Thanks to the advice from many of you I decided to trade my sharpies in for paint and have a go at painting my squadrons. Here are my results so far. Let me know what you think and any constructive criticism would be appreciated.

First up is my favorite so far: The Moldy Crow

Next up: Generic YT-1300 - wanted to try something different with the orange.

Green Squadron:

E-Wings:

Generic Z-95:

Gold Squadron:

B-Wings:

Dash:

Generic YT-2400

Lt. Blount: Not the greatest picture

Love 'em, I've recently got back into it too.

Where you're doing a light colour over a dark one (e.g. the green and yellow), you might find it useful to put an intermediate colour between them (e.g. a light grey) to help the yellow pop out a bit more, and also removes the light green tint you otherwise get? Also I've found thinning the paints down a little out of the bottles helps control them (I'm using Vallejo game colour *boo hiss*), or you could try adding the paints to very slightly damp piece of kitchen paper (which thins them and extends your working time - google wet palette for more on this)

Thanks for the advice. I will have to try thinning things out.

Here are a few more.

The Ghost:

Lancer:

X-Wings:

Y-Wings:

More X-Wings:

2 hours ago, MajSharpe said:

Love 'em, I've recently got back into it too.

Where you're doing a light colour over a dark one (e.g. the green and yellow), you might find it useful to put an intermediate colour between them (e.g. a light grey) to help the yellow pop out a bit more, and also removes the light green tint you otherwise get? Also I've found thinning the paints down a little out of the bottles helps control them (I'm using Vallejo game colour *boo hiss*), or you could try adding the paints to very slightly damp piece of kitchen paper (which thins them and extends your working time - google wet palette for more on this)

Nasty beast colours like green, yellow, and white almost always require several coats for opacity as well. Red/Blue/Orange MIGHT do fine with 1, depending.

Love those yellow x-wings

7 minutes ago, Felswrath said:

Love those yellow x-wings

Thanks. I thought it was a little different. I really like the way the grey and white x-wings turned out also.

Love them all man, u do great work every time. the green y-wings are my favorite. however, I find your lack of imperial squadrons disturbing. seeing how the imperial squads tend to wreak face when we play.

28 minutes ago, Chuntsinger said:

Love them all man, u do great work every time. the green y-wings are my favorite. however, I find your lack of imperial squadrons disturbing. seeing how the imperial squads tend to wreak face when we play.

I'm think those green Y's will be Nora. As for the wretched Empire...now that I'm feeling more comfortable with painting smaller details, I will probably break into them this weekend or maybe tomorrow. We have a good shot at a snow day.

right you are my friend

Two Jumpmasters and two Lambas done. Pictures to follow.

sweet man

Very nice squadrons. I love threads like this because they prove that you don't have to be on Vykes' level to paint great squadrons

I am struggling with painting Tie Fighters. The little supports in the panels are kicking my butt. Any suggestions? The good news is I have a lot to practice on.

2 hours ago, mcworrell said:

I am struggling with painting Tie Fighters. The little supports in the panels are kicking my butt. Any suggestions? The good news is I have a lot to practice on.

Thin your paints is the best advice. Those sections are easy with thin paint.

8 minutes ago, Darthain said:

Thin your paints is the best advice. Those sections are easy with thin paint.

How thin do you typically make them? One to one drops of water to paint or is it more like 1 to 2 water to paint?

55 minutes ago, mcworrell said:

How thin do you typically make them? One to one drops of water to paint or is it more like 1 to 2 water to paint?

There's a great series of videos on how to use various paints on the WarhammerTV channel by Duncan, as with many others. It's especially crucial with citadel paints.

Here's an example of my Moldy Crow, using strictly citadel paints. Thinning them makes a world of difference in using them.

Thinning the paints creates a smoother layering, whereas you're getting very textured results from using too much or too thick of paint. It takes practice, and with time you'll see noticeable improvements. Keep it up! I'd love to see more. Especially as you improve over time.

And here's my first squadron attempt to show you where I started off as well. This was only maybe six months ago.

4 minutes ago, Destraa said:

Here's an example of my Moldy Crow, using strictly citadel paints. Thinning them makes a world of difference in using them.

Thinning the paints creates a smoother layering, whereas you're getting very textured results from using too much or too thick of paint. It takes practice, and with time you'll see noticeable improvements. Keep it up! I'd love to see more. Especially as you improve over time.

And here's my first squadron attempt to show you where I started off as well. This was only maybe six months ago.

That Crow looks fantastic.

I thinned the paint I used to do my Lamdas and did a few coats and it does look much better. I'll get a picture of them up tomorrow.

This is the first painting I have ever done and I'm loving it. I have many Ties to practice on so I look forward to see the improvement. Thanks for the tip and the encouragement.

The Crow is probably my best to date, and one of my most intensive. I'm probably going to revisit my first Punishing One I did now that I've made several improvements, but it's on the back burner until I do my other three TIE/D squadrons. Need to get those done for a possible CC list. Also don't be afraid to experiment! There's also a very nifty chart for citadel paints on the GW website if you're using them that highlight great combinations.

This silly site won't let m upload a pic....lol. Anyways, all my TIEs are painted. I use citadel and P3 paints. I thin my paint at around a 3/1 ratio, I don't want it too thin, but that's personal preference. Prime black, then pick out the grey. Very thin brush, work from the hub to the edge of the panels, then do the panel edges.

Thanks for the tips. The last few I did I primed grey and then added the black, but the black primer seems like it would be less work. The panel edges are the really tough part for me.

16 minutes ago, mcworrell said:

Thanks for the tips. The last few I did I primed grey and then added the black, but the black primer seems like it would be less work. The panel edges are the really tough part for me.

Priming in black makes it significantly easier on many of them. My Crow was primed black. I have done several X-Wings in grey and lead belcher as well.

Here are the latest ones I have finished.

Morna Kee Vt-49

Dengar:

Col. Jendon:

Generic Lambda:

Generic Jumpmaster:

Looking a lot better already!