Star Wars Armada Collaboration

Introduction

Tacticool Solutions are a 3D printer here in the UK  who currently specialise in custom Star Wars Armada and Star Wars Legion models.  I spotted some of the models on eBay and thought that they’d be great to paint.

After reaching out to Tacticool Solutions we agreed that I’d paint up a bunch of their spare ships, with a few ends in mind:

• The painted ships would help promote Tacticool’s 3D printing business
• They would help promote my own commission painting business
• I could get to paint some cool looking ships without having to shell out for them
• We could experiment with selling the painted model afterwards
• And perhaps most importantly. I’d have the opportunity to learn a new painting style for Star Wars Armada ships

Getting Started – Some Small Ships

From the bunch of Star Wars Armada ships that I received from Tacticool Solutions,  I chose 3 small ones to start with.

MC40 Light Cruiser

I love the MCxx Calamari Ships as they require a different approach to the Imperial ships. Their long “smooth” hulls suit a more blended and/or patchy colour scheme, and having fewer sharp angles, they benefit less from dry-brushing when it comes to adding highlights.

My plan here is to try out a very strong colour scheme based in dark grey, brown and rusty orange.  (This scheme was inspired by a windows login screen photo!)

Gladiators Star Destroyers

For the Gladiators, I wanted to do something military and Imperial friendly (after all, we might want to sell the ships). The plan is to do two different “off greys”, one probably being the Panzer Grey that I used on a my recent commission work (see the Providence Carrier and Dreadnoughts which I’ll link too if I remember)

I also want to explore a new painting style for Star Wars Armada ships – inspired by some of the work I’ve seen in the old FFG forums under a post entitled “Vykes Shipyard”

New Painting Style – “Vykes Shipyard”

When I first started painting Star Wars Armada ships I was blown away by some of the work done by other artists in the community. One artist in particular had painted a whole host of ships under a post entitled “Vykes Shipyard” in the old Fantasy Flight Games forums.  Sadly, most of the original images are no longer available, but some copies of them can be found on sites like Pintrest.  I have uploaded an example here.

Vyke posted a brief text tutorial on how he painted his ships – I shall follow this to some extent and see how I get on!