How do you paint plastic kits to match X-Wing spaceships?

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I have some Star wars ships from the AMT Ertl Rebell Base set.  I have 3 X-Wings, 2 Snow Speeders and a Transporter.  I want to paint them to match with my Star Wars X-Wing Collection.

I have a lot of experience with painting figures and tanks but not with space ships.
I have a large collection of Vallejo and GW paints.  I have a Tamiya spray can in pale grey which I plan to use to get an even base coat.


Questions

Please can you help me with a few tips?

Do you paint details with a brush or do you mask areas and spray them?

How do you get the black lining?  Is that a GW Wash or very dilute paint?

Thanks

Mick

[Hatemonger]

I haven't painted any X-Wing stuff yet myself, so I can only answer from what I've read of others' work.

Most tend to just hand-paint. Masking on something so small is rarely worth it. Although I do recall someone over on FFG's forum making up sheets that you could use to print your own decals.

The panel lining is almost always with GW washes, or another brand's equivalent.

I think in all cases, whatever you've been doing with other vehicle-type pieces should be applicable.

- H8

[Daeothar]

I tend to do all my X-Wing repaints by hand. I've seen many great examples of airbrushing, but at the scale involved, it's not really required.

A good trick to use, if you have an area to paint with a lot of detail (greebles, panel lines, corners) is the Modelmates rubbing black product. You basically brush it on, and before it's completely dry, you remove the surface excess with pieces of paper towel or cotton buds. What remains are the very fine panel lines and shading around the surface details.

With a bit of practice, this should come out as good and probably better than the X-Wing prepaint jobs.

Another angle is to use washes and then use a brush to clean up the panels, again leaving the black lines in the recesses.

Most painted on details can also be done freehand, such as squadron markings etc. Just use panel lines as guides and clean up any mistakes with your basecoat.

Oh; and use gloss varnish on the cockpit canopies/panels/windows. A simple black with some varnish will go a long way there.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

Thank-you both

Mick