Guess I'll add my work to the showcase, never painted a mini before in my life but after seeing Sorastro's video I couldn't help but be inspired to dive right in. I've been painting them in order according to episodes, so first minis ever painted Stormtroopers, then Probe Droids, etc. I may have gone a bit overboard on the weathering with the AT-ST, but it was so much fun I didn't want to stop!

Thank you so much Sorastro. I've wanted to get into mini painting for years but always felt too intimidated by it, like I didn't know where to start and couldn't do it if I tried. After watching your series though, that all changed and I'm having a ball!

Stormtroopers/Probe Droid:

E-Web Engineer:

Imperial Guard:

Officers:

AT-ST:

Well, Wampas are done. In the end I didn't buy the dry paint and just drybrushed Ceramite White.

Wampas - front

Wampas - above

Wampa - The cool texture on the hand doesn't show on the other pics

It's a great and rather fast figure to paint. I tested Mourn Mountain Snow texture paint on the base. It's pretty neat. It can be scooped and it has lots of grit in it which can form durable rocks etc. Alone it doesn't look much but I used Guilliman Blue on it, then drybrushed the snow and after that white. And now it looks pretty good. I'm happy how these wampas turned out.

Painting techniques I used are pretty much covered in Sorastro's wookie and Nexu videos though I think this one is even easier to paint. That said I'm eager to see Sorastro paint these and how they should be done properly.

I'm having a lot of trouble getting my wampas how I'd like them. The white fur is just giving me fits. You say you drybrushed with Ceramite White -- what else did you do with the fur?

There was discussion on this in another thread (I noticed you've posted there too Leveton): https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/199777-wampa-painting-question/

After priming the figures white and basecoating them with Ceramite White (to fix some poorly covered spots), I used a mix of 50/50 Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade to wash them and then drybrushed with Ceramite White. That is enough to give my wampas the texture they have now. But as mentioned in the thread I linked, dark washes are probably not best on white fur.

When drybrushing I focused most on the upturned parts and tried to leave shaded areas be as they are.

Another way to increase contrast could be to mix some Screaming Skull into White Scar and then dry brush that. It would be a bit darker and yellowish tone. Like polar bear fur. Then you could do further highlighting with just pure white. Or if you don't want yellow tone, mix in just a little bit of light gray Celestra Gray or Adminstratum Gray into the white to make it just a bit darker than white and use that to drybrush the shadowed areas. And then drybrush with pure white on the upturned areas. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful.

Thanks, that really is helpful. I just couldn't keep track of where all people had discussed painting wampas.

Thought I would get everyone's opinion on my snowies.

I don't know what everyone thinks about them but i am unsure about their colour.....

I want to see what other people think......

Edit:The pic is quite bad but I think you get the main idea.

It's a little bit hard to tell, but is that a dark red, like the galactic marines from the Clone Wars?

It's a little bit hard to tell, but is that a dark red, like the galactic marines from the Clone Wars?

Yea.They are kinda my own take on them.

It's clearly red.........

Thanks, that really is helpful. I just couldn't keep track of where all people had discussed painting wampas.

Oh to add to my previous post. If you're shading the fur with different paints, then you could mix a tiny bit of Fenrisian Gray into White Scar if you want a slight bluish tint and still darken the white a little bit.

White is certainly a difficult color to paint. So take my suggestions with a grain of salt.

R2!

I am considering painting my miniatures but am a reluctant to put the amount of time I think it would take to do a decent job. Can I get an idea of how long on average it takes to paint a miniature. I know the first few would take longer and that it would go faster as I started developing the techniques. I also know that some probably take considerably longer than others. But if I could get an idea on how long it takes to paint a storm trooper compared to Han Solo or an AT-ST, it might give me an idea of what kind of time commitment is involved. I wouldn't consider it but looking at some of the results makes the stock miniatures look so boring. Also watching a couple of Sorastro's videos makes me think it might be doable.

I paint my miniatures to look good enough for he table top. I know I'm not going to win any awards but that's not my goal. Outside of storm troopers, if you have to paint something that's predominately 1 color, it takes hardly any time at all for me. For instance, if I wanted to paint a probe droid, Here's what I would do:

Setup and primer black - 5 minutes

Dry time - 10 minutes

Dry brush dark metallic color - 5 minutes

Dry time - 5 minutes

Wash in nuln oil - 5 minutes

Dry time - 20 to 30 minutes

Highlights, coloring any lenses, painting the base - 5 to 15 minutes depending on the detail you're going for

Dry time 5 minutes

Spray with dullcote - 5 minutes

Dry time 30 minutes (you need to air it out becuaus this stuff stinks)

You're talking about 20-30 minutes of actual painting with rest/majority of the time waiting for stuff to dry AND if you're painting the other 2 probe droids the time added is pretty minimal because you're working on one while the other 2 are drying.

An individual mini like Han Solo would probably take me an hour or two painting due to the extra colors, highlights, and shading I have to do. A uniform squad like Rebel Troopers might take an hour or two as well due to painting multiple figures and colors used w/out giving them the detail I would with someone like Han.

I didn't include any time removing mold lines and flash. This can get pretty time consuming and your models will look way better if you take the time to clean everything. Depending on my mood I'll probably clean up some of he more egregious lines/flash but I'm too lazy to make it perfect. Like I said before I paint my models for actual gaming and they look pretty good to me and my buddies. Using painted minis gives a lot more flavor to your total IA experience in my opinion

I'm a really, really slow painter so painting something like Han Solo, Loku etc. takes about 6 hours for me. That's counting all the drying time. In 6 hours I can usually paint a single stormtrooper group too.

For me, the time usage isn't usually a big deal since I paint a figure over a long period of time, for example a week. I paint base colors or part of the base colors on one evening, then continue the next evening and so on. This does contribute to paint loss and time loss as if I for example, paint over another part of the figure with wrong paint, I have to paint it again and sometimes I need to mix paints for this.

I agree with tocino, painted figures do give the IA experience a lot more flavor. And as funny as it sounds, this is especially true if you've made a mistake with a mini or painted battle damage. My favorite stormtrooper is the one where my brush slipped when painting battle damage and the entire side of his leg is painted brown-black. That guy is an endless target/source for jokes.

And after getting used to mostly painted IA, watching review videos etc. of the game with unpainted figures just feels weird. Painted figures are also easier to distinguish, especially since rebels seem to favor trench coats.

I am considering painting my miniatures but am a reluctant to put the amount of time I think it would take to do a decent job. Can I get an idea of how long on average it takes to paint a miniature. I know the first few would take longer and that it would go faster as I started developing the techniques. I also know that some probably take considerably longer than others. But if I could get an idea on how long it takes to paint a storm trooper compared to Han Solo or an AT-ST, it might give me an idea of what kind of time commitment is involved. I wouldn't consider it but looking at some of the results makes the stock miniatures look so boring. Also watching a couple of Sorastro's videos makes me think it might be doable.

You're correct in that the process gets faster as you work further into painting. The best thing to do is to jump right in and do it. I just started working on Gideon this afternoon. In the past six hours, I've trimmed mold lines, primed, base coated, dry brushed and applied the washes. I also ate dinner, watched an episode of TNG and took a shower. I don't know if this helps time-box painting a mini for you, but I feel pretty accomplished!

Honestly, plan on putting about four hours into a squad of three stormtroopers if you're following Sorastro's guide. This allows for mold line prep, primer and dry time, base coating, washes and dry time, and highlighting. Also, if you have access to a hair dryer, set it to the coolest setting on lowest speed and it'll help accelerate your drying times.

Food, TNG and shower optional.

I'm a pretty slow painter. For example, I've recently been working on a group of GW Sisters of the Thorn, basically five mounted wood elves, and I reckon I've easily spent thirty hours on the **** things! I'm not even all that close to finishing - there's probably another ten hours work still to do on them. That's not including drying time, or even prepping and gluing. (An obvious tip that eluded me - don't glue the riders to the mounts before you start painting. Doh.)

However, if I'm painting an IA miniature and following a Sorastro guide, I find the process a bit quicker. None of the IA minis are particularly fiddly, and Sorastro's guides are nice and clear, so you can get great results in two to three hours, easily. To be honest, you don't need to spend that much time, even. Any painting looks better than bare plastic, and neat basecoats combined with a wash of the right sort of colour will look pretty good on the table.

Hi folks!

There seems to be a nice discussion on the topic of time going on and I thought I'd share my perspective. I often get asked how long it takes to paint X and I find it a tricky question to answer partly because my painting is tied up with the whole filming process so I don't really know how long a figure might take if I was "just" painting, but also because I get so engrossed that I usually completely loose track of time anyway!

There have been times when I've wanted to paint mostly to get to the finished result in a timely fashion but my general perspective is that hobbies exist precisely to take up time in an enriching way and if I'm enjoying the process then that's time well spent - however long it takes.

Having said that, I usually keep a fan near by to stand the minis in front of to speed up the drying times

Question for the crew: Fenn has a raised circle on his arm that is obviously for the Rebel insignia patch. He also has a smaller raised circle on his satchel that I believe is begging for another emblem.

Any ideas what should go there? I want to do something different than the arm patch. EU fanatics have any thoughts? What about military folks...what might you expect to see on a pack like that? I was thinking a number, star, etc.

Congratulations on your music venture Sorastro!!!!

Congratulations on your music venture Sorastro!!!!

Painted Fenn. Great video once more, Sorastro. I'm not happy how the glasses turned out but it'll do. When painting the battle damage I felt like the Runefang Steel was too shiny so I dulled the glow with the dust colored glaze introduced in the Boba Fett video. It works so well it's becoming my favorite thing in dulling metallic shine.

Also, these images are close-ups. Thankfully the figure looks better when viewed from a normal gaming distance.

And now I'm eagerly (but patiently) waiting for the Mak video.

Nice work as always Elrath!

I've had a bit of a slow start this month due to some redecorating and arranging of my tiny studio; however I'm now making more economical use of the space I have got, and I bought a motorised desk to work at so I can work standing as well as sitting (to avoid sitting for hours and hours at a time).

Getting stuck into filming Mak tomorrow

S.

Quick question; does anyone know what race Mak actually is!?

EDIT Oo is he a Bothan?

Quick question; does anyone know what race Mak actually is!?

EDIT Oo is he a Bothan?

yup, he is a bothan......and he died to bring you that information

Quick question; does anyone know what race Mak actually is!?

EDIT Oo is he a Bothan?

yup, he is a bothan......and he died to bring you that information

Lol thanks Collins

Both as a bump and an actual question. For all you regular painters out there, do you ever just get totally unmotivated? I've been wanting to continue painting for a while, but when I actually find the time, I just can't bring myself to get up and do it. How do you help yourself when you get like this, is you do?

Both as a bump and an actual question. For all you regular painters out there, do you ever just get totally unmotivated? I've been wanting to continue painting for a while, but when I actually find the time, I just can't bring myself to get up and do it. How do you help yourself when you get like this, is you do?

Listen to Star Wars Heir to the Empire or any other good Sci-Fi Audiobook.