Hey, I've done a bunch of other miniatures painting but haven't messed with my X-wing stuff before. For people who've done some repainting before, do you feel the need to strip or reprime the minis first, or does it generally work well enough just laying paint down on top of the existing scheme? It seems like, unlike the usual plastic model kits, the paint job on the existing models should have enough for paint to grip to without recoating with primer, but I figured I'd get some input.

Depends on the ship. That Imperial blue is difficult to paint over (and the red repaints even more so).

I will usually throw on a light coat of Rustoleum or Krylon grey before I start painting unless I want to preserve some of the existing scheme.

The ink washes come off fairly easy. 24 hours in Purple Power the wash is gone and the paint stays. This was on an A-Wing.

There have been several threads arguing the benefits of stripping or not. Most feel stripping is not necessary but as mentioned above red is a pain to cover. It tends to bleed or show through and I would recommend a primer if not stripping.

I prefer to work from a clean canvas so I'll probably strip mine. Easy Off oven cleaner won't attack the plastic and should strip the paint. I want to try a natural metal finish on my As like late WWII P-51s. That requires a gloss black base coat and I don't want to clog the beautiful detail.

Just be careful with X-wings and other slimmer pieces. There was a thread a few years back that showed some ruined X-wing lances (?) as a result of bathing in a stripping agent for too long.

I was wondering the same thing, should I be stripping? And you know what? A good coat of primer will do, but if you skip that? Sorry. Just prime and repaint the whole ship. I have ships where I repainted only certain parts, like coloured panels (rebel ships) and when it came time to apply washes, the factory paint wouldn't take the pigment, almost like had a sealant on it. I too have plenty of experience painting minis and I would say always, always prime with x-wing ships. Don't strip the ships, yo. Just prime that shizzet.

You can prime over the top of the existing paintjob, but put your primer on properly, i.e several thin passes over the model rather than one big attempt and you'll be fine.

If you want to strip the paint, put the model in either Simple Green (if you're American) or Flash for around 24hrs and then take the residue off under a hot tap with a toothbrush.

The paints on the minis are not your run of the mill acrylics; there's a coating on top which you need to eat through before you can get to work.

Either way, the miniatures themselves should take the punishment.

Cheers

Baaa

Oh another thing to note about the red/Imp blue, whatever... I'm pretty sure they're actually molded in that colour which would mean you actually can't strip them.

I don't actually strip the color - just paint on top.

I say it all the time, I've never stripped one, but I haven't repainted the Imp blue or a red.. except one Phantom, which I did in royal red.. I got no bleed through or other issues with that one.

the comments about them may be valid for a strip, or light primer.. other wise just use the original as your primer and go for it. I've done quite a few.

Be careful stripping, I strongly recommend avoiding it. I lost a firespray through stripping, the poor thing ain't exactly made of the strongest stuff. If you have primer in a can you're good to go, as it lets you get a great thin but solid coat on there. I'd reserve stripping for dealing with your own work going wrong.