A small quick build-up of the new 1/72 scale Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced X1 from Fine Molds for a client.

I received two of these I had on preorder for months from HLJ last week. Their shipping has improved and the yen is much better now.

The kit itself builds up much like the other Fine Molds TIE Fighters  but unfortunately does not have the separate wing panels like the other TIEs so masking is required there. Kit comes with standing and seated Vader figs, decals, masking stickers (ugh) and a stand. I ended up using some vinyl masks I purchased years ago for the other TIEs as they work here too.

Painted base coat (over black primer) for the Darth Vader Tie. This is a mix of Tamiya XF-1 White with XF-66 Light Grey. It’s too light by design as I’ll use filters and discoloration to darken it to the “correct” shade.

After 4-5 filters of 502 Abteilung oil paints Navy Blue + Starship Filth thinned excessively with odorless turpenoid.

I shaded and highlighted the panels with more filter wash and thin white oil paint for the highlights. Vader says “ready my ship” before using this which probably means he has this fighter for a reason AND uses it. I figure based on his mentioned piloting skills, he uses it often enough to have some weathering.

A final filter layer of Starship Filth was applied, then the wings were attached. The mini Darth Vaders were painted with a satin black overall then I brushed on some Future Floor Acrylic for the shiny parts and acrylics for the small buttons on his chest.

Here’s a duo of 1/72 Fine Molds starfighters for the upcoming Death Star 2 diorama. Wedge’s Red 2 X-Wing and Gray Leader’s Y-Wing. These were painted just like the Millennium Falcon whichg is why there’s no how-to’s or in-progs. The markings were all painted on. The only decals I used were for the R2 units. These were lit with white 5mm LEDs dipped in Red for the X-Wing (which has a pinkish hue) and Red-Orange for the Y-Wing. The wires will be hidden in tubing when applied to the final diorama.

EDIT: Forgot the yellow on the X-Wing thanks to Fine Molds incorrect instructions. Added it with yellow oils. Added a new image below and the rest to the gallery. Here’s the updated pic + one with all 4 Rebel ships.

You’ve watched the build up, so now I present the completed images. Hope you guys enjoyed the process. The kit seems very intimidating at first, but aside from the lighting it’s very simple to put together… it’s just big. Hopefully I’ve managed to demystify some of the techniques I use and have helped some of you learn and improve upon your techniques.

And here’s the last part of the Falcon painting and weathering tutorial. I hope you guys have enjoyed it. This last step is the application of pigments to enhance the engine grime and add blaster marks.

Here’s an animation showing the pics from start to finish. This shows the gradual application of grime and darkening of the kit. No need to start with a dark paint to get dirt.

Been a few days since the last update, but the individual panel discoloration takes a bit of time, both in application and in drying. However the results are fabulous. Here’s the model with the panels completed.

Once they had dried it was time to apply the streaking. Here’s the tutorial followed by a few notes below.

Once the tutorial was over I worked on the rest of the model and decided to add some more defined dark streaks. These are done almost the same way. Paint them on very thinly with thinned oils then blend them with a dry or damp brush. Simple, but effective. Here’s the completed streaking. Next up: pigments.

I needed to let the kit rest another day since it’s been really humid and dank here. That tends to make oil paint take longer to dry and I don’t have a large enough “hot-box” for this kit. (wood crate with a lightbulb for heat… speeds drying time) This next step will take me another day or two to complete not including drying time, but I wanted to show the video now.

This step is painting indevidual panels much like I did on the Tantive IV. This adds depth and dimension and a whole lot of visual interest. Here;s the video tutorial…

And here is the photo of what I did during and immediately following the video to provide more detail.

Part three of this tutorial series covers painting the gray panels with oil paints. Pardon the stutters in the video. This was take two after a mishap involving oil paint on my favorite jeans and a screw-up trying to use liquid mask which the thinner involved apparently works great at removing.

Here’s the completed vessel.

For most of the painting I was able to simply paint an entire panel using the panel lines as a guide. For some however I needed to hand-paint the edge. This sounds difficult, especially with the blending, but after you blend, you can clean-up the outside edge with a 1/4″ flat brush dampened with turpenoid. This removes the edge oil paint since it’s still wet. Another fantastic feature of painting with oils… easy mistake fixes!

For different gray panels I used different mixtures of oil paint. Some had “Starship Filth” used instead of the “Dark Mud”. This makes for a more realistic and visually pleasing look.

This same technique, while not videoed was applied to the two yellow panels on the underside using 502 Abteilung Luftwaffe Yellow.

Now my workshop has been a little cool and damp the past day or so which makes the oils take longer to dry. Hopefully they’re dry enough tomorrow, but if not they will certainly be the next day to continue on. I’ll also take a photo of my pallet so you can see the paint colors used in case you need to mix your own.

Today I applied my second layer of the Discoloration Technique to the Falcon. Usually I only apply one layer, but I really want this to have a lot of depth and a lot of age to the look. First off is part 2 of the video tutorial:

And again, here’s a close-up image of the area I worked on before applying it to the rest of the kit.

Here’s the kit with the full application of the 2nd discoloration.

Another close-up. While my primer and preshade darkened the visible engine areas, I’ve bee adding extra dark mud and starship filth to those to get them nice and grimy.

After this dries for a day I’ll begin the modulation (adding light and darker tones) to the various panels as well as painting the gray panels in oils.

Moving right along, it’s time for a tutorial on discoloration. I’ve talked about this technique on just about every weathered model I’ve done for the past 6 years or so. It’s fantastic and really gives the surface a beautiful worn appearance. All of these steps add layers of detail, color and weathering to the model enhancing the finished appearance. Experiment with different colors over different base coats. First off, my first voiced tutorial video… [shudders] You may be able to get the HD version I uploaded by clicking the link.

Here’s an image of that section completed to show what the video may not. Note that the parts to the left and right were not discolored yet, only filtered.

Now here’s the entire Falcon with the discoloration applied.

A close-up…

And a battle droid? No, wait… (He’ll barely be visible once the gun is mounted. Chewie is operating the lower turret. LOL!

And finally, here’s the clear replacement engine parts. I painted them with Tamiya Smoke then a flat coat so that they’ll light up nicely, but not be too visible when the light’s off.

Now that the Tantive IV is done and I’m feeling refreshed and inspired to model again, I’ve come back to the Millenium Falcon build. “Come back” you say? Yeah… I started this in August and got it almost ready for paint, then something happened and I put it aside for a while. I had posted pics of the beginnings of Facebook, but not in the site. No worries as I’m reposting those pics here as well. This build will eventually go into the large Death Star 2 diorama. Here it is compared to the A-Wing, also to be in the diorama.

My client and I decided that this beastie needed to be fully lit. Wiring was the usual pain in the ass having burned myself several times and melting a few LEDs in the process causing some rework. I’m not used to soldering but I wanted everything to be very robust. The usual wire wrap I use is too brittle to risk inside of this.

Using the Acreations photoetch update set I was able to easily do the cockpit lighting. The set is awesome and has all the holes to backlight the consoles ready to go. Just paint and add the fantastic decals and the cockpit is about ready.

The figures with the exception of Nien Nunb the copilot were modified from the kit figures. Basically I just added rebel hats to Luke and Obiwan made from Aves and modded Han to make Lando. Nien Nunb is from a Studio Starforge resin figure set.

Lincoln is huge.

And now onto the good part… the kit construction was finished yesterday so what you see below is todays progress. I decided to do a short step-by-step on the painting process since there was a lot if interest in how I did the Tantive IV paint.

I started off by priming the kit. I didn’t have any typical gray primer, but I had dark gray and white Duplicolor primer. So I first primed it in the dark gray primer, then applied a second coat of the white. This had a slight shading benefit and came out the base primer gray I wanted. Windows were masked with Parafilm “M”.

Next I preshaded the panel lines and recesses using Tamiya German Gray. No need to be precise as the effect will be pretty subtle after the top-coat. If not… you’re not doing it right. If you’re having trouble, your top-coat may be too thin or your pre-shade may be too dark. Experiment with different color preshades. For a tan vehicle, try a brown pre-shade, etc…

Next I applied the top-coat. This was a mixture of Tamiya Flat White (1 jar) + Tamiya Gloss White (1/3 Jar) + Tamiya Flat Earth and Neutral Gray. Apply it uniformly on the tops and bottoms and spray at an angle over detail areas to retail some of the pre-shade in recesses.

Once the top-coat cured a bit I masked and painted the dulled red markings. I would apply tape, then sponge on some 502 Abteilung Liquid Mask for the chips. Once sprayed and cured a bit rub the mask off to reveal the chips. After that I sponged on some light gray chips. This will show up as chips and texture in the end. Mostly be careful not to over-do it. I concentrated on areas in the reference that were chipped as well as masses of raised detail parts. You may notice I did not mask the dark gray or yellow panels. This is because I plan to hand-paint these with oils during the later modulation phase. I did this with some of the darker panels on the Tantive IV with great results.

When the chipping is done immediately apply your first filter. I used a 502 Abteilung German Ochre oil paint thinned with odorless turpenoid. This is thinner than a wash, but not applied like a wash. Just dampen your brush and paint it onto the kit. If it’s flowing into panel lines and pooling you’re brush is too wet with filter. Depending on your thinness or desired color you may need a few layers of filter. You should wait 4-12 hours inbetween. The filter soaks into the flat paint quite nicely so try to do it before any clearcoats.

The filter will slightly modify your paint colors. You may be asking: “Why filter it at all? Why not paint it the right color from the start”. Well, sometimes it’s hard to get the right paint color as they tend to look different after sprayed from an airbrush and dry. The filter is like using Photoshop on your model to tweak the color. It also has the benefit of being uneven enough to act as the first signs of weathering and to tie unrelated colors together so that they look like they belong on the same model/saw the same conditions.

And finally for this update, some pics of the lighting. I still need to install the clear engine parts casts and the covering “grill”.