Hello Spaceinvader

Basicly, I spray painted the model black, then a light over spray of grey primer. I then drybrushed a lighter grey for the panel high lights.

And used a very fine 0.05 fine liner "black graphic drawing pen" to go in-between and around the panels.

Ink washes on large models can look messy.

And I prefur the Imperial ships to look tidy.

I use the fine liner to draw Cockpit windows on all of the ship models as well.

Again for neatness.

It's that simple really.

All the best.

Barry.

Sorry for bumping this back up, but can you recommend a brand? I've already killed two quite nice ones from my local art supply place; they just dried out after maybe a third of a lambda's worth of lines each.

Hello Space Invader.

see if this Helps, this is a message I sent to another fellow X winger.

I always buy these Pen's from my local Art shop

Its a fantastic pen.

Found it on Amazon.........and its a lot cheaper on there

Than I pay for them !

The pen is a,

Uni pin fine line 0.05

Type that it on Amazon and you should find it.

Are you in the UK or US.

In the UK its £ 2.19......very cheap

And its a fantastic pen.

The 0.05 is important

That's a very fine nib, sometimes it can stop working on a painted surface, keep a peace of paper handy

And scribble on the paper every so often to keep the nib clean.

Another trick......if you make an era while drawing on the painted surface.

Is to rub it off with a cotton bud, that you have just soaked in your mouth !

Syliver is a good cleaner and good at removing ink before it has chance to dry

Any thing else could ruin the paint and water just spreads it more.

Little things you find out as you go !

The ink in the pen is waterproof, but does take a long time to dry.

And you get better results if you also spray a matt varnish over your model.

Finishes everything off with the same sheen.

And protects your paint and pen work.

Hope this helps.

All the best.

Barry.

Not the best ones but I'm happy with them, have Omega leader, Zeta leader and a Lambda-Class Shuttle repainted with the FO scheme.

http://imgur.com/gallery/44kX0sT

Just a thought: Has anyone painted their FOs as regular TIEs, yet? I am really curious as to how that would look.

Heresy !

*TRAITOR!

Fixed it.

Just finished my Rebel Aces A Wing:

Now I get to start on the B-Wing!

Hello Spaceinvader

Basicly, I spray painted the model black, then a light over spray of grey primer. I then drybrushed a lighter grey for the panel high lights.

And used a very fine 0.05 fine liner "black graphic drawing pen" to go in-between and around the panels.

Ink washes on large models can look messy.

And I prefur the Imperial ships to look tidy.

I use the fine liner to draw Cockpit windows on all of the ship models as well.

Again for neatness.

It's that simple really.

All the best.

Barry.

Sorry for bumping this back up, but can you recommend a brand? I've already killed two quite nice ones from my local art supply place; they just dried out after maybe a third of a lambda's worth of lines each.

snip

THanks Barry.

A nice way to black line the models is with watered down black paint.

It flows easily into the recesses and you don't have to be a Master painter to keep it clean.

The other option rather than paint,is to use artists ink,either neat or watered down.

Lined with Rowney sepia ink.

And another not great one but satisfying me, Kath Scarlett : http://imgur.com/gallery/THxm6

My first post and first x wing repaints. They feel like crap compared to what I've seen in this thread.

Liberator

Phoenix 1, 2, and 3

Gozanti

2 Gray Squadron Pilots.

FINALLY uploaded some of my repaints to a site. Not as great as some on here but I'm happy with them.

Rest are here: http://imgur.com/a/e7tkx

Looks good Malan Tie.

Perhaps adding some repair panels would help to give it the look you are going for. Perhaps dark and light grey?

That and you could strategically add some brown and black washes for damage and to dirty it up a little.

Here's my custom YT-1300:

That's probably the best one I've seen, or rather this is the one I like the most. Very cool YT custom.

Here's my custom YT-1300:

This would be my YT.

How do people get such crisp lines?! Are you all gods (/more patient than me) with a paint brush or do you tape things off? I'd love to see a pic of a ship taped off and ready for painting if anyone's got one. My efforts are....clumsy.

Use painters tape, it's easier to work with. And halve/quarter them into thing strips.

If you're doing curved shapes, try cutting the curve into your tape instead of angling.

do you guys varnish your painted x-wing minis or leave them as is?

I seal everything with dullcote

@ Darcloak & Sir Orrin: Thanks a lot!

@NTaW: I use masking tape (from Tamiya) and it's quite easy to use. You can stick it to your mini, draw lines and curves on it, remove it to cut it and then stick it again.

@ Nunziollion: I spray a thin layer of matt varnish (I found that wood varnish from the DIY store is better than the purity seal from gw), just to cover the edges that are more exposed.

Always varnish your minis, you'll regret it if you don't! I use Humbrol Matt varnish spray then go over cockpits/glass with a bit of gloss with a brush.

Some great reprints again, the YT is amazing!

do you guys varnish your painted x-wing minis or leave them as is?

Hi Nunizillion.

yes Its is a good idea to use a Varnish once the models have been painted.

gives them a protection.

you need to spray a heavy coat, I prefer to mist the coats on. 4-5 coats at most.

and never spray in the cold !

keep everything warm, room temp warm. paint doesnt work very well below 15 degrees.

sometimes I put the spray tins in a bowl or bucket of Hot water.......tap water hot, not boiling.

There are many makes and finishes out there.

I have found Humbrol Acrylic Varnish in Matt to be the best.

Barry

Thanks for letting me know guys I figured it would be a good idea but I wanted to check first.

I'm currently working on painting up a unified b wing squadron for epic scale games and I want some opinions;

I did the sponge technique to apply paint scratches to my b wings because in my minds eye Star Wars always has that grungy damaged look. But I went to go look at the official models after I painted these guys and honestly they don't seems as weathered as I made my ships. Opinions?

http://imgur.com/eROauHX

http://imgur.com/WMrgkur

Weathering is a " to taste" situation captain.

Go as little or as much as suits you.thi thread has the entire spectrum from assembly line new to imperial military cleanliness to rebel freshly scraped...scum freshly taped together from rusty coffee machines.

Whatever you think looks good to you.

Actually...I forget the name but there is a fella here who does LOTS of scrapey,rusty,dirty damagey stuff to his ships. It's really neat and his ships stand out as HIS style. Is it more than what you see in the movies and whatnot? Yep. But nobody will complain.

I would say...keep painting to what you like looking at. You'll develop a personal style (all gun tips orange or always a broken wing...or glossy tie fighters or pink cockpit glass...just..whatever it ends up being.)

If you are trying for a super accurate look then I would almost ignore completely what other people are doing and look for movie stills or production reference material.

If you want to go that route all the hard work has been done and is collected at the replica prop forum...sub forum for studio scale models etc. TheRpf.com

http://www.therpf.com/forumdisplay.php?f=10

X wings..

Falcons... Etc.etc.etc.

keep everything warm, room temp warm. paint doesnt work very well below 15 degrees.

sometimes I put the spray tins in a bowl or bucket of Hot water.......tap water hot, not boiling.

I usualy just warm the bottle with my hands, works pretty well for me.

Haven't varnished any of my X-Wing stuff, yet. Not even the full repaints. The stuff I do isn't super complicated or artfull, so it is quite easy to touch up any damage, although I haven't had any so far.