So, this new Descent game looks cool. It’s got Star Wars minis in it!

Getting my pre-order of Imperial Assault at my FLGS a few days before Christmas was just what I needed to fill those days off work with something constructive.

Kids? Wife? Christmas preparations? Nah, I’m painting my toy soldiers damnit!

Real life can be a b#¤%h, but when you have almost three full weeks of from work I decided that I would be abe to both fullfill my real life obligations as well as painting the little grey and beige guys. Best of all, my son was dying to beat me as he wanted to assume command of the might of the Imperial Forces.

The first thing I needed to decide on was how to store the minis once painted. If I threw them back in the plastic bag, the paint would quickly wear off and all my ardous work ruined. Luckily I had some foam from my Warhammer days. It was just the right thickness to protect the figures and the block was both wider and broader than the box, enabling me to cut it down to fit perfectly inside the game box.

Once the foam block was inserted into the game box I put the flyer for the Ally and Villain packs on top and could then store the rest of the game components on top of it.

Also, I decided to postpone the painting of the AT-ST as it was too large to fit in the foam block.

With the storage dilemma solved, I began the fun part of painting the figures. All the colors I used are from Games Workshop’s range of Citadel colors. Also, I belong to the school of painters that think less is more when it comes to washing/shading. I always shade my minis but try to make the shading very subtle not to make the figures too dark, which it is easy to do if you go nuts with the inks/washes.

And the last point before getting to the images: the bases. Lots of images on the net of painted Imperial Assault figures show awesome bases with jungle/grass/dirt theme. I decided against that as the minis are supposed to move from grass, to desert, and to inside bases and ships. To avoid having the bases seem too out of place anywhere, I decided to paint them a light gray color.

Here are the minis:

The first type to receive the brush treatment were the Trandoshan Hunters. I decided to group them by scale color (one group green and one group yellow) and to give them individual colors on their clothing.

Next up was Darth Vader himself along with the Royal Guards. Painting black is tricky. To shade/highlight it, you drybrush a light grey on the edges of the armor, helmet and cape. Likewise, the almost completely red guards got a coat of red and were then shaded in the crevasses of the armor and wrinkles in the capes to be finished of with drybrushing a lighter shade of red on the edges and rised parts of the cape. To make Lord Vader’s lightsaber stand out as much as possible, I base coated the blade white before applying several layers of thinned down red.

To not get bored from painting the same stuff for too long, I decided that the two Nexu were next. Here, I base coated the models with the fur color I wanted, shaded with Nuln Oil, and then drybrushed several different shades of the fur color on top of that.

As far away as possible from the feral Nexu is the Probe Droid. Here I basecoated black and then drybrushed two different shades of gray before finishing off with a drybrush of a metal color.

The E-Web Engineer was basecoated white. The gun and black areas on the engineer were painted black and then the armor was painted with several thin coats of white, the crevasses in it shaded with thinned down gray. Finally, the gun was drybrushed with the same light gray color.

The Imperial Officers were painted gray and black, and shaded with Nuln Oil while the Stormtroopers were painted the same way as the E-Web Engineer above. The Stromtroopers were easily the ones that took the longest as you need to be careful when painting the black “joints” between the armor plates. Cleaning up a few black spots on the armor is no big deal, but get too much and it will take time to fix as you need to paint the white in several thinned down coats to get the best result. To differentiate the three different Stromtrooper squads, I kept one group’s right shoulder pad white, one group got red, and the final group got blue.

I saved the Heroes for last as they are the most fun to paint. The first thing I decided was to pick the stuff from their character portraits that I liked and keep that when it came to painting but if I found that some other color or mix of colors would look better I’d go for that.

To start things off, I picked Luke SKywalker. Here there were no options in colors. I knew what he looked like in the movie and went with that!

Next up was Gaarkhan. A base coat of medium brown was followed by a wash of Nuln oil and then finished off with several drybrushs of different shades of brown.

After the ferocious Wookiee, I went with the much cooler-headed veteran commander Gideon. Grey pants, orange shirt, black boots, and brown coat. All washed with Nuln Oil.

Jyn got the same gray color for her pants and black for her boots as Gideon. On her character sheet she has an orange flight jacket which I decided to paint as a vest on top of a linen white shirt (Han Solo style). After all, she is the group’s smuggler. Continuing with the black-orange contrast I gave her one black and one orange glove (perhaps she gets left and right mixed up alot).

The group’s Jedi (and Twilek), Diala, is purple on her character sheet but I decided a light green skin color would be better. Giving her red and black clothes, and a dark gray cloak would create nice contrasts.

Next up was Mak, the bothan sniper. Here I really liked the character art and decided to stay as true as possible to it.

Last of the Heroes is Fenn Signis. I wanted him to remind me of the rebel commandos accompanying Han Solo’s strike team to Endor in Return of the Jedi.

To finish this post off, here are a bunch of pictures from my sessions with Gabriel (my son) in which he beats the crap out of my heroes. I took control of four heroes while he commanded the migth of the Empire in glorious fashion. I hope you’ve enjoyed the read.

EDIT: some expansions

You did a fantastic job! Kudos to that!

Those are some lovely looking miniatures!

I've only started on my Stormtroopers so far, but really want to make a dent in the other miniatures soon.

Yesss, very nice and inspiring indeed.

No roses without thorns so a couple of humble tips/ides/suggestions (some is very personal flavored):

1: I would suggest using Ardcoat from Citadel on DV and Royal Guard helmets for extra shine and light reflection I also used it on DV lightsaber and it's really shiny&since

2: I'd use a bit heavier shading on the RG robes

But as mentioned very nice indeed. Hope to catch a game with you some day/time. If you're able to join us the 21/3-15 in Cooenhagen we will be having a large demo of all the nice FFG SW games

To add to Forensicus, you might want to add a watered down black wash to the Stormtroopers armour. Nuln Oil from GW is brilliant for this.

Then you can use some White Scar, also from GW, to re-highlight the white if required.

To add to Forensicus, you might want to add a watered down black wash to the Stormtroopers armour. Nuln Oil from GW is brilliant for this.

Then you can use some White Scar, also from GW, to re-highlight the white if required.

Yours and Forensicus' comments are noted

As I wrote in the post, I like my shading (especially on a mostly white figure) on the subtle side.

I use Nuln Oil on almost all the other minis but not on the Stormtroopers. There I shade with watered down gray to keep it as white as possible. It is, of course, a very subjective matter of taste.

To add to Forensicus, you might want to add a watered down black wash to the Stormtroopers armour. Nuln Oil from GW is brilliant for this.

Then you can use some White Scar, also from GW, to re-highlight the white if required.

Yours and Forensicus' comments are noted

As I wrote in the post, I like my shading (especially on a mostly white figure) on the subtle side.

I use Nuln Oil on almost all teh ptehr minis but not on the Stormtroopers. There I shadew with watered down gray to keep it as white as possible. It is, ofcourse, a very subjective matter of taste.

Also, photos tend to wash out the more subtler aspects of a paint job, so I guess it hides a lot of the shading on the Stormies as well.

Also, photos tend to wash out the more subtler aspects of a paint job, so I guess it hides a lot of the shading on the Stormies as well.

True. The photos always removes most of the finer details and make the Stormtroopers look mostly white.

Nicely done. Now I have to try this. Never painted a mini. Would it be too much trouble to ask what paints you used specifically? I'd hate to buy something that was able to work as well as I see in your images.

Ignore my question. I looked at the images first and asked my question before reading everything. I see the comment on Citadel paint. Sorry.

To add to Forensicus, you might want to add a watered down black wash to the Stormtroopers armour. Nuln Oil from GW is brilliant for this.

Then you can use some White Scar, also from GW, to re-highlight the white if required.

Yours and Forensicus' comments are noted

As I wrote in the post, I like my shading (especially on a mostly white figure) on the subtle side.

I use Nuln Oil on almost all the other minis but not on the Stormtroopers. There I shade with watered down gray to keep it as white as possible. It is, of course, a very subjective matter of taste.

I plan to shade one set of stormtroopers as you have done to represent a basic rookie squad and will likely use Nuln Oil on another to represent an elite squad. The models look great though and clearly it's entirely preference.

Very nice and clean painting. I can't wait to start painting mine.

Very well executed. The minis look good except for the heroes, and that is just because I personally don't like the paint scheme choices.

Very nice and clean painting. I can't wait to start painting mine.

I hope you get to it soon.

Very well executed. The minis look good except for the heroes, and that is just because I personally don't like the paint scheme choices.

When it comes to painting, much is very subjective and nothing more so than the choice of colors to use. I'd love to see your heroes if you paint them.

Said it before and I'll say it again, you did an amazing job mate! Really hope you can make it across the bridge again soon for some hygge

I hope to see Team Covenant do another set of campaign videos using them one day. It would be fun to watch.

Well done mate!

I for one thank you for posting your pics. I am just starting on my Trandoshan Hunters, and I will be using your pic of them as a guide, along with other references.

I think you've done a great job on your minis. Yeah, everyone can always do better, but hey in the long run, they're pieces for a board game.

When I get brave enough, I'll post my abominations of paintjobs.

Cheers

To add to Forensicus, you might want to add a watered down black wash to the Stormtroopers armour. Nuln Oil from GW is brilliant for this.

Then you can use some White Scar, also from GW, to re-highlight the white if required.

Yours and Forensicus' comments are noted

As I wrote in the post, I like my shading (especially on a mostly white figure) on the subtle side.

I use Nuln Oil on almost all the other minis but not on the Stormtroopers. There I shade with watered down gray to keep it as white as possible. It is, of course, a very subjective matter of taste.

Although I often like the dirty, realistic paint jobs on minis, I think the cleaner way you did your Storm Troopers really makes them look more like the movie. When you shaded them with gray, did you you thin it down to the consistency of a wash or ink? If so, did you wash the grey all over the model or did you try to keep it just in the crevaces? If not, how thick was it and how did you apply it?

Thanks again for sharing; I think you have some of the better looking storm troopers out there.

Although I often like the dirty, realistic paint jobs on minis, I think the cleaner way you did your Storm Troopers really makes them look more like the movie. When you shaded them with gray, did you you thin it down to the consistency of a wash or ink? If so, did you wash the grey all over the model or did you try to keep it just in the crevaces? If not, how thick was it and how did you apply it?

Thanks again for sharing; I think you have some of the better looking storm troopers out there.

Thank you for the kind words!

I thinned down the grey so it became like a wash. Then, I carefully applied it "only" in the crevases.

Although I often like the dirty, realistic paint jobs on minis, I think the cleaner way you did your Storm Troopers really makes them look more like the movie. When you shaded them with gray, did you you thin it down to the consistency of a wash or ink? If so, did you wash the grey all over the model or did you try to keep it just in the crevaces? If not, how thick was it and how did you apply it?

Thanks again for sharing; I think you have some of the better looking storm troopers out there.

Thank you for the kind words!

I thinned down the grey so it became like a wash. Then, I carefully applied it "only" in the crevases.

Thanks for the quick feedback. I am going to try it with a test mini this weekend.

Thanks for the quick feedback. I am going to try it with a test mini this weekend.

Any results?

Freaking amazing!

Those are great! I wish I had the patience and skill.

I've just got to find someone local to paint a set for me...

Beautiful! I was inspired to start painting mine as well. I use Vallejo paints, which work well as well. It becomes really fun when you really dive deep into it and blast some Star Wars music while painting. I prefer not to start playing this game until all figs are done with paint.