How do you make mesh faces transparent in edit mode?

[Different Name]

I need to see the reference model underneath. Wireframe display is not helpful for me. It's far too cluttered.

I need a view like in the below photo. Which looks like that because the other boot is in front.

http://i.imgur.com/jOk6u0R.png

As it is it looks like this and I'm having to guess where the boot is.

http://i.imgur.com/Y1X12hG.png

Edit:

There doesn't seem to be a way to do this. But I found a way to make the Mesh display easier to use. In user interface, you can set the color of the wires. So I set the background wires to red and the foreground to green.

[Justyn]

not sure how unfortunately, i'm still a bit of a novice. i'll bump the thread for you though.

[Thomas]

You can add a dummy material for that purpose. Create a new material, go to the transparency section, check raytrace, and use a low alpha value, like 0.3 or 0.5. Then go to the object data tab, look for the display section, and check transparency on.

Don't forget to erase the dummy material when you finish your modelling, or check the "ignore blender materials" in the smd exporter addon when you are about to export your model. GL.