Bandai 1/48 scale X-Wing Model Build: Part VI Fuselage Assembly and Painting

The first thing I've done now is cut out and gather all of the fuselage parts from the sprues.

I then painted all the parts with Tamiya fine grey primer.

I then did a black wash over the panel lines of the main fuselage parts to pre-shade them...

then painted the parts with my main body color of Tamiya AS-20 Insignia White.

You can really see in the fuselage parts how the black wash made the panel lines pop once painted with the AS-20.

At this point, I want to do the colored panel painting around the fuselage. I taped off 2 areas of the fuselage parts that have red panels.

Then collected the 5 pieces comprising the red stripes down the side of the fuselage.

Using a liquid latex frisket mask, I painted the chipping areas of the red paint first, as closely matching the filming miniature as possible.

I then airbrushed Tamiya flat red over the parts as needed.

Then wiped away the latex mask, leaving the chipped areas.

Using the liquid latex mask again, and using the sponge technique, I applied latex to the cockpit canopy.

I then mixed my own blue gray color for the canopy using Tamiya sky grey and blue.

Then airbrushed the cockpit canopy and wiped away the latex mask.

And finally, the 2 yellow panels on the top front of the fuselage were also liquid masked and painted with Vallejo flat yellow.

Looking at my red stripes for the sides (7 photos above), I'm not completely happy with the way they turned out, as it's a little too rounded and neat. So using the sponge technique, I apply some of the Tamiya AS-20 paint lightly around my chipped areas, to add a little more fine detail and rough up the edges a bit, making it look more organic.

With the colored panels and pieces done, I mask off some areas of panels to be painted Tamiya medium gray.

Then more masking for some panels to be painted of my own mixture of Vallejo flat yellow and a touch of Vallejo dark rust.

And finally, the top rear area of the fuselage I mask off and paint with a mixture of Tamiya sky grey with a dab of Vallejo dark rust.

With most of the panel painting done, I then attach the small yellow panels to the upper front fuselage and the side pieces to the lower fuselage.

As well as the proton torpedo tubes along the sides of the lower fuselage

And the red stripes and remaining pieces to the upper front fuselage.

And I'm now ready to attach the motor housing and cockpit into the fuselage. The motor housing is carefully inserted with my connectors coming out the bottom of the fuselage.

The cockpit connector is then plugged into the motor connector and the cockpit inserted into place.

Then the rest of the fuselage parts are attached.

So now, with the entire fuselage completed, I plug in and test the entire ship lighting once again to make sure no connections came loose and no wires were crimped in assembly. Cockpit and R2 lighting...