I just finish up my first three TIE's and was wondering should I seal them with something like Testors Dull coat to protect the paint? Typically for my other miniature games that I paint I usually do one coat of gloss and then 2 coats of dull to protect the paint job.

I use testor's dullcote for all my miniatures and it works really well! The only downside is the size of the can which can be annoying as it is not cheap!

I don't tend to use gloss products but my advise would be to avoid cheap prdoucts (like humbrol varnishes) as I have ruined many models and figures using these as it forms a cloudy shell over the minature- not what you want!

Wouldn't two coats of dullcote be better?

So as I've been painting my ships I've been organising them in flotilla's below is the first one I 'finished' my scout/rapid response flotilla

Still need to workout what name's I'm going to give all the ships

Flotilla Flagship

CR-90's

and the A-wing escort squadron's



9 down....like...50 more to go :/

9 down....like...50 more to go :/

those are some of the best Armada Ties ive seen, alot of them come out gloppy.

Cheers mate, honestly I do commission work...most 15mm so these guys were nothing.

Then again I haven't messed with X-wings...which I will very soon.

My god, man. Those TIE's.

These are my first attempts at painting Armada.

This is my modified cr90 "Victory's Dawn". The cr90 is the oldest ship in the rebel fleet which explains its slightly decrepit air.

There is also a squadron of x-wings. Hopefully I should have more to post soon.

I love the CR90, you can paint it whatever way you want but once you hit it with a dark wash it becomes 100x better!

I love the CR90, you can paint it whatever way you want but once you hit it with a dark wash it becomes 100x better!

Yeah it's funny cause I actually have washed it already (in nuln oil) and then highlighted up the fore section.

I love the CR90, you can paint it whatever way you want but once you hit it with a dark wash it becomes 100x better!

Yeah it's funny cause I actually have washed it already (in nuln oil) and then highlighted up the fore section.

I might do the same when I get a second for a repaint. They are great anti-fighter support ships, and with enhanced armament, can really dish out a serious drive by on a passing cruiser focused on something else.

I might do the same when I get a second for a repaint. They are great anti-fighter support ships, and with enhanced armament, can really dish out a serious drive by on a passing cruiser focused on something else.

I know that this is a bit off topic but as well as an anti-squadron vessel (like you said) I find it is quite a good support ship if you equip it with: Engineering Captain, Redundant Shields and Projection experts.

This means you can recover shields, support a larger ship in the heat of the combat (changing your command to repair to supply the main ship with new shields).

It is also fast and maneuverable enough for this task + it also has a redirect and stronger side shields unlike the Neb support refit.

Tantive 4 and Raymus Antilles are also gut upgrades for a Cr90 support ship.

I might do the same when I get a second for a repaint. They are great anti-fighter support ships, and with enhanced armament, can really dish out a serious drive by on a passing cruiser focused on something else.

I know that this is a bit off topic but as well as an anti-squadron vessel (like you said) I find it is quite a good support ship if you equip it with: Engineering Captain, Redundant Shields and Projection experts.

This means you can recover shields, support a larger ship in the heat of the combat (changing your command to repair to supply the main ship with new shields).

It is also fast and maneuverable enough for this task + it also has a redirect and stronger side shields unlike the Neb support refit.

Tantive 4 and Raymus Antilles are also gut upgrades for a Cr90 support ship.

Me and my friend have just done our first upgrade game last night, so the world of upgrades is new and bountiful.

Yeah I'm totally going to pimp out a CR90 and watch his ISD try and chase it around the board like it tried last night, you keep it at speed 4 he'll never get that front arc on you!

All of three games playing Armada, and this Victory Star Destroyer was begging for some simple details - still WIP, but I like it a lot better.

I'm taking my time with this one.

Patience is awesome, Cynan, I'm losing it slowly as I age. Gosh dern kids. Armada really brought back my enthusiasm with sci-fi so this is all fresh and new. There are a lot of good painters here, lots of creativity, I feel personally bereft of any creativity so seeing this thread get a new response is usually energizing. Then I get to ooo-and-ahhh and wonder if I should do something like that, and sometimes I do ! Because the whole lot of you are awesome!

CheesyRobMan, those windows put mine to shame too I learned on the fly for a commission and switched to blue, so I'm pretty sure it's some kind of magic. I must learn its evil azuremantic powers. Thanks mate.

I'm liking what I'm seeing Zephyre, green and ivory-like grey is nice. Red looks good too, but that flotilla is great. The Cr-90's are all nice and the diversity is great to see. The Mc30 primary colours are bright but the use of it on a flagship is a great idea. It's well colour coordinated too. Love it, well done. Can't wait to see some more some time, mate.

Very nice work, Viperous. The fighters are good but I'm a moth when it comes to conversions. Love it. Is that extra engines and an elongated core? I have no idea what the round is, but it really looks like it should be on CR90's. Can't wait to see more!

StackEffect, yeah, it only does take about 3 games doesn't it? I did the same thing when I started. Hmm, red markings, not overboard but used as a strong accent. Did you add a really light wash to it already? It's sure a whole lot better defined than any of the VSD's I've worked on. Do keep us appraised, eh? Thanks mate, saw your X-wing thread so I'm really looking forward to it.

Gotmittuns, those TIES really are smashing, no question about it. I'm really going to have to try some more. Mind if I ask a question? You use an airbrush, what sort of primer? If its that Vallejo surface primer... what's the cleaning like through an airbrush? I mean, I know that the ammonia in windex is going to make it pretty horrible, and that's what I typically use on my Badger, so I'm at a loss as to what's going to work reasonably. I blame you for this

I redid 14 TIEs (me mate's yappy dog ate the 15^th, poor poor Mauler Mithel), using Dropship's technique. And naturally, like all things I do, I went way overboard so it took 3 times as long as it should have, and I overhighlighted the things. I still can't paint a straight line freehand, but it's not glaring unless you're looking for it. And now I recall why I hate doing TIEs and refused to do inner struts before. Maybe I need to make a stencil or something. Seriously, good on -anyone- who does those inner struts, because I hate 'em! Dras might be right, but I'm gonna try to do some of these things!

The picture? That's darker than they are in reality, they're basically chrome because I realized far too late that it's the same technique that I use for NMM. I should have done it on all the struts but meh, next time Gadget... Next time.

Just as another voice, I'll chime up for the dullcoat sealant too. 2, 3, occasionally 4 coats if I forget (and they're fighters). Better to be safe than really really irritated at some rubbed off paint.

I didn't bother with the inside lines, I figured it'd look odd when the interceptors/advanced/bombers didn't have them...too small to do.

I took his method and adopted it for rapid mass production, I used Tamiya Grey Primer over the airbrush...I can do batched in record time now.

Basically you do a batch of 9 at a time...I may do 12 when it's soley tie fighters as they are VERY simple to do.

The key is to just be neat around the edges of the wings and everything falls into place.

^{Vykes, I did not apply a wash over most of the VSD hull, although I applied it to most recessed areas and level changes. I applied a very dark wash to the split between the upper and the lower halves of the primary hull, and I'm working on drawing the small details there forward. The contrast in the image is probably due to intensive directional light for the photo.}

^{Imperial ships are tricky - they want to follow the monochromatic color scheme of the empire, but they still feel unfinished until they get a little paint attention. A single, incomplete blood stripe seemed like one way to accomplish it. I'll probably not touch this up any more this week, but I'll try to get some more detail images soon.}

Very nice work, Viperous. The fighters are good but I'm a moth when it comes to conversions. Love it. Is that extra engines and an elongated core? I have no idea what the round is, but it really looks like it should be on CR90's. Can't wait to see more!

Well actually they were supposed to be just extra engines at the start but I got a bit carried away and glued them on with plastic cement

Only then did I realise that they were waaayyy to short! The picture shows this below.

So I then decided that they would be ion particle compressors instead, the pipes on the end supplying the two outermost engines on either side.

This would allow it to travel faster and I inferred that this would make it more maneuverable at high speeds (in theory anyway, probably not in reality).

I think this makes it (a bit?) more realistic when a Navigation officer is included on board and for the Jaina's light title card; and also for engine techs (although I did look at D503's great idea with his Dodonna's Pride).

The round plating just was to add more space beneath for the equipment for the compressors and/or extra ion cells.

The only problem is I sacrificed most of the escape pods(!) to do the whole thing.

I'm quite satisfied with it on the whole

I might try a Nebulon next (I was thinking green and white), although I need to finish my core x-wings first

By the way, those are great Ties! And that ISD! Even for a commision! I'll be over the moon if I get mine even close to one of those three!

Did anyone play Rogue Leader and do Death Star Endurance? The announcer said "next wave incoming....begin!"

Well here you go....3 Ties, 3 Interceptors, 3 Advanced:

On a side note...I just got in two packs of Rebel fighters...and I'm already not looking forward to the non-simplified approach I have to take to get these boys done. I think it'll be 9 fighters at a time...the same fighter like 9 x-wings...to just make it run smooth.

Whilst we're on the subject of mass spam...by my count I have 36 more TIEs of varying flavors to go. I have 12 that are drying from their base coat right now. 6 Interceptors and 6 Bombers.

The Tie Fighters are the quickest to paint...so a swarm of them would be done in less than a week, it's the ones that require alot of panel work that take longer.

Lovely clean painting! Just how I like my Squadrons! I went blue grey instead of pale grey but still, its a mental challenge slogging through them.

You should find the rebel squadrons slightly more interesting as you get to use more colours!

I have a new pet project:

I un-boxed my Assault Frigate Mk 2 for those games my buddy doesn't want to play Rebel...and I was kinda bummed. It looks like crap, a bad wash was applied I suppose...and the whole "paint fading/chipping" on a deep space combat vessel is kinda turning me off. The rear engine is chipping with orange paint showing in various places as well.

HOWEVER! I accept your challenge to take my Armada painting to the next level (and use my dope as **** Iwata airbrush!)

I really have a smooth idea here, paint it a basic base coat...some form of hull light grey and use Tamiya masking tape to pick out panels to paint in various shades of grey and red...I may add battle damage. The idea here is that of the Rebel Alliance Pre Endor "always on the run" with panels replaced, some left damaged, not an overall uniform color.

And those red stripes gotta go...or at least be a solid color.

Just a quick heads up...Tamiya Grey surface primer = PERFECT hull color.

Wave 3 of Ties is coming along nicely, should have them done tomorrow or something...and the Assault Frigate took to the Tamiya Grey Primer perfectly...just thinking of a colour scheme.

Wave 3 has arrived!

2 x dupes, 1 x squint, another squint squadron is 80% done...needling final details.

So far so good, one more dupe squadron, and then back to the mass of disposable as hell eyeballs.

I have finished my second Armada ship, a Nebulon-B Escort Frigate called the "Vindication".

The quality of the photos isn't amazing (plus it is night here at the moment so I am using artificial light sources).

I tried a different colour scheme and it's sort of made to represent a ship that was drafted into the war while undergoing an overhaul, hence the different coloured front and back.

My painted fleet so far...

I'll maybe post one or two more pictures tomorrow and see if it looks better in daylight.

I think I'll try a Victory next...

EDIT. Forgot to remove that pen!