Hello all,

I wunder if we could have a painting how to's thread as a sticky?

I sent some questions to FFG about thier X-wing minis but they could not give me an answer as it would have been against company policy, so i do not know what paint they use or what type of plastic they are made of or what type of paint stripper to use.

all i could get out of them was that super glue would be ok and that i should ask the comunity for advice.

so thats what i am doing here.

i would like to paint some of my minis but how/where to start.

can i leave them as they are and just spray an undercoat/primer on and repaint or should i strip off whats there ? if so what paint remover is safe to use that wont melt the plastic?

i would also like to know what paint colours to use and from which paint companies, i have a large collection of GW paints so i would be using them mostly.

so over to you.

If you thine down your paints, many people have had luck painting over the existing models paint.

You can strip them with Brake Fluid, though I don't bother, the washes are very thin.

I started off just painting on a mix of black,grey and foundation as an undercoat, but I found they rubbed back to the original colour a lot. These days I use Army Painter black spray primer and find that works far better.

i personally dont strip off the original paint. for one i am used to painting model kits, and two i dont trust my skills to strip the paint without messing up the plastic.

if i am just adding detail, like with the blood stripes on the intercepters, i just mask off the area and hand brush it.

with my custom repaint of my second Falcon, i used Model Master gloss black enamel undercoat, then Tamaiya silver leaf laquer (both spray cans as i dont have an airbrush set up). then i hand brushed a couple layers of Tamaiya clear red and blue acrylic for the candy coat. then sprayed a layer of Tamaiya pearl clear coat (laquer), a wash to dirty it, then another layer of pearl.

i personally really love Tamaiya paints. they are a little pricey, but they work really really well with little or no thinning before painting (the acrylics), and their spray paints are super nice when done.

I simply paint on top of the existing layer.

I mostly use Games Workshops' lines of paints.

Here's an example of my early results:

lol i guess i should have attached examples. anyway these are what i have done.

I simply paint on top of the existing layer.

I mostly use Games Workshops' lines of paints.

Here's an example of my early results:

I like the frost blue. I really want to repaint mine, just don't have the time right now... to many other hobbies sucking up my time.

I repainted one of my Firesprays last spring, and just painted right over the original paint. Now, seeing that Bounty Hunter-Messerschmidt thread, I decided to do one also, I didn't want to paint over the paint I painted over the original paint, so I stripped it. I've had good results with brake fluid, so after prying off the engine plate I soaked it for a couple hours last night and got it down to bare plastic with just a bit of scrubbing. I just put some primer on it and I'll start the repaint this afternoon.

I paint right over mine, and mostly use enamel paints.

I find the factory paint jobs satisfactory in most cases, so I'm only adding small details. I have some gray, white and beige Vallejo paint that I apply in tiny amounts to panels on the Rebel ships, and Vallejo black ink wash for ships that didn't get a good dousing in China. The changes are subtle, and almost no one notices but that's fine. I don't want them to stand out as repaints.

The Shuttle is the only ship in my collection that underwhelms me paintwise, and I'm planning to try an ink wash or two to darken it up. I might hit a couple of panels with a very pale gray mix first.

I find the factory paint jobs satisfactory in most cases, so I'm only adding small details. I have some gray, white and beige Vallejo paint that I apply in tiny amounts to panels on the Rebel ships, and Vallejo black ink wash for ships that didn't get a good dousing in China. The changes are subtle, and almost no one notices but that's fine. I don't want them to stand out as repaints.

The Shuttle is the only ship in my collection that underwhelms me paintwise, and I'm planning to try an ink wash or two to darken it up. I might hit a couple of panels with a very pale gray mix first.

A good wash goes a long way on these ships, from what I have seen from other painters.

I do not have enough ships yet to do this, but when i do it should be cool and fun.

I went for three thin washes of black ink wash on the Lambda, wiping at the raised surfaces as each wash dried. Not bad.

I went for three thin washes of black ink wash on the Lambda, wiping at the raised surfaces as each wash dried. Not bad.

Cool!

I would NOT recommend using brake fluid. I bought the generic brake fluid from Autozone, and it messed up my Tie Interceptor miniature. I soaked it for 20 mins and scrubbed with a toothbrush, but the original paint was still there. I soaked it for an additional 20 mins and scrubbed, but one of the wings broke off at the joint. I super glued it back with no issue. Primered, and repainted the model.

However, during a game, the peg attached to the bottom of the Interceptor broke into 2 pieces. I think the brake fluid had something to do with it.

Long story short, I'm just gonna use primer over the existing paint for any future jobs and not mess with stripping the paint.