GRADE: C+ I gave it a good try; Vader is the most iconic sci-fi figure maybe in movie history. I hoped to make his figure meet that standard. I came … close…. ish. My Vader’s biggest problem was how I used the grays to accentuate the helmet and hands; I made Vader look more “drab” than “dark.” And his chest plate could have been cleaner. But, interestingly enough, I liked the way the lightsaber came out and I thought the red glow worked (mostly), and his eyes and body do seem to show that blur of evil and action.

Grade: C+/B- I can’t complain too much because the Officers’, truth be told, are hard to mess up. I liked them so much I dabbled in some alternatives. The third officer in this picture has ebony skin and gray hair; the last one has black tendrils going through his skin, an intentional adaptation to show his corruption to the Dark Side. The uniforms came out with good character and the faces generally looked accurate. On the down-side, I didn’t like the blue uniform shades, but would have preferred to keep them gray. I also lacked the skill to nail the skin and hair as well as I should.

I then tackled the Grand Admirals, using the cover art from “Heir to the Empire” as a guide. Thrawn- as you can see- came out fine, skin maybe looks more “Smurf” than “Chiss,” but otherwise strong; the epaulettes stuck to the shoulders better than I anticipated and overall I thought Thrawn’s eyes worked. The Grand Admiral on the right- with the eye-patch- also came out good and the patch was an intentional choice, not a cover-up. His skin came off as “dirtier” than I wanted and a big problem is that no Grand Admiral would wear that hat, but all things considered delving into this area was gratifying (the Noghri is just for show).

GRADE: B- Maybe the best overall model in the set, the AT-ST is a fantastic miniature; easy to build and a lot of fun to paint. Sorastro did a wonderful vid on this and gave a lot of insight into weather damage and corrosive effects. I am pleased, generally, with the results: I like that the AT-ST has that “lived-in” look; rust, corrosion, dirt, grime, etc. And I like the ground effects for the feet. Unfortunately, some of my markings look gloppy, thick and phony. And worse still: the rust effects make it look like I ate too many Cheetoes and got the dusty cheese on the models’ legs. Still, a solid – but not fantastic- result.

Grade: B The Probe Droids are a simple model that I understood immediately how to tackle. I like the spidery, inhuman quality to the droid, and the black and silver colors compliment the droid’s inorganic body. I tried one set with black primer (3 to left), and another with Gray (3 to right) and I think the black worked a bit better. Sorastro made a great point of making one eye white to give the droid a focal point. This was a great result; I also liked his addition of glossy black lenses to the remaining eyes to give the droids a strange duality: its not alive, but the glassy-eyes give it a life-like feel. I tried to improve upon that with the three “color” eyes on the gray droids, but the results were a big miss, making the droids appear almost festive and bright in contrast to Sorastro’s menacing “black eyed” probes.

Grade: B+ My first real hit, the Nexu model is wonderful and Sorasro’s vid is tremendous. The result is a well-executed- but vividly imperfect – attempt. On the plus side, the Next look alive- fury, ferocious, hungry and mean; the teeth are bright, mouth wide; fur streaming and spikes bristling. I did a few variations on the under-coating (ie: look at the feet of the one on the left and compare it to the one on the far right) as well as the eye color (again, the second one from the left- the blacked-out left eye is intentional).

In terms of overall quality, this is one of my best attempts. But it still has problems. My stripes look more akin to an S&M outfit and not the fine stripes of a wild animal. And the teeth are not as rough and real as Sorastro’s gritty ones, looking a bit too shiny. Still like them though.

Grade: B/B+ : When you combine the simplicity of the Stormtroopers with the mechanical precision of the probe-droids, you get the great WEB Troopers. Unlike the Stormtroopers that are nearly all white with just slivers of black, the WEB Troopers are more compartmentalized with larger black spaces to separate and define the various body parts. This allows a far cleaner, neater model with well-defined areas and sections. The guns are also great- boxy, easy to paint but completely identifiable. Again, you can see the different attempts in the guns: the outer ones are done in a gray primer; the interior two in black. I think the modular quality of the troopers and the larger scale of the gun made the model easy to paint and with the lessons from the Stormtroopers, I think this one came out well.

Grade: B+/A-. Probably one of the easiest models to paint, Iggy is a fantastic blend of Vader, the probes and the AT-ST. Tall, menacing, motorized, mechanical yet creepily alive. The model was so easy to handle and no matter what you do to him, you can just say “weather damage” and be done with it. The paint job captures Iggy’s robotic menace and also, because of again, the spidery black-eyes (from the probes), Iggy’s humanistic “life” by portraying him as a dead-eyed monster. The metal nature of the model does wonders, as do his red eyes for color and the griminess of his body. But its not perfect. I hate the gun which looks like gray Paper-Mache. I also opted NOT to do the blue and red glassing because I wanted Iggy to be dirtier and lean, not colorful. Overall, Iggy was a fantastic model to paint and he came out great.

Grade: A- The predatory Tradoshans were great to paint. I loved the options Sorastro gave and I ran with them. I painted 8 various models with a bunch of variables: 4 skin tones, suits, backpacks etc. I was thrilled with the results. I liked the skin tones Sotastro came up with – the “Bossk” yellow and the Godzilla Green, as seen in the first pic. I used the Bossk-yellow flight suit to capture Bossk (above, second from left), then used urban-camo for the last, and added in a “Cosmonaut-Red” version because I liked the way it went with the Godzilla-Green skin tone.

But the second batch I went to work (and screwed up). I wanted a more “mammalian/reptilian skin tone: a a combination of what would be the warm-blooded humanoid combined with a reptilian quality; I opted for a creamy + stony-and-caramel color. I think it worked. I mixed and matched that skin tone with a nature-green suit and with the urban camo and I loved the results. I kept the green suits a little spotty to accentuate a camouflage-like exterior. But I messed up on the last one; I actually fell asleep while painting and went to bed before finishing the last model on the right. When I went back, I could not reproduce the color, and accidentally made a purplish … monstrosity… that I kinda liked.

I think the Trandoshans have it all: great outfit that rides the line between “fiddley” and “austere;” great skin that you can EASILY shade to highlight the scaly texture, and a wonderful stance that is a breeze to paint. Again, though, you can see the problems: some of the faces have weird stripes; I ignored the teeth entirely; and the pants look blotchy (and the urban-camo looks MUCH better in the picture than it does in person, where it just looks dirty).

But overall, these guys were great to paint and I loved doing them.

Grade: A-/A

When I started this, I knew I wanted to paint Boba Fett and immediately thought, “If I do that I will ruin Boba Fett.” So I gave it the best I had: taking my time, mapping out the paint and styles, going slow as I could. The results, I think, are the best I have produced. Fett is a great figure because he- like the WEB troopers – is so compartmentalized: each area is its own, independent space that is clearly defined, easy to fill with color and does not run into the other when you are shading. Fett is a great figure and I knew I wanted more than one. I bought three so I could experiment with some variations and styles, but stuck to the Sorastro blue-print.

The darker one (on the left in the top pic, and reshown here by himself) is my reinterpretation of a Mandalorian Noble’s armor with its metallic colors, gold face-mask etchings and blood-red cape; its what I imagine Pre Vizla (of The Clone Wars) would look like. I used mostly black and gray for the armor, gold and silver for the edging and almost all metallic colors for the rocket pack. Unlike the others, I went with the Death Watch insignia on his shoulder.

The softer, more regimented Mandalorian on the right in the main pic (reshown here), is most in-line with what Rank-and-File Mandalorians would look like as portrayed in The Clone Wars cartoon. I went with softer colors like blues, purples and pinks to take the edge off of Boba’s patchy-color scheme and Pre’s more harsh golds and blacks. Both this one and Boba have the Mandalorian battle-skull on their left shoulder. I like that this version looks the most “clean,” untouched by the ware-and-tear done to Boba or the trappings of status in Pre’s.

Finally, there is Boba Fett himself. He is beat up and worn down both intentionally and unintentionally. I loved painting Fett and thought he was so easy because his colors and patterns are so compartmentalized and easy to separate. I, unfortunately, could not reproduce Soarstro’s masterpiece. My Boba still suffers from splotchy colors I have struggled with before, especially around the forearms and hands (this is true in all three models) and I botched the face-markings and the banged-up look of his face-plate that I retouched it as a single color (Sorastro’s work is perfect; he actually does such a great job that he looks like his Boba Fett figure is actually made of metal). Finally, the jet-pack is generally a “miss;” all three look far more worn than they probably should. But overall, I loved the look and feel of Boba and his minions. Yes, it’s not great, but if I had an “A” in me, I came closest with Fett.

Gaarkhan

Gideon

Jyn

Fenn

Mak

Diala