I've never painted something as small as these fighters!

What sort of tools should I use? Brushes? Should I get a magnifying glass? Help. I've tried painted one Xwing Squadron and it did not come out very well. Any suggestions would be awesome!

I'm by no means a fantastic painter, but my FLGS carries citadel paints which work great, and I just use a regular wal-mart set of brushes. Occasionally a toothpick for details.

I hate painting X-wings. They're not easy. I've done one for X-wing and it was a nightmare. I can't imagine I'm gonna like these, so I started with the good ol' legitimate government first.

There are lots of threads in this forum with tutorials, tips, and tricks for the novice painter. It's worth searching through the threads, or using the search forum.

But to break it down quickly, you can go the full paintbrush route, or you can get the quick and dirty (but still decent looking) version using ultra fine sharpies.

An idea I've been toying with, is , a white spray on primer, then a Devlan mud (or whatever GW calls it now) ink wash. Because at this size you'll lose detail with a heavy/thick paint job. It also depends what mini range you're after, 1ft range (folks pick up to oogle at your awesomeness, then forget where your model was placed ) all your effort is lost on table at distance. Or 3 ft gaming range, where boldness is what stands out.

Tools. A decent size 1 maybe from Rosemary n co, a decent sable brush should last a good time they hold the paint better, which is the problem with cheap brushes.

Try n use a wet pallet buy one or better than that, when SWSNBN is looking the other way swipe from kitchen along with kitchen towel/roll and some grease proof paper, box/tray holds the lot kitchen damp with water, grease proof paper on top this is your pallet it stops the paint drying out.

Vallejo or GW paints, I'd go Vallejo the paint is supplied in a dropper, so measuring is a lot easier, get yourself some Vallejo medium thinner (I here the Vallejo airbrush thinner is the same product and cheaper, but I've never tried this), use thinner as water dilutes the pigments in the paint so you lose that strength in colour, I always go 50/50 thinner/paint.

Spot lamp, if you can afford one, oh yeh and have fun.