Starting things off for painting - everything was undercoated with Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black. This is normal for me, in any model genre. This base coat allows me to add thin layers of the overall primary color, with subtle patches of wear and fade showing through. I thin all Tamiya acrylic paint by at least 50% paint to 50% thinner to keep the color coats smooth and thin. It's even more important here on the small Fine Molds X-Wing Fighter, so as not to obscure any of the exquisite detailing present in the model kit.

The Cockpit Tub was painted overall in Tamiya acrylic XF-19 Sky Grey too. I painted the bulkheads and sidewalls inside the upper fuselage half Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey as well. Once done, I went back and oversprayed the exterior portions of the X-Wing Fighter with XF-19 Sky Grey (80%) lightened with Tamiya XF-2 Flat White (20%) - in a cloudy pattern. This gave me a mottled finish to simulate wear, without a great deal of contrast, underneath a wash and subsequent pastel weathering efforts. It also serves to replicate the whiteness of the X-Wing's appearance in the movie.

I hope you're able to see the subtle color transitions in the above two photos. For such a small scale, the airbrush is the fastest, easiest, and better tool for replicating this kind of wear, staining, dirt, and muck. The importance of keeping the paint coats as thin as possible is illustrated here too - the above finish on the parts called for three coats of paint colors. Different degrees of wear was implied by selecting different shades of the base color.

Above, Nose Landing Gear and one of the Main Landing Gear Bays and the cap for it if you opt for an in-flight model display. Below, the Engine Nozzles are cast hollow - for those so adventurous as to light their model. I left mine separate, plugging the interior ends with punched discs painted red to simulate "lit burners". Bottom most is a photo of the other Main Landing Gear Bay with one of the Main Gear sets.

I then painted the Instrument Panel Coaming (Part #B8) with Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey. When dry, I picked out various details in Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black and XF-54 Dark Sea Grey with a fine brush and applied the excellent Fine Molds decals for the Cockpit. When all had dried, I drybrushed (95% Zinc White and 5% Ivory Black oil paint) the whole to pick out as much surface detail as possible to catch any available light when I put the canopy on later. I left the Pilot (Biggs Darklighter) out of the Cockpit at this time. Later on, I'd wash the Cockpit Tub with a diluted (90% Turpenoid to 10% Oil) mixture of Payne's Grey for shadow in the recesses.

In fitting the Cockpit parts together I ran into a little snag following the Instruction Sheet. It isn't clearly shown, but the Instrument Panel Coaming (Part #B8) butts up against the Cockpit Tub walls (Part #B13). It's a really tight fit, and forcing the two together properly scrapped a little paint off the edges of the Cockpit Tub walls. Touchup was easy. The Instrument Panel Coaming fits flush to the top of the upper fuselage half - there should not be a gap like shown in the photo below.

The Cockpit Tub does not fit snugly into the upper fuselage half - see photos above & below. There's a resulting gap around the side walls even when the parts are keyed properly into place. To fix this problem, a modeler could take a couple of approaches. You could add .010" styrene strips around the outer edges of the Cockpit Tub to increase its thickness - or do the same to the insides of the upper fuselage half to bridge the gap. Either would help this little problem - which for a closed canopy is less of an issue than it would be for an landed display with canopy opened. Either approach would be better addressed in the initial construction phase so that you could sand the plugs smooth and make a neater transition between Cockpit Tub and fuselage walls.

When everything set up, I completed painting the Cockpit Tub details, removed that pesky mold seam from the top of the Control Stick, and decaled the Coaming.

I moved on to attach the S-Foils the next day. Like the fuselage, the S-Foils were painted Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey overall. Attaching them to their mounts required cleaning up the seams left be attaching the Hyperdrive Unit / S-Foil Servo Actuator to cap off the rear of the X-Wing Fighter.

Pressing the S-Foils together was a trick - because they fit tightly. Pre-painting them only made them fit tighter - I had to ream out the center collar a little bit. Below is a view of what the mating of the upper fuselage and the S-Foils looks like. Be sure to insert the pivot rod all the way into the forward bulkhead. Again, another tight fit. This alleviated any concerns I previously had about the S-Foils not being able to stay deployed in attack formation - they don't move without a little coaxing.

The S-Foil Servo Actuator / Hyperdrive Unit (Part #B19) aligns to the rear ends of the fuselage halves rather sloppily - uncharacteristic of the fit of the rest of the kit. Align the outside edges to the fuselage ends. When you do, you'll have a little lip - visible at the rear end of the upper fuselage in this photo - inside the equipment trench. This is okay - Fine Molds cast Part #B26 that goes here with a little "L-shaped" cutout on the end to fit properly. Below, a view inside one of the pair of S-Foils, this is all you'll see in the end. I went ahead and attached the four Laser Cannon Generators at this point, being careful to align them properly. Slots in the S-Foils will give you proper horizontal alignment respective to the wing ends, but you've got to align them in the vertical. I left off the Laser Tips to apply the "barber stripes" easier.

The test fit between fuselage halves - a little seam cleanup will be called for here - but the fit is tight and even all around. The only area I wasn't too happy with was at the rear. Some filling and sanding would be called for to match the rest of the spacecraft. I'd have to mask off the S-Foils and Cockpit for painting the fuselage, relatively easy to do.

An ambitious modeler could attempt to light this model, since the engines are hollow and the nozzles are opened. I didn't set out to do that, but here's my work-around. I punched out four discs of clear red colored file folder label tabs. I painted the backsides Tamiya XF-2 Flat White from the centers and cloudy out to the edges. I then oversprayed the Flat White with Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminum. Finally, I oversprayed the whole disc with Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black. I attached them with tiny drops of super glue around the periphery and moved on. It gives the impression that "the burners are lit" without getting into elaborate schemes to wire and light the 72nd scale miniature.

The joining of the fuselage halves was pretty uneventful - except for at the rear end like I mentioned I anticipated above. I made a little collar out of strips of .010" styrene strip, gluing them in to bridge the gap between the lower fuselage half and the Hyperdrive / S-Foil Servo Actuator Unit. When the cement setup, I'd trim away the excess with a brand-new X-Acto blade. Previously, I lightly sanded the edges of both fuselage halves to remove any paint I had gotten there, and applied liquid cement for the bond. No clamping was necessary - so well do the Fine Molds parts fit together.