I know a bunch of us are learning to paint with the IA minis (and Sorastro's guides), so I thought it would be fun to post our mistakes and what we learned from those errors. Follow-up posts of how you fixed it or the finished product would be great for learning too.

I've made a ton of mistakes so far, but the first one that is truly captured by the camera was trying to paint eyes on an Imperial Officer:

Yeah... It turned out exactly how you thought it would, didn't it?

Unfortunately, the paint is so thick over his left eye that I couldn't make a second attempt. I'm frightened at the thought of painting eyes on any of the rebel figures, but I feel they need the extra personality. This is also the officer in a gray uniform that I was intending to be my elite.

Here are a few things I think I learned about painting eyes:

1. Never try something on a special unit when there are grunts available to practice on.
2. It's easier to get the bottom part of the white covered, but that's not what you want. Try to cover the top of the white first.
3. Use a small brush and clean it between each attempt.
4. Be quick, the paint on the tip will often dry before applied. If it does, be patient and wash it out instead of trying to brush it on.
5. It's easier to paint details on your brush hand side. For righties, paint the right eye, then flip the figure upside-down and paint the left eye.

(don't do that)

This isn't always an option, but I try to paint details from the "inside out". This means after blocking in and shading major color areas like armor/clothing, flesh and hair/beards, I try to focus on those areas that are as difficult to hit as possible. Usually faces, armor details like buttons/rivets/jewelry, and any edge highlighting that's tough to reach. This way, if I get paint on the outer areas, it's easier to fix since I haven't completely finished those outer areas.

I know a bunch of us are learning to paint with the IA minis...

BRB, figuring out how to make tiny, IA-scale eye patches and sunglasses to put on ebay.

For what it's worth, I remember an old WotC article for painting Chainmail minis (when the briefly tried re-releasing them in the early '00s) that recommended painting the eyes *black* first, then adding the whites on the sides of the pupil to avoid that "wide-eyed" look.

Some examples are here, here, and here. Pretty sure those used that method.

It looks just looks like they're wearing too much eye liner instead of always shocked. Goth vs Meth-head?

Actually, it looks like the whole set is still available, and the specific article I referenced is here.

fine point black sharpies FTW!

The belt on Luke Skywalker should be painted white not brown or black. Luke is wearing a Stormtrooper's belt from the time he was on the Death Star.

My biggest mistake is I painted Gideon the wrong skin tone. I thought he was white not African American.

Edit: you can paint your figures how ever you want but if your trying to recreate what you see on screen Luke's belt shoul be white.

Newbie painter and apprentice of Sith Sorastro here as well. In the middle of my officers here I messed the hair up completely as I couldn't make out the details in the lighting. As such I decide to just turn the mistake into a beard.