You may as well be one of those artists who likes to paint landscapes on grains of rice. My hat's off to you. I'm going to be proud enough just managing to paint straight lines on the TIE Fighter wing struts, let alone anything close to what you accomplished.

Wow! Sweeeeet squadron - I can only hope that someday I can match that level of detail! Beautiful!

Now these are stunning!

Pure beauty! Felicitation!

Thanks guys!

Lead Tie fighter painted:

Not sure about the canopy, going by reference pics it should be darker than the hull, but I kind of like it lighter.

Well, I'd say the first took about 2 hours and a half, I switched to batch mode for the last 10 and I expect them to take about 1 hour and a half on average.

This includes

-pin conversion (about 10 minutes)

-prep (flash removal and cleaning mould lines)

-black priming

-white airbrushed basecoat

-black lining

-canon shading

-cockpit (about 10-15 minutes)

-front engines top (about 10-15 minutes)

-front engines intakes (about 5-10 minutes)

-squadron markings (about 10-15 minutes)

-engine glow

I probably could go faster on some steps, but slow and steady win the race at that scale and I like taking my time.

Great list of steps! Quick question, however, and I freely admit to the possibility that I simply missed the information if offered earlier: what colors/brands did you use, and to what extent did you thin them out?

Thanks, regardless... you're X-Wings are inspiring!

Thanks guys!

Lead Tie fighter painted:

Can you snap a picture of how you did the inside panels and struts of a TIE wing?

Hello fast.git , if you check post #25, I linked to a tutorial on my blog with the colors used.

Paint are mostly from GW (love some of the new paints: ceramite white, mephiston red).

Thinning depends on the goal: for good coverage, I thin generally enough to get a good flow and an opaque coat in 2 passes.

For blending I thin a bit more (but leave less paint on the brush to avoid pooling).

Finished the squadron!

More pictures and tutorial here : http://www.rule37.net/2015/04/armada-tutorial-painting-red-squadron-x.html

By The Emperor's Robes. If the core set came with fighters even half that good I would pay twice the retail price.

Amazing Ica.

Those fighters are almost too beautiful to blow out of the sky. Almost.

With those paint jobs, the rebels might stand a chance!

@wonderplug: simple grey lines really

So very inspiring, truly amazing work, Ica.

I love how you've coloured the bases and tokens too!

Looking forward to your TIE tutorial next...

Wow.....just wow!

The level of detail at that scale is just amazing. I love the individuality of the fighters. Great job man!

Hello fast.git , if you check post #25, I linked to a tutorial on my blog with the colors used.Paint are mostly from GW (love some of the new paints: ceramite white, mephiston red).Thinning depends on the goal: for good coverage, I thin generally enough to get a good flow and an opaque coat in 2 passes.For blending I thin a bit more (but leave less paint on the brush to avoid pooling).

Are you willing to paint squadrons on a commission basis? If so, dibs!

Sorry but no for now, SSD Gabriel just came out of the maternity shipyards and I don't have a lot of hobby time left.

Amazing!!! I don't have words, great job!

Ica, as mentioned, your paint jobs crush the hearts of all those who are trying to do these little guys justice. But, you've also inspired me not to half-bake mine. I've purchased a magnifying headband...

In the meantime - could you list the core colors for your TIE's? That combo is really perfect - kind of a mix of the first movie's TIE pale coloration mixed with the last two's more blueish shade. I too think they look better without darkening the viewport - it's such an important bit of detail on the models that it's better to be highlighted. Thanks!

amazing job, and congrats on the kid. looking foward to seeing the caps if they make it in your limited time.

@Axotl:

black undercoat

Vallejo Air (Prince August) Light grey (n°50) airbrushed from the top

--you could probably do this with a brush

Nuln Oil wash

Ceramite white (for highlights mixed with the light grey and a white dot for the middle of the engines)

Green scorpion (for the guns)

Mephiston Red (for the engines)

Hope that helps!

I have a full tutorial with pictures planned, but I'm not sure when I'll get to it.

Thanks a lot Ica - turns out I have most of those already so that makes things a bit easier! Fantastic work, hopefully I can aspire to something even kind of close.

what yellow would you think for the Y wings when they come out?

I'm not a great yellow painter, so I only have older GW references, I'll probably go with Iyanden Darksun+ white as on the x-wings with sunburst yellow (now flash gitz) for a bit more oomph.

what yellow would you think for the Y wings when they come out?

Yriel Yellow, or Flash Gitz Yellow

Yellow is hard to paint. It is commonly considered the hardest color to paint on models. White is the only color that can come close to challenging it for that title.

If you are using Games Workshop, use Averland Sunset. It's a darker shade, but you need it as a base. Averland Sunset is one of games works base/foundation colors. It has a higher pigment count. You should be able to get by with 1, maybe 2 coats for solid coverage. Otherwise expect 3-4 coats just to get a solid base.

Good Skies! This is epic work. I don't know what else to say!

Great Scott!

I was happy with my repaints until I saw these. Embarrassing and soul-crushing indeed. Man, I can't even see most of that detail on my fighters!

Then again, I spent 2.5 hours to do the whole Core Set...