I’m really impressed with what people are doing here. I’m hip deep in miniatures at this point and trying to dig my way out, but I thought I would share some pics. I know the photos aren’t great, and I make no claims to be anything other than a beginning painter shooting for tabletop adequate minis.

Test basing Stormtrooper:

https://i.imgur.com/aKcG8Up.jpg

One of my Stormtrooper Units is going to be based in this lovely black sand, copied from other people’s good ideas. The other will probably be sandy (Tatooine) or green (Endor) since I’m working on an Endor table in my basement.

Unit Leaders:

the borders on the pauldrons are probably a bit thick, but I did them free hand and feel pretty good.

Speeder bike without rider:

I’m inordinately pleased with how this looks. It’s a brown primer and some black/gray paint and that’s it. But it looks really appealing to me. I will add the rider and do some too ch ups on the details, but I may not even weather it or darken it with washes. I just like the way it looks.

More to come (I’m so busy painting I forget to take photos - and I’m not fast)

Okay, I’ve reached the point where more work is just making them worse. Here are my Stormtrooper squads before basing:

All I can see are the flaws (which are many) but I think once I get a little distance I will be able to enjoy them on the tabletop.

I’m going to base the first Group (gray). Next I will do the three vehicles while I think about the base for the second Group.

Okay so I got the sand and rocks on the bases. Sadly, the beautiful shiny black sand loses a lot of its luster when you coat it in glue. Not unexpected but I had hoped it would keep a bit more sparkle.

I’m planning to add some tufts of grass. Anyone have any suggestions about doing this befor or after the varnish?

after, otherwise the varnish will make them all frosty

Lol. Nevermind. I bought the wrong stuff so they will have to live without plant life for now anyway. Here’s a better picture at least (people in imgur keep commenting on the pill bottles, lol)

This is my speeder bike simulator...

5 hours ago, BigBadAndy said:

This is my speeder bike simulator...

Great idea!...

(stolen!!)

looking good, my are coming along very slowly

Looking good!

Your scouts look more comfortable than mine, I impaled them...

Here’s a pic of my finished stormtroopers hanging out with their new magnetic based:

Anyway the metal plate is a galvanized steel flashing sheet (8”x12”) that I ordered from Lowe’s for $3.50 for three. I spray painted one side black and then covered it with gloss lacquer to make it a touch more pleasant. Then I spent an evening screwing up the final container.

I have a bunch of magnets lying around so I thought I would be clever and crazy glue some magnets to the bottom of the sterilite container I plan to use. That way I could take the sheet in and off if needed. Sadly, it turns out a sterilite box is made of whatever the one material in the universe is that doesn’t hold crazy glue. I tried wood glue, on a lark - but anyone with a brain knows how that went. Then I drilled holes in the container and threaded some bolts through before I remembered I would have to drill through my dance galvanized steel plate. I actually tried this enough to scratch the metal but quit before I hurt myself or broke something.

in the end, I realized I had some 3M adhesive mounts lying around (glorified double stick tape). These actually did the trick and I’m kicking myself for not doing it sooner.

the containers are great and hold minis and speeder bikes fine. The ATRT is about 1mm too tall so I’m going to order some magnetic tape and stick him to the side. Should be relatively easy to get an 800 point force in one box minus any ATSTs or Airspeeders.

pictures to come.

9 hours ago, BigBadAndy said:

Zero-G troopers with magnetic boots!

Here’s a few pictures that I took tonight:

Inception Storage:

Imperials in progress:

Rebeld in progress:

AT RT - this guy is almost done. Needs some detailing and I haven’t decided how I will decorate the face shield or handle the basing.

And my one finished speeder bike:

finally, here’s a couple of shots of the trees I have been working on with the kids:

Got my box tricked out to hang the AT RT sideways:

Should have room for his buddy when my second core set arrives... and I paint it.

Finished my vehicle bases:

Its hard to get a good shot of the table with my play surface on it but these two show you that they match pretty well:

Not sure why I didn’t post these earlier. I will try to get a better picture when I get home, but here are my desert stormtroopers:

Those are looking good, I like the red lenses on the big guns.

Mate, your collection is looking great! And what a great way to store it, this has me thinking I might need to do the same

They all look great.

1 hour ago, KalEl814 said:

Those are looking good, I like the red lenses on the big guns.

Thanks man. I decided to paint the rocket launchers a lighter gray than the standard “almost black” I’ve been using for the guns, and I like the way those models look. But it ended up being a LOT” of plain gray. So I saw a lot of people had put highlights on theirs representing screens etc and I figured I would give it a shot. I laid out three paints from red to orange and did a solid red square, followed by a light red dot in the corner and then a smaller orange dot on top. It’s no great feat but the reward on effort I think was pretty good.

13 minutes ago, Soulless said:

Mate, your collection is looking great! And what a great way to store it, this has me thinking I might need to do the same

It’s working out as well or better than I hoped. I don’t know what I will do with the large vehicles yet, but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. If you go for it, and you paint and varnish the metal plates like I did, just remember not to put the minis on there until the crazy glue in the magnets is completely dry. The fumes take off the paint and I have a couple of rough spots in there!

Stormtrooper closeups for my desert troopers (only the good ones from the best angles...):

(I like this rock a lot but it doesn’t really translate into photos...)

Here’s a ton of pictures of my WIP rebel squad. Turns out rebellions are built on hope and muted green/brown tones...

Does the rock have a name?

Nice to see some WIP

1 hour ago, Force Majeure said:

Does the rock have a name?

Nice to see some WIP

I’m thinking “Dwayne Johnson.”

edit: as far as work in progress, I’m trying to take more photos, mostly just for myself but I will share them in case people are interested. I’m learning a ton from other peoples’ stuff so I figured it can’t hurt.

for the duros, I’m going to make my first attempt at blending a lighter blue for the top of his head and a darker blue for the shadowed parts. We’ll see how that goes...

Well, here’s some pics of the promised wet blend attempt:

I think the overall effect looks okay, but I can’t say it was much of a success as far as a demonstration of the technique. We will see how I feel after he dries and I get some sleep.

5 minutes ago, BigBadAndy said:

Well, here’s some pics of the promised wet blend attempt:

I think the overall effect looks okay, but I can’t say it was much of a success as far as a demonstration of the technique. We will see how I feel after he dries and I get some sleep.

Think you just need to do some highlights and he’ll be good