I got an extra decimator so I am willing to try my first modification. I was hoping to use some paint pens on it or something similar to pens since don’t want to get into brushes and paints. Is there a good paint pen or pen to draw some stripes on it? Thanks for any advice

Honestly, Sharpie markers are pretty ok. I've seen some decent results with them.

For weathering, I know of this:

Which is a great way to give your ships some character without messing around with paints.

If you do ever get into paints, they're not as hard as they look. My one huge piece of advice to you is to never, ever buy enamel paints (Testor's and the like). My repaint thread is floating around here somewhere and shows exactly why not to buy those...

Thanks for the advice. Should I buy the water based paint sharpies, the oil based paint sharpies, or just regular sharpies?

I've used both oil based and water based paint pens. They work really well for details.

I've had really good results on fine details with the fine? point water based Sharpie paint pens. I mostly use the metallic paints for trimming the edges of wings, mostly on TIEs. If you use them for greater surface area, they start to look a bit scribbled on. I've also used them on exposed wires/piping with good results.

I recently used oil based pens to put the Imperial emblem on some Striker wings. I thought it did pretty well, but I'd recommend getting the finest tip possible, even if it means that you have to shell out a bit more cash for it. If you want to go with oil for your base color, do make sure that you use all oil paints. I had a difficult time getting water-based over oil without it running. Oil over water wasn't terrible, though, so if you wan't to use oil pens for detailing, that should be fine. I've had better luck with color consistency out of water-based, though.

Above all, don't use pens for general coverage. It seems like it'd be easier/better than a paintbrush, but you have far better control with a paintbrush than the pens. Pens can also be a bit inconsistent with their paint flow, which'll mess up the thickness of your paint layers.

On 9/4/2018 at 10:11 AM, Praetorate of the Empire said:

I've used both oil based and water based paint pens. They work really well for details.

I've had really good results on fine details with the fine? point water based Sharpie paint pens. I mostly use the metallic paints for trimming the edges of wings, mostly on TIEs. If you use them for greater surface area, they start to look a bit scribbled on. I've also used them on exposed wires/piping with good results.

I recently used oil based pens to put the Imperial emblem on some Striker wings. I thought it did pretty well, but I'd recommend getting the finest tip possible, even if it means that you have to shell out a bit more cash for it. If you want to go with oil for your base color, do make sure that you use all oil paints. I had a difficult time getting water-based over oil without it running. Oil over water wasn't terrible, though, so if you wan't to use oil pens for detailing, that should be fine. I've had better luck with color consistency out of water-based, though.

Above all, don't use pens for general coverage. It seems like it'd be easier/better than a paintbrush, but you have far better control with a paintbrush than the pens. Pens can also be a bit inconsistent with their paint flow, which'll mess up the thickness of your paint layers.

Thanks. I am going to buy some paint pens this week hopefully. I will try to post pictures of the results if they turn out ok.