I recently started painting some Imperial Assault miniatures and I've had a bit of fun doing it.

It occured to me that I also have tons of Armada Squadrons and wondered how easy it would be to paint them. I've generally tried to follow Sorastro's videos for Imperial Assault but I don't know of an equivalent for Armada.

If I were going to paint TIE fighters, what is the general process?

What color should they be primed?

What is the best shade of Vallejo or Citadel paints to get that blue-gray look that they should have?

Should they get a black wash like most Imperial Assault minis for shading and filling in hard to reach places?

Squadrons might be a touch small for me to paint effectively (TIEs in particularly have lots of small spaces that need to be black on the cockpit), but I thought it might be fun to at least consider trying.

Flat and Blue Greys:




Column One, top to bottom:

Mechanicus Standard Grey (GW)
Dawnstone (GW)
Administratum Grey (GW)


Column Two, Top to Bottom:
Dark Reaper (GW)
Thunderhawk Blue (GW)

Column Three
Vallejo 70943 "Grey Blue"
(Blank)
Alaitoc Blue (GW)


Column Four:
The Fang (GW)
Russ Grey (GW)

Column 5:
Skavenblight Dinge (GW)
Stormvermin Fur (GW)

Column 6:
Midnight Blue (Reaper MSP 09019 )
Twilight Blue (Reaper MSP 09020 )
Snow Shadow (Reaper MSP 09021 )



Prime Black. Dust the Primer, of course.

Basecoat Black I use Abbadon Black (GW) base paints to make sure the TIE Panels are Black, as are all shadows.

Choose Grey Above Apply to raised surfaces only. If I get grey on Solar Panels, go over those with a sideways brush in Black

Wash Usually no more than a 50/50 Nuln-Oil to Water Ratio.

Dab on Cockpit Colour Red, Blue, Yellow or Black as per Colour Choice of Customer

Drybrush Grey back over cockpit to lightly bring up the Cockpit Panelling without going over colour.

Detail Re-black in the "Exhaust" at the Back, and Green Dot the Blasters

I painted over 150 TIE Fighter Squadrons last calendar year.

Wow. Fast and super helpful.

Based on your columns there, it looks like maybe Thunderhawk blue is the closest to a TIE blue gray. It's odd, I don't see any blue in the Vallejo grey-blue at all.

I prefer Dark Reaper, with Thunderhawk Blue as a highlight colour. With a slightly different perspective (and thus, colour reference), here is a bunch of Squadrons done to the above in Dark Reaper, but I have not yet Nuln Oil washed them so they look a little flat.:

I used Vallejo Intermediate blue to get my ROTJ shade.

• Paint the whole model in it.
• Wash with Citadel Nuln oil.
• Black out the solar panels inside and out. Also the cockpit windows
• Highlight with the original base colour and at this point put in the internal spokes on the panels.
• A second highlight of citadel Russ grey or just mix in some white to the base coat.
• Paint cockpit window frames a medium-dark grey such as GW Mechanicus standard grey.
• 2 Orange dots on the guns

One of these days I'll get my camera working right and I'll do some Sorastro-style things for Armada.

I use Vallejo Luftwaffe WWII Uniform (I think that's the name) for my "blues". It's already pretty dark so go light on the wash then very light dry brush with the sky grey (very light grey color). Sorry if I got the names wrong, I'm not at home.

4 hours ago, WGNF911 said:

I use Vallejo Luftwaffe WWII Uniform (I think that's the name) for my "blues". It's already pretty dark so go light on the wash then very light dry brush with the sky grey (very light grey color). Sorry if I got the names wrong, I'm not at home.

You use that as a blue?

That's what I've been using as my very dark grey for Imperial Assault Miniatures. It doesn't look particularly blue to me.

On 2/27/2017 at 10:18 AM, jscott991 said:

You use that as a blue?

That's what I've been using as my very dark grey for Imperial Assault Miniatures. It doesn't look particularly blue to me.

I've always seen that color (Imp alt color) as a grey-blue not a blue-grey … if that makes sense. So, the Luftwaffe uniform seemed perfect. Now, if I can just get the wash tweaked …. I'm sure I have examples on my thread, 'My go at tiny spaceships'

http://studiodropship.co.uk/?p=2354

Some more colour comparisons from my bag o' goodies - these are all Vallejo Model Color (not model air):

Personally I think I'm going to try 70.816 basecoat with a light drybrush of 70.943. Because a) I like the darker blue empire TIEs (especially from the fan remasterered theatrical edition), and also because 70.816's "friendly name" is Luftwaffe Uniform as WGNF911 mentions above... that kinda works with the evil Empire theme

Under "house" lighting:

In actual genuine daylight:

PS: that moment when you realise... hmm, yeah, that is definitely the way... (especially after a 10:1 ink wash)

Erm wait, doesn't that mean I have to repaint all my TIE squadrons....?!

I dig it!!!

All done. That only took two evenings!

Mel's TIE Droids:

Bonus Assault Gunboats (because no Imperial swarm is complete without Tau Squadron! - also Mel's)

The nightmare of blacking out all the stands can wait for another time.