X-Wing - Kath Scarlet Firespray Re-Paint

Kath Scarlet - Rogue, red headed vixen and ruthless bounty hunter. When a girl's this hot she needs a ride to match and Scarlet's custom Firespray-31 doesn't disappoint...

Fresh from painting the Green Squadron A-Wing, I kept up the pace and moved straight onto Scarlet. This would be a more challenging prospect, both due to the size of the ship and also due to it's somewhat unique paint scheme - The red patterning itself may initially look a little random, but there's a clear symmetry to it's design. A design that is intentionally threatening and also acts as a clear warning to anyone daft enough to get too close! ... A bit like our venom spiked friend, the lionfish...

To help provide an initial guide for the paint job, I needed to source some good reference pictures and in this regard, it's great to see so many other hobby dudes have felt inspired to re-paint their Slave 1's... My main reference however soon became this image...

First up, the model needed a new white undercoat, provided by an even spray of matt car primer. Then it was on to blocking in the red patterning... This took some time to complete... o_O

With the red pattern nailed, it was time for the even more thrilling task of inking in the black lines between the armour plates... At this stage, I grabbed an ice cold beer... :)

Next up, the ship's underbelly and stabilising fins needed some attention, receiving a base coat of GW's Codex Grey and the engine ports given a base coat of Khemri Brown. With all the base colours applied, it was time to move onto shading, starting with a few thinned down coats of Badab Black... covering the entire model.

It's worth noting two tips here - Firstly, take your time, apply one even wash and allow it to thoroughly dry. Take a moment to review how well the wash has settled and if required, apply a further wash to help darken down the tone. Secondly, if your using GW paints, try to use the older Badab Black ink over their newer Nuln Oil. I find the new ink has a slight 'milky' consistency and whilst it works well on metallics, it doesn't get on all that well with flat matt finishes, particularly of the white variety ;)

With the shading complete, it was onto the highlighting. This time, going around all the white plate edges with pure white and around all the red plates with a little Mechrite Red blended up with a little white. The grey areas received successive highlights, finishing off with a very light highlight of pure white on key features and edges. Finally the cockpit canopy was given a clean coat of black and several smooth coats of Ard' Coat varnish.

With Scarlet's ship ready to bring merry bounty hunter hell to the table-top, let's close the post off with a few pics of the lady in action...

Kath Scarlet pursues the crew of the 'Albion Star' as they attempt to smuggle 'her' bounty off world...

... The torrent of fire from Scarlet's twin-linked range rulers :)  proves too much for the crew
 of the 'Albion Star', who quickly pull over and give the nice lady what she's looking for...

... With the Rebel Drall informant safely on-board her ship, Scarlet sets course for the Inner Rim
 and a rendezvous with the Imperial Security Bureau Corvette 'Silent Vigil'...

... And after a successful docking, Scarlet begins negotiating her bounty terms with the ship's Security Officer...
And if the ship's Captain has his way, she'll be staying for a bottle of vintage Jawa juice and a romantic dinner for two...

Cheers! ;)