So, like a bunch of people I'm sure, I'm currently painting a TIE Reaper, and I need to vent a bit. The model looks great but holy smokes, it is not easy to paint. There is an amazing amount of space between the wings and the body which are really hard to get to. I considered popping the wings off but it doesn't seem like there's a clean or easy way to do that and the risk of just ruining the model completely is too high, so I'm going to have to tough it out.

Might not be so bad if my scheme stuck with black wing panels but I had to paint them white. I regret my life choices.

The TIE Defender was the record holder for most arudous repaint in my books, but the Reaper is the new champion.

Anybody else working on one of these just now?

They are really easy to pop-open from underneath. Then you can cut away the plastic holding the wings on and have full access to the model.

Will post pictures when I get home from work tonight, unless I forget...in which case I will not post pictures.

For reference, when it comes to TIE variants I'm a HUGE proponent of popping the wings off of the body - makes everything easily accessible and paintable (except the TIE Phantom and TIE Striker of course, no real need to do it to either model).

5 hours ago, ZealuxMyr said:

They are really easy to pop-open from underneath. Then you can cut away the plastic holding the wings on and have full access to the model.

Will post pictures when I get home from work tonight, unless I forget...in which case I will not post pictures.

For reference, when it comes to TIE variants I'm a HUGE proponent of popping the wings off of the body - makes everything easily accessible and paintable (except the TIE Phantom and TIE Striker of course, no real need to do it to either model).

How do you pop off panels?

21 hours ago, ZealuxMyr said:

Will post pictures when I get home from work tonight, unless I forget...in which case I will not post pictures.

I did the thing I thought I would do, forgot. I will post pictures tonight, unless (of course) I forget again. In which case I will not post pictures.

15 hours ago, EwanH said:

How do you pop off panels?

Gentle wiggling. All of the TIE panels are held together by a peg (end of strut) into a hole (on the panel). Just a little glue is used on this connection. With a gentle rocking motion you can crack the glue and wiggle the panels free without damaging the model. If you look directly at the side of the ship, so that you can see all of panel's side and use this as your baseline plane; start by gently applying alternating clockwise and anticlockwise torsional force to the panel. Be gentle, stop applying force once resistance is felt. Soon you will hear and/or feel a slight cracking, don't panic - if done gently this is just the glue breaking around the connector. After this point, again with the same reference plane as before, apply alternating inward and outward force to the front, back, top, and bottom of the panel. Once you hear and/or feel a slight cracking you should be at the point where you can apply a gently but constant outward force while gently rocking the panel in an alternating clockwise and anticlockwise fashion. The panel should pop right off but may require additional persuasion (repeat all steps until you succeed). The most important thing to remember is to always be gentle , you only want to apply enough force to crack the glue - you do not want to twist or crack the actual plastic of the model.

I have successfully done this for my:

• TIE Advanced (3)
• TIE Adv. Prototype (3)
• TIE Aggressor (3)
• TIE Bomber (3)
• TIE Punisher (3)
• TIE Defender (3)
• TIE Fighter (8)
• TIE Interceptor (4)
• TIE Silencer (2)

And with no irreparably damaged models, a few did sheer off at the peg rather than disconnect completely but are easily rebonded with Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK; my "glue" of choice).

Pretty cool, thanks!

Pretty sure I'm far enough into painting mine that I don't want to try to break it apart, but I'd love pictures [count rugen] for posterity [/count rugen]