Hello all. This is my first time painting miniatures of any kind (and my first time on FFG forums) and I had a couple of questions. I repainted my TIE Fighter red, or what low light led me to believe was red. In much better lighting it proved to be more of a maroon color. I'm concerned if I paint over the current color with a lighter red I will lose some of the detail. Could this be an issue? Also, once I have the base color I'm not sure if I use a wash to bring out the details or dry brushing. Any and all help is appreciated.
TIE Painting Help
Ahh... a new painter! Breathe deep friend, for this world is vast and full of color.
Ok, enough dramatics. First off you should know that thinning your paints will help prevent gumming up or filling in the fine details that are molded into the model itself that you seem to be worrying about. Thinning (with water if you are using acrylics) is not necessary in my opinion, if you are using "higher grade" paints such as Vallejo, Citadel, Army Painter, etc. They flow well and have great coverage. Worth the money if you have it.
If you are using lower quality paints, you'll find that the pigment tends to separate, or pool after a while on your palate. To mitigate this, don't over-thin the paint to begin with, and secondly, make sure you've mixed it well. And it will take many coats to get the undiluted original color, don't rush it.
If this were my ship, I'd try to dry brush of the correct red first; the two tones of color might give the color some depth you weren't expecting but looks better than you could have done with one tone of red.
If you aren't satisfied with the look of the ship at this point, then I'd try painting the whole thing with the correct red, as my base color. After that, I'd add my highlights (dry brush) and shadows (washes). You usually want to do shadows first, then highlights, but some situations require different things.
And if all fails, you can always strip the paint. (It's super easy and won't hurt your ship.) If you have to strip it, buy some Simple Green or if you only have a dollar, try LA's Totally Awesome from the dollar store (yellow liquid, translucent bottle). I can't vouch for Totally Awesome but people here say it worked for them. Pour some in a disposable cup, enough to cover a half inch above your ship, and leave it overnight. Don't worry about forgetting about the ship for a day or two, it will still be ok. Then scrub the paint off with an old toothbrush, rinse and dry your ship. Good as new.
Sorastro has a good video series to watch. It's not about painting ships, but it's still Star Wars and you can learn the fundamentals of applying paint. They are all worth watching.
Episode 6 is probably most relevant:
Good luck, and post some pics! Before and After would be nice.
Will do, thank you so much for all the help. Let's see how I do over the weekend!
Have to second the drybrushing idea. You already have the darker red established on the ship, so drybrushing up to the color that you wanted should be straight-forward. Post pics!!
[blink].... well, the internet has pockets of total coolness after all. 
I see an admitted beginner asking a totally apropos begginer's question and being completely open to advice and assistance, and then I see I friendly, well thought out and in depth response from someone who obviously knows the subject at hand. After a long, negativity filled day at work, this thread made me feel better!
now for my legit response: I can't add anything, Force covered it. But I can vouch for what Force covered.
For my first point of "Parroting what a knowledgable person said", expensive paints are totally worth it. Acrylic paint is just pigment floating in an acrylic resin, the more expensive ones, intending for painting wee detailed stuff like this, have much finer pigments. Allowing you to thin them to translucency and still be usable. Which is how good painters get the fade and gradient effects and so forth. So if the money and opportunity presents itself, accruing a collection of these is highly recommended. Not just for the finished product, but they're also enjoyable to work with.
However, if you can only get cheap paints, don't let that stop you from painting. When you get "comfy" with the cheap stuff, your first few bottles of good paint will be like switching from a Hyundai to a Bentley.
When you get "comfy" with the cheap stuff, your first few bottles of good paint will be like switching from a Hyundai to a Bentley.I live two hours away from anything resembling a "proper" hobby store. My town is now the fanciest thing in the surrounding five counties because We Have a Super Wal Mart! (YeeHaw!). And a Dollar Store!.... yeah, it's like that. So one thing I can properly vouchsafe: LA's Totally Awesome does in fact work perfectly. It eats acrylic paint and doesn't attack our particular flavor of plastic at all.
I'll never tire of the anecdote about going to my in-laws for the weekend and forgetting that I left a Star Viper soaking in Awesome. Three days later it was stripped and fine.
So don't be afraid of goofing with your repaints, the "undo" button is just a Dollar Tree away.
Selfsame Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart yielded the components to assemble a wet palette. A shallow tupperware esque container (intended to hold a single slice of pizza) From $$-Tree ; two sheets of .90 white felt from Wal-Mart and a sheet of printer paper. Cut and stack the felt in the container, fill with just enough water to nooot quite submerge the top sheet of felt, place the paper on top of that (it will promptly saturate). Use the paper as a palette. You have to experiment to get the water fill level just right, but the felt will wick just enough moisture to thin the paint, and you can put the lid on it and walk away for awhile without worrying about wasting paint. It's also a serious boon if you're doing a lot of mixing and blending. When it's not as late and I'm not feeling as lazy I'll post pics... in fact I could do an entire blog on hobby-ing on the super cheap. 
EDIT: Oh yea! If it's going on thick enough to make you concerned about occluding details I have to ask: Exactly what paints are you using?
If they're "craft" paints in a 3" high plastic bottle, that's fine, those are acrylic. If it's Testor's model paints (which can be had in acrylics but most stores only carry the enamels), you probably want to shy away.
Edited by juxstapo
I actually have a tabletop games store right down the street from my house that has all manner of citadel paints, primers, shades, etc. I'm just inexperienced in what multiple layers of paints would do to the details. Having actual feedback from people who know what they are doing I think will make all the difference. I feel now that I can tackle this and have fun in the process. Thanks to all for the assist.
I actually have a tabletop games store right down the street from my house that has all manner of citadel paints, primers, shades, etc.
Awe-Some-Sauce. Citadel makes quality products
Edited by juxstapoSorry for taking so long to post pics. But I just got a chance to finish it. I'm not going to post pre-paint pics, didn't take any.
Let's try that again...
success!
Let's try that again...
Great work!
Thank you. I thought it turned out really well for a first timer.
That's a pretty red. Great work, really clean!