Hows everyone doing their cockpit windows? They're so darn tiny! With my Fighters just a dab of nuln oil did perfect, but...the bombers didn't quite take to it the same, and now they look less than great.

You just need a very fine brush.

I use black primer and then drybrush the area, leaves the black and colors around the windows. If you don't use black primer or want a glossy black you could base coat and then blot out the windows, wait to dry and then drybrush as well.

Very Fine Point Sharpies.....you dab into each window and rotate the pen just a bit. Rinse and repeat.

I used to paint over the entire window with a black, then go back in and painstakingly go back and attempt to redo the bracing about the window (the bars)

I was teaching my kids how to paint (do what dad does day) and I was getting ready to nuln oil wash a trio of X-wings when I had a pause. I reached over and grabbed a Tie bomber and washed the cockpit window. While not dark black, it did turn out a nice shade that gave it a smokey hue. I still have to go over the cock pit bracing again but it's not as much of a needing a whole layer as it was before.

I'll try to get a pic up in a day or two.

I did my light grey and then black ink. Light grey dry brush. And then black ink again. The bomers were there own monster though. They were a pain in a but. I had to keep going back

I was pretty surprised how much paint got picked up by the TIE bomber canopy compared to the other fighters, too.

In the end, I didn't do it too differently compared to my regular run of the mill TIE's, which is to say, it was the same as almost everyone else. I finished the body of the fighter, put a black wash on the canopy (it's a P3 armor wash, technically an ink which makes the results shiny and glass-like, explaining that spotting on the uppermost bomber) which I allowed to settle onto the glass as well as around the brackets to create a bit of shading. Then it was just a careful edging with the side of a brush along all the brackets, followed by an extreme highlight on the very top part of the uppermost and center brackets with an even lighter grey.

It's not an inspired results, but it was an assembly line technique to finish off all my Imperial squadrons in a day.

Painted in the Windows of mine...

Spray Black

Paint around Cockpit Grey

Paint Windows Blue with a dab-and-swirl method.

Overbrush the Canopy lightly with Grey to fill in the colour.


Ten Minute TIEs.

I see you did one as the Rebels, stolen TIE. Very cute. Any chance of a closer shot of that one?

This is the dubiously "Best" shot I have at it right now...

My yellow decided to go goopy right at the end, so it probably needs the lightest of sandings to take the edge off it before trying a watery paint touchup.

But the whole point wasn't to put a great deal of time into them...

Needing to do a lot of Touchups, but those will happen after I've gotten the X-Wings painted...

VSD is next though, although that's just mostly getting touchups, as I don't want to change its colour... 'Vette and Frigate might get repaints if I reprime the Snubfighters a different colour.

Cool, thanks!

i did a dark grey over them dry brushed the silver for the rim edging.....then heavy black washes