Almagester's Secret Paint Spot

By almagester, in X-Wing Painting and Modification

Hey there! Welcome to my shop. Here I'll be sharing all my work going forwards and I'd like to begin documenting and sharing my process as well. I really appreciate this forum and seeing your guys' work; I've learned a lot. I would really appreciate all the constructive criticism I can get, too. Thanks for stopping by!

This is my newest, non-commissioned project. I've been wanting to utilize more asymmetry in my painting and I feel like this was a good start; I might use this partifular color scheme on several more ships too.

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Edited by almagester

Nicely done! The silver body and painted accents reminds me of older airplanes from the 50s and 60s.

As for constructive criticism, I feel like the purple canopy detracts from the whole. The green and red accents are nicely done and create enough visual interest, but the purple makes it fall apart. There's too much going on. I think if you had gone with a glossy black canopy it would allowed the pop colors to do their job. That's just my opinion, of course.

Keep up the good work, and I look forward to seeing your next project!

Edited by Piscopas

Reminds me of Buzz Lightyear. Looks good, very clean!

Your edges are SO clean! Nicely done.

Unlike Piscopas, I like the purple canopy. It's the red that I'm not overly fond of. I think it stems from two things: a) My love of symmetry and b) There are too many colors competing against each other for attention.

Instead of red, if it was closer to the green on the color wheel or if the red were a neutral color, it wouldn't cause that sense of imbalance I'm getting.

All in all, very good work.

But more than that: If you are happy with it, who cares what anyone else has to say about it!

Thank you for the feedback :) It's all going into my brainmouth to get chewed on. Up next will be a T-70 with a similar design and color palet. A question to pose is, should I use a metallic frame like this A-Wing, or stick with a white frame?

Edited by almagester

How about a white belly and the top metallic with colored accents?

**off topic** The new look to the forum is going to take some getting used to...

My vote is for metallic. I like seeing cohesive squadrons.

I've done my best to document my repaint process with this T-70. In hindsight, I realize I should document more stages, but there's still a pretty fun learning moment in here.

The first thing I do is wash and prime my model. After removing mold lines and stray glue globs with a hobby knife and sand-stick, I let the ship soak in undiluted Simple Green over night and then gently scrub it with a toothbrush. I do this to ensure the model is free of debris and contaminants, as well as remove the dark wash that the models come with. I've had a few where that was surprisingly built up, so I like to get rid of it. After cleaning, I spray on a nice, clean coat of Krylon's flat white paint/primer mix. I'm careful not to overspray and obscure details. Some times I do and I just dunk the ship back into the Simple Green for a day and start again.
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Once that dries -- a few hours -- I begin to lay down rough estimations of what colors I want where. I try to be pretty neat, but I'll be cleaning up later so it's not a huge deal to have dirtier edges. As you can see, I began painting the guns a light grey, but changed my mind. By wetting my brush with acrylic medium, I was able to wash most of the paint off with ease. You will also notice that the green paint is patchy and splotchy; this is the result of OVER thinning my paint and it didn't distribute the pigments evenly as it dried. This isn't a huge deal, because I'll be adding on plenty of layers more, but you can definitely notice a difference when all your layers are properly thinned.
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I've now finished placing my colors and neatening up their edges with thinned layers of pure white. You will noticed that I switched to a darker grey on the rear thrusters, using the same method as the guns: rinse with clean medium, repaint. Once I have all the colors where I want them and my edges nicely tightened up, I apply a wash. Usually, I just use my own heavily thinned paint (black or brown, usually, depending on the look I'm going for) but with this ship I decided to try some of Citadel's Nuln Oil, which I've temporarily gotten my hands on. I thinned the wash down, using my acrylic medium at about a 50-50 ratio. That way my surfaces stay brighter and I can easily add additional layers to select areas that need further darkening.
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Here, however, things don't go quite according to plan and I learn a lesson in patience. After applying the Nuln Oil, I placed the ship near my floor vent, wishing to dry it a bit faster and continue on with my work. Sadly, I became distracted and now you see the fruits of my hastiness. Into the garbage chute with this one.
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Luckily I had an extra T-70 on hand and I was able to restart my work. After washing in thinned Nuln Oil (and waiting for it to dry on its own, this time) I highlight both the most raised areas as well as many of the edges, using their original colors. In the case of the white areas, however, I highlighted using an ever-so-slightly-off-white-grey so to avoid pure white, which looks unnatural and obscures details. I finished the ship off with an experiment: I painted the windows in metallic paint, and then glazed over them in my desired window color -- pure Winsor Violet, in this case. The whole thing is wrapped up in two brief layers of Krylon Matte Finish for protection.
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Hope you enjoy this ship as much as I do!

Cheers

Edited by almagester

Please rescue that droopy ship! Personally I find myself partial to gimpy ships on the game board. But more than that: you can use it for spare parts in case you have accidents with broken/ missing cannons or modding other ships.

Agreed. I'd hack/burn off the bent cannon and paint it up as battle damage.

Edited by Piscopas

I plan to keep it around for spare parts. I dislike the idea of flying an already damaged ship. Doesn't seem safe.

Never throw a model away !

Heck I have a large box now full of parts of X-Wing miniatures.

Why not have a play, and try some modding ?

or just keep the parts for spares.

Have a play with some plastic card now you have a damaged T-70, See what you can come up with.............

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Your repaints are great.....and you will get better with every one.

Your A-Wing is giving me Ideas with the Silver, Very nice.

All the best,

Barry,

That's pretty sweet; thank you for sharing. Is plastic card something I'll find at my local arts and crafts store?

P.S. A Z-95 and some maneuver dials will soon be dropping out of lightspeed. I'm extremely excited to share these.

And here they are! The Z-95 (obviously) matches the squad theme of my A-Wing and T-70. With each ship I tried a different technique with the canopy, and this version may be my favorite; it's a bit more 'cartoony' but I feel it fits the style of the rest of the ship better.
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I have also complete two maneuver dials. The one on the right I painted first, using another dial I found online as a guide. I wanted to get a feel for painting a dial, as well as discover inspiration before creating my own original dial. The left was the second, with a color scheme inspired by my nostalgic memories of Dark Forces II; there just something about that pale, glowing color making the ring that screams "Star Wars" inside my head.
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These were really all a blast to paint, so I hope you guys enjoy them!

Edited by almagester

The Zed looks good. Very clean!

Pretty dials. Me wanty.

Switching gears from Rebels and trying my hand at the Imperials. As a rule, I dislike using a red and black palette; I think it's a lazy color combination. That said, I can't say I'm not extremely pleased with this guy. I feel that the white accents distract from the otherwise boring color scheme just enough to create a pleasing look. I was also aiming for a semi-nazi-esque vibe, which I feel I also accomplished. Hope you guys enjoy!

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Holy moses! How crisp is this Tie!! Careful handling him, or the paint job might just slice your fingers off!!

:wub:

I really love those red panels! I've been reconsidering my FO paint scheme, and this just looks soooo good. Excellent work!

@almagester How did you get the edges so clean? Did you tape them off? Liquid mask? Hire magical elves?

11 hours ago, CyCo said:

Holy moses! How crisp is this Tie!! Careful handling him, or the paint job might just slice your fingers off!!

:wub:

That's why I use DULLcoat :D

@Force Majeure Magic elves ;)

Beautiful paint scheme on the Tie!!

Edited by Crankshaft1991