Painting: Jedi Interceptor (Micro Machines)

So today's entry features the first of my Micro Machines Star Wars model re-paints. Yes, I am planning on doing more.

Before I get to that exciting bit, a little about the Micro Machines toys/models. Some of them are quite nice. I think that their TIE fighters are well done, and I don't plan on touching a brush to them. The same goes for the Droid Trifighter, a craft I was unfamiliar with until buying the pack that has one. I will likely leave the X-wings alone, except for the two duplicates I ended up with (both are Episode 7 versions). But the ones in my collection that cry out for a paint job are the ARC-170 and the Jedi Interceptors. I think the paint sprayers at the factory must have been mis-aligned on the one I painted as the spot that was supposed to colour the R2 unit's head looked like it was sliding off over its shoulder and running onto the craft.

One other thing to mention, a person might notice the stands I made for these Micro Machines miniatures. In the 90s, Star Wars Micros came with clear plastic stands, as did Star Trek and other sci-fi models. The ones sold in stores now do not include stands, which is just as well considering the old ones had a tendency to turn yellow with prolonged exposure to air. The ones I made are just 1 1/4" squares, about 3/8" thick with a machine bolt through the center (countersunk on the bottom). The machine bolt is just the right thickness to screw into the stand holes of the Micro Machines (yes, the holes are still included though the stands are not). Then, of course, I painted them black. I will likely paint lines for fire arcs as well.

So without any further stalling, here are the pictures of my work. Since I have to of the ships, I included the as yet unpainted one as a 'before' example.

Repaint on the right!

I dry-brushed some black smudges for battle-wear or something. Dark grey for the guns and some silver highlights here and there. Was planning on using some grey as well, but I forgot about it.

Kept the thrusters black, but dry-brushed some silver on them. The R2 unit was a little tough to get looking right, but still looks better than before.

Maybe can't tell in the image, but there's some kind of conduit visible that looks good in silver with the dark grey gun above it and the kind of dark blue around it.

Front view. A bit of a bend in the plastic so one of the wings looks out of line at the front. Wanted to highlight the TIE fighter-like window on the front of the cockpit. This window is not painted in on the original, which kinda makes it look weird.

All in all, a fun project. Turned out better than expected. As all of my model painting has been so far, I used craft acrylics with an finishing clear coat of Pledge with Future Shine. Itching to do some more, but can't make up my mind about which one to do next!