Laziest stormtroopers ever

By Elrath', in Imperial Assault Painting and Modification

Okay, Laziest stormtroopers ever (probably). I spent less time on these four than I have done on any other stormtrooper. Maybe 3 hours in total. As you can see from the photo, they're not great. The rightmost red guy has unpainted crevice on his shield holding shoulder and unpainted patch near his feet. And the paintjob could be a lot neater BUT...I don't like painting stormtroopers and these four will do. From a gaming distance, they look ok.

laziest_stormtroopers.jpg

Besides, the new set had much more interesting figures to paint like the new AT. I¨'m starting that with Ghost Gray coat. I'm curious to see how that turns out.

But the recipe for these stormtroopers:

  1. White primer
  2. Dark gray (I used Necromancer cloak from Army Painter) on the crevices, baton and gloves, eyes and shield slits.
  3. Fix white areas and not properly primered areas with white paint (I used Vallejo's White Primer paint).
  4. Paint shield light gray (I used Vallejo's Ghost Gray)
  5. Wash the whole figure with a mix of black+blue wash that's somewhat diluted. I used a mix of about 3 parts black, 1 part blue and 4 parts Lahmian medium. The blue gives a nice tint that's not as dirty looking as plain dark wash would be.
  6. Highlight shield with light gray
  7. Highlight rest of the armor back with white. This time I used Glaze medium to thin the White Primer paint so the pigment was more evenly spread.
  8. Highlight shield edges with white
  9. Highlight baton and fingers with gray
  10. Paint base
  11. Varnish
  12. Apply gloss varnish on armor

Now that's about the laziest method I have discovered so far. But I have 1 group of jet troopers still to paint as well as 1 Hoth Snowtrooper group. Please tell me you've found faster and lazier ways to paint stormies.

Edited by Elrath'

I ran into the same fatigue with my riot troopers. I haven't even washed them yet. :P

I prime my stormtroopers white. Then I paint the armor light grey, avoiding the gun and body glove as best I can. Drybrush one coat of white. Paint black into key recesses such as eyes and armpits. Drybrush two more coats of white. Touchup errors on black parts, often using black ink instead of paint. Then I use smooth coats of carefully applied white on large areas like the cuisses, top of the helmet, etc. I might have to do a final coat of white drybrushing right across the face or something, in part of my final review of the model. Somewhere in there I paint the guns and gloves black. I also do a little bit of grey highlighting on the gun, the fingers, and other places it needs it like certain parts of the black jumpsuit that show between the plates. The whole effect is mediocre but it it fast and easy. It probably has about 40 minutes of actual painting time for a squad of 3. Lots of drying downtime where I walk away or work on other figures though.

Interesting technique TauntaunScout. Potentially gives more contrast than my method. I may have to try that on the Hoth troopers.

On 10/30/2017 at 2:26 AM, Elrath' said:

Interesting technique TauntaunScout. Potentially gives more contrast than my method. I may have to try that on the Hoth troopers.

It is an adaptation of my method for painting ye olde West End stormtroopers. They were "true 25mm" or something, aka, far smaller than what most people paint today. Drybrushing was about the only way a typical casual gamer/painter could hope to get a decent paintjob on those tiny fellows.