As part of how I spent my summer, I dipped my toe into the Star Wars Legion camp and tried my hand at painting up another couple expansions...and at the same time I took a piece from the Imperial Assault Corebox to keep myself pushing through those figures.
The figure that took the longest to tackle was Darth himself...I really wanted to nail this one and to have a good colour scheme that went a little beyond just black or drybrush of grey. I also took the time to try my hand at painting the colour pattern that would have been thrown off by D.V.'s lightsaber...I have never tried this type of effect before and found it to be interesting...a nice finish to the figure.
I think I prefer the pics without the flash...it certainly threw some shadow behind the figure, but brightened it up to much for my taste.
The speeder bikes were a fairly quick paint...they don't really require all that much...I took a little extra time to give them a beat up look...the idea being that they're fielded by an imperial unit that is on the fringe of the verse and has been in garrison too long...I like how the weathering turned out...and I also made sure to 'dust' up the riders as well...there's no way that armour is staying nice and white for long.
Thanks as always for the looking...I hope you enjoy!
As the title says, sometimes it is hard to feel like you're making progress, but it is a little bit at a time. Sometime around late January and into February and March, I finished the last 2 officers from the Imperial Assault core box as well as a 'gimme' figure from my buddy Mike. He had bought into one of Mantic Kickstarters and received a few extra figs that he, most graciously shared with me at some point last year.
The Imperial Assault officers were fun...as a trio, they unfortunately do have the same pose, however this just meant I had to find a way to differentiate them all. The first officer was completed back in November and was painted as a deck officer on a Star Destroyer.
The last two needed something special to set them apart...I have been somewhat intrigued from the various and recent Star Wars movies and wanted to find out the difference in uniform types. Inspired by my research I chose to paint up a Stormtrooper Officer (in black) and an Intelligence Officer (in white tunic and black trousers)...they seemed different and dynamic enough to work and it seemed obvious to have either officer attached to a section of troops that I based them to fit in line with my previous Stormtroopers.
The figure that Mike ended up giving me was a Zombie Troll...and to be brutally honest I did not really expect much from this figure...it was a plastic type resin model...big and troll-like as well...it was only after I put the base layer of colour on that the figure started to reveal itself.
I am pretty happy with how it came out...the colours and tones were very challenging and definitely something that I OCDed over...then to top it off, I could not get a decent photo...I tried three times and settled for some 'okay' pics...however on Monday I deleted them all, brought the mini to my sunroom for some very natural lighting and tried again...these pics are definitely much much improved over my last attempts.
I hope you enjoy.
A variety of fleshtones and guts and a little gore...I wanted to emphasize the tension on the wound areas...dimpling and scaring where it looks like old weathered, 'dead' flesh has lost all life and hydration...
Just a quick post as I get back to a little Imperial Assault painting...I finally managed to get the last batch of Stormtroopers from the core set completed. I had already gone through the majority of the troopers and some additions from the expansion blister.
With some distractions from The Walking Dead, Team Yankee, and Flames of War getting in the way it felt pretty good knowing there were no more Stormtroopers on my workbench. I used the same technique as I had with all the previous others (thank you Sorastro!!) and am very happy now that I finally have a way to consistently paint up white.
I hope that the blahs have evaded everyone out there...any advice or constructive criticism is always appreciated.
Take care folks! Here are the pics...
these last 3 will round out what I need to have 2 complete sections of troops...the only thing missing for these sections are the heavy troopers...they're in the queue...and they'll be done down the road.
I thought I'd throw up a quick post...keep up the current momentum and get my progress documented and up. I'm still making my way through the Imperial Assault core box as well as random expansions and blisters.
I had not tackled an Imperial Officer yet, so I thought I would give it a shot along with a couple more Stormtoopers. I only have a few more to go through, so it's pretty nice to be see that part close out...as I posted before, I currently have my Stormtroopers based according to 2 distinctive basing schemes...with these last 2 done it is the final troop for the dried out mud flat scheme...my next few will be the other scheme and then I'll move on to a couple of heavy troopers per section.
I elected to paint up the Imperial Officer as if he was on a ship or installation with the stereotypical Star Wars highly shone floors...I did a little research into uniform colours and rank structures...my senior officer is suitably attired for service on a ship...I the next 2 will be painted up as Stormtrooper Officer (black) and Intelligence Officer (white tunic, black/grey trousers).
Anyway, as I said a quick one...you've heard me type the words before on the Stormtrooper guys...so enjoy the pics.
I was still having troubles with camera stuff and me...so I only ended up with one salvable pic of the officer...but the others look pretty good.
I hope everyone is safe and doing well...I have been plugging away at the figures from the Imperial Assault Core Set (or corset according to a recent typo of mine on TMP, lol) and had made some progress in August and into September. I am still an avid fan of Sorastro and have come to rely on his videos as a constant source of inspiration and some how-to steps along the way.
If you haven't seen his videos yet, CHECK THEM OUT, you won't regret it...my son and I had gotten some Assault games in near the end of summer and are having a great time with the game...the lad is very 'helpful' in pushing me to keep painting the figures, and I certainly notice he is much keener to play with the painted up figs...
I decided to paint up his favourite mini in the box...and have linked Sorastro's video below...without a doubt my son loves the Imperial Probe Droids...much of this stems from some rule misunderstandings him and I had in playing with/against them, but even since we ironed those kinks out he still prefers the droid...so, I thought I'd make them next on the workbench.
In this case, I did lend heavily from Sorastro's video and went with some hints of metaillic/gunmetal with these figures. Because there are 3 of them I decided to base each of them differently, I went with the 2 types I've been using so far with my Stormtroopers and the 3rd one I based in a Hoth style basing...I also painted that one up with a blue metallic tone...I'm really happy with how it turned out and I don't think I would have had the idea without watching the video first.
1st droid based using Agrellan Mud for the texture look, 2nd ala Hoth, 3rd using Stirland Mud with desert yellow underneath
Hoth droid...I really like how the Drakenhoff Nightshade changes the feel of the mini and adds some great character...
I used an Army Painter strong and dark tone wash on the other 2 droids to give it a dustier hue...again, very happy with how the washes are working for me...
The next figure I tackled was Luke...this one came with the Core Set and features a Death Star themed Luke as he's firing a Stormtrooper's blaster and wearing one of their utility belts...because of this, I simply went with an all black base finished with 'Ardcoat to give it that nice floor shine that the Death Star is known for...
The next fig's I tackled were the Nexu...it took some internet googling to see where these guys were from...I hadn't seen Attack of the Clones in some time so had forgotten about these ones...while there is a great video on how Sorastro painted these guys up, when my son and I saw them all we could think of was our cats...or even Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon...
Am I wrong...or do you see it too...anyway, we have a very black cat that reminds me of Toothless and a greyish coloured Maine Coon cat...
I wanted to have some contrast between the 'hair' or spines on the back and the rest of the colour...these reminded me of the quills on a porcupine so I tried to emulate them in the painting...
It took me a bit to figure out how to paint these guys up...I think I had them on the painting table for a week or two until the colours started coming to me...I'm happy with how they turned out...they are less 'stripy' than any google images I saw, but given the inspiration I used, I'm very happy with the end result.
Take care...
Painting so far in 2017:
If you read all the way to the bottom of my last post, you'll see that I had made some recent purchases and had gotten some 'dad' gifts from the family...adding all these up into the tally below has really changed my +/- progress, but I will see how much in the + I can bring the progress bar in...looking forward to tracking it.
Painted:
28mm - 64
15mm - 17
Bought: 28mm - 93 (+40, added Imperial Assault Twin Shadows expansion; The Walking Dead Core set, Neegan pack, Sara pack, Days Gone By expansion; and a few single figures and scatter pieces) vehicle - 1
