A-Wing: Ready for Paint

I have made more progress on the A-Wing this week. Up first, the pilot. The pilot included with the kit is a very good reproduction of the one used with the studio filming model.

 

 The kit pilot:

 The ILM Studio model:

 I changed the head for two reasons. 

1. I didn't like the pilot looking off to the left,

2. I wanted to

I cut off the original head and replaced it with a resin Mon-Cal head. It is from a 1/72 scale pilot set offered by StudioStarForge. If you need pilots for your 1/72 projects, these are the best out there.

 

The resin guns are very small parts on this kit. They arrived warped due to heat.

 Fortunately, the cause is also the cure. After holding them under a hair dryer for about 20 seconds, the resin softened up and I was able to straighten the barrels up.

 And here is everything ready for painting:

 I'm need to get some paint to finish this project, and when I do the real fun begins.

1/72 scale A-Wing

I'm starting work on my next Star Wars project, a 1/72 scale A-Wing as seen in Return of Jedi.  This kit was mastered by SSM Forum member who goes by RB26. The level of detail on this kit is nothing short of amazing for it's size. 

I have previously built an A-Wing kit that was produced by Fantastic Plastic in 1/72 scale. At the time it was the only model available and as it was only my second attempt at a resin kit, it did not turn out nearly as well as I wanted. This newer kit is much more detailed, and matches the studio filming model better.

The RB26 A-Wing:

 It even has little rivet wholes around the panel lines and the casting is very smooth.

A Picture of the Studio model to compare to the RB26:

 The RB26 next to the FP kit, the shape of the RB26 is much more accurate to the filming model:

A rear view of the studio A-Wing:

The FP kit is on the left and the RB26 on the right, again much more accurate and better detail:

 A comparison of canopy shapes:

 This is going to be slow moving project as my wife delivered our second child only two weeks ago, but in whatever spare time I can find this should prove to be a nice distraction.