You Look Like A Nail's Painted Spaceships Emporium

By You Look Like A Nail, in X-Wing Painting and Modification

Cool little squadron. I really like the contrast between the hull color and the cockpit glass.

7 hours ago, EwanH said:

Very nice! :)
Is that airbrushed or paint brushed?

W

Thank you! It's done with a brush, I don't have an airbrush. (I want to get one but that's something I'll try when my kids are old enough for me to have free time again.)

Well, you uh, Nailed it!

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Ok, so I've been silently admiring your work for a while now and I have to say I love it, the reaper and strikers, the Kimo, the hwks, the ties... everything looks absolutely amazing.

And I also want to ask how do you make that "weathered" effect on your ships? Its very noticeable on the reaper, how he isnt just one shade of purple but several, I really like it and would love to learn, if you wouldn't mind giving me a short lesson of course.

On 8/5/2018 at 7:12 PM, DanteStorm said:

Ok, so I've been silently admiring your work for a while now and I have to say I love it, the reaper and strikers, the Kimo, the hwks, the ties... everything looks absolutely amazing.

And I also want to ask how do you make that "weathered" effect on your ships? Its very noticeable on the reaper, how he isnt just one shade of purple but several, I really like it and would love to learn, if you wouldn't mind giving me a short lesson of course.

Thanks for the kind words.

I'm doing up a (yet another) TIE fighter next, I'll take some in-progress shots. Basically the process for Imperials looks like this:

  • Block out the wing panels with sand tan
  • Paint all the purple areas with a dark grape purple. Don't worry about coverage too much, this is mostly going to show only in the recesses.
  • Drybrush that same purple mixed with a little white, go for good coverage.
  • 1 or 2 more passes of drybrushing, each one with more white and less pressure/coverage, until the last one is almost a pink and very lightly drybrushing just for highlights.
  • Go back over the wing panels with a mix of buff and white and then highlight with off white
  • Canopy in a couple of shades of gold plus some reddish wash
  • Blue-gray mixed with silver for canopy frame
  • If there are white bits (like on the Reaper) start with a pale gray and then highlight with white, wash if necessary depending on how textured the area is.

The drybrushing approach works pretty well on most Imperial ships because they have a nicely textured surface. I like how it comes out, anyway.

Fang fighters!

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Still have one more of these on the table, but I'm not repositioning its wings, I felt like keeping one flat.

They look great, are they 2.0 or are they custom?

Thanks! Those are 1.0 ships which have been repositioned. They don't spin.

They make me twist my neck. Cool ones.

Painted up TIE Fighter #4 and TIE Bomber #3. Since I have a bunch of these anyway, I did these guys with a little extra flash and details to make them stand out.

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I need to pick up a pair of gunships but otherwise I think I'm basically done with my Imperials until I get the 2.0 conversion kit and they start releasing new goodies. Updated family portrait!

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Edited by You Look Like A Nail

Looking good! I've always been fond of that gold Defender.

Gunboats!

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You know what I love about gunboats, I mean, really love about them? They aren't TIEs. No damned white wing panels. These things paint up super easy and look fantastic.

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GUNBOAT

Nicely done! Love the consistent paint scheme!

Finished my third Fang Fighter.

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The whole set:

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This looks very Robotech to me: Max, Myria and Roy Fokker.

Was that the inspiration?

48 minutes ago, Force Majeure said:

This looks very Robotech to me: Max, Myria and Roy Fokker.

Was that the inspiration?

Yup, it was ;)

Finally done. This thing took forever. I kinda want a new 2.0 VCX100 kit so it can ship with both shuttles that actually dock, Lando's Falcon style, but OTOH, God be merciful, I don't want to paint one of these again.

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Shot where you can see the modified flight stand. I put magnets in on the two supporting tines, together with the normal large-base connector this gives you a really solid base for the thing.

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Matching shuttle.

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Whole thing plus Phoenix Squadron escorts.

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On 9/29/2018 at 5:08 PM, You Look Like A Nail said:

Finally done. This thing took forever. I kinda want a new 2.0 VCX100 kit so it can ship with both shuttles that actually dock, Lando's Falcon style, but OTOH, God be merciful, I don't want to paint one of these again.

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Shot where you can see the modified flight stand. I put magnets in on the two supporting tines, together with the normal large-base connector this gives you a really solid base for the thing.

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Matching shuttle.

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Whole thing plus Phoenix Squadron escorts.

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Wow. Just, wow. This is beautiful.

So I was looking at this ship and I asked my six year old son how I should paint it, and without a moment's hesitation, he said: BATWING.

Roger that.

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8 minutes ago, You Look Like A Nail said:

So I was looking at this ship and I asked my six year old son how I should paint it, and without a moment's hesitation, he said: BATWING.

Roger that.

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The little guy has a good eye, I never caught the similarity. Beautifully done. :)

Khirxxaxxxzx #2.

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Scum Hawk #2. These guys are so much fun to convert.

Painted this while watching the Mynock Open. (Also worked on converting my second YV-666.)

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I love seeing Hawk mods.

Makes me curious though, about what you're doing with the rest of the K-wing you chopped up.

1 hour ago, Force Majeure said:

I love seeing Hawk mods.

Makes me curious though, about what you're doing with the rest of the K-wing you chopped up.

They're just the lower wings I removed from my K-Wing a long time ago. I think the K looks a lot better without them anyway.

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