The Eternal Question...Are TIE Interceptors Blue or Grey

[BergerFett 708]

As I get ready to undertake the task of cleaning and painting 126 star fighters (kill me).  I need to know.

 

Are TIE Interceptors The Blue/Grey or the Light Grey.  They look both ways in the movies and It has to be perfect because I am an OCD Star Wars nerd.

 

Right now it looks like

Fighters = Grey

Advanced = Grey

Bombers = Grey

Interceptors =....?

 

Thanks

[Axotl 26]

Well Interceptors don't show up until the second? third? movie.  At that point, they had made all imperials the light blue grey color.  Only the first movie has TIE's painted grey. I think?

[melminiatures 2,664]

All of them have a slightly blue tint, but there are two main colors. In A New Hope every tie is grey (greyish). In Empire and Jedi all TIEs have a bluer color, including TIE Fighters.

Edited May 14, 2015 by melminiatures

[Lurtz 155]

I like to think of the variety as different production runs.

[BergerFett 708]

As the Empire is a vast military based on Mass production (TIEs).  I am going to paint them the same grey to match my Star Destroyers.  It will keep it uniform and sharp looking.

[SniperSnake28 130]

I went with blue-grey, and it looks fantastic.

[JBar 353]

Bluish looks best in my opinion. The ties in A New Hope were more grey so that they wouldn't blend with the blue screen. Technology got better during Empire and Return of the Jedi so Lucas was able to use more bluish tie fighters.

[Norsehound 2,740]

If you take some of the video games as canon, TIE Interceptors were actually unveiled pre-Yavin but they weren't in enough numbers to make their presence felt. I believed these Interceptors were white, and a materials change between ANH and ESB meant newer TIEs were blue.

 

I like white myself, and whenever I get around to painting my starfighters I'm going to do a mix of blue and white.

[Versch 689]

TIEs were always intended to be Blueish Grey but the filming techniques were new (invented) and the desired color wouldn't work with the blue/green screen.  They remedied the technique, and therefore introduced the blueish grey on most all the TIE variants.

 

...or maybe they classified this as Legends and not Canon.  I kid.

[DarthBadger 53]

Some are red ;-)

[Dave J 13]

I have gone Aircraft Grey on my stand TIE's and Tie Avanceds bar Vaders Tie.. I did that in Blue/Grey..

 

Bombers and Interceptors I have done Blue/Grey.. I will post more pics once I have the bombers done this weekend.

 

But this is what I have done so far...

 

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/179265-started-painting-my-squadrons/

 

A good resource is checking out the Scale Model Kits for the paint guides like Bandai and Fine Molds etc...

[Grave13 235]

You can't go wrong with doing both. Paint some sqaudrons the grey and other sqaudrons the blue grey color. It will look great

[Boardy 79]

I'd have to watch the films over again, but there is a chance, because they used models, that the blue-er tint may come from lighting or film lenses/filters. Just a thought.

[Captain Gideon 77]

I recall that Micro Machines made a TIE Interceptor and it was Blue that's my two cents.

 

Michael

[Cuthalion 4]

Also whent with blue gray (Vallejo Game Color: Steele Gray)

Edited July 21, 2015 by Cuthalion

[Darth Lupine 1,556]

Since they're my minis, they're wahatever color I want them to be. Pink perhaps....

Nahhhhh, no way lol. Painted mine grey.

[Beatty 1,730]

Reading the Title I instantly wanted to say "Yes!".

Edited July 20, 2015 by Beatty

[Squid89 86]

According to the Sculpting a Galaxy book, the original TIE models were painted in Stormy Sea Blue, discontinued color by Pactra. So like Beatty said, yes. The interceptors do look more toward the blue side though, no specific text in the modeling book about those.

[Chucknuckle 2,811]

Really, just pick a colour you like and go with it. The colours changed during filming because, as other users mentioned, the filming technology changed and allowed them to use different colours. The Light Grey we saw in the first film wasn't the colour they originally intended to use.

 

If you like the light grey, go with that. If you like the dark grey, go with that. If you want to use both, then use both. I imagine TIEs were manufactured with all different sorts of variations from materials to paints to styles so there's no canon reason you couldn't use whatever you wanted.

 

As someone who has done a bit of Star Wars modelling, there really is no 'standard' to refer to. Even the studio models had variations and deliberately 'off' colours to counteract the effects of the lighting and background during filming so just matching up to the ILM studio models will leave your models looking different to the ones on the screen. And of course, every screen is different so the same image will look different on every TV and every computer monitor, and will even look different when printed on different printers. Not to mention the fact that every artistic rendition of these ships is slightly different as well. Those of us who hunger for 'accuracy' when it comes to modelling and painting Star Wars vehicles are destined for disappointment. All we can do is get it close enough that we are happy with it, and call it a day. Come up with our own personal interpretation of what is 'accurate'.

 

Good luck!

[Joker Two 639]

They are the same color as the rest of your TIEs, the actual color is a secondary concern.

 

Personally, I think blue gives them a little more visual "pop", especially since everything else is base white or gray.

[Conundrum Eternal 129]

.....ahhh.....50 shades of grey......

 

 

graubunden!!!

[kite14 237]

I prefer them grey. It looks more sterile, expendable and impersonal. It reflects the Imperial military philosophy behind their production perfectly.

 

Ah I remember how this caused such furor among X-Wing players..

[DarthBadger 53]

The apparent colour would also depend on the colour of the star(s) in the system... Different colours absorbing different light frequencies...

Once a physics teacher, always a physics teacher!