what is an easy way to customize your fleet to make them just a little different and recognizable?

Painting the engines on your ships, simple and effective.

also take a black marker and colour the edges of the ship tokens, you can do your other tokens etc as well

also take a black marker and colour the edges of the ship tokens, you can do your other tokens etc as well

This + paint the ship bases black (simple black undercoat will do). If you want to go one step further, spray some white dots on the bases using a toothbrush and acrylic paint. No skill required, should take at most 10 minutes for a dozen of bases including drying time.

First customisation I did and probably the most useful I've found is to colour match the fighters to their dials.

On the Tie fighters I painted each fighters hatch a different colour then painted the centre pin of the movement dial that colour.

Okay this means the fighters aren't canon or exactly as they appear in the movies, but it makes it much easier to identify which fighter is which.

The Rebel fighters each got a little change to their paint works too; x-wing nose cones, centre stripe on A-wings, etc.

Add weight to the bases of your ships. This helps to keep them from being bumped. Then crush everyone in tournaments and earn acrylic tokens

I have painted mine, and not like others, mostly my own preference. you can always run them higher then the others put 3 to 5 pegs on them so you tower over them like a giant

Someone on here used bits from translucent cocktail sticks as engine thrust.

thanks for all the great ideas

Someone on here used bits from translucent cocktail sticks as engine thrust.

Look up that thread. It was dead simple but looked amazing.

Yes it was. I am totally planning on doing it with a couple of my ships as well.

You know, as soon as I have some free time.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I've considered putting modeling putty all over mine like flames and smoke because all of my ships seem to die horrible, quick deaths in every game I play.

My thought is simpler: Paint the Pegs the color of your choice. If you use a dye of some sort to keep them translucent, great. Otherwise, being the guy on Red/Black/Hooker's Green/Blue stilts is gonna be distinctive, even among these other suggestions, and can be done by linking all of your pegs together and using a single squirt of Krylon.

Weighting your bases is good for other reasons, though. Adds stability. Similarly, adding a non-slip surface to the bottom. Catch both birds by weighting with Mousepad rubber.

If you aren't a heavy modder (I know I'm not), you could always order an uniquely colored templates set, with a custom logo/name or somesuch.

I've seen some gold and other shiny ones on this site. I myself have ordered a set that's underway from Urban Lasercraft; I wanted a custom red icon on black templates. I think I'll order a white set too, at some point after Rebel Aces.

Stuff like that stands out nicely.

Someone on here used bits from translucent cocktail sticks as engine thrust.

Look up that thread. It was dead simple but looked amazing.

That would be this thread:

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/104927-more-rebel-customs-paints/

Besides what others said, you can paint small highlights on each ship with paint pen or even with a Sharpie. Like a yellow nose on an X-Wing, a few colored panels on a B or A, color the droids on X and Y.

For TIE's you can discreetly highlight in a different color the thingie in the center of the panels - looks neat in most colours and not too distracting.

For the HWK you can cut off the turret and glue it on top instead.

For Slave 1 paint the dark gray parts green as they should be (if that's Boba Fett's ship) or paint the red parts green to match the Bounty Hunter pilot card art. Do both if you have two or more ships. Try doing the Kath Scarlet pattern if you feel adventurous.

Note that pens are WAY easier to use for novice hobbyists (like myself)!

A pack of coloured Sharpies is good for any hobby toolbox.

Also include a white board marker (these are non permanent markers) and this will allow you to remove mistakes made with a Sharpie; well on a plastic or varnished surface, it wont work on card or absorbant materials.

Just draw over with the white board marker until you can see the permanent ink start to lift then wipe off with a slightly damp cloth.

The coloured translucent bases for the various factions in Attack Wing fit X-wing bases as well, and there are quite a few colours.

Not sure if the Attack Wing bases would be tourny legal though, since they have a slightly different shape and possibly size.

I just used rubber cement to put washers in my bases yesterday. I then used the same cement to brush on the bottom edges of the base to give it some catch to keep it from bumping on the table. Worked great. Total spent $8 at Wal-Mart. That was for 25 washers and a huge bottle of rubber cement (its in the stationary Isle).

Though now I have to go look for those cocktail sticks. I got to do that.