I did a thing! Process below. Once epic comes out the Range ruler and Huge maneuver too will be added.
PRIME TIME! These things were nice, thanks Fantasy Flight Games. And I never won a set of acrylic, so I thought I'd take my painting skills for a spin on these. They have good definition, even though the plastic feels pretty lame. Get you a pizza box for model paint projects. Cheap (read: free) and you can carry your stuff in them like a lidded tray if you need to. I taped off the male ends, but later found out the hard way that I should have masked the female ends too. Oh well. Let's roll.
Games Workshop(all paints) Leadbelcher Primer. After priming found some weird quirks. The paint cured oddly on a few pieces consistently in the same spots despite not being together for the spray step. If you try this and see the same, stay calm and paint on. It will be alright.
It all comes out in the wash. Nuln Oil. Gives nice recess color and a grimy look. Side by side you can see the difference so far here from to left to bottom right. I reassembled the range ruler at this point to keep it consistent for the next few steps of the project.
Like a good steak, let your wash rest. Grab a beer. Starting to look Starwarsy.
IT'S A TRAP! And there is the moment I realized, I f#$@&* up. Doing a test fit and the primer that got into the air relief window on the bottom of the range ruler seemed to make a very tight fit. Trying to work out the last piece and it jammed and promptly snapped. No worries though, it still functions. Using a model file, I shaved some of the male end connectors very lightly until a smoother fit was attained. Problem solved, and then I moved on. And got another beer.
Runefang Steel, drybrush. For this version of drybrush you try to get a burnished metal look. So you want it to look streaky. Like the metal had a grain with corrosion in it. I stacked up the pieces and took the brush at about a 45° angle across each set as a group so they'd be slightly uniform. Here I flipped the middle one over to show the progress side by side. When you don't get a very consistent 'grain' down the whole piece, it looks 'natural', like there's more worn areas and not. So I call it a happy accident, and grab another beer.
Huzzah progress. For the banks and turns I tried to roughly get the grain 45° nominal across the center line by rotating it as I kept my brush flick on a steady angle. Like feeding the pieces through a sewing machine. Everything's shiny now captain. C#@$, wrong 'Verse.
Delicate operation time. Grabbing Stormhost Silver, you pick out the details we're about to add a splash of color too. Not really necessary, but for a great effect, process is key. Patience, young Padawan.
Now to Jazz it up like a good Bith Band. Using the gem colors Spiritstone, Warpstone, and Soulstone technical paint. Dollop it on, don't let it run. I was inspired by the movement difficulties in the game and the ranking placards on the Rebel and Imperial uniforms for the dots. As an homage to the first edition the direction and numeral would get the green. You know, to fly casual.
Final product. Once they're varnished, they ready. Munitorum Varnish double coat liberally, curing in between for a few minutes. If you want to get back more shine, you can touch up with 'Ardcoat. Before this I thought they needed a bit more color, so I picked out some details with Hasshut Copper. Time for some fancy flying. Hope you enjoyed! May the Force be with you, always.