I'm assembling paints to follow Sorastro's guides, but I just watched the Imperial officer episode and find that I don't really agree with his decision to paint them blue (in fact, I'm completely confused by why he would do that -- the painted core set that I bought from eBay also painted the officers an even weirder blue and it looks awful).

If I wanted to make them grey (like Piett) or even black (like Stormtrooper officers) what shades would I use?

Also, how hard is it to remove paints if I wanted to fix the blue officers that I have?

Thanks!

For the navy officers like Piett, I'd experiment with something like Castellan Green and slowly mixing in gray until you get the shade you want. Then let it dry and hit it with a little Nuln Oil. For the stormtrooper officers, I'd darken Mechanicus Standard Grey a bit with a little black and do the same with the Nuln Oil. After this, you can work up the highlights in the same way Sorastro does on other models - thin, incrementally lighter shades of your base color.

Stripping paint is a whole other kettle of fish - and it ain't fun.

I've had some success soaking them in Simple Green for a day or two, then going at them with the firmest, most merciless toothbrush I could find. Warm water does seem to help loosen the paint up, but if it's too hot you will deform your models. I have also used wooden toothpicks to get into the nooks and crannies.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

I would use super clean from walmart. It will soften the paint up and you can use an old toothbrush to scrub it off and it will not take that much effort to clean them.

Sorastro actually has an alternate paint scheme in the comments of his officers video, it requires much less paints and is grey, I used it and was very happy with how they turned out.

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For a simpler grey look (that requires fewer paints!) you could try the following color scheme:

1) Base with Mechanicus Standard Grey.
2) Wash with Nuln Oil.
3) Highlight with Eshin Grey (this will initially look virtually identical to the Mechanicus Standard Grey), but then add some White Scar to the Eshin Grey to produce the next couple of lighter tones. (We use the Eshin Grey rather than the Mechanicus Standard Grey as it's a "layer" paint so better for building up semi-translucent layers.)

We can also skip the glaze step.

Happy painting!

A nice touch is to paint gloves on the elite to help differentiate, I even went as far as to add a few extra notches on his badge

Thanks for the tips!

Not sure how I will deal with these blue officers, but at least now I know how to try a second set.

To remove paint, try soaking in 90% isopropyl alcohol. It will not harm the plastic and usually does a good job with most paints. A toothbrush is good for cleaning out crevasses. Be patient and the paint usually flakes off.

I notice that Soroastro doesn't prime these guys. Is that what others did?

9 hours ago, jscott991 said:

I notice that Soroastro doesn't prime these guys. Is that what others did?

sorastro primes the officers in grey, makes it even easier if your going for the grey uniforms like I did

12 hours ago, jscott991 said:

I notice that Soroastro doesn't prime these guys. Is that what others did?

After the first few videos he tends to skip over his "step one" in the video (which consists of cutting off mold lines and priming) but he still does it behind the scenes. If you start with his stormtrooper video he goes through all the steps in more detail.

Oh. It's a little confusing because the plastic obviously starts grey, so I assumed he wasn't priming them.

For my gray-uniformed officers, I basecoated with Dawnstone. It probably could have used just a little bit of Castellan Green or something similar mixed in, but I'm still quite happy with how they turned out.

On 2/6/2017 at 3:43 PM, Lord Vapor said:

To remove paint, try soaking in 90% isopropyl alcohol. It will not harm the plastic and usually does a good job with most paints. A toothbrush is good for cleaning out crevasses. Be patient and the paint usually flakes off.

How long should I soak them?

It depends on the amount of paint. I test every 30 min. Rinse with water when done.

If the paint is stubborn, let them soak over night.

On 2/4/2017 at 9:34 AM, jscott991 said:

I'm assembling paints to follow Sorastro's guides, but I just watched the Imperial officer episode and find that I don't really agree with his decision to paint them blue (in fact, I'm completely confused by why he would do that -- the painted core set that I bought from eBay also painted the officers an even weirder blue and it looks awful).

If I wanted to make them grey (like Piett) or even black (like Stormtrooper officers) what shades would I use?

Also, how hard is it to remove paints if I wanted to fix the blue officers that I have?

Thanks!

Piett was green, there aren't actually any grey officer uniforms they just looked grey on film. All officers are black or green and the Imperial Security Bureau was off white tops with black pants and hats. I like the grey uniform that they gave the action figures myself. The 501st Legion has nice profiles for uniforms so members can get them as close to screen as possible, they are also very useful for painting

Gray, green, black, white, whatever.

None of them were blue.