The YT-2400 Light Freighter & TIE/sa Bombers – Same Ships, New Paint!

Hello there! We are excited to bring the YT-2400 and TIE/sa Bombers back to Star Wars™: X-Wing and make them available to folks who were unable to get their hands on them during the original print run – and with an improved painting process that makes them look better than ever. Join our Creative Director Dallas Kemp and our Art Director Preston Stone for some insight into work of bringing these ships back to life visually.

Dallas and Preston, how does it feel to see the return of the YT-2400 Light Freighter and the TIE/sa Bomber to X-Wing and how did we look at bringing those things back to the table visually?

Dallas: Preston and I wanted to punch up the YT-2400 and really get that Rebels feel to the paint scheme. We also wanted to get some  good engine glow on there and emphasize the damage so it would read a bit more. The outcome really went above what I imagined and makes this ship pop on the table. For the Bombers, we wanted to bring the color of the Imperial ships closer together to unify the look of an Imperial fleet on the table.

Dallas, at Adepticon, our Head of Product Development, Will Shick, mentioned that there was a new process for the factory paint job on these products that allowed you to make these changes. Can you walk us through some things that the new tech was able to accomplish?  

Dallas: The big thing was the application of the tampo printing –  the process for applying the faction symbols and such. They’re more precise and delicate to enhance resolution and readability. After we saw the advances that made detail on Ahsoka’s Aethersprite possible, that led us to making some really nice paint application details on the YT-2400!

What are your favorite visual details?

Dallas: I love the new engine glow on the YT-2400. It just looks so good. Plus, the Bomber looks super cool in its simplicity and the addition of the red lights!

Preston: When the previous version of the YT-2400 was made, I don’t believe it had been depicted from all angles in a show or film yet; So it wasn’t shown in a clear high resolution way that we could pull details from. For this new version, we were able to look at how the ship was designed in Star Wars Rebels™ and pull in some of the details from that design into this one. The paint scheme in this ship is a bit of a hybrid between the old 1.0 version and the Star Wars Rebels version of the ship. I think that adds a little something new to the look without making it look unfamiliar.

Preston, what can we expect from the cards included in these products?

Preston: The art for these two ships isn’t new, but the way they’re displayed is. Our Graphic design team did awesome work on the new card layouts in X-Wing, particularly for the standard loadout cards, and it has allowed us to show off the art for the game in its full glory. It’s great to see the art of X-Wing blown up large to see, as well as featuring the artist credits on each card. Our artists all do great work and I’m glad they’re getting some love and recognition for the work they do.

So there you have it! The YT-2400 Light Freighter and TIE/sa Bombers are available on the webstore or at your local game store today!