On 10/6/2017 at 4:06 AM, Fourtytwo said:

Okay, so here's my AT-AT from Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars Miniatures Game from a decade or so ago. If these images violate any forum policy or rules for it being a non-Fantasy Flight product, I apologize and will comply with any requests for deletion. I plan on using this model in a custom scenario in the future, since it is perfectly in scale with IA's great minis.

Your paintjobs are amazing. But a point of order. That AT-AT does not fit perfectly with IA minis. Or WOTC minis. Or WEG minis. It might be in scale with Micro Machine Star Wars people. No one has ever, to my knowledge, released an AT-AT in scale with the humans they sold it with. They all look ok-ish next to the people but the scale problems become obvious next to other vehicles. If you re-watch ESB with a careful eye you will see that most gamers use AT-AT's that are only about 1/3 as big as they should be next to the people. To get an AT-AT that is roughly 28mm scale, the closest/easiest to it is a Kenner/Hasbro one for 3.75 inch action figures. That would have room inside the head for several people to walk around like we see in the movie. Also, the bottom segment of the foot is about as tall as a gaming mini, which is about what we see when Luke sabotages one.

I'm not trying to dissuade you from using it in games. We all use wrong-scaled AT-AT's. WEG used to show pictures of games that used the MPC/Ertl model kit in battles, and it was similarly too small. But the only way we're likely to see a correctly scaled AT-AT in IA is in the form of map-tiles and the characters inhabiting the interior of the vehicle.

The scale of almost every huge vehicle we see in the original trilogy is both fussy and inconsistent within the visuals we get from the movies, due to the fact that they used models of different scales that had to be optically composited into the image. That's why there's so much - basically meaningless - controversy over the exact scale of most of these vehicles in all model builders' forums. I never cared for these pointless scale discussions. I could point to the scene where we see a tiny puppet of Luke clinging to a cable which is attached to the underside of the model AT-AT in a wide shot, where "Luke" is slightly taller than the outer diameter of the AT-AT's knee joint - in that particular scene, the WOTC AT-AT is pretty much in scale with 28/30mm minis. Then again, in the scene on Endor where we see the AT-AT docked to the landing platform it appears a bit taller in relation to human-sized characters.

The model-builders of the original movies for instance admitted that they put a pilot figure in the A-wing which was far too big, and this resulted in the A-wing looking no longer than 5 or 6 meters. All these discussions are very silly if you realize that it was virtually impossible to get physical models you had to optically composite into a frame look exactly in scale with the environment and in relation to each other.

Hard to get around the interior shots that show 3 or so people standing around in the head of the AT-AT though. Only the big Kenner/Hasbro one would accommodate that. Although it's size is about "right", it has issues of proportion, which is a whole other can of wax. I did go to a con once where some guy draped a room in white sheets and used 4 Kenner AT-AT's to run 25mm Hoth games. It was crazy.

As I recall the WOTC AT-AT had knees that were only about half the height of a miniature. I didn't buy it for reasons of scale, so I can't go measure it myself. I never minded how it looked next to people, but once you started adding large and huge minis to battles, it looked decidedly off. Since IA rebels have no big vehicles or anything to send against it, I suppose this wouldn't come up nowadays.

Yeah. at the end of the day, it's a gaming piece not a scale model. And even if it is a bit out of scale in relation to the minis, it's still **** huge in comparison to them!

Case in point - here's a photo I took while the AT-AT was still being painted - I'd say it propably could be 1/9th or so bigger, but it's still awesome as it is:

Wow!

Someday I will paint the old 1980's (or more likely, 1990's re-issue) Battle of Hoth diorama model kit. 4 AT-ATs, a scout walker, snowspeeders, turrets, trenches, generator, and loads of roughly 8mm figures. It is on my bucket list. Or maybe I'll base them up and play Epic 40k with them... which brings me to:

What stats did you give that thing?

40 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

What stats did you give that thing?

None, yet. But I'll give it a staggered activation as per the rules WOTC used for theirs, because this was a fitting mechanic for this lumbering beast.

Here's a little WIP of my Maul. I modified his pose a bit, because I really didn't like his pose out of the box. This isn't ideal, either, but I like it a bit better:

Hm. Nice with the head turn. Wish I had come up with that. I did cut off that weird stick in his other hand and the funky hand-guard on the lightsaber though - pretty happy about both those changes. I wonder if it would make sense to Head-swap him with Obi-wan and do something with the lightsaber to make him more Phantom Menace like and less whatever-he-is-from like.

It's old man Maul as he appears in REBELS. And today I finished painting him :

Absolutely fabulous work!!!! Great job!

Really good. I'll use your great work as my template when I paint mine

So, I finally decided to strip the paint from my Vader and modify him so that he now has the battle damage inflicted by Ahsoka on Malachor revealing Anakin's right eye. I did this by drillig out the right eye lens of Vader's mask, using a pointed sharp hobbyknife to carefully cut out the remains of the eye lens and create the vertical cut of Ahsoka's blade across the brow of the helmet and the cheek of the mask. Then, I 'sculpted' Anakin's eyebrow and eye into the opening using a very fine brush and liquid GreenStuff.

When this was done, I gave Vader a new paint job in the style of the other minis I've painted so far - with the glints and reflections all painted instead of using gloss varnish. This merits of this method are especially apparent with Vader, because you have absolute control over how light interacts with the silky and glossy elements of the character:

This Vader now goes very well with my Ahsoka!

All of your minis are fantastic, but this one (and your Ahsoka) are just incredible! Well done, and thanks for sharing!

Holy **** man!

I've been productive in the past few weeks, so I'd like to share what minis I've finished since my Malachor-Vader:

I also got myself a new Hera and painted her to the level I paint my IA-minis since the first three members of Team 'Fulcrum':

Stellar work!!!

Superb

I've not been idle over the christmas holidays. Two Weequay Pirates are ready to join Jabba's posse:

Also, Shyla Varad, a mandalorian mercenary, is ready to accompany Maul on some missions:

I'm currently working on Obi-Wan and I'll finish painting him today, so more's to come very soon!

Wow. You made Shyla look like a model that I actually want to bring to the table. Well done.

Holy $%#&! Those are amazing!

Today, I finished painting Obi-Wan :

Meh... your stuff is cool, I guess...

-- Said nobody ever!

These are freaking awesome.

Any advice or sites/videos you can direct us to that you use to help us get this good?

Just now looked through all your work, incredible job man!

On ‎04‎.‎01‎.‎2018 at 6:11 PM, Force Majeure said:

Any advice or sites/videos you can direct us to that you use to help us get this good?

If you are looking for videos with advice on painting techniques, getting getter with painting and extensive content dealing with each and every aspect of the miniatures painting hobby, I'd suggest you check out the YouTuber Vince Venturella. I've been following him for years, and he has a great, extensive and ongoing series of videos called 'Hobby Cheating' (which exists as a playlist on his channel). I highly recommend you check it out!