In the interest of saving people from endlessly scrolling, I'll be adding clickable thumbnails to this first post as I add new content.

Click on the pictures to see the large version!

Original post

I got inspired to get back into painting reading the thread on painting with *affordable* acrylics. Now, last time I painted minis was in the mid-90s, the internet wasn't quite yet a thing back then, so the whole idea of diluting paint was never conveyed to me. I took people's advice, but it seems I still underdid it on diluting this time around, it's a learning process.

My first attempt was repainting my Lambda, which is still a work in progress. While waiting for coats to dry, I quickly did a Red Ace and a Red Inquisitor. It was rightly pointed out that the paint was not diluted enough. And the smear on Red Ace's nose is not visible in the real world, I've looked after taking the picture. I've reddened Red Ace's engines and blued the exhaust since, but I still consider those two as works in progress. I still want to do the canopy justice...

My inspiration

*** NOT MY WORK ***

And, just so there's something more worthy here, here's a reason why I almost gave up the idea of painting minis before even taking it up again, done by an awesome local artist. My phone does not do that Black One justice, his pics are much better, see his FB page for the amazing stuff he's done.

*** NOT MY WORK ***

Some work on dials (jump to post)

Some dials need some touchups, particularly the scum ones, but mostly, they need Dullcote.

Some restoration work (jump to post)

Some guns are more fragile than others. Watch pins are not fragile at all and make cool looking guns.

Fully working StarViper (jump to post)

I wanted a fully working StarViper and I love magnets, how could this possibly go wrong?

R2-D2 dial, work in progress (jump to post)

Templates and template trays (jump to post)

My son turned 7 and deserved better than worn out cardboard templates. I did too:

He also needed a tray to put his in, in come Phoenix Squadron!

More Vipers! (jump to post)

Magnetizing a Viper wasn't enough, so I tried shaving their pegs and pinning them. I heartily recommend pinning, but shaving can work if the cockpit glue gives. Can you guess which is which?

Magnets are fiddly, but you can do a lot of funky things with them:

Shaving the pegs is easy, if the glue gives:

Pinning the wings is the more guaranteed way to pull it off:

You did some VERY Nice work!

I added extra disclaimers around the Black One, it's not mine, well, not my work, the ship is mine

Lest someone think I have some amazing skills I really don't possess. I do like showing it off though.

I love the red accents on that Inquisitor! Curious to see how other tones look with that deco scheme!

I intend to find out, but I've got way more IGs than TAPs for now

I love the look that your tap has achieved! I have a general red theme to my repaints (never stopped painting blood angels red lol) and I will probably borrow that scheme, with your permission.

Well done!

I have been getting back into painting minis again after a similar length of time, but I am not brave enough to paint my X-Wing minis. Like you, I struggle with thinning my paints. Also, I am struggling with close up focus, so I am finding it difficult to see well enough to get the results I want. I am not practiced enough for painting with a magnifying glass yet.

I just wanted to applaud your efforts in taking the plunge again after so many years.

Welcome back to painting. I came back from about 20 years away too. Doesn't it remind you of your childhood?

Well done!

I have been getting back into painting minis again after a similar length of time, but I am not brave enough to paint my X-Wing minis. Like you, I struggle with thinning my paints. Also, I am struggling with close up focus, so I am finding it difficult to see well enough to get the results I want. I am not practiced enough for painting with a magnifying glass yet.

I just wanted to applaud your efforts in taking the plunge again after so many years.

Old eyes and tri-focals make it tough to paint fine details without some type of assistance. Magnifying lamps are great but take some getting use to.

I've been painting again, on and off. The dials are so fun to paint that I may have gone overboard.

Some dials need some touchups, but mostly, they need Dullcote. I thought I bought some, but someone switched the lid+barcode with some clear coat... I'll have to buy some more!

Here's my Imperial set, FO, Royal Guard and 181st:

My rebel set, Gold Squadron, Black One, and Sabine (I'm so glad I won't have to paint a TIE anytime soon, this was done before the announcement):

Here's a group shot with my Scum work in progress, That's No Moon and Kath/Manaroo (which is FAR from being finished):

And my That's No Moon Dengar in action (also a work in progress, it needs dry brushing, more engine work, maybe some stars, and some paint on that turret), cause I painted a ship to go with my dial:

I remembered to take a picture of my primed Scum dial, so I whipped up a layered GIMP file to play with possible paint jobs for your Scum dials. You just need to use the "Select by color" tool on the layer you want to tweak then paint the selection the color you want. I forgot to take pictures of my primed imperial and rebel dials, so that fun toy's gonna have to wait until I get some more somehow.

NICE!

The variation on those dials! Your work is so good; glad to see you back, slinging some paint.

I like what you have done with all of the custom maneuver dials.

Nice job on the repaints.

One of he great things about repainting models is having the time to sit down,

Relax, and enjoy the hobby with some chilled music.....usually star wars music...in the back ground.

Welcome back.

Looking forward to seeing more.

All the best

Barry

Today was not a painting day, yet. But it was a day to fix some sons induced breakages (and magnetizing new additions to the fleet, obviously).

A B-wing and a Mist Hunter lost a gun each to handling, consider them fixed, and significantly improved:

If you ever need to do something like this, here's an eBay link to the 360 watch pins for less than $3 that I used. You will need a pin vise to do the B-wing properly, I've been using this one and it is wonderful.

The way I did the B is that I clipped the gun that was still there. I really just clipped the tip, as I wanted the gun bulge to provide extra support. I then filed that surface flat, so that, from the front, it looked like two small half circles. I then switched the the pin vise to create an indentation and when it was deep enough, I drilled into the wing so that the other tip of the watch pin would be hidden in the model (and would provide more strength to the bond.

If I ever lose another gun on a B, I'd be happy to document if anyone is interested.

So, I've been wanting to have a folding wing StarViper for a while now, and while trying to paint one, I figured it may actually make my job easier to get it over with.

One of these things is not like the others:

It FOLDS!

And it does so quite nicely, if I do say so myself:

Here it is, wingless and gunless, showing the scarily small magnets. I love magnets. I used K&J's D101-N52, but stepping up to the DH101 for twice the pulling force may not be crazy, it does break apart easily.

Look how small they are!

Amazing! Good God, I need more time!

I magnetized some Space Marines and tanks a while back. It cured me of the desire to do it again! However, that's really cool how you've done the StarViper.

Since my sons' first question when seeing my 3 rebel dials was "Why isn't there one for R2-D2?" I had to give in to the addiction and buy another pack.

It's a work in progress, and I'm trying to figure out how to get the glowing red light to look as diffuse as it does on R2 before moving forward, but it's most of the way there.

I'm open to suggestions on how to achieve that look, I'm not putting the finishing touches on it before I get that done!

For my son's 7th birthday, I got him some cogotwo templates, in green, his favorite color. It's actually transparent acrylic, I was sure it was opaque from their own pictures, all the better! I figured I may as well go with more colors, to really make them pop:

Seeing as it would be a shame to have them break, I figured they needed a template tray, so I built him one:

While mine is magnetized, his has an actual cover that it sits into when open, it works much better and allows for art to be put on the lid:

I still need to cut indentations in the side of the lid to make it easier to remove the tray from inside, but he's thrilled!

I figured I deserved some too, and the 2016 World template inspired my to go white and gold (plus some more colors):

Missed the Starviper mod before - great work - have had one sitting in pieces waiting for the same since the summer! (I may not bother with the guns )

...agree, Neo magnets are marvelous things - except after applying over a hundred of them to one model and its cargo,

At this point, the guns are the most solid part of that mod. While the magnets are strong enough, by far, for the wings to stay on, they're not perfect at keeping them at the angle you want them. I keep meaning to rough them up with sandpaper to see if it helps.

Some work in progress shots of my real addiction, as evidenced by previous posts, maneuver dials:

Who says the empire is boring and lack artistry?

The lines aren't fully straight, and they'll never be, since I got carpel tunnel a few years back, my hands have never gone back to 100%, but they're close enough that at table distance, it already looks pretty nice.

I still have to finish the faction logo, the ship window, the spokes of the wheel, and the backside.

The Imperial Partridge Family.

Now, someone has to paint a large ship as the Partridge Family bus. lol

It's actually inspired by Mondrian's paintings, but googling for pictures of the Partridge family, I can see why you would think that.

It was my wife's idea, and I gotta say, it's turning out very nicely now, more pictures when it's completed.