I did some upgrades from the old days...

http://imgur.com/a/x5rJW

It's nowhere near as good as some other stuff I've seen but it will do.

That's what I'm going to use til I get round to painting the ones in the box ;-)

why cant you paint? dosent have to be a golden demon paintjob. i have seen people spray paint the miniatures with a single colour which is good enough for the table top. Or go a little bit furthur applying a basecoat and using army painter quickshade.

I bet you could paint if you wanted to! give it a go, cant be worse than the paint job on the WOTC miniatures!

"there is no try!"

I've been told "Do not"..

Lets just say I look like a preschooler after attempting any kind of paint jobs... Last miniatures I painted Literately Melted... I didn't know some paints did that. The next set stayed sticky... still are sticky lol. So yea I don't try, i just Don't there is no do or try in this case for poor little me. However when I was shopping on miniature market there seemed to be a learn to paint miniatures by numbers kit that perked my interest.

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/rpr8904.html

But at that price I might as well pay somebody a premium to do my figures for me

Sounds like you just had the wrong kind of paints. Try acrylics next time. They are cheap and they aren't sticky like enamels can be (though I think the problem is that you probably didn't thin your enamels before applying them to the figure).

If you find painting to be daunting and a chore, it's probably better to skip it. I'm relatively new to painting and I have been enjoying it thoroughly. Tonight, I finally got around to the heroes and it was really fun mixing colors to get the right tones and applying it to my heroes to make them come to life.

One tip, if you do decide to paint. Start with the easy figures and move up to the harder ones. I recommend saving Vader and the heroes for last because they have a lot of details. When you're just starting, you don't feel comfortable tackling those, but for me, by time I got through all the Imperial figures, I felt ready to add extra detail to the heroes. It was a blast!

and save your money on learn to paint kits, when there are hundreds of videos online with tutorials showing you exactly what to do. i cant recommend The Army Painter enough for producing some high quality results with minimum effort (once you get used to their Quickshade), you would be amazed what you can achieve.

Agree with above poster, start on an easy one first. Imp officer was easy, mainly grey, bit of black, touch of flesh and done!

good luck with it!

Even if you think you lack the painting skills, you would be surprised how some simple, quick, "low-skill required" paint jobs make the models "pop" on the tabletop. You dont need to really go into the details of making every insignia or eyeball perfect, but here are some examples:

• Stormtroopers: They look great with black ink over white spray primer. Extremely easy to do, doesnt take very long, and you'll be amazed at what you get. Additonally, we are seeing many people painting one shoulder of the troopers a solid color to make squads of 3 easier to differentiate.
  
• Honor Guard: White primer, and then painting them with an even coat of red with a dark red (or brown) wash makes them look great.
  
• Nexu & Garkaan: Black Primer, a coat of brown, and a darker brown wash. Gives them excellent definition.
  
• Darth Vader: Spray prime black. Paint his lightsaber white, let that dry and then paint it red. Who would dare question the paint job of a Sith Lord?
  
• Probe Droids: Spray prime black, then dry brush with a grey of your choice. Deploy to Hoth System for contrast.
  
• Imperial Officers: They're mostly gray, black boots, give them a flesh tone of your choice. Personally, I like Chiss blue, but the Empire isnt too tolerant of aliens.

These are just some examples of what you can paint quickly and with relatively low skill and get the most out of your models. Who knows, perhaps seeing how the first steps turn out will inspire you to take them to the next level?

the army painter starter set is a great jumping off point and cost effective

K i tried

http://imgur.com/gkMms5v

I might be able to pull something off on the easy ones.

"There. You see? You can do it."

--Obi-Wan Kenobi, A New Hope

LOL

Well the Paint seems to be too thick on most my stuff. I'm trying to "dry" brush. ... the Royal guards and probe droids are looking good but I think I really screwed up on the troopers, even after washing and scrubbing them.

Hopefully a co-worker of mine can show me the light and show me his dry brush technique.

The key to a good dry brush is to make sure that almost all the paint is off the brush before you start dry brushing.

You should be using a palate so that you can monitor the consistency of the paint, and add water when required to make sure the paint doesn't go on too thick, but for now, let's say you are dipping your brush right into the paint pot.

What you will do is paint onto a paper towel or a clean napkin, something that isn't totally flat and has some grooves you can see when you brush. Once most of the paint is off the brush (you will be able to tell after doing this a few times on the paper towel/napkin), then start dry brushing the model itself, and brush very lightly. Don't press too hard or the brush will go in the nooks and crannies and you don't want that with a dry brush.

Something I learned about dry brushing recently is that you usually want to use the flat part of the brush. You want to drag the brush along the figure, but you don't want to press the bristles into the figure. I made this mistake on the AT-ST and it lost a lot of the wash effect. I tried the new way on Gaarkhan and Luke's hair and the effect was much nicer.

When spraying the primer, do you guys cover the base of the miniature? I'm about to do my first one but not sure how to proceed for the base

I use paint-on primer and I prime the base so I can paint over it. I haven't primed the bottom of the bases, and don't know if there is a need to.

I'm also at a loss for how much varnish to put on. Obviously you want to do thin layers, but how many layers is sufficient for protection? I just don't know.

ok... thanks... You guys give awesome tips

Guess I'll try and see... so scared to ruin the figure...

The best part about acrylics is that if you totally botch your paint jobe, toothbrush and some soapy water will let you start all over. Of course, it's rare that you would want to start all over. Usually you can salvage simple mistakes. And other times, you just accept a few defaults. My figures certainly could have used a ateadier hand, especially around the faces. But they're tabletop ready and that's what counts.

I've been told "Do not"..

Lets just say I look like a preschooler after attempting any kind of paint jobs... Last miniatures I painted Literately Melted... I didn't know some paints did that. The next set stayed sticky... still are sticky lol. So yea I don't try, i just Don't there is no do or try in this case for poor little me. However when I was shopping on miniature market there seemed to be a learn to paint miniatures by numbers kit that perked my interest.

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/rpr8904.html

But at that price I might as well pay somebody a premium to do my figures for me

I'm with you. I'd love to have painted figures but it's just not going to happen if I'm the one to do it. If I could find someone who wanted to paint my set, great. Otherwise an out of the box gray or brown might be the best I get.

stripping a botched paint job is easy. I messed up the atst. soaked him in brown Dettol (dont know what its called outside UK, its a strong brown disinfectant - not shops own, it never works, gotta be original). Left him in for half an hour, and gave a gentle scrub with toothbrush. Dettol eats the paint, but caused no damage to the model (not sure about soaking for longer periods). Mini comes out clean, smooth and pine fresh, perfect for Endor lol!

Thining your paint and using multiple coats can make you botch a job less, as it dosent clog details up, especially when you want a smooth coat over armour.

And again, i cant recommend Army Painter enough for their quickshade (but does take some practice!)

Most importantly of all though, enjoy it!

I would say give it a shot. I'm colorblind and have never painted miniatures. I had a lot of fun painting mine. Are they perfect...no. Have I had some negative comments from miniature painters...yes. I don't care. It's my game, and painting the miniatures made them more mine.

the army painter starter set is a great jumping off point and cost effective

colors for mini painting and cost effective in one sentence? that's bold.

ok, it might be in relation to their color range and/or similar products of the competition, but in general terms...

let's say I restocked a few colors last weekend and for the same amount of money I probably could have painted my living room and probably the kitchen too - with different paints obviously....

IA as a singular instance is a bit difficult since you need a relative wide range (depending on your amount of details) of colors for relative few units of each combination - it isn't as if it were just one army with an uniform paint scheme.

Just as a warning to any new painter.

with that out of the way - I agree with the others painting itself is fun and with the limited number of total minis not too big of a task.

side note painting is like the dark side

"Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."

I become more pumped in painting whenever I listen to SW sound tracks or put in the movies and just listen to the dialogs. Helps me focus and paint with a clear head.

As most have mentioned, do the easier miniatures first (the characters that have two tone colors or mono) then work your way up.

You can always leave the shading, detailing and finishes until everything is done...

Just wondering, what mini did you use for the Jyn proxy??

I would agree you should try I have never painted minis before the only miniature game I ever played before this is X-Wing and I'm really enjoying using painted minis they really add to the theme while playing I learned here:

All those placeholders fit really well into their counterparts!

That being said, give painting a try! Practice on the older minis if you like! Definitely invest in washes and a drybrush (don't use them together, they are for different stages of painting).