First post, Fine Molds TIE Fighter weathering and lighting

[Corpse Thrower]

Hi all!!

First post from me!

Thanks to you lot, I'm starting to build statics again! I've been browsing the threads in here and to be honest, it's both inspiring and intimidating. The skills on show here are mind blowing! I just hope I can do ten percent of the job you guys can do.

Anyway....I'm building a Fine Molds 1/48 Tie Fighter. I have painted the main body Tamiya AS 28 medium grey, with body highlights in AS 27 gunship grey, and using German grey for the bulkhead behind the front window. I wasn't happy with the colours at first, but now they are growing on me. Sort of a cross between the blue and the grey colours that the TIE's were painted in.

So now I'm pretty close to whacking it al together and would like to add a light inside, since there is a bit to see in there but when you put it all together it's not visible at all! Very dark in there! Any ideas on how to light the model up? I'm wondering on what sort of globe, and how to power it? Wouldn't mind lighting up the two motors on the back too, but no idea how to do it!

Also, I want to use a wash to weather it a bit. Highlight the crevices and lines. I've never used anything like that before, so any advice would be great! What sort of wash would be best to use on the Tamiya paint?

Any advice would be fantastic.

 

[jedimaster]

I know folks use a wash on their models but I prefer to use a smoke pigment to weather my models. If I can get p/bucket to work I'll show you what I mean.

 

[JMChladek]

A wash is going to be a mixture of paint to thinner, usually the consistency of dirty thinner (maybe 6 parts thinner to 1 part paint but it can be varied). It can be done with acrylic and enamel paints. Acrylics I like for general overall coverage, enamels I tend to like better for tight spot washes in small areas with deep recesses (since enamel thinner gets the wash to flow really nice). Since you used Tamiya lacquer spray base coats, either should work fine as I see it, depending on what effect you are trying to achieve and they likely won't harm the base paint. Acrylic washes over acrylic paints typically work fine provided the base paint has had at least 48 to 72 hours to cure. Enamel washes over enamel base paint can still run the risk of softening the base color, so longer curing times are needed (but care still has to be exercised, especially with metallic base shades). Of course, you can always do enamel over acrylic or vice versa typically with no problems.

The easiest way I do a wash (especially for spot applications) is to dip the brush into the paint, then dip it once or twice into the wash water or thinner (don't aggitate it to shake the paint off, just dip it straight in and out). Next, I touch the brush to a paper towel to see if the paint gives me the proper coffee stain effect I want. If it does, I apply it to the model. If it is too strong, I do another water dip and repeat. Other times I've just put a dollup of paint into the wash water to mix a more uniform wash color if I am doing a large area since I want my wash to be more or less uniform strength (although some areas such as engine exhausts still might benefit from a more intense spot wash than a general coverage wash).

I concur about using a smoke pigment such as Tamiya X-19 smoke. The reason why it
works well as a wash is it is just pigment. It doesn't contain any opaquing agents. So the color will always be transparent. But, you can vary its strength by how much you put on. I still never use it full strength though as I always dillute it in a wash when using it for area coverage.

Main things to keep in mind is the smoke tint is an acrylic. So you should add a tiny drop of dish or hand soap as a wetting agent to your wash water/mixture to get the wash to flow into the recesses properly. Otherwise it will bead up like rain drops on a freshly waxed car. Another thing to keep in mind about washes is if you are trying to get just a precise highlight where the details are and not go for an overall worn look, it is also a good idea to gloss coat the paint finish. Otherwise the wash can spiderweb into flat paint and stain it in ways you might not want it to (although drybrushing the hull color over the top can "erase" some of that).

TIE Fighters, being the cheap disposable fighters of the Empire tend to stay pretty clean since one or two shots just blow them up. So you typically aren't going to see them with weathering like an X-wing. So I would keep a wash subtle and maybe only pick out some of the deeper recesses on the wing hubs as opposed to trying to make the whole thing look worn.

Another technique that works rather nicely for TIE fighters is to black pre-shade the wing struts and overcoat with the sprays. In some areas where the black peaks out, it gives a similar effect to a wash. But, since you've already painted your TIE, you don't necessarily need to do that. On the old AMT/Ertl TIE kits where the black solar arrays were molded into the wings, it was practically impossible to paint them gray and mask the struts to paint on the black. But by going the other way and painting the black first, than masking the solar areas and spraying the struts, the effect looked A LOT nicer when done.

 

[Kyuzo]

I just tried lightning my first TIE with a red 1.8 mm led from this site:
Model Railroads, Model Trains, Model Railroad Scenery
And used fiberoptics for the engines (really recommend this as there's no lightspill, and not too bright)
Put it under the pilot which in retrospect maybe was not optimal as it really doesn't light up anything. Next time I'll put it somewhere around the tophatch lightning up the pilot from above. You can see my attempt here:
http://www.therpf.com/f11/vaders-wingman-tie-fighter-173936/

 

[Corpse Thrower]

Well.....it's done!!
Thanks for the tips on weathering, I ended up using black with some Tamiya thinners. Had to do it a couple of times due to not putting enough paint in, but it still turned out ok for my first attempt at weathering.

See what you guys think. Any criticism is welcome! I have a 1/72 x wing and y wing to do, and some 1/72 TIE's to do, so hopefully my skills are up to it! Then I plan to grab a 1/72 falcon and put all the 1/72, a together in some sort of diorama.

Lets see if I can get some pics to work.....

 

[Corpse Thrower]

Will only let me post one pic!!!

 

[Corpse Thrower]

Another one

 

[Corpse Thrower]

Finished and mounted. I've never spent this much time painting a kit before!!

That little bloke standing on the base took me a whole night!!

Any criticisms? What could I have done better?

 

[Watson]

Looks great, good job :thumbsup

 

[Kyuzo]

Great display. Like the feel of "annual planetary defenses exhibition". That little bloke just sold 50 of those.