Happy New Year Everyone -

I've been painting up a storm since getting Return to Hoth, and here are the first fruits. I hope they're helpful to other painters out there:

Leia is especially tricky because it's so important to get her face right. I find it especially challenging to paint the faces of real people, because the tiniest detail can break the spell of facial recognition. And in the case of this sculpture, the problem is even worse, because although the body and pose is perfect for Leia, I thought the face was too long and the features too fine for Carrie Fisher. So I tried to use my brush to make her eyes and mouth seem rounder, and to make her nose seem shorter.

I was so happy to see Dengar in this release of miniatures. It will be a truly good day when we have miniatures for all the bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back. I like how tall Dengar is... it makes him seem very imposing. What the hell do you think is in his backpack? A generator? A leaf-blower?

And General Sorin. I love the quiet menace of this miniature.

The Echo Base Troopers were also very challenging to paint because they have so many details: buckles, straps, piping, quilting, pockets et cetera. Because I like outlining details like that in black, it took me forever to paint these fellas.

Anyway, thanks for looking!

PS - I've also created galleries with pictures of painted versions of all the Imperial Assault minis. If you're interested, you can find them here:

Rebels: http://www.oldenhammer.com/p/star-wars-imperial-assault-miniatures.html

Imperials: http://www.oldenhammer.com/p/star-wars-imperial-assault-miniatures_26.html

Mercenaries: http://www.oldenhammer.com/p/star-wars-imperial-assault-miniatures_12.html

These are great! I love your styling with heaving black lining.

Your eyes, however, are a bit bigger than I would prefer. They stand out too much IMO.

Thanks JL!

Eyes certainly can be controversial. I know some painters who don't like painting any discernible pupil or whites in eyes on 28mm miniatures because they think that they should not be visible at that scale. I suppose I like prominent eyes because they can give a lot of personality to the miniature... but it's easy to go overboard (as I may have done with Leia).

I can understand that. I myself, have never really figured out how to paint human eyes to my liking. I have painted dozens of human models (mostly Privateer Press's warmachine line) and only have 1-2 with which I am really happy about the eyes. Me tactic for bog standard units in that game was just to give a dark wash over the face and forget about the eyes.

On the topic of your models, are you doing those black outlines with a pen or a brush? Also, are you doing all of your highlights by hand rather than washing or drybrushing? Just asking because I don't see this cool cartoony style very often and I like it a lot.

woops. double post

I use a brush to do all the outlining. Using a pen is an intriguing idea -- I've never thought about that.

And you are correct - 95% of my highlights are done by hand. For special effects (fur, armour, some skin tones) I might use dry brushing, washes or glazes, but it is generally not my style.

would you mind sharing your method for painting mon cal skin please?

YES, please SHARE your method! Thanks.

I ran a GW store for a couple years, and here is the best way I found to paint eyes on 28mm models.

Paint the eyes white before you paint the skin around them. Then, paint or draw with a fine tip art marker a black line down the middle or wherever you want the eyes to be looking. Then, paint the skin. If the eyes are too prominent, you can do a light, targeted ink wash around the eye to add shadow.

The effect of this is to give the appearance of a full pupil and iris. If you look at people's eyes, you'll notice that unless they are scared, you don't see the top nor bottom of their iris, so it becomes like a thick line with rounded edges.

Sorry for the thread necro, but I loved the paint jobs on these when I found them on the Google Images search apart from the eyes.

I ran a GW store for a couple years, and here is the best way I found to paint eyes on 28mm models.

Paint the eyes white before you paint the skin around them. Then, paint or draw with a fine tip art marker a black line down the middle or wherever you want the eyes to be looking. Then, paint the skin. If the eyes are too prominent, you can do a light, targeted ink wash around the eye to add shadow.

The effect of this is to give the appearance of a full pupil and iris. If you look at people's eyes, you'll notice that unless they are scared, you don't see the top nor bottom of their iris, so it becomes like a thick line with rounded edges.

Sorry for the thread necro, but I loved the paint jobs on these when I found them on the Google Images search apart from the eyes.

Do you have a pic of an example?

The method I learnt is:

1) Paint a black line in the eye socket

2) Paint a white line over the black (thin your paints!)

3) Rotate the model 90 degrees

4) Paint a black vertical line that crosses the white

The paintbrush should always come in from the side of the mini at a shallow angle, not from above the face downwards

looks fantastic.

great job

Do you have a pic of an example?

Here is a link to what I'm talking about:

http://scottswargaming.blogspot.com/p/how-i-paint-figures.html

The backpacks look really neat! I like the detail you put into them.

Nice job all around

~D