WIP: Bandai TIE Interceptor (181st Imperial Fighter Wing)

I had a little bit of spare time so I decided to throw together this Bandai 1/72 TIE Interceptor. Being a fan of the X-Wing Miniatures tabletop game, I decided to paint it as a member of the 181st Imperial Fighter Wing, specifically Soontir Fel's fighter. In the tabletop game, Fel has a reputation of being one of the best pilots the Empire can field and this is based on his storied history of fighting the Rebel Alliance (and later the New Republic) in the various Rogue Squadron novels.

The model was primed black and then given a coat of Alclad Aluminium (ALC-101). I sponged some Vallejo Liquid Mask on areas where chipping would most likely appear (hatches, leading edges, etc.) and then applied some light preshading with Tamiya Rubber Black (XF-85). I mixed a nice blue-grey Tamiya Neutral Grey (XF-53), Flat White (XF-2), and Medium Blue (XF-18) at about 70% Neutral Grey to 30% Flat White with a couple of drops of Medium Blue added. (Truth be told, I probably couldn't recreate this color if I tried!) The panels on the wings were primed black and painted with a 5:1 mix of Vallejo Game Air Black (72.751) and Vallejo Model Air Arctic Blue (71.071), which is a metallic blue to give the panels a bit of a bluish tint and a nice iridescent shimmer. The telltale marking of the 181st, the "bloodstripe," was masked off with Tamiya tape and painted with Tamiya Flat Red (XF-7) with some liquid mask applied with a piece of torn foam for the chipping. Various panels and greeblies on the ship were painted with a dark grey I mixed using Tamiya Neutral Grey and Rubber Black.

All that is left to do is an enamel pin wash to bring out the details and a little more weathering, using mainly oils and enamels.