Some of my personal theory-craft for painting snub fighters…

Armour panels – Some ships have very well defined armour plates (B-Wings) other have very light/shallow detailing (A-Wings) and other have very small dense detail (Y-Wing) that can be tough to distinguish. Different techniques should be used for each of these surfaces.

Focus points – Canopies and cockpits should always be clean and bright!

Be Brave – The weathering goes straight over highlighted surfaces, IT WILL WORK!

Step 1 – Basecoat

I basecoated all ships with the same grey. I used multiple thin coats to build up a solid colour and keep the details. I used GW’s Administratum Grey.

At first it will feel like there is no coverage…

But a few more layers and you will have a nice flat grey. Or of course you can use a spray can or air brush, but I can’t advise you on these as I didn’t use them.

Step 2 – INK

I used Army Painter Dark Tone, watered down for a first coat then when that dried I used the ink neat, focusing on engines and other details I wanted darker, more defined. Make sure the ink doesn’t pool on flat surfaces (like the broad flat fronts of the A-Wings) by using your brush to pull the larger pools of ink to the engines or underside of the ship while it is still wet.

Step 3 – Basecoat Part 2

When the ink was dry I then reapplied the basecoat onto the flat surfaces, leaving the ink in the recesses. On the A-Wings I didn’t worry about defining the panel lines on the hull. The new X-Wing is a very sharp model, with great detail, so was easy to paint the panels. The Y-Wing I had to change track and dry-brush the majority of the hull and engines, but defined the armour plates on the front hull zone.

At this point I also painted the various Blue Squadron blue bits on the ships.

Step 4 – Highlights

I used Ulthuan Grey and White Scar (Both GW). I started with watered down Ulthuan Grey, applying the paint to the raider areas, feathering the paint towards the shadows. I’ll be putting up a blog post about feathering later this week but essentially you draw watered down paint across the surface so that the pigment is moved and is stronger/heavier at the end of the brush stroke, so that you blend colours using transparency rather than mixing pigment.

At certain points I also used simple line highlighting and flat colour.

Again the A-Wing allowed for long sweeps of colour, the X-wing I focused on detailing individual armour plates and the Y-Wing was tried and trusted dry brushing.

After the grey was complete I added a layer of white highlights using the same techniques.

Step 5 – Shadows

I then added some GW Badab Black and Army Painter Dark Tone onto the pallet and mixed them, using this I directly painted the black into specific areas I wanted to much darker. I used the same feathering techniques. I was focusing on underneath the wings, deep in the engines other specific crevices (A-Wing hull split and break between grey and blue armour).

Step 6 – Final Highlights

The blue was highlighted by adding Blue Horror to the base colour and feathering the highlights. Final highlights of pure Blue Horror were line highlighted where needed.

I also used Administratum Grey to add highlights to any areas I was leaving black. And used Blue Horror for some final sharp highlights.

At this point I have 6 very clean grey and blue snub fighters…

Weathering Step 1 – Get the sponge

Use blister foam, pick n pluck foam… basically corse foam packaging. Tear it up into a little cube.

Weathering Step 2 – Get the Paint

I put some GW Badab Black and a Dryad Bark (dark brown) onto the wet pallet along with Army Painter Soft Tone, Strong Tone and Dark Tone.

Weathering Step 3 – SPONGE ATTACK

Mix the colours o the pallet to creat a very dark, black brown. Take the sponge and dip one side in the paint. And then grab some tissue and dab off the excess paint from the spoke, much like you would when dry brushing. Test the sponge by dabbing in on your hand or another surface. If yur happy the sponge is leaving a nice mottled pattern apply it to the model.

I focus on edges that are at the front of the fighters, the leading edges of wings and hull plates. You have to just take a deep breath and go for it.

To finish the sponge work on the blue armour plates, I take some pale grey and paint mottled dots over the sponged darker colour to just pick out the chips on the blue.

Weathering step 4 – INK ATTACK

I then use a mix or browns and inks to paint the brown patches and burn marks on the ships. On small base ships I just focus on damage scorch marks and leak/rust lines running away from the leading edges.

If you tried to mix weathering running along the direction travel, sweeping away from the leading edges, with weathering that might occur when the ship is landed it will look confused. Only paint these burns and streaks in one direction.

I go through several passes, using different shades of brown.

Sometime More is More or Less is More…

The Large armour plates of the B-Wing and the A-wing allow for some great damage and weathering, but the tight details of the Y-Wing would look cluttered if you did the same levels of weathering.

Canopies !

Step one, I mixed black in with Thunderhawk (a GW Blue) to create basecoat. Then I feathered pure Thunderhawk into the anopies, making sure to build the colour towards the highest points of the canopy. I then added Blue Horror (a GW pale blue grey) building the highlights to a final sharp line at the highest point of the canopy.

Then at the bottom right corner I painted 1, 2 or 3 dots of white, depending on size of canopy. Anyone that has painted GW gems, or Space Marine visors will be right at home here. Make sure the dots of white are paced in the darkest part of the canopy.

If you take a look at the full size pictures you can see the layers and the line highlights.

I have just realised at the very late stage that I have not painted the Astromechs. They are a simple case dots of colour on their domes…

I there are any questions just ask away. Any thing else that you feel requires more explanation just say.

Thanks for reading!