The Green Angels: Redux

"Green Angels standing by."

After more than a month of on-again/off-again work, the Green Angels are finally finished! They're based off my Grandpa's old F4U Corsair squadron and the color scheme is inspired by the planes flown out of NAS Los Alamitos in the 1950s. 

 You can read about my process on these guys in previous posts (here, here, here, and here). After finishing with the decals, the X-Wings were weathered with a stipling of silver and streaks of Games Workshop Agrax Earthshade and Nuln Oil. I wanted to capture the "beat up" look of the F4U Corsair pictured above. I have a coworker who's a former USMC aviation mechanic and when I showed him this photo he seemed surprised at how rough this plane looked. 

I opted to magnetize the ships, which is something I've been meaning to try out for some time now. I ordered the wrong size disc magnets and didn't discover that until about a week ago. Thankfully, though, K&J Magnetics ships their orders out super quick and I got the new magnets about two days later.

This was the first time I've repainted X-Wing miniatures since 2016 when I created the first iteration of the Green Angels. I'm honestly surprised and happy to see just how much I've improved in three years. I also got the numbers and the insignia facing the right way on the wings this time!

It's also nice to actually finish a project! Unfortunately I tend to drift in and out of projects and, as a result, have five or six that I've started over the last few years but haven't finished. The fact that it took me just over a month to finish these guys is a huge personal triumph for me.

The Green Angels, past and present. 

Thus concludes a highly personal project for me. I fully intend to fly these guys at the 2020 Campaign Against Cancer event, which is slated for May 2, 2020. I need to brush off my X-Wing templates and take them out to Curio Cavern for their weekly mini-tournament; I'd like to finish at something other than last place for a change. 

I may also create a custom pilot card to give out at tournaments. I love seeing what people come up with and it's one of the things I really love about the X-Wing community. If I end up doing it, it'll of course be Grandpa as Green Angel Leader. His call sign/nickname? "Quiet Giant" just as it was when he was in the Navy.