Less than a month into this painting of minis deal and a quick question:

Are Tie Fighter wings bare plastic that must be primed in order to paint properly?

My sons have each decided to start with a Tie Fighter as the first miniature to paint after practicing on some little green army men and the Tie wings are proving hard to get solid coverage.

And just because: Here is my vaguely Imperial Firespray and the little green army man painted up by my 5-year-old daughter. She "arts" a lot more than her older brothers and probably has them out-classed as a painter right now.

You shouldn't need to prime any x-wing models. Best to give them a scrub with soapy water and a toothbrush before painting though to get rid of any oily deposits that might inhibit paint sticking.

But if you want to prime, it can't hurt.

Are these actual TIE/ln's [old purchases], or newer models/purchases...I only ask as I recently saw a comment [in a 'stripping' thread] that the early waves used a different paint formula that maybe makes coverage more difficult...but I may be introducing a complete red-herring here, so see what others think

EDIT: I think your daughter has steadier hands than me, these days!

Maybe it is just the black color. They are painting wave 1 era Tie/Ln's. Although the blue-ish Ties from the Gozanti seem to have an even more slick texture on the black portion of the wings. Does anyone know what color the bare plastic is on the models? Does it differ for different ships?

On some minis, I just add the odd detail here and there, and some I give a shot of black primer. Both options seem to work okay for me.

Generally you don't need to prime your ships, but depending how they're going to get painted, you might want to for certain benefits. For example if you are going to paint the Tie panels white, yellow or other colors that are not as "strong" you're going to want to prime it white, because otherwise the natural black of the TIE's panels will show through and give the lighter colors a darker appearance. They will need more coats of paint, and gradually with more paint (especially in little hands) that usu. means loss of detail. The white primer on the other hand, will give them a brighter appearance. But they're kids and they mostly just want to slap some paint on something and don't worry too much about how perfect things are.

My kids see me painting and want to get in on the fun too. Thankfully, I have this handy:

And they can go nuts and still paint Star Wars. You do have to prime them, otherwise the paint doesn't adhere properly.

And they are good for practice as well (if you need it) before getting into Imperial Assault.

I have similar coverage issues with tie fighter wings. Especially the FO and SF.

No idea what's going on there.

I have similar coverage issues with tie fighter wings. Especially the FO and SF.

No idea what's going on there.

I haven't looked very hard at those ships but if they are molded in color, it could be the plastic itself. Or some residual release. Try a light scrub with dish soap.

Just picked up some Badger StynlRes (forgive the spelling) to use as a primer. I'm not entirely satisfied with Vallejo primer. Seems to remain tacky far longer than I would expect.

Ohhhh

Great idea, Force...

I'm ordering this to train without fear!! Less than 9 euros...

You wanna be careful with those Star Wars Command figures. Paint does NOT like to stick to them. Best to find some auto primer that's got a bit of bite to it and paint them first with that. It'll be toxic stuff, though, so if your kids are going to end up painting those figures, be sure to prime them with that first, then after they have cured for a couple of days, let your kids loose with them.

Thanks for the advice Millenium.

My kid is only 1 y.o. so the Command figures are for me.

I'm noob at painting, i went to a painting class a while ago (2 years), and i painted a "decent" squad of British WWII commandos.

So these SW Command figures are going to be my poor guinea pigs. Also the minis look good for their price, and i don't own Imperial Assault minis.

And my first idea was to put some prime on them (to paint them like a classic mini), but now i rest assured.

The pack offers ships and figures, so i can train for my piling stock of unpainted wwii german troops, WH fantasy empire militia, Infinity, and maybe do something good to my 2 red core TIE/lns...