Unpainted panels on a TIE fighter?

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**Breotan**

I recently purchased a 1/72 TIE fighter kit from Bandai and was wondering if it would be best to leave the black "solar panels" unpainted. The grey/white framework that holds the panels are separate pieces and I can paint them easily. Doing it this way has the advantage of leaving the solar panels shiny and a bit reflective while the frame is not. I just don't know if this will look bad on a finished model or not.

**ScootyPuffJunior**

Definitely paint. Large pieces like that tend to have pour lines visible and paint hides them.

I paint mine with black mixed with a tiny bit of blue metallic so they have a slight iridescent look to them and it ties in with the cool greys that I paint TIEs.

**Breotan**

That looks very nicely done.

I wonder, do you think priming it black and then using a very thinned mix of Leadbelcher and Drakenhof Nightshade would produce a favorable result?

**ScootyPuffJunior**

Breotan wrote:
That looks very nicely done.

I wonder, do you think priming it black and then using a very thinned mix of Leadbelcher and Drakenhof Nightshade would produce a favorable result?

Thanks!

To be honest, I'm not very familiar with either of those colors, so I can't say for sure. I'm assuming Leadbelcher is similar to the old Boltgun Metal? If so, I'd say it's too light, but if you thinned it out and misted it with an airbrush over a black base coat, it might be okay. (I would test it on a paint mule first.)

Another thing I've done is prime them black and give them a light coat of Alclad Steel (Vallejo Metal Color Steel would work for this too). It's in a 1/144 scale TIE Striker that I started on months ago. I'll take a picture of it when I get home from work tonight.