Topic: My First Custom Painted vehicals

[finn]

Hello to everyone this is my first post of my first custom paint job of a Star Wars ship. I had gotten my hands on a Vintage B-Wing that had a tad bit of a yellowing issue so I decided to try my hand at painting the whole ship.
The first step was to take the whole thing apart and cleaned it all up and made sure the electronics worked. I painted the cannons flat black and the tips silver and red to give them some detail. The cockpit, battery cover, landing gear, wing tips and base a deep grey. I added some color to the detail parts of the cockpit to make it more interesting and not as bland.
To finish off the B-Wing's body I mixed up a flat off white paint mix and air brushed the whole body of the B-Wing. Once that was dry I thinned out some flat black and did a wet wash to add some weathering to it.
All I need to do now is print up the Vintage decals to finish it off.
Well I hope you like it and please.... be kind lol!

[clone10]

That ship is awesome!!!

[wraithnine]

very very cool

[finn]

Here is my 2nd custom painted offering to the Yards. I had the Speeder bike  when it first came out when I was a kid... and as time went on and I grew out of the toys I think I sold it in a yard sale. Lucky me that my lil brother knew that I loved that toy and last year he found a Power of the Force 2 Speeder Bike in an unopened box somewhere and gave it to me for my birthday. I always remembered it being a cool toy and I'll admit that I found it lacking in the details now that I am older. So out came the model paints and the details were filled in to make it more realistic, at least I think so. I didn't want to change too much just enough to make it more intreasting.

[finn]

I got a Power of the Force 2 A-Wing and I was going to leave it alone and just enjoy one of my favorite fighters of Jedi. When I got it I was surprised to see that even though it didn't have any electronics that it did still have the battery compartment. The clear plastic pieces on the engine were begging to be backlit so I decided to play around with some LED's and see what I could make happen. After I had all the wiring done and the A-Wing was still in pieces I decided that the landing gear need to be weatherd cause it just looked too plastic and fake, even for a toy. Can someone tell me why they use that ugly blue tinted and super pale grey plastic? Please?
So anyway here is the A-Wing as it sits now. Guns, rear engine panel and landing gear painted and the LED's all wired up and looking nice. Oh and don't mind the rubber band it was the only thing I could think to use keep the button down for the "lasers" to stay on for the photos.

[finn]

chirp... chirp...chirp....

come folks I would love some critizim good and bad. Any tips or suggestions would be welcome.

[Clonehead]

Hey Finn, welcome to the yards! I like what you have done here and am loving the detail painting on that speeder bike the most. Looking sharp buddy.

I want to see some more.

[finn]

Hey Finn, welcome to the yards! I like what you have done here and am loving the detail painting on that speeder bike the most. Looking sharp buddy.

I want to see some more.

Thank you very much Clonehead. I've been lurking here for a lil while now and I was a bit worried about posting these up because I have been blown away with the work of folks like Hangerbay, Darthxux, Sprywalker and Screaming Samurai too name a few of the many.

I have a few other WIP's that aren't quite ready yet to be shown. I will post a photo of it so far. I am working on an X-Wing but I am not sure how I want to proceed with it.

Also I was lucky enough to score a Vintage Imperial Shuttle the other day that was so damn cheap it was almost a crime. It is in near perfect condition with only 1 sticker missing and some scratching on the cargo/passenger door. All the parts are present and the electronics even work too. So now I have to decide if I want to work on it or sell it on Ebay for about 3 times or more then what I paid for it!

If I were to modify the shuttle I was thinking of adding in some interior LED’s to the cargo/passenger area along with a nice detail paint job inside to get rid of all that white! I would also treat the outside to a nice wash to give the details a chance to pop more instead of getting lost.

[spudafett]

ugh... I've been trying to get one of those shuttles for years, can't EVER find a good deal. 

the lighting on your A-wing looks great, I guess you already know this but the reason for the battery compartment still being present in the vehicle is it's a left-over from the original A-wing which was released in the "droids" line way back when... when POTF vehicles came out they were just cast from the same molds but didn't have the electronics put in.  In fact the y-wings are the same way I believe, they have a battery compartment but no internals.

[finn]

ugh... I've been trying to get one of those shuttles for years, can't EVER find a good deal. 

the lighting on your A-wing looks great, I guess you already know this but the reason for the battery compartment still being present in the vehicle is it's a left-over from the original A-wing which was released in the "droids" line way back when... when POTF vehicles came out they were just cast from the same molds but didn't have the electronics put in.  In fact the y-wings are the same way I believe, they have a battery compartment but no internals.

Thanks Spudafett!!

Well Spudafett you would really hate yourself if I told you the price I paid for it. I mean really, really kick yourself! It was also local so I could see it before I paid for it too! Winning!

Yea I found out about the battery and electronics that were left out from that release but thank you for the info nonetheless.

Yea I have the TRU Y-Wing with the weird silver painted EU color scheme and it too has a battery compartment but indeed lacks internals and the button as well. I have been looking at it and trying to figure out how and where I would add in any LED's. So far I am coming up blank. I got the Y-Wing with the intention of simply repainting it but now the color scheme is growing on me.

The later version of the A-Wing from the "Saga" line is from the same mold and has the same empty battery bay. In fact the only changes I can see in any of the A-Wing releases, besides the color and weathering, are the lack of the Droid’s sound effects, better landing gear after the POF line and the last release in the Legacy Collection got a much needed cockpit upgrade with a realistic looking console (I would love if someone would make a mold of those controls so I could graft them into my A-Wings!) Yet it did loose the really cool clear engine inserts.

I do think that the A-Wing is one of the best-scaled and most accurate ships of the original line. Even more so with the updated cockpit it really is a great toy.

[hangarbay94]

Finn, sorry I haven't made any comments yet, I've been away and have some serious catching up to do.

My fist impressions of your customs are very positive, you are taking a lot of care not to add too much, and these subtle changes finish these models off perfectly. There is nothing wrong with Hasbro's paint jobs, they just need a bit of fine tuning, and that is exactly what you have done here. You are obviously a perfectionist...

I wanted to add LED lights to my A-Wing but I don't have the patience, so I bow to you sir! Your work is now featured on the front page as it is well deserving of some attention.

Now... what more do you have in store as you have wet my appetite.

[finn]

First off I need to say THANKS!!!! For the front-page spot I don’t think I deserved that… yet. It’s a really cool honor and I am stoked about it.

Wow to know that I have peaked Hangerbay’s interest is amazing! You have no idea how sick my wife is of me always saying,” hey honey come take a look at this paint job” and “hey babe isn’t this realistic looking? Do you think I could do that to mine?” and the best reply I get from her is…” if I have to look at another one of those photos your sleeping in the guest room tonight!” I love that guest room mattress it is so comfy.

The LED wiring wasn’t too hard at all Hangerbay. The hardest part was figuring out where to put them. The laser ones were easy and a no brainier. The engines ones took a few minutes and were changed twice before I was happy. I will be happy to post photos of all the wiring so you, and others, can see it. Also its very easy to do and this is coming from a guy how is nervous changing out a light switch in fear he is going to screw it up. I had my wife’s uncle help me out because he is great with electric stuff and I wanted guidance on it. Now I am positive I can do it myself and I have another A-Wing to do still as well.

I agree for the most part that the original paint schemes just need that last little bit to get them to look correct. I really wish they had taken the time to just do it right the first time. Of course if they had we wouldn’t be doing all of this now would we, Still they have show how detailed they can get in crafting the figures and even the newer guns have 2 or 3 colors but the vehicles still seem to lag behind in the detail area. My biggest personal peeve has to be the colors of the plastics they have used, the biggest problem being the X-Wing cockpits in that damn light blue color!

Well I have 2 X-Wings that I am working on currently. I have the cockpit interiors all done and now I am just trying to figure out what to do on the outsides. One is the Luke Skywalker and the other is the Wedge ship. It is interesting that the Luke one has sticker markings and the Wedge has painted ones. Not sure if I want to try my hand at making new stickers or masking off the Luke ship and painting the correct markings on it.

Hangerbay how do you get the paint chips like on the ARC-170 you recently mailed off to that poor kid? (very classy of you my wife and I both agreed btw)

Also has anyone else noticed that the Wedge X-Wing doesn’t have the stickers on the console like the other X-Wing’s have had? Or maybe it’s just mine that doesn’t.  I am referring to the ones just under the front of the cockpit?

[hangarbay94]

Finn thanks for the hype, but really I'm just a run of the mill customiser just like yourself!

I'm right with you on the spare bed scenario, I've actually put a memoryfoam topper on my spare bed comfy as hell! Oh and the wife stuff stopped after she came downstairs one night and found that I'd created the Death Star hangar in our living room, she gave up after that and took up Jewellery making

Down to the serious business of custom paintwork. The paint scratch effect is very simple if you use the correct materials, and so is masking. I used to hate using masking tape as the paint always used to run under the tape, that was until I purchased some Tamaya Masking Tape...try it, it's awesome. For the scratching effect I use another Tamaya product called liquid mask, it's a rubbery compound that sets in seconds and forms a paintproof barrier. Once paint has been applied simply rub off the liquid mask with your finger and there you have it. I apply the liquid mask lightly with the coarse side of a dishwashing sponge to create the effect. 

I would also recommend saving up for an airbrush, badger make some great cheap ones, and they work great with acrylics, so it's easy to clean and odourless. You just need to make sure you clean the brush thoroughly after each use...

[finn]

Yea I haven’t gotten that far as setting Dio’s up anywhere…yet, but she knows it is coming. I already am a member of your site and grabbed the freebee downloads to help with the backdrops if and when I do the dios.

I did get a cheap Testor’s Air brush (runs on cans of condensed air) to see if I liked it and if I showed any aptitude towards using it. So far I have enjoyed the results and I really like how smoothly the paint lays and its so nice not having brush strokes showing. I will upgrade to a better airbrush sometime in the future but that is the future. As for paints all I use is Testor’s since that is what I used as a child growing up.

I will hit the hobby stores and look at the products you suggested. I remember seeing them on the shelves but now I will really look or them and give them a try.

I have been looking into the water-float decals like I remember as a kid on my models. I see that you can now make them on your home printer. I think that these would be a great way to add certain details like logos, nose art, danger or intake warnings and whatnot to a ship. I need to look more into them to see if it is worth it though. Any thoughts?

Oh and the guest bed mattress is my old mattress from my house before we were married. So it is my favorite as I spent a lot of money on it and a lot of time breaking it in lol!

[hangarbay94]

Finn,

I used the printable decals on my ARC fighter to create the Rancor nose art and kill decals, they work great. They are slightly thicker than the ones you get with model kits, but its hardly noticeable. You need to buy a can of Acrylic Lacquer as you have to give them a couple of coats of the stuff to stop the printer ink running.

I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on with the products I recommended!

All the best,

Jules