about all this. After all, he's only a Wookiee!

Having been on the wrong side of the Fat Chewie stick much to often I decided to try it for once against one of my regular opponents Lanyssa. 

You can read his debrief in French on his blog : http://escadronsabre.over-blog.com/2014/08/name-code-2dhlc.html with more pictures from his side of the table.

His list was the classic : how can I fit 2 HLC with Jonus for rerolls?

Jonus, 2 flechette torpedoes

Defender Delta, HLC

Defender Delta, HLC

I was playing:

Chewie, C3P0, Millenium Falcon title, Gunner 51

Biggs 25

2 Bandit squadron Z95 24

I really like the combination of fat Chewie +Biggs, because Chewie is really tough to get in the end game, and Biggs helps him to get there (see Paul Heaver list at the US National). The 2 Z95 are there as fillers being reasonably tough for their points.

Deployment looked like this:

He deployed in triangle formation, to benefit from Jonus reroll. I deployed in 2 groups, with Biggs ready to slide toward Chewie and behind the middle asteroid.

There I made my first mistake, moving Chewie 3 forward in the 1st turn, while the rest advanced only 2. Of course Lanyssa closed as fast as possible with a 5 forward.

Turn 1 picture shamelessly taken from Lanyssa blog:

The 3 forward allowed both Defenders to fire on Chewie, taking a combined 7 hits, while I only took one shield of the defender on my left. I remember thinking clearly : he can move 5 forward, so you have to move strictly less than 3 to stay out of range, not sure why I put a 3 instead of a 2 forward. 

Oh well, mistakes happen.

 

I also made a mistake for Chewie shot on a range 3 defender. I took focus as an action, as I would be rolling 3 evade dices and 3 or 6 attack dices. I rolled hit, eye, eye with Chewie first shot.

Now in this position would you use Chewie focus or not, knowing that you have gunner?

I'm looking forward to your reasoning in the comments.

I did not. He promptly rolled 4 blanks and took a shield and I did not roll a single eye in defense (odds of rolling at least an eye with 3 dices are only 37/64) .

Next turn he banked 2 toward Chewie, while the 2 Z flew 4 forward, Biggs hid behind the asteroid and Chewie advanced 1.

Sadly I misjudged the distance a little bit, and one of my Z could not fire on the left Defender. The rest of my ships did 4 damages, dropping it to 1 hull. In response his 2 defenders reduced Biggs to 1 hull (asteroid power!) and Jonus added another 2 damages to Chewie with a flechette (Chewie is now down to 4 hull).

Close up shot of the action (love the Defender at this angle):

No picture of turn 3, it was basicly a huge pile up of ships, with biggs banking one left, the 2 Z turning 2 left, Chewie doing a one forward. The damaged Defender bomber 5 forward to escape the action, while is wingman turned hard right 1. Jonus bumped into Chewie.

Fire was inconsequential : Chewie failed to finish the damaged defender, and Biggs survived the actionless shots of Jonus and the defender.

Turn 4, he K-Turned the damaged Delta to return to the fight, and bumped with the other one. Jonus took the place of Chewie who flew through the 2 asteroids in front of him. The 2 Z bumped to get firearcs on Jonus.

Jonus died to the combined firepower of my ships while dealing an additional damage to Chewie, and the defender killed Biggs.

Turn 5, Chewie turned right to evade the returning defender, while the Z turn to face it.

The front Z destroyed the damaged defender and lost 2 shields to the other Delta.

Turn 6 and 7 : Chewie maneuvers to get back into the fight, while the 2 Z dogfight with the defender:

Turn 8 : Lanyssa made a mistake and K-Turned behind the lead Z, putting it at range of Chewie and my 3 ships.

The combined fire took it down before it could fire.

The game was much closer than it should have been I think, mainly due to my first mistake with Chewie. Biggs really helped there to put me back in the game. If I had taken another 2 Zs, Chewie would have died on turn 2, and the game would have been much different.

I also think that Lanyssa list would be better with PS 3 defenders, or maybe one PS3 and swarm tactics on Jonus to get a PS advantage against filler ships.

Looking forward to see your choices for using tokens on a first gunner shot in the comment (with a small explanation if possible).

Time to reload,
Ica

X-Wing Tutorial : Millenium Falcon lighting and magnetisation

Pic heavy tutorial of my YT-1300 lighting mod.

She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid. I've made a lot of special modifications myself.

For this tutorial, you will need 

 - a YT-1300 model

 - a glue gun with 2 glue sticks

 - superglue

 - plasticard

 - 2 blue leds and corresponding circuitry

 - 2 magnets 3 mm in diameter and 2mm high

 - 2 magnets 3 mm in diameter and 1mm high

 - hand drill with 3mm drill bit

 - an X-Acto

 - a scriber (can be replaced with the X-Acto):

http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/74091scriber2/index.htm

1) The smuggling compartiment

You will need to cut open the beast:

Here the scriber tool is really usefull as it created a kind of groove in the plastic, larger than what you would get with an X-Acto,  which really helps with the cut, especially in a circular shape.

2) The diffuser
We need something to diffuse the light from the 2 leds, otherwise we only have 2 beams of light.
Cut one of your 2 glue gun sticks in a square beam 4mm on a side and 8 cm long with the X-Acto, this will act as the light diffuser. Dry fit and cut to length:

Heat the glue beam with your glue gun on one side and  press to the model to glue the diffuser to the model.

3) Structural reinforcement
We need something for the cut piece of hull to rest on.
Draw the shape of the hull cut  on plasticard, using the cut piece of hull.

Now draw a rough shape around your line about 4mm on either side.

Cut the shape and dry fit to the model. You should have something like this.

Using the X-Acto or a pair of scissors, reduce the shape till it fits in the hole.

Glue the shape to the model:

4) Magnetization:
Drill 2 3mm holes in the hull cover on either side to place the 2 3mm * 1mm magnets.
Using the heated glue gun (or a soldering iron), create 2 holes in the diffuser on each side opposite the 2 holes on the cover and place the 2 3mm*2mm magnets (it will be easier to proceed one by one).

5) The electrical circuit

Mine is made with 2 blue leds in parallel, soldered to the switch on one side and the battery on the other with a resistor.

After testing everything a few times I cut a hole in the plasticard shape for the light switch, drilled a hole in the hull cover opposite and glued switch to the model. I then used additional glue from the glue gun to hold the leds in place and act as light conduit to the diffuser.

When closed you should end up with this:

Follow me on twitter for blog updates! https://twitter.com/Icareane37

Time to reload,
Ica

X-Wing Showcase : Millenium Falcon Repaint

You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!

When I started repainting my X-Wing models, it was all in preparation for this : the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy! The level of details on the YT-1300 is nothing short of amazing for such a small model (on the top side anyway) and it was big enough for an engine light mod.

The repaint took me about 2 weeks from stripping to converting to the last varnish. I used all the techniques developped on Luke X-Wing and then some, with most of the weathering done with oils.

The engine light is made with the classic leds+ hot glue diffuser, with a switch hidden on the belly of the ship. I should post a couple of tutorials soon, for the engine lights and for the oil weathering, I also changed the magnet joint for the Falcon as the weight of the model and the size made a ball joint unusable.

I'm really happy about how the ship turned out, hope you like it!

Time to reload,
Ica