All I needed for the cleanup after mating the fuselage halves were a sanding stick, little tub of water, and a length of .010" styrene strip. The main amount of work was at the rear of the model. Sanding the Nose Cone and fuselage sides was uneventful. I patched and wet-sanded all the gaps smooth - again resisting the temptation to move too fast. It's handy to have another model in th waiting to expend this nervous energy upon. With the fuselage together the model takes on that sinister X-Wing silouhette and gets the blood pumping to finish it off. The next day - I painted the rest of my X-Wing Fighter model to match the finish on the S-Foils. This was easy to accomplish, and no really elaborate masking schemes were called for - just some smart ones!

Painting the upper portion of the fuselage only called for judicious use of Scotch Tape masks and dampened Tissue to blank off areas where I didn't want the spray to go.

Touch-up painting on the underside was simple to accomplish too using Scotch Tape masks and dampened Tissue to plug the area between the S-Foils.

The repairs to the gaps around the rear fuselage went okay - just okay - in the end. Of the entire model building process, this joint was my least favorite of all. In the future, I would attach the S-Foil Servo Actuator / Hyperdrive Unit to either the upper or lower half of the fuselage for a better fit - before closing it all up. Though I got it all together, I wasn't satisified with the result in the end of this model. Note: the ejector pin marks in the wells of the Main Landing Gear are covered by either the Landing Gear Bays or the closed doors - no need to worry about filling them. To prevent fingerprints in the fresh paint job - I again left the model to sit overnight. I wouldn't want to fix anything at this point. I wonder if putting together Hasegawa's 72nd scale Macross Valkyries gets this involved...

Weathering the X-Wing Fighter is almost like weathering an AFV model - it saw a lot of punishment so I felt free to indulge myself. The X-Wing is as much at home in atmospheric flight as space combat, and planetfall is a regular habitat for the fighter craft. It has many dents, nicks, scrapes, grime, dirt, and yuck all over it. Pristine it is not. To protect the base colors and make ready for decals, I misted on a lacquer gloss coat before beginning any weathering. This also serves as the base coat for decaling to prevent "silvering" later on when everything is dulled back down.

The decal sheet provided by Fine Molds is pretty extensive - it is difficult to choose which way to proceed with your model. I even considered painting my own set of basic markings. However, after some internal debate and desiring to build the model pretty much as it comes out of the box, I opted to go with the "weathered" set of markings for Red Three - note how "much" more they're weathered as compared to Red Five's. I also wanted a little flexibility here. Red Three (Biggs Darklighter's Ship) was destroyed in the trenches of the Death Star in the Battle of Yavin. It would be replaced in Red Squadron later on by another ship, and Rogue Squadron eventually. Reading the Rogue Squadron novels created a desire to model one of their ships too. My Red Three could also become Rogue Three. So many decisions, so little time...

Making decaling life easier for myself, I began with the "barber pole stripe" markings for the Laser Cannons. I sprayed Gloss Cote lacquer on them and let them dry overnight. I trimmed all the decals as close to the registrations as possible. Note in the photo the overlap of the "barber pole stripe" markings on the Laser Cannon. I wouldn't recommend trimming any closer - but if you do, here's an indication that there's less than a millimeter of decal overlap. No setting solution was called for to lay these decals down!

Above, there are three separate decals for the tiny bit of the R2 Astromech Droid that is exposed! It is a great touch provided by Fine Molds and adds crispness to the final product. Red Three's Droid had red trim, compared to R2D2's blue trim, as indicated by Fine Molds' instruction sheet. Nice visual touch. The Droid's head dome has another compliment of decals all by itself - WOW! Though the Instruction Sheet calls out for the Droid's head to be painted in Chrome Silver, I thought this too intense for the scale, and painted mine Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminum over a basecoat of XF-1 Flat Black.

Decal #22 was a really interesting one to add. To get this one on the Droid's Head properly, I drilled out the little circle for the projection on the Head to go through with a #80 drill bit. I then punched out Decal #22 with a #6 Waldron Miniature Punch - the first time I've ever drilled and punched a decal before! This allowed the decal to fit snugly over the top of the Droid Head and allowed me to trim away the excess decal film. This model really calls for some ingenuity here. All in all, there are five separate decals that go on the Droid's Head alone. Gleeful insanity doesn't begin to describe it.

In contrast to the basic easy of putting on the decals - the Canopy set proved a bit hair-raising. I mounted the Canopy on a dental tool to make handling easier. I also trimmed away the excess decal film from inside the canopy framing and outside edges of the framing reqistration. This made the decal quite susceptible to damage - which is why I mounted the Capony on a spit - I couldn't handle both at the same time without destroying the decal. I layed the two decals down and let them dry before setting them with Micro Sol. I was concerned about the decals being too thin, but opacity wasn't a problem here. If you opt for a landed display, with the Canopy open, you'll have to paint the interior of the canopy framing.

Next came the basic body markings and ID flashes. My excitement began to build as the markings went on, the model began to come to life. The savage shape of the X-Wing Fighter is marked by the addition of the Laser Cannon Projectors.

For the most part, decaling the model was easy, but time consuming. Only the basic ID markings for Red Three is shown here - I haven't even gotten to the little data panels yet! In contrast to the more familiar colorings on Luke Skywalker's Red Five, Red Three is a bit more colorful. Below, the decals rarely needed any coaxing to snuggle down over the delicate details below. The chrome yellow stripe down the back of Red Three's upper starboard engine is newly applied. When dry - it looks like the red ID band on the wing in the background. I only applied a bit of Micro Set to encourage the yellow decal to snuggle into the corrugations and detailing on the Engine Panel.

In contrast to all of the colorful markings visible from topside, the underside of Red Three is rather plain. The decal chrome yellow stripes to apply to the Laser Cannon Cooling Sleeve don't quite make it all the way around. I'd have to touch this up later. The two upper Laser Cannons on Red Three have a chrome yellow stripe around the Cooling Sleeve.

I took a break before applying all the little, tiny, insane, data panel markings. When done with this, I sealed everything up with coats of Gloss Cote to protect the decals and smooth out the finish for weathering. When all was said and done with decaling - it took me a good two days to put all the markings on this little model. This caused me to ponder what decaling job awaited me in finishing the Jedi Starfighter model kit...