...and talks about himself in third person for some reason.

I`'m taking a break from X-Wing repaints to finally wrap up Twin Shadows and Return to Hoth painting before Bespin arrives.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - My own models (notice the lazy techniques :P) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(Codename: Mon-cal Reynolds)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Commission for a guy at our FLGS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Do I see a droid revolution?

Those snow troopers are so good.

I've been trying to figure out how to do mine. Was thinking of making the cloth a very light beige/tan color like in some reference shots but you've added depth with just going the all white route.

Did you use a blue wash on them? I'd be interested to hear your process for the snowtroopers.

Those look great. How did you achieve the cracked earth effect on the Boba base?

most impressive

Those look great. How did you achieve the cracked earth effect on the Boba base?

The cracks are Citadel Agrellan Earth. It looks like a regular paint but starts cracking as it dries. The thicker you apply it the bigger the chunks will be once it dries completely.

Same thing I used for MHD-19's base. There I just made a bright orange and a bright yellow washes and filled the gaps with the orange one first, than a bit of the yellow wash to make a few hotspots.

@RogueLieutenant

I sprayed them with a white primer, then painted them with a light grey base and then, as you said, washed them blue.

Then I slowly shaded them up with thin layers of Ulthuan Gray and then finally highlighted the armor with white.

The reason for the blue is I wanted them to feel like they actually are in a colder enviroment by also using cold colours in addition to the snowy bases.

Followed the same steps for the tank.

Heavies are much easier:

1. spray them with a white primer

2. paint the grey/black hardware

3. wash the back and the gun with a black wash and let it dry

4. wash the white armor pieces with thin brown wash (1:1 Agrax Earthshade and Lahmian Medium)

5. drybrush the armor with white (wipe off most of the paint into a tissue first) and keep the focus above the knees

The chalky finish you'll get looks like they spent a looong time on Tatooine.

I'll have to take some better pictures to show off the result.

These are part of a skirmish team painted for a friend in back January. For some reason the only pictures I took are sans Fen Signis. No clue why.

Quite impressive detail work! I'm worried about how will I'll be able to pull off the rebel insignias on Biv and Gideon.

Quite impressive detail work! I'm worried about how will I'll be able to pull off the rebel insignias on Biv and Gideon.

Try following this:

I got bored, so here's a new set of pictures.

This detail is amazing, just wow. I am curious, for a total newb just starting out what figures would you recommend to try and tackle first? I was planning to use Sorastro's tutorials although it looks like you should be making some of your own lol.

Also would you say that Testor's brand of paint brushes are up to par for quality, or would a brand like Army Painter be better? My LGS has the citadel paints so I am covered there.

And when you say use a thin layer, does that just mean diluted with water or does that mean you wipe a lot of the paint off the brush first? Thanks in advance!

Edit: I just wanted to add that the way you varied your coloring between the three different storm trooper types is just awesome, I love it.

@FrogTrigger - thanks for the feedback. Not sure if I have the patience to hold the mini in front of a camera the whole time I am painting (I do a lot of unintention air yoga )

By thin layers I mean watered down paint.

As for brushes I don't have experience with either Testor or Army Painter.

In my country you won't find the known hobby brands in stock (except for citadel and those are on the scale of mediocre-terribad; not really worth the price)

Get some Sable hair brushes (000, 0, and 2 are fine) that hold a good tip from an art store, and brush soap to clean them after painting.

For mixing paint you want some cheap synthetic brushes.

Same for Drybrushing (here you want size 2 and 4 flat taklon brushes). Make sure they don't cost too much as drybrushing will kill a brush real quick.

I love your basing techniques. What materials and process do you use?

This detail is amazing, just wow. I am curious, for a total newb just starting out what figures would you recommend to try and tackle first? I was planning to use Sorastro's tutorials although it looks like you should be making some of your own lol.

Also would you say that Testor's brand of paint brushes are up to par for quality, or would a brand like Army Painter be better? My LGS has the citadel paints so I am covered there.

And when you say use a thin layer, does that just mean diluted with water or does that mean you wipe a lot of the paint off the brush first? Thanks in advance!

Edit: I just wanted to add that the way you varied your coloring between the three different storm trooper types is just awesome, I love it.

I might recommend starting with units you're not particularly fond of, or don't run a lot. Also an expansion unit, in case you really hate how it turns out you can just buy a new set for $10 rather than flubbing a core set figure.

That'll give you good practice without feeling like the stakes are too high if you mess up. I started with Hired Guns.

I. Steps used for all 3 bases

1. Apply some texture and let it dry

(this will take a few hours)

2. Apply base coat

3. Drybrush in some detail

4. Add a light wash

II. Details - Forrest base

1. Attach large rocks using superglue

2. Add PVA glue

3. Sprinkle with smaller rocks

4. ...and some green tea

5. Add foliage (Armypainter Poison Ivy, Citadel Wasteland Tuft)

III. Details - Snow base

1. Add rocks as before

2. Add snow flock (Citadel Snow)

IV. Details - Lava

1. Fill the gaps with more wash

2. Mix some lighter paint into the wash (add a bit of water to compensate), fill your brush with the mix and touch it to where the extra wash is deposited

3. Continue adding lighter washes (rust wash + orange/yellow paint and water) to random spots until you get this.

(At some point you want to start adding only watered down yellow paint instead of the wash+paint mix)

Example: https://www.instagram.com/p/BFcWvVqNwRc/

4. Let the washes dry a bit. If you loose some saturation, fill the gaps with water and repeat steps 2 & 3.

All done. Obviously you will have to do all of this around the feet of your minis.

I hope this helps.

Finished restoring my Trandoshan Hunters

I hate to play double agent here, but I am looking for all the advice I can get. I just finished my first set of Storm Troopers, my first ever miinis, and am looking for feed back and tips on areas to improve for the next batch. Sorry for bad quality.

I think my biggest concern at this point is brush care, I had pieces of old paint and/or bristles coming off during the Ardcoat that then got stuck on the mini

I think my biggest concern at this point is brush care, I had pieces of old paint and/or bristles coming off during the Ardcoat that then got stuck on the mini

Are you saying your brushes are old, the paint you are using is old, or you just didnt clean your brushes appropriately throughout your painting?

~D

Brushes were brand new, I think I didn't do a good enough job of cleaning them through out. This is my very first time working with paints like this so there is a bit of a learning curve here, I am just hopping not at the expense of these rather pricey brushes

It looks as though your white is being applied either too thinly and ending up splotchy or with too few coats.

A steadier hand will come with more practice, and investing in a dark ink wash cam bring back those shadows that have been covered.

Keep it up!

Brushes were brand new, I think I didn't do a good enough job of cleaning them through out. This is my very first time working with paints like this so there is a bit of a learning curve here, I am just hopping not at the expense of these rather pricey brushes

It looks as though your white is being applied either too thinly and ending up splotchy or with too few coats.

A steadier hand will come with more practice, and investing in a dark ink wash cam bring back those shadows that have been covered.

Keep it up!

Arttemis brought up a great point.

Definitely get a black wash and apply it all over the Stormtrooper Armor. You can paint the black parts under the plates but that is only a small part of the details on the models.

Since you already applied Ardcoat the wash will flow nicer as well.

I recommend you go through the early entries to this tutorial series by Miniwargamer Jay

Focus on just base-coating and washing first. Do the entire set with just the base-coat / wash before you try any highlighting.

Base:

Washes:

Also move to something not pure white. White is difficult to get right, you'll just get frustrated.

I also used IA (right after it came out) to learn painting (later Mansions of Madness). Let's just say the early attempts were not brilliant.

Now I'm revisiting the old paint jobs and using the things I've learned since then to make them look nicer.

If you don't mess up the details by using paint that's too thick you will be able to come back once you get grip on the basic techniques (basecoat, washes, drybrushing, highlighting in layers etc.)

Example - same Trandoshans in both pics ;-)

Hrmm interesting, I did do a black wash before hand, Nuln Coat from Citadel.. but I was only really liberal with one storm trooper the others I held back. I think my biggest problem was covering up to much of the detail with the white.. do you not use grey in the lines on the helms before hand? Is that all black wash?

I did dilute my white with a few drops of water and I did two coats per Stormie.. then I tried to use the black wash to re darken a few areas I felt I messed up.

I can still paint it even though it has a lacquer on it? Then just lacquer it again after?

I only painted the space between thr bridge and the tip of the "nose" as I have just noticed I forgot about the line above the eyes

Everything else on the helmet is a Vallejo black wash (same as Nuln Oil, which for whatever reason has been sold out in Bratislava for months now; get your s**t toghether GW).

Some people actually like to apply a gloss varnish coat (spray) before washing as this helps the wash to flow into gaps better.

It also helps to avoid wash stains on flat areas.

Then they highlight over it and finally hit the mini with a matt varnish to get rid of the gloss.

A couple things to keep in mind when starting out painting the minis...

1) When the game is on the tabletop, people aren't going to be looking at the minis the same way your camera did when you were taking your shots. Because of this, even "badly" painted figs (and yours aren't painted badly!) look MUCH better than stock plastic in-game, which is really all that matters

2) People aren't going to be as likely to notice your mistakes as you are. For example, I know the paint job on the "base" of the guns that my Trandoshans are holding, and indeed the bottoms of all of their arms, are of abominable quality. But nobody is picking up the dinos, holding them upside down, and looking at them with the magnifying headset that I used while painting them

I picked up Bespin Gambit and Bossk yesterday ;-) Ugnaughts coming Soon™