Inspired by a fellow player and close friend I decided to try my hand at re painting some of my X Wing models. I have very little experience in light sourcing and even less in painting vehicles so this was a big reach for me. Anyways here are a couple Firesprays and TIE Fighters:

Gorgeous!

I really need to do some edge highlights on my own minis, it's a wonderful effect!

How did you create the glow effect on the engines?

they look very nice.just one thing for you to note the green bit on the back of the ties isn't the engine.the are two engines a bit to either side of the middle,

Like how looks the TIE in that blue...

Very nice. Loving the engine glow. I was never very good at that.

Thanks for the likes and complements!

There may be more experienced painters that have a better way, but the technique I used for the glow is very simple. I took a standard green, a bright green and white and created 3 small pools of paint on my palette. Then using a fair amount of water I start to pull them together creating blended pools in between. I think I went with 1 or 2 blends each. Then once you have those start by painting the darkest color the size of the area. Then move to each lighter shade painting towards the center and leaving a small ring of the previous color. The more shades and smaller you can get the rings the better it will look. When you look at it from a couple inches away you can see the individual rings. But when looking at it from 1-2 feet away it appears to glow.

The real pros can blend the colors all the way out. I'm jealous of ppl with those skills.

Regarding the TIE engine glow I took a little artistic license there. I really liked the effect on the Firesprays so I went ahead and 'modified' the ties as well. Heck with as often as I fly them 5 Forward they need something more then those 2 tiny little flashes on the side. ;P

Thanks for the likes and complements!

There may be more experienced painters that have a better way, but the technique I used for the glow is very simple. I took a standard green, a bright green and white and created 3 small pools of paint on my palette. Then using a fair amount of water I start to pull them together creating blended pools in between. I think I went with 1 or 2 blends each. Then once you have those start by painting the darkest color the size of the area. Then move to each lighter shade painting towards the center and leaving a small ring of the previous color. The more shades and smaller you can get the rings the better it will look. When you look at it from a couple inches away you can see the individual rings. But when looking at it from 1-2 feet away it appears to glow.

The real pros can blend the colors all the way out. I'm jealous of ppl with those skills.

Regarding the TIE engine glow I took a little artistic license there. I really liked the effect on the Firesprays so I went ahead and 'modified' the ties as well. Heck with as often as I fly them 5 Forward they need something more then those 2 tiny little flashes on the side. ;P

Thanks mate! I'm halfway through my own firespray at the moment (it needs tidying and I have yet to start painting it's butt), I shall try this technique out when I get a chance

Hi there, love the re-paints. The glow looks great. I'm tempted to have a go at this myself with my models. I've done a fair bit of painting on other models but nothing that's already pre-painted. Do you strip them down and prime them, or just touch up where you want the changes to the original scheme ?

Keep up the good work

Two questions.

1. Did you use a metalicy paint? or is that just the flash from the camera?

2. What was your inspiration for this color scheme?

Really clean paints. The lighter outlines, the detail to the back, and crisp lines. Awesome.

WOW - those firesprays are incredible! best firespray repaints i have see on this site. Impressive, most impressive!

Hi there, love the re-paints. The glow looks great. I'm tempted to have a go at this myself with my models. I've done a fair bit of painting on other models but nothing that's already pre-painted. Do you strip them down and prime them, or just touch up where you want the changes to the original scheme ?

Keep up the good work

I really struggled with this before starting. Didn't want to foul up 2 firesprays from doing either a paint over or strip. After a lot of research on here I elected to just paint over the existing paint. I used a spray base coat and was very concerned once I started because I wasn't getting good coverage and thought I was going to lose detail. It ended up taking 3 coats and the firesprays were absolutely fine. Still plenty of detail for multiple coats of brushed on paint on top. The TIEs were in pretty good shape. There was some detail around the main body that I was concerned I was starting lose so I left them the spray base color rather then risk losing further detail.

In the future I likely won't strip but will start with a thin but good true primer before 1 coat of spray base.

Thanks and best of luck.

I really dig the Firespray's you did a sterling job on them, but I'm not sure about the TIE's a side view would be nice...

Stunning repaints! Well done, bud.

Two questions.

1. Did you use a metalicy paint? or is that just the flash from the camera?

2. What was your inspiration for this color scheme?

Really clean paints. The lighter outlines, the detail to the back, and crisp lines. Awesome.

Thanks for the compliments.

The only metallics used are an aged gold, silver, and dark bronze for the the parts that were very mechanical in operation. All the blues and grays are non-metallic.

Great question about my inspiration. I wanted the paint scheme to pull the squad together as a cohesive bounty hunting team. Further I wanted the scheme to be practical and supportive in regards to their profession. That quickly led me to lean towards a camouflage design. I did some research on urban camo and found a lot of grays used. Some also brought in blues and dark greens. I liked both of these and started to get some direction. I wrestled with exploring different patterns and how to paint them when it just kind of hit me that with all the panels, you could get a very good urban type camo pattern just by painting the panels the colors of the scheme. Furthermore throwing more blues rather then any green may also give it some space / aquatic camo properties. It also seemed very practical for a group of bounty hunters to just randomize a camo pattern per panel rather then on some intricate scheme across the whole ship.

At that point I was pretty much set. I got everything prepped went out to the garage and got out the spray cans. I had bought a military green, a dark gray and light gray spray base coat. I shake up the light gray and spray some on my paint box and it's nearly white. Hmmm way too light. I spray the dark gray and it's still very light, not at all what I would call dark gray. I start to panic a bit and bust out the military green. It's exactly as it should be. I had just started rethinking my concept to work in the military green when I decided to look through my old spray paints. There I found a can of citadel "shadow gray". I bet I bought that can of paint at least 10 years ago. I shake it up and spray a test patch and it comes out what looks like a naval blue-gray. That was it. Sold. After I had the base coat down I was able to color match to the current citadel Thunderhawk Blue. Add in a navy and 2 shades of gray I had what I hoped would look like a multi-environment camo pattern.

Thanks again.

WOW - those firesprays are incredible! best firespray repaints i have see on this site. Impressive, most impressive!

During my research I found some really cool repaints here so that is very high praise. Thank you sir!

Very nice repaints, I especially like the grimy, dirty look of the Firesprays, the TIEs are nice and dark, which I will eventually do with mine .. just to keep them seperate from everyone elses.. lol

Good work.

I really dig the Firespray's you did a sterling job on them, but I'm not sure about the TIE's a side view would be nice...

Here's a side shot.

My passion for the project was definitely the firesprays. Add in my lack of experience with light sourcing and the lack of panels everywhere except the wings on the TIEs and I knew they weren't going to be as cool as the firesprays. I'm ok with that though. I think they support the sprays, just like they do in-game

I love the blue! Sooo good! The engine glow is amazing too!

Nice effect on the TIE panals, couldn't see that on the front/back shots.

Very nice repaints, I especially like the grimy, dirty look of the Firesprays, the TIEs are nice and dark, which I will eventually do with mine .. just to keep them seperate from everyone elses.. lol

Good work.

Thanks. I wanted them to be dark so I used army painters dark tone rather than citadel nuln oil for the wash. And I'll tell you dark tone is definitely that... Dark. I watered it down a fair amount and it still came out very dark. In some areas it darkened away some of my highlighting. But ohh well. It's a bounty hunters ship. And mine aren't inclined to keep their ships overly clean.

Hi there, love the re-paints. The glow looks great. I'm tempted to have a go at this myself with my models. I've done a fair bit of painting on other models but nothing that's already pre-painted. Do you strip them down and prime them, or just touch up where you want the changes to the original scheme ?

Keep up the good work

I really struggled with this before starting. Didn't want to foul up 2 firesprays from doing either a paint over or strip. After a lot of research on here I elected to just paint over the existing paint. I used a spray base coat and was very concerned once I started because I wasn't getting good coverage and thought I was going to lose detail. It ended up taking 3 coats and the firesprays were absolutely fine. Still plenty of detail for multiple coats of brushed on paint on top. The TIEs were in pretty good shape. There was some detail around the main body that I was concerned I was starting lose so I left them the spray base color rather then risk losing further detail.

In the future I likely won't strip but will start with a thin but good true primer before 1 coat of spray base.

Thanks and best of luck.

Thanks matey, I do have an airbrush and I use Vallejo surface primer on my 40k stuff. I'm going to do the same with these I think. Light grey primer and then paint the body by hand and the OSL engine glow with the airbrush. It's a little bit unnerving though I have to say, especially when you don't want to balls up a perfectly good model. Kudos to you for taking the leap, you've inspired me to give it a go.

Wow! For someone who thought this was a big reach, you've nailed it. They look terrific. Keep using the same techniques on the rest of your models and you fleet will look phenomenal.