Gentlebeings and co-delegates,
A wise person once said“ Catch a man a nerf, and you can sell it to him. Teach a man to nerf herd, and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.” We must always seek to sell nerfs, not teach herding. The Party has brought the greatest prosperity we've known since the Fall of the Empire. Through our continued leadership, and with your support, we can achieve prosperity never before seen!
Long live the revolution!

 

Gentlebeings and co-delegates,
A wise person once said“ Catch a man a nerf, and you can sell it to him. Teach a man to nerf herd, and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.” We must always seek to sell nerfs, not teach herding. The Party has brought the greatest prosperity we've known since the Fall of the Empire. Through our continued leadership, and with your support, we can achieve prosperity never before seen!
Long live the revolution!

 

Gentlebeings and co-delegates,
A wise person once said“ Catch a man a nerf, and you can sell it to him. Teach a man to nerf herd, and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.” We must always seek to sell nerfs, not teach herding. The Party has brought the greatest prosperity we've known since the Fall of the Empire. Through our continued leadership, and with your support, we can achieve prosperity never before seen!
Long live the revolution!

 

Gentlebeings and co-delegates,
A wise person once said“ Catch a man a nerf, and you can sell it to him. Teach a man to nerf herd, and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.” We must always seek to sell nerfs, not teach herding. The Party has brought the greatest prosperity we've known since the Fall of the Empire. Through our continued leadership, and with your support, we can achieve prosperity never before seen!
Long live the revolution!

 

Looks like we need to migrate elsewhere?
 
https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/313580-ffg-forum-shutdown/

And this is the part where we wax poetic about the bourgeoise capitalists oppressing the proletariat yes?

Looks like we need to migrate elsewhere?
 
https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/313580-ffg-forum-shutdown/

You're going down!

You're going down!

Regret your choice you will not (perhaps).
 
@Caldias - we have our crew of intrepid party members! Please distribute unto us the secrets of our allegiance!
 
Players are:
@LTD
@GhostofNobodyInParticular
@The Jabbawookie
@Madaghmire
@Bertie Wooster
@RedDogReb
@FortyInRed
@CaribbeanNinja
@idjmv
@clontroper5
10 players! Excitement builds! Please refer again to the rules as linked HERE.
 
Caldias is our admin support, but I will take on the day-to-day management of the game, rolling dice, calling time limits, etc. I will be rolling the d6 in my secret discord channel, which folks can ask to join if they desire, but is entirely unnecessary.
Once a player is elected to be General Secretary, they should PM their allegiance to Caldias, who will keep a record of the factions. Caldias will also PM the elected player which factions have how many votes before them.
 
Let the Game Commence!
 
 

Hey all, not sure we have enough interest to move forward. Let's table it for now

Nope. Still out.

Still in.

In.

Ok! Trying to start this mafia game back up.
I'll dust off my notes and try to assume the persona of a well-meaning, but stuck in a hard place, hockey league director.
So calling players:
@Bertie Wooster - IN
@GhostofNobodyInParticular - IN
@Madaghmire - ?
@PodRacer - IN
@The Jabbawookie  IN
@Lord Preyer ?
@LTD OUT
@ovinomanc3r ?
@CaribbeanNinja ?

I've missed you guys.
I think it sounds really cool. I'm on the fence about the carrying capacity thing but it seems like others approve so that's fine. Edit: I've seen no other better way to incorporate command values so I'm fine with this. Not trying to complain just to complain
I really like incorporating the engineering costs. That's clever.
I also really like the resources and I think you thought through those pretty clearly.
My only concern is my availability. So that I can find that mixture between actually doing the job that I'm paid to do, watching the kids that I have, and trying to be something resembling a good husband, I have very little free time. Things like Mafia work well because I can make incremental progress along the way. The warlords games can be a little challenging because I often stop, look at the board, look at my spreadsheet, reread the thread, and think about what I want to do for a while. So my only concern would be that if the game is very detailed oriented and very complicated, I will either do really badly and get killed immediately or ruin things for everyone.

Ok! Trying to start this mafia game back up.
I'll dust off my notes and try to assume the persona of a well-meaning, but stuck in a hard place, hockey league director.
So calling players:
@Bertie Wooster - IN
@GhostofNobodyInParticular - IN
@Madaghmire - ?
@PodRacer - IN
@The Jabbawookie  IN
@Lord Preyer ?
@LTD OUT
@ovinomanc3r ?
@CaribbeanNinja ?

Ok! Trying to start this mafia game back up.
I'll dust off my notes and try to assume the persona of a well-meaning, but stuck in a hard place, hockey league director.
So calling players:
@Bertie Wooster - IN
@GhostofNobodyInParticular - IN
@Madaghmire - ?
@PodRacer - IN
@The Jabbawookie  IN
@Lord Preyer ?
@LTD OUT
@ovinomanc3r ?
@CaribbeanNinja ?

I've missed you guys.
I think it sounds really cool. I'm on the fence about the carrying capacity thing but it seems like others approve so that's fine. Edit: I've seen no other better way to incorporate command values so I'm fine with this. Not trying to complain just to complain
I really like incorporating the engineering costs. That's clever.
I also really like the resources and I think you thought through those pretty clearly.
My only concern is my availability. So that I can find that mixture between actually doing the job that I'm paid to do, watching the kids that I have, and trying to be something resembling a good husband, I have very little free time. Things like Mafia work well because I can make incremental progress along the way. The warlords games can be a little challenging because I often stop, look at the board, look at my spreadsheet, reread the thread, and think about what I want to do for a while. So my only concern would be that if the game is very detailed oriented and very complicated, I will either do really badly and get killed immediately or ruin things for everyone.

PART II - HOW TO MAKE THINGS BETTER

 
STEP 01 / 23 - NEW PAINTS


Previously, the whole model had been done with a single tone of Grey - Dawnstone.  Now, we're going to prepare a little by getting the next-lighter shade of Grey, Administratum Grey...  Basically, its the original colour with a bit of white added...  So if you're using a custom colour for your basic colour, just keep that in mind - go a step lighter.

But now we've got it, we're not going to jump into it right now.



STEP 02 / 24 - RETOUCHING
Now, taking the Brush, and Dawnstone - I'm going to use the same Edge-Brushing Technique, but be just that much more careful as I apply it...  In this case, its being applied to the Upper TIE Wing Panels - that is the Top (horizontal), and the front and back vertical edges...  Basically, the edge of the top "HALF" are repainted gently...   The underside half is left at the moment - that's okay to be nice and shadowy...   I also Re-edge the External Panel Lines at the same time - again, SUPER carefully, but I am willing to touch up with Black if I make any mistakes...  I'm MUCH more likely to rub and splattered paint quickly with a finger and re-do everything I've just done at this case - the point of the matter is, I'm using the same techniques, just much more carefully.



STEP 03 / 25 - BASIC HIGHLIGHTING

Now we're onto the step that a lot of hobbyists refer to as "highlighting" - that is placing a lighter colour on top of a darker colour to show where light would would be impacting - it gives us as 3D feel to a flat model.  We can't rely on LIGHT to do it (like it would on a real-size model) because the model is simply so small - it doesn't have enough suface area to show it, so we add it artificially.

At this point, the 3 bumped ridges on top of the cockpit ball have all had Dawnstone right over the top - notice that I've not covered the entire thing in it - I've kept the Dawnstone within the "borderline edges" of the under colour (Dark Washed Dawnstone), which leaves a bit of the dark washing in place...  I also place a line on top of the reactor jutout, and paint the top of the wing roots (but not necessarily the lower edges of that - I can if I'm confident in reaching it without filling it in - you always want to be leaving the original colour around.)

The larger areas around the top of the fighter ball also get a little smudge of dawnstone, to highlight it - again, keep it to the middle of the open area, and don't try to snug up against any areas where they would be shadows.


---

STEP 04 / 26 - THE PART WHERE I START TO NOT BE GOOD AT THIS



Also, its the part where I start going from Macro to SUPERMacro to show how terrible I am...

Essentially, now we're up to Edge Highlighting - I'm not great at Edge Highlighting...  There are others out there, who are absolute masters at it, and put me to shame - so for lack of a better term, I make my business on being the Everyman and making Paint Jobs that Everyone can do with a little dedication and practice - rather than the Superhuman.

So what is happening here?  Well, basically, its the same "Brush perpendicular" technique that we've used so far...  Except now we're perpendicular to the edge...  We've taken the next lighter paint - in this case, its Administratum Grey - and we're painting the edges with it...  Very thinly, very carefully...  Often, we need 2 passes for it to really show, because it goes on with a shine that makes it look REALLY BRIGHT, but then dulls as it dries and becomes a gentle, subtle highlight...

I'm starting with the Wing Panels...  I'm hitting, again, JUST THE TOP HALF of the Wing Panel Edges themselves (in fact, I'm doing even less, leaving the last 1-2mm of the lower portion of the wing panel untouched)...  The reason for this is we're basically providing a point where Light will have been caught, and over-emphasising edges and somewhat...  In this case, its mostly edges...

I'm also doing the Spokes on the Wing Panel here - but very carefully, I'm trying to only do the edge - the corner - of them that's facing UP...  Not facing down...  I've also put a little dab on the edges of the central spoke itself - again, on the top half, to look like its caught light from above...    This part is tricky and eminently frustrates me, and is going to make me go back and touch up some of that black that you can't really see at arms length but I'm taking SUPER_MACRO pictures so its right there, Dammit!  


---

Step 05 / 27 - MORE HIGHLIGHTING



Now we continue on to provide more of that highlighting  - As you can see, i've hit the Top spokes of the Cockpit ball again - again, leaving a little of the basecoat and the original basic highlight showing -the whole thing isn't just flat colours, its basically 3-4 tones of colours...  Concentrate the lighter tone to the highest and flattest piece of those.

Then, I place a dab on the diagonal corners of the cockpit ball itself, just below that center piece - because, basically, that's where light would be shining off the ball edge...  Whereas it was kind of a contoured blob with the Dawnstone, with the Administratum, its pretty well just a dab touch - a tiny little ball, for just the highest piece of it...

I also then add a little streak the top half of the Reactor Outlet, and to the topmost portion of the Cockpit Window - so the upper-half of the cockpit is even brighter than the lower half...  Again, to reflect a light source that is *above* the Model.


STEP 06 / 28 - CONTINUING


This isn't so much a Step, rather than a moment to stop and check...  I make sure I break out my light, and I shine it from above, to make sure i'm hitting all the bits and pieces I need...  That all of the shaded areas are still appropriately shaded, and the lit areas are Super-Bright and Lit...  It also serves a nice comparison to the above picture, which was a more muted yellow light - this is the harsh white of Flash

Just a few more details and we're at "Hero" level...  The differences are subtle, but they do make a huge visual difference when completely done - and indeed, it at a minimum doubles the time it takes to paint the squadron...

----

STEP 07 / 29 - THE REAL DETAIL


Now you can see the reason why I chose the "long" bristled brush as I did at the start...  A lot of it, is for this step...  Internal Wing Mounts....   This is done basically by taking the paint (Dawnstone) on the brush, and making sure its about a third to two thirds of the way upp...  Then, carefully holding the model, I place the tip of the brush up against the wing root (in the center), and sweep it out to the edge, again, almost holding it perpendicular (so the brush itself is the 'rule', and then doing it with a slightly quick-ish motion...  Its not perfect, and anything that's terrible just gets swatted with Black and I try again once its dried...  But its a time and error to get it sorted there...  If I am feeling really adventurous, I'll then go back and do it again, this time with the Administratum, and try to artifically place the thin line of that so its on the top edge of the dark line, just like the highline outside - but I'll be honest, I skip this step unless I'm perfectly Rested and having a good heart day


---
 
STEP 08 / 30  - THE FINAL TOUCH


The last final step here, is to brighten up those bright Blaster points on the front...  Now, the Moot Green I've already used is pretty bright - so how do we make it brighter?  The biggest problem is if you add white to something alreayd very bright, you tend to pastel it out a bit...   So in this case, I'm adding Yellow...  That makes the colour "Brighter" without becoming pastel...   I used Flash Gitz Yellow here, because it was within arms reach, and itself is fairly bright...  The yellow technique works well with Reds in particular, where adding Yellow to a Red will make it Brighter (as orange is still vibrant), whereas if you add White to it, it turns it Pink and Pastel - this is one point where Paint Admixture is different to Light Admixture, of course
 
 
But there we have it.
 
30 Steps in Total, brings us from Bare Plastic to Completed Models with far more Detail than anything that size REALLY deserves - Accomplish-able by a vast majority of people...
Of course, I will always bow in wisdom and ability to those out there who can truly paint - and we are blessed by a few of them on these forums indeed - but I sincerely hope that this will at least encourage someone who has never tried before, who has said "I can't ever do even a fraction of that", to see what an Everyman can do...  Even more so when they have more time and concentration than this Frazzled Stay-At-Home Toddler Wranger...

Well, a lot of people are taking the plunge and not having any specific direction to go on...  So in light of @NairoD's painting challenge, I said I'd do something special.
Here it is, Step by Step.  How to paint some TIE fighters, from the bare plastic, all the way up to what I consider "HERO" level for my business.
 
The first part will concentrate on showing the Step-by-Step of the Basic paint Scheme - a Scheme which I consider Detailed enough to be paid for, but not so much it takes forever to paint.  This is also the level that I would hope all beginner painters aspire to...  Honestly, you'll get there quickly if you TRY.
 
So for now, I'm going to keep things as quick and as simple as possible...  I am using almost exclusively Games Workshop equipment and paints because, basically - they're easy to get.  Online or in store, as a great many places stock them.  Please, of course, do not consider this gospel to do - rather, its mostly what I have on hand, and your own colour choices will of course amend as appropriate.
Equipment Used
Brush - In this instance, its an old, old Citadel "Starter" Brush.  If you're buying a new brush, the equivalent is a Medium "Layer" brush from Games Workshop.  But you could also get away with a Size 1 Artists brush from your hobby store.  Just make sure any brush you pick up new lacks "flyaway" bristles and forms a nice point.
Knife - This is a standard hobby knife.  I personally prefer the style of blade shown, but as long as its fairly sharp and you're careful, you can use the longer edged knives.

Primer -  Chaos Black from GW.
Paint - Colours and pots as used
 - Dawnstone (GW "Layer" Paint)
 - Abbadon Black (GW "Base" Paint)
 - 'Ardcoat (GW "Technical" Paint)
 - Moot Green (GW "Layer" Paint)
 - Nuln Oil (GW "Shade" Wash)
 
And really, that's it.  You might see one or two of my painting sticks going through - they're simply to hold the models so I can do so without touching them with my fingertips...  A lot of people will use small tubes or individual sticks - this is more of a personal thing, just find a way to have the model held, without actually touching them with your fingers...  In the absolute worst case scenario - you can paint on the Squadron Ts if you're careful...

And now, we begin (with some very haphazard photography)



STEP 01 - THE PREPARING


Here, basically, we're looking at the standard models, straight out of the pack...  In this instance as well, I was handed these models from someone else (they're actually a commission!), so not knowing the circumstances of how they've come to me, and how long they've kicked around in other things - they were washed in warm water and soap and, once rinsed, left to air dry.

This is them Dry.

Take careful note of the mold lines on them - those are those ugly seams on the inner panels, but they also exist on the outer edges of the wing panels themselves...  Although they're not horrible in and of themselves, they can do some funky things later on, so its best practice that they go.

---

STEP 02 - THE SCRAPENING


These are in the various conditions of being prepared...  The mold lines are removed by placing the blade along the mold line, angling it, and scraping backwards along the line...  Think of this as the opposite of a cut - in a cut, you're moving the blade in the direction you want to cut - in this case, the blade is pointing away and just scraping...  Do it gently along those inner lines (works best if you place the blade touching against the wing-root, and then scraping out.).  Once thats done, do the same thing for the edges around the Wing Panel itself.  Trust me, you'll see a nice little thin line of plastic flake off - and that makes ALL the difference at a later step!


---


STEP 03 - THE PRIMING

Here's where we get to me being a crotchety old modeller...  PRIMING IS NOT PAINTING.  The whole point of a Prime is to prepare the surface to accept paint...  You don't want to swallow the whole surface in paint.  Check the Above.  Notice how its all patchy and dotty and dusty?  The level of prime above is about as thick as I would always suggest going...  Now, Priming the whole thing in Black, well, it is a shortcut...  But its a bad one.  Because bare prime won't wear like paint, and it won't colour like paint...  Priming prepares the surface - and now, the surface is prepared!  Follow the directions on the Rattle-can in regards to Distance, Temperature and Humidity...  Always paint in sweeps.  Never spray directly at the model in question...  


---

STEP 04 - THE TERRIBLE PAINT

You know how hard it is to hold things and take pictures at the same time without a Tripod?  Its hard.  Anyhow.  Here's a quick shot the paintbrush in question (its an older one, but it checks out) and the main colour we're using on our TIEs.  This is quite a bright grey, and it works well because things are going to get dulled down as we go.  But notice how the brush is long, thin and pointed - that's what we want in a brush...  The Paint Pot was thoroughly shaken before being opened...



---

STEP 05 - GETTING THE PAINT ON

Here, I've collected a "Blob" of paint.  This "Blob" is a standard measuring unit for me.  One "Blob" of paint.  Ideally, when you're painting, you don't want paint to cover the entirety of the bristles and get up into the metal (the ferrule), instead, keep the paint on the bristles...  If it does get there, Wash the brush thoroughly as quickly as possible...  (Circular swirls in water, don't push the bristles against the bottom of the water-cup)...

For a Pallet today, I'm using the back panel of an Imperial Fighter Pack.  Cut the square of plastic out to get the ships out - reusing the plastic!

This "Blob" of paint goes onto the pallet, and then, I'm rinsing the Brush....


---

STEP 06 - SHOWING THE BRUSH AGAIN

The Brush has been washed an the Blob is on the Pallet...    Nice Blob.  We're going to De-blobbify you now.

When Washing the Brush, to Reiterate, circular swirls in the water, without pushing it against the bottom...  When you pull it out of the water, place it down on a piece of tissue or other absorbant paper - placing it as "side down" as possible to not bend the bristles.  Then, as you draw the brush back towards you, rotate it in your fingers, so the bristles are, for the lack of a better term, 'swirled' into a point gently.  This, and the practice thereof, is essential brush maintenance while working.


---

STEP 07 - THE DE-BLOBBENING

Now, we collect a second Blob.  This time, its a Blob of Water.  Note that the Blob of water is a little less blobby than the blob of paint, but there's still also some water left in the bristles...  All of that is good.  We now swirl them together, thinning the paint from its really heavy weight, into something much more manageable...  The amount of water to paint should be, on average, no more than 1:1...  Now, as a word here, I live and Work in Calgary, where it is always dry, so I add a little more water...  Experiment with how much water you add - it should always be some, but it doesn't neccessarily have to be more...  The point is to get a paint that's nice and free flowing, but when you draw it out on your pallet, doesn't immediately "curl in" its edges because of surface tension (that's too much water), nor do you want it to remain 'blobby', that's too little...   In short, you can paint from the pot, but we're after best-practices here for a lifetime of painting to come, so its good to learn...


---


STEP 08 - DE BLOBBINATED

And now, we're ready to do some painting....  The paint is nice and thin, but not so thin it curls in...  a Nice Goldilocks zone, of sorts...  
Of course, after swirling and mixing, we wash the brush again, and again, dry it, all back into a point...  Its as if we're starting with a fresh brush.



STEP 09 - PICKUP PAINT


Here's where the Paint meets the bristles, folks...  Drag just the tip of the brush through the paint - all jokes aside, this is important - you want paint to be on the bottom third-to-half of the bristles, but what you don't want is paint all the way up it, and you defintely don't want a blob or drop of paint...  You want the paintbrush to have a nice little load on it...  Because we're using a technique here, called edge-brushing to start...
 
---
 
STEP10 - THE EDGE BRUSH


Here, we're basically taking the brush, and dragging it almost perpendicular to the edge we want to paint..  The tip of the bristles are hanging off the other edge, and we're transferring paint as we move the brush sideways...  This way, we're using the edge itself to limit where the paint goes....  If you try to paint by pushing the tip of the bristles onto the edge and moving back and/or forth, you'll have a situation where the bristles may slip, and in doing so, slap paint down the sides of the TIE - which we know we don't want to be Grey!


---

STEP11 - CONTINUE THE EDGE

Here, we continue with the same Technique - the Edges of the TIE Panel exterior are all Raised - so we can follow on with the same technique - using that Raised Edge itself to control where the paint goes...  Again, if we were pushing Bristles down into it, it would be almost uncontrolled where the paint goes.
Now, that being said, this is what we're concentrating on now:  "THE AREAS WE WANT TO BE GREY, ARE TO BE GREY"...  If you get a little grey onto where the Black is going to be, well, we'll fix that later...  But if we don't get GREY where we want it to be GREY, it won't be GREY.  GOT IT?  Make it Grey where its supposed to be Grey


---

STEP12 - GREYNESS


The point about Grey Being Grey applies here...  We get paint on the Wing Roots, the Body, the Underside...  I do make one exception though - The Cockpit itself...  That's going to get some special treatment - but otherwise - GREY AREAS BECOME GREY.



---

STEP13 - RESULTING


Remember how I said not to worry too much about if the Grey Slipped?  I meant it - here's where they are for me...  Notice, Grey areas are Grey, but there's some grey Spillover...  This is no matter (in fact, I was more careful than usual here - I usually get more grey spillover!)



---

STEP14 - THE SEINAR TOUCH


Here's how we're going to fix and generally neaten everything up...  Everything that applied to the Grey (which is rapidly drying as you can see, in the Calgary Lack-of-Humidity) applies to the Black.  If anything, I add a little more water, because this is a Base Paint - Base Paints inherently have more pigment than layer paints, and can tend a little more on the thicker side - note though, that I did the pull-away at the bottom, to make sure I hadn't added too much Water...



---

STEP15 - THE ONLY TIME I CARE


To paint the Black, I get it on the Brush as I did with the Grey...  But what I do is I aim to place the brush on the side panel, near the center cog, in a sideways manner (as shown above)...  I then draw the paint Back out towards the edge...  I also do a gentle side-by-side motion...  What should happen, is the whole recessed area gets covered in black, but because we're doing so with light pressure and not pushing too hard, the paintbrush never jumps over onto the raised grey of the Panel Lines...  Fill in the Gap!

You might also find, if you were a little too thin with your paint (too much water), that you can see grey through the black...  if that's the case, wait for it to dry, and then, do it again.  The paint on the model will dry much faster than paint on your pallet, because there's much less of it...  So you will have time to correct it...  

Generally, after doing 2-3 panels on a Fighter...  I wash the brush, and re-get Black Paint...  Base paints can and will dry quickly on the brush, so keeping the brush fresh is in your favour.


---


STEP 16 - MORE DETAILS


I also take the time at this point to paint the Reactor on the Back, and the Cockpit on the Front...  The customer requested Gloss Black cockpit, but I would also at this time paint the cockpit any colour I needed to....  Red, Blue and TIE Fighter Game Yellow have been choices so far, but basically - Grey where Grey, Black Where Black...  Internal Wing Panels are also solid black at this point as well.....  Because now, we're getting to the "detaily" part...  Although, some call it bottled magic - really, its just another tool.


---


STEP17 - THE OIL OF MAGIC

Nuln Oil... Notice the Patch just below the Tub - That's Straight Nuln Oil.  I am not using straight Nuln Oil.  I am using, again a roughly 1:1 mix of Nuln Oil and Water...  This thins it down, doesn't make it as intense...  But otherwise, mix it up, and load it up...  Don't be too concerned if you load the brush - a loaded brush works here...



---

STEP 18 - APPLYING OIL


Slap that Oil on.  Push it on, push it around.  EVERYTHING gets Covered in Oil...  EVERYTHING.  EVERYTHING.  EVERYTHING.  Note at this point, I've transferred them into my Holder - because you WILL rub off the oil while its wet - it takes quite a bit longer to dry on the model - doubly so because its watered down....
 
 
---

STEP 19 - THE OILNESS


Here's how the Nuln Oil looks while Wet...  It looks pretty intense and shiny - but don't worry, its going to dull down as it dries...  It just takes a little bit...  Ideally, try to have the models sit as vertical as possible while drying, as it will flow down - if you have them sideways, it'll pool on one wing side and not the other and look uneven, whereas an oil that tends to pool underneath, tends to look more like shadows than anything...


---

STEP 20 - Mostly Done



Here, things are mostly done...  Solid, gritty TIE fighters...  They've gotten a bit of wear from my holding them a bit while  wet (this is why I tell you not to do it!)...

Also, here's where you make the prize for cleaning those mold lines - because if you don't - the Nuln oil will settle against the mold line on the panel edges, giving you this solid black line down the middle of the edge of the panels, which generally just...  doesn't visually work.
Note as well, this is a pretty MACRO close up shot - they don't quite look as dirty when they're on the tabletop, or at arms length even - that's something you'll pick up...

(Its also something we'll correct in Part 2)


----


STEP 21 - FINAL DETAILS



Final details are all in this amalgum step...   First thing, I painted the cockpit area 'ardcoat, because that was the Gloss....  Then, once that was dry, I did the sideways brush technique to hit all of the cockpit panel lines with Dawnstone, but not the internal cockpit glass...  Because this is, basically, Raw and unwashed Dawnstone, the colour is a tad brighter than the rest of the TIE fighter - but that is entirely fitting.  When we paint models, we want eyes to be drawn to certain points (genreally, this is the face of the model ) - and this is enhanced by painting the face lighter than you would normally anticipate...  In this case, the TIE Cockpit is the pseudo "Face" and it still works.

Then when all that is try, I take a little bit of Moot Green and paint the Blaster Ports...  This again, is mostly a sideways brush, but I start from UNDERSIDE the model, so I don't accidentally splat onto the cockpit if my toddler smacks my arm at that inopportune point...



STEP 22 - BASIC COMPLETE



And there you have it...  One completed TIE fighter Squadron to "BASIC" standard.

Now, if you're paying attention to the differnet colour mixes and matches on the pictures, you can tell that this has basically taken a few days to get like this...  But it is literally 2-3 minutes a day, for a couple of days...  If you can get a block of 30 minutes, you can follow all of these steps and get it done.  As a commission painter, that's my goal for a "Basic" Squadron.  30 minutes.

Now, of course, there's a lot we can do from here.....

And from here...  We're going to go into the HERO steps, because that's where my commission is - this is going to be a variant of Mauler Mithel, so we're going to step everything up (and add a few colours to the spread as we do so...  But just a couple)...  

We'll also expand upon our techniques as we;re going....  But for now, if you've followed this far...  Thank you for your Patience
 
 
You can find more Squadron painted Inspiration on my Facebook page - Imperial Phoenix Hobby Works
https://www.facebook.com/ImpPhoenixHW/

I'm semi-regularily posting what I'm working on, showing some inspiration from my painting desk.  Its generally Star Wars Related, but often I get non-Armada projects with Rebellion and IA on there - and maybe even some X-Wing...
And of course, I'll continue this in the next post on taking it to the Next Level (The Hero Level), and then I'll work on some detail customization!

Let’s move on to the rebel squadrons. I’ve actually done very little with these, only three simple things. Unfortunately, I only have pictures of the finished model, not the intermediate steps.
 
Step 1: Prime them with a white primer. Same reasons as with the imperial ships. And like with the Imperials, you could easily just stop here and still get a way better look than the bone-colored squadrons that comes with the box. I used Citadel color’s “Skull white”.
 
Step 2: Wash the entire model thoroughly. This gives them a little more depth, and makes them look worn and dirty from all their rebellious endeavors. I used Nuln oil and Army painter’s “Wargamer: Character”-brush.
 
Step 3: Paint the engines. I used Evil Sunz Scarlet and Army painter’s “Wargamer: Character”-brush.
 
That’s everything I did. This takes very little time, and is really hard to not succeed with, but once again makes them a lot better looking than the unpainted, especially when you have a few of them flying in formation.


 
 
BONUS:
 
Black bases:
 
Step 1: Spray the bases and stands black. Make sure to mask the end of the stand which goes into the base, otherwise it’ll be hard to get them to fit together.
 
Step 2: Spray 2-3 thin layers of a varnish of your choice. I used Army painter’s “Anti-shine matte varnish” since I like the matte look, but that’s really just personal opinion. I do recommend some kind of varnish though, to protect the black paint.
 
Step 3: The user Vykes (of the amazing thread https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/182047-forces-of-the-ceknell-subsector/) advised me to paint the sides of the cardboard bases black with a permanent marker. It really added the last finishing touch to the bases, since the black base now seamlessly matches the black portion of the cardboard.
 
 
CR90 debris:
I had an extra CR90 laying around (since I got a faulty one from the core box and FFG send me another one) and turned it into a debris model! I just used some black spray, black paint, and a saw. Easy, fun, and looks quite good if you ask me!
 


 
 
I hope at least someone will find some of this helpful. If not, it was fun to write. It's amazing how much time you can put into something when you got important things you should be doing...

Squadrons:
 
Let's start with the imperial squadrons. So far, I’ve used the exact same technique to all four imperial fighter types, since they are very similar in their design. Since you’ll probably be painting quite a few models, I recommended doing more than one at a time. I painted 4 squadrons at the time (i.e. 12 individual models), where I did one step to every model before moving on to the next. I also did one step on one side of each model, before doing the next side (when painting the wings, for example).
 
Step 1: Spray them with a black primer. I used Citadel color’s “Chaos black”, but there are other alternatives. This is done for two reasons: First of all, it’s a primer, meaning that the other colors you apply will not “stick” as good to the model without the primer. Second of all, the TIE fighters are primarily black, so you'll save yourself a lot of painting black. If you just want to get rid of your light grey TIE fighters, then you could just stop here and leave them black. They already look a lot better than before, if you ask me.

 
Step 2: Dry brush the wings and the cockpit. Dry brush is a technique where you apply paint thoroughly to the brush, and then remove most of it (like 95% or something like that). You then swipe the brush fast over the wings and cockpit, which will paint the protruding parts, mostly leaving the wing panels unpainted. The wings WILL get some paint on them, but that’s OK. Since it’s a dry brush, it will be a very thin layer which will be easily repainted in step 3. I used Dawnstone and Games workshops “small dry brush”. It is important to actual use some sort of dry brush, since the brush needs to be quite hard in order for this to work properly. I had to much paint on the brush and was thinking about something else, so this particular TIE fighter actually got quite a lot of grey on the entire wing... But, like I said, that's OK.

 
Step 3: Now we want to get the wing panels back to black. Paint the areas between the protruding parts black, and remember to thin the color before you apply it! I used Abbadon black and Army painter’s “Wargamer: Character”-brush. Now, they are more of less looking like the finished product and you could very well stop here. However, I found that just some small adjustments did a lot to the overall feel of the model.

 
Step 4: Paint the engine(s) blue. Now, true Star Wars fans will probably get really angry about how I did this. I know that TIE (meaning Twin Ion Engine) have two engines, and that they are positioned on either side of the thing in the middle. However, I just find this way of painting better looking, and actually more immersive when playing (since you can actually see it from a distances). I used Teclis blue and Army painter’s “Wargamer: Character”-brush.

 
Step 5: Dry brush the cockpit. Since the cockpit is quite small and quite shadowed by the wings, this makes it easier to see at a distance. I used Celestra grey and  Games workshops “Small dry brush.

 
Step 6: Lightly wash the cockpit, making sure that the cockpit windows gets washed. This is just to just darken the back windows slightly, if any gray got on the windows during the dry brush. I used Nuln oil andArmy painter’s “Wargamer: Character”-brush.
 
Step 7: This last step is a very small adjustment, and I’m not sure if it’s worth it yet… Paint the cockpit windows with a gloss varnish (a transparent color which makes the area glossy, so it looks like the cockpit windows are reflecting a light source). I used ‘Aardcoat and “Wargamer: Precise detail”-brush.

 
This is the finished model! Like I said at the beginning, it doesn’t look like much. However, when you put them together and view them from a distances, it looks a lot better than the unpainted squadrons!

I'm G'ni Pias, a human trader who wears a carefully pieced together set of Mandalorian armor obtained from the debris of several battlefields, in the hopes that it will provide the necessary intimidation factor (otherwise lacking) to aid in negotiations, but which actually tends to bring about a bunch of bounty hunters thinking I'm one of a number of people whose armor I'm wearing. . . maybe I should get rid of it. Or at least repaint it - I'm a walking rainbow. . .
I will take out a loan of 1200 from the New Merchants and buy a VCX-100, henceforth known as The Scavenged Hulk. I am buying 16 units of fuel from Darbagh and am jumping to Granica Station along the hyperspace route.

This is not off topic. Get out of here with your on topic nonsense!