As I mentioned in my previous posting on Blue 2, the Blue X-Wings were replaced with Red in Star Wars A New Hope. However, a few pictures of the original Blue Leader studio model still survive. Blue Leader was repainted into Wedge Antillies X-wing Red 2 later on.
I still want to build my Blue 2 model and later on a Blue Leader to add to my collection of X-wings. However, I've had a terrible time figuring out what exact blue was used for these X-wings. In the movie Rogue One, they are quite inconsistent in their color. At times it's a very bright medium blue and other times it's quite a dark navy blue.
Original Blue Leader X-wing.
I wanted to use the new Archive-X paints, which are designed to replicate the Star Wars color pallete as close as possible to the colors ILM used while creating models for the film. Sadly the real colors are no longer produced so I went to see what Archive-X had for paints.
They produce Enamel and Acrylic paints, however, their Acrylics are Latex based, or similar to Vallejo Air paints. And I really don't like using these types of paints, I find them difficult to spray on consistently and without the needle getting dried paint. So I opted to try, with the help of a few of my modeling friends to find what I could mix as a proper Blue Squadron color.
Blue Leader showing several shades of blue down the fuselage
but still being a lot brighter than the original 1976 model.
I started with a paint test of Tamiya XF-8 Flat Blue, and this color looks okay, but it's still too bright. So my next idea was to darken it with XF-27 Sea Blue, at around a 50-50 mix.
I started with 6 drops of XF-8, and then I began adding the 6 drops of XF-27. But when I got to 3 drops I realized the XF-27 was going to be too dark and overpower the Flat Blue so I mixed the paint and sprayed it on my test spoon.
In the end, it's actually not a bad color, and I think if you were building a studio scale Blue Leader this would look really nice. But for my smaller scale models, and in this case, 1:144th scale, I'll need this to be a bit brighter.
I decided since the XF-27 was so overpowering I'd only add one drop to the mix this time. So again 6 drops of XF-8 and one XF-27. And I think that this is a really close color for the Rogue One X-wings!
It's still got that bright blue tone of XF-8, but that drop of XF-27 really brought the color down to the level I wanted. Of course, the next step will be to build the model and then paint it on, but as far as I'm concerned this is the color I will be using and possibly using on the Bandai 1:144 U-wing, assuming that they use the same color as the X-wings?
Every year there are a few new paint companies on the market that all the modelers have to invest in. Some are good and others are... lacking. I still love using Tamyia acrylics as they are really easy to airbrush and they mix together really well. The XF-8 I used during these test was old, and so that's why there are "bits" in the paint tests. So when I am finally able to paint my X-wings I'm going to be using brand new paints for this.
I do feel sort of bad about doing this as I really wanted to try these new Archive-X paints, but as I mentioned I find Acrylic-Latex paints too frustrating, and I'm not that interested in using Enamels anymore. But I'm glad I was able to find a good mix for these subjects. Now I have no excuse, I'm finally able to build Blue 2... once I finally finish all my other modeling projects!
And a special thanks to Greg and Blake for their help with this project.
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