Intergalactic Empire Productions

Greetings denizens of the Empire! Today we are continuing to eliminate our pile of shame, this time focusing on the TIE Superiority Fighter. This fighter is the most common fighter employed by the Empire and is mass produced to make up for its lack of individual quality. As such, we will spend time painting them and then watch them die early game to a single Nebulon B.

The first thing you will notice if you have not already done so, is that their wings break off really easily. I have one myself pictured at the end. I am experimenting with them being mid crash/explosion as a fun way to salvage them without trying to get those wings to stay on and will upload that how to once I get it down to a science.

Like before, I prefer Games Workshop paints because of their quality, but this is not a sponsorship or promotion. Today we will be using Base Mephiston Red, Layer Ulthuan Grey, Dry Stormfang, Base Abaddon Black, and Shade Nuln Oil.

We are going to start with Base Abaddon Black. As mentioned in my previous TIE Bomber post, we are going to try inverting the window painting order. Paint the canopy glass and frame black as well as the exhaust port on the back. We will come back later to fill in the solar panels, but not right now. It is easier to do trim this way in my experience.

Now that the cockpit has black panes, we are going to give the fighters their base colors. Like before, I prefer my heroes to stand out. Keeping in line with several imperial aces in X Wing Miniatures, I did one red using Base Mephiston Red for each hero. Their wing mates should stand out too. Lore wise their is Obsidian Squadron which flies all black TIE Fighters, but they don’t stand out well.

Instead, I opted for the veteran wingmen to use the classic blue grey (achieved by painting Layer Ulthuan Grey and then Dry Stormfang on top of it).

The standard highly expendable fighters were painted classic light grey using Layer Ulthuan Grey. These colors will correct themselves shortly.

When going over the cockpits, do so lightly without a fresh dab of paint so only the frame catches the color. You can dry brush, but it shouldn’t be necessary. I thought they came out better than doing it in reverse like I did with the bombers!

Next we are going to use Base Abaddon Black again, but this time painting the solar panels in. The outside is pretty easy to see, but the interior of the wings is not detailed. I chose to draw them in by hand. They did not come out perfect but did help with the immersion. As tiny as these things are, and the afore mentioned Nebulons, this should be good enough for the table. NOTE: The Abaddon Black is very thick. I highly recommend rinsing your brush thoroughly and wiping the excess off after each fighter to prevent sticking and brush clogging.

After this is done, cleanup the edges of the panels where the black bled over and then use Shade Nuln Oil. This will bring out details such as the cockpit hatch and color correct the grey and blue grey colors.

All done! How did we do today? I possibly made the mistake of doing 5 squadrons at once. The panel repetition was brutal at 24 panels per fighter, but we got there!