So I'm wanting to paint up my rebels but was wanting to know does anyone base coat the ships and what color? Is it white? Off white?

I use a light grey, then black wash them. A good black wash does wonders for a mini. Makes the difference between flat and realistic.

I just hit the black wash over the plastic after I cleaned up the mold lines. Then I drybrushed heavy with Stone Grey then a light drybrush of white. From there just details.

I did a white primer base coat and painted half the ships purple and half the ships scarlet. I then used the a black-plate metal-dark grey scheme for engines, cannons, canopy. Won't win any prizes but they're "mine" and better than the bare plastic.

I just hit the black wash over the plastic after I cleaned up the mold lines. Then I drybrushed heavy with Stone Grey then a light drybrush of white. From there just details.

Think I like this method so far. I'm going to have to give it a try

i like the white look personally with a black wash. gives it the standard look of the rebel fleet that is white and the washing gives it depth and the "gritty" appearance

i think grey looks too dark for the rebels and is better suited for the empire ships

I had great results applying a red wash with a 20/0 liner for the stripes on the side of the fuselage. Gave it enough of a "weathered" look that we see in the movies.

But after putting a primer coat on the figure, and darker wash really did wonders for detail.

Vallejo Stone Grey is an exact match for the X-Wing hulls in X-Wing, so I use that. Vallejo Dark Blue Grey is pretty close for the TIEs.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/176602-painted-a-wings-y-wings-and-b-wings/

Hopefully this will help. I think they turned out great and hopefully I don't have a bias because I painted them. I have a description of the colors I used.

I got my squadrons all painted up for some reason the files are too big to post on here but my ships are on my Facebook Armada page.

I based my in Celestra grey washed them in black then drybrushed Ulthuan grey then just painted different colored markings green/red/blue/yellow etc.