X-Wing Restoration

[Yertis]

A destruction order has been placed on all my old models, which are "cluttering up" my mother's loft and, apparently present "a fire risk". To be honest chucking them in a wheelie bin was quite cathartic, saying a final goodbye to broken dreams and all that, but I digress...

One of the models I've saved is this and it's one I want to restore. It's the original AMT X-Wing of about 1978 or thereabouts:



It's a bit bashed about, poorly painted and the decals are peeling off. So, to start, I need to strip it. How best to do that do you guys reckon? It'd have to be a pretty big tank of brake fluid...

[dr_gn]

It looks OK as-is to me - I've got exactly the same one and gave it to my son.

I stripped and re-painted my 1980's Airfix AT-AT recently, it looks good now, but it was a struggle.

You could try Mr.Muscle and leave it in a plastic bag for a few days, but I'd guess the paint might be pretty hard to remove.

You could try dis-assembling it - the glue will probably be quite brittle.

Failing that, remove the decals with Micro-sol, mask, prime and re-finish over the existing paint.

[Yertis]

Thanks for that. I think I’ll give the Mr Muscle a shot - I’ve not used that before. The X-Wing is really a good opportunity to play with the weathering techniques I read about here.

[dr_gn]

Yertis said:

Thanks for that. I think I’ll give the Mr Muscle a shot - I’ve not used that before. The X-Wing is really a good opportunity to play with the weathering techniques I read about here.

Do you remember this thread?

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Apparently you were about to clear your Star Wars models out of your Mum’s loft; you were asking about paint stripping....7 years ago.

I know what it’s like

I’m doing the same thing - slowly: AT-AT, Revell V8, some Tamiya AFV’s etc, but it’s time consuming.

[Yertis]

dr_gn said:

Do you remember this thread?

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Apparently you were about to clear your Star Wars models out of your Mum’s loft; you were asking about paint stripping....7 years ago.

I know what it’s like

I’m doing the same thing - slowly: AT-AT, Revell V8, some Tamiya AFV’s etc, but it’s time consuming.

Crikey...

I've at least got the gear to do the job now.

BTW I had a quick look for the Eagle Freighter cargo module – it's there somewhere.

[anonymous-user]

Yertis said:

A destruction order has been placed on all my old models, which are "cluttering up" my mother's loft and, apparently present "a fire risk". To be honest chucking them in a wheelie bin was quite cathartic, saying a final goodbye to broken dreams and all that, but I digress...

Did you feel sad you didn’t become an x wing pilot and fall in love with your sister and have your dad chop off your hand.

[Yertis]

El stovey said:

Yertis said:

A destruction order has been placed on all my old models, which are "cluttering up" my mother's loft and, apparently present "a fire risk". To be honest chucking them in a wheelie bin was quite cathartic, saying a final goodbye to broken dreams and all that, but I digress...

Did you feel sad you didn’t become an x wing pilot and fall in love with your sister and have your dad chop off your hand.

[mr_fibuli]

Dettol worked a treat for me on some plastic Games Workshop figures - it dissolved the Humbrol enamel and Citadel acrilics without touching the plastic.