I picked up a batch of X-Wing ships from a Facebook contact a while back. They included some custom paint jobs (the Lambda Shuttle is awesome) but some that were not completed yet. The original paint scheme was black and purple. I decided to try my hand at stripping and repainting since these models had already been "touched" so to speak.

I started with a TIE Advanced and a dream. I wanted to paint it using the red scheme found in both Imperial Aces and Imperial Veterans. I dusted off my old brushes and whatnot (left from my Ral Partha D&D painting days) and went to work. The first thing I decided was to follow the advice of one person on YouTube and go ahead and crack the wings off first. Otherwise painting the interior details was going to be... difficult.

The edges are really ugly so far! Lots of detailed rework to do. When I'm done with the interior of the wings I will glue them back on and then do a dark wash to bring out the details. I'm assuming my old D&D painting techniques (dry brushing, washing) are equally viable here, but will see! I will post progress pictures as I go.

Here's a shot of the body only. My hand was not very steady last night in trying to put black paint into the recessed areas. It will be easy to cover the over paint with red later. The entire thing will be washed to highlight the various peaks and valleys.

The wings need some work! I painted the black first, and then the red. The idea I got from my old days of painting from the inside out or bottom up or whatever you want to call it. In this case I tried to put in the black first, and then the higher part was painted red. (It's really bright right now; I'm hoping it will darken enough to match my Imperial Veterans Defender after a wash.) My red is much thinner and isn't covering the black very well, so I'm going to give up on the touch-up process and just paint the red, and then go back and carefully re-establish the line of black on the panels.

The gray I did with a pseudo dry-brush technique. It looks okay from a distance; the zoomed image shows how unsteady my hands were last night... but I will get better!

Thin coats multiple times will eliminate some of the color irregularity (giving a more even color tone), I would also consider using a very thin ink wash to bring out the details a little more. Steady hands are hard.... Avoid caffeine before painting, make sure you are rested, and be sure to take your time.

Out of curiosity, are your paints the same ones from before, or new bottles? They seem both gummy and thin at the same time, and even a tad glossy. I've had that kind of experience with paints when I've used my tubes of lower quality acrylic paint that I've been gifted from time to time.

If they are, consider upgrading to a higher quality paint such as Vallejo, Citadel or Army painter. My preference is Vallejo; they don't need to be thinned, have great coverage and a huge selection of colors. For effect like washes and glazes, I go with Citadel.

You don't have to toss the old paints out either, they're great for mixing custom colors and dry-brushing.

20 minutes ago, Force Majeure said:

Out of curiosity, are your paints the same ones from before, or new bottles? They seem both gummy and thin at the same time, and even a tad glossy. I've had that kind of experience with paints when I've used my tubes of lower quality acrylic paint that I've been gifted from time to time.

If they are, consider upgrading to a higher quality paint such as Vallejo, Citadel or Army painter. My preference is Vallejo; they don't need to be thinned, have great coverage and a huge selection of colors. For effect like washes and glazes, I go with Citadel.

You don't have to toss the old paints out either, they're great for mixing custom colors and dry-brushing.

Ditto on the Vallejo... Used them for years (used to do a lot of warhammer 40K).

Yeah, my paints suck. They're quite old. The flat black that I used for the panels is in the best shape. The red is really, really thin. The gray I used for details is in the best shape of what I have opened so far. I really need to go get new stuff, but decided I would do the best I can with what I have for now.

I went back and tidied up some and glued the wings back on. I'm letting it dry over the next 24 hours and will then apply a wash.

Thanks for the tips! Hopefully the final result will be worth sharing. If not, I know how to strip the paint off and start over.

Washing is done. After comparing it with the TIE Defender from the Imperial Veterans pack, it seems I should have used a brown wash. I used black. After it's done, it seems obvious, but before I had applied it black seemed like the way to go...

The ship turned out good. Not great, but something I am willing to put on the table. As many folks have said throughout this area of the forum, if you look at the ship from three to six inches the flaws are evident. But when it's on the table it looks good. I even painted the lasers green, as they should be.

The pictures are not great (iPhone pictures). At some point I'll get my real camera out and take some glamour shots. This shot below looks particularly pixelated on the interior of the far wing. Not sure why. You can see where I dripped red paint on the gray accent (which I didn't notice until I took this picture).

View from the top. Green lasers!

Bottom view

All in all, I'm pleased with the result. I haven't painted in a long time. This is how this particular ship looked when I started. I also stripped the Inquisitor TIE but for that one all I did was go back over it with a wash. It was actually on that ship when I compared to the original (stock) finish that I realized their wash was brownish tint rather than gray or black.

If I continue painting X-Wing ships I will be buying new paint. Some of the stuff I used was still sealed but probably 10-15 years old. I was pleased to see that my old D&D painting techniques seemed to work, and my brushes are fine. But my paints need upgrading...

Really appreciate this forum. Those of you who share your work are an inspiration. That combined with the fact that I picked up these ships already painted from someone getting out of X-Wing made gave me the opportunity to give it a shot. It was fun!

20 hours ago, MonkeyPaste said:

Steady hands are hard.... Avoid caffeine before painting, make sure you are rested, and be sure to take your time.

This is the toughest part for me. I'm always tired, because I usually stay up way too late, so I drink coffee to be more alert. Then, I can't paint because I'm some kind of weird combination of tired and wired at the same time.

I usually try to wait until I'm not tired or super-caffeinated to paint, which doesn't give me much of a window on a weekly basis. But, I do manage to find these windows from time to time. Just last weekend, I had the time to paint but I was too jittery from chugging coffee so I didn't bother. Touching up shaky painting is more of a bother than just waiting out the right time to paint.

Caffeine isn't a problem for me... I never drank coffee and cut out soda a long, long time ago.

For me, my eyes (and my hands) aren't as young as they used to be, that's all.

The re-paint came out alright, the color combo is a pretty good one! You can always go back with your base color and lightly do some touch ups.

When I first started out, I bought just enough colors to get me through while I slowly added a color here and there: Black, White, Dark Grey, Light Grey, Silver, Raw Steel, Red, Yellow and Blue. That carried me for almost half a year. If you know how to mix colors, the Red, Yellow and Blue will get you just about any color you need except metallics and neutrals.

You can also pick up metallic markers if you only plan to use those colors as spot colors. No sense in buying a bottle of a color that your rarely use, right