Tie Fighter Painting

As promised, this is my completed Fine Molds Tie Fighter. You can see my review at this page http://pages.infinit.net/jfp/swgallery/anh/FM_TIEFIGHTER.html

That was an awesome project!

The pictures:

I agree with you jimmyd30. You need an airbrush. I'm finishing my Tie Fighter and 90% of my model was paint with my airbrush. It is very important to apply several tiny coats. Some parts must be painted before like solar panels, cockpit and the pilot. The ball and the pannels supports must be painted separately. In my opinion, I prefer to apply the gray wash before gluing the parts because it is easier to manipulate.

I will post some pictures of my Tie Fighter probably next week.

one word......airbrush.i imagine there might be a certain amount of bleeding if the model were handpainted, but not when airbrushed. i see more of a problem with the removal of the masks after being sealed, but in all fairness i'd have to see the technique making a judgement.all my work involves an airbrush and it's been a very lond time since i've experienced any bleeding problems.

well you definitely should mask all the clear parts but alot of people forget not all masks keep out bleed through (paint seeping under the mask) but if you seal the mask with Gloss coat or Future floor polish it would eliminate bleed trhough and you would have perfect transparencies but this trick also works with other masking applications such as the solar panels

my suggestion especially with the tie fighter is to strategically plan your painting .assemble as much of the model as possible before painting . this will allow you to fill seams without worrying about ruing your paint job in the process.of course you would paint the interior first before assembling the outer hull. assemble the wings before painting also.paint the main body and wing seperately.after weathering each subassembly to your satifaction attatch the wings and use some white glue sparingly to fill any gaps betwwen th ewing and the main body. then a thin coat of dull cote can be brushed or sprayed to mask the white glue's glossy finish.mask all the windows by the way before painting.you shouldn't reaaly have to remove the masking until all the paintig has been completed.the tie fighter is a great candidate for assmbly first painting because there really are no parts of the completed model that would be obstructed after assembly.this usually is not the case.

You will see no difference, even with a magnifying glass. I cut the small part from the sprue, I sand the edge and I apply two thin coat with a high quality fine brush like this one http://www.omerdeserres.com/images/productCat/C246R-8.jpg

This goes as well with the acrylic and enamel.

Will the touch up visible to the naked eye?

I paint on the sprue all parts, I detach the pieces and then touch up little bit the paint before I glue them. I paint only the upper side.