This pic is just an experiment in loading pics to the forum. I am not very good at photography so that is another hurdle. However I have almost finished painting my core set and will start posting pics. First I painted up the easiest 40 pts of Hoth-compatible Imperials I could out of the core box (Vader, AT-ST, 3 probots). Then I added the "Use these first" armies from the booklet, then all the Mercs from the core box plus IG-88. Then I took a sidetrack and painted 40 points of Hoth rebels (Leia, Chewie, 4 Echo Base Troopers). I was going to paint all the core add-ons but some of them just don't inspire me, so going to skip them. I will eventually come back nd paint up at least a simple majority of the core add-ons though.

Once the core box is done I'll move onto RTH and all of it's add-ons. Which I already put a dent in, what with Echo Base Troops and Leia. At that point we'll probably enforce "painted minis only" in the club as there will be enough of them to reasonably draw from for all 3 factions.

This is the Gideon I'm getting rid of. He's fine, but, I realized later how I could have made him look more snow-propriate for the SW universe. But, I already had pictures of him so, the experiment in photo uploading continues. I like him because he reminds me of the WEG character template "Old Senatorial" which was always one I found interesting. He's a bit shiny, as are most of my minis. When the weather warms up, dullcote will fix that.

Took pictures of all my painted stuff, and now nothing is uploading again. Sigh.

upload to imgur.com then copy image address and paste here

5 hours ago, RogueLieutenant said:

upload to imgur.com then copy image address and paste here

Ok I will try. Here are the pics of my Mercs. Weird how Gideon uploaded just fine, then nothing else.

Well that worked. Thanks! Here are my core set rebels. I have a tough time with lighting for pics so quality varies. This is because I can't always choose the time of day to take pics. These are the core 6 plus Luke. I also added 40 points worth of Hoth rebels right off the bat because it's me (Chewie, Leia, 2x Echo Base troopers).

And the Empire. The 3 Imperial officers are on my painting table now. Then I'll be done with the core set and tackle Return to Hoth.

So that's all the photos for now! A few things.

I use 4 colors on my bases. Green, Brown, White, and Grey. I need to differentiate up to 3 command cards (don't we all?) but 3 colors wasn't cutting it. I obviously wanted snow but that would look weird on, for example, regular stormtroopers. So I needed 4 basing colors. I thought about using black but that's going to wind up being the same color as a lot of the model's feet, which will also look weird. So grey, brown, white and green it is. Generally I just pick whichever color base will set off the model's colors well. However when it comes to multiple squads of the same thing, there is always a group on Vallejo Beasty Brown no matter what. This is the Elite color designation because it is a very neutral looking option. It looks less out of place on snow-troops than green does, looks less out of place in the jungle than snow does, etc. In case anyone "forgets" which unit is Elite in a crucial moment, the brown based group has "E" written under their bases in Sharpie marker. No disputing that!

This is more important than it may seem. My figures are borrowed by virtually the whole gaming group. Collectively, we have my collection, plus one other guy has the core set, and that is all the SW:IA forces available to 6 gamers.

A tip for white bases. Coat the base in blue first. Blue is a strong pigment that covers very well and hides all your paint smears. Then a couple coats of white. Blue showing through white will make the difference between it looking "snowy" and just plain smudged up. Since snow and ice cast a blue shadow and all that jazz. It won't look 100% naturalistically correct, but people will intuitively grasp that it's supposed to be snow without necessarily knowing why.

In the future I will be painting singleton squads. I will base them on whatever color I deem best, but will be sure to keep this brown/not-brown based Elite designation going if I get a second squad of any of those.

I painted my Nexu snowy-looking. I want to go back and add camo fur patterns. I will be looking at images of snowy predators such as owls and leopards to figure out how I want that to look. The black spikes and tails were purely aesthetic to balance out the red and white nicely.

Leia and the Echo Base 4 were painted to mimic Kenner's short lived Micro Collection series from '82. They are the "wrong" colors for ESB but I came very close to identically matching the paint used on those old metal toy soldiers.

IG-88, Darth, and the core set rebels really need new photos. Maybe next week. Maybe.

Nice group of figures!

If you can pick up Citadel's Aggrax Earthshade wash (NOT the glossy one) you can really add some depth and definition to a lot of your figures. You can use it straight from the bottle, but I would suggest watering it down a touch or two. More so for the white/lighter non-Stormtrooper figures; your stormies look great.

You'll be surprised how it really helps bring the figures up a notch.

Thanks. I've heard a lot about it, around the same time Army Dip came out. What's it been, 10 years now? Seems so much shorter. If another manufacturer puts out something similar I may try it. I used to only use Citadel, now I make I point of avoiding them. They pulled the rug out from under me one too many times with a great product that I was really reliant on, then it was suddenly gone from store shelves. So for now I'll just keep mixing up washes with thinned down paint, or use inks. In the spring, a spray can of dullcote will get rid of the glossy effect the inks create.

Edit: You are too kind regarding my stormtroopers.

just finished the 3 imperial officers so core set is done. Dunno when I'll get pics up.

Might go get a big tub of acrylic medium and play around with it too.

I am also still trying to take better pictures. I am generally quite pleased with the shading on the clothes and such but can't get them to translate to pics very will. There were a couple rebel heroes I wasn't too pleased with but to be honest, I won't use them much anyways. They were practice figures for this brave new 38mm scale, or whatever it is. Luke's 35mm tall at a slight crouch after all.