Bandai 1/72 X-Wing

Probably my favourite kit I've ever built! Beautiful detailing, excellent fit on the parts, and a gorgeous wee model for the shelf at the end of it all. Started by building up the kit (the Bandai snap kits don't require glue) and then moved into painting the spine plate with Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminium and lightly weathering it with some Black Panel Line Accent Colour; four exhaust caps were primed with MiG One Shot Black Primer and then finished in X-10 Gunmetal. Luke & R2 came next (Humbrol 18 Orange, Revell 05 Matt White, XF-3 Flat Yellow, XF-16 Flat Aluminium, XF-8 Flat Blue) before they were slotted/cemented into their positions and I could move on to the four engines and their cowlings. The top two cowlings were primed with MiG One Shot Black Primer and the bottom two with Fine grey primer (L) in order to get some variation in the shading. All four engines & fans were painted in XF-54 Dark Sea Grey, before I mixed up a custom matt yellow from 1 part Citadel Ushabti Bone, 2 parts XF-3 Flat Yellow, and a dash of X-20A Acrylic Thinner and painted the right-hand cowling. The left-hand engine was detailed with XF-78 Deck Tan, and the nose was masked off and detailed with two panels of the custom yellow. Stickers came next, with the guideline that I was only allowed to use them for details too difficult to paint by hand! Finally, I glued the X-Wing to the arm-piece of its base and varnished it all over with AK1014 Semi-Gloss before applying some heavy weathering and panel line accents with the PLAC Black. I finished up by varnishing (AK1014) and weathering the base (PLAC Black) before affixing the arm, popping on the glass parts, and attaching the four laser lances