Got a hot wire foam cutter today and am starting some experiments with terrain:

Followed by about 6,000 gallons of white airbrush primer...

Still can see lots if the aquamarine color of the polystyrene insulation color coming through. I’m not sure if the prime is even worth while or if I should have gone straight to gobs of cheap craft acrylic paints.

Im kind of “winging it” for this piece. I think I will go green flat surfaces and brown on the gentle slope side but rocky gray on the steep side. I have some gaps between layers that you can see. I will have to figure out how to fill that.

Cut + Glue Foam

Get a spray bottle of watered down white / PVA glue

Coat in above glue, dry, flip, coat bottom ( full rotation, all surfaces). Two coats preferred.

Cheap Spakfill gaps if desired.

Prime with Cheapass Spray paint.

...

its a littke more time, but a lot less effort than airbrush priming.

If you essentially seal the foam with PVA, you can use rattle-can spray paints/primers without fear of melting the foam. You do get some interesting textures from melting the foam sometimes. Happy little accidents and all that.

Also, you can smooth down the tops of your hill with medium to fine grit sandpaper to get to smooth/round the tops of them if you like--Wear a dust mask though.

And you can fill the cracks with wall Spackle easily enough. You can do it now, or do it before sealing.

Thanks guys.

I have to admit, I’m getting some hobby fatigue here. I painted about 25 Imperial Assault minis from Jan-March and now I’ve painted 24 of these guys in about three weeks. Still haven’t played the starter game of Legion.

Anyway, here’s my nearly finished rebel squad. They could all benefit from some additional touching up but I’m not feeling too inspired. I did some highlights on the Duros and the Leader’s Cloak with mixed results.

Any easy ideas for brown primed bases are appreciated.

GW Agrellan Earth/Badlands

Done.

...

Then Maybe a Mordheim turf tuft here or there...

I'd just base them with sand (PVA, fine sand & maybe a wash and a light highlight dry brushed on) then maybe the odd tuft or twig.

Before you get any further into the painting doldrums, you should take a break for a day or two from painting the figs. Go play an old computer game or go to a baseball game to give yourself a moment to refresh your state of mind.

It's good to get away when your hobby begins to feel like another job.

Well, I took the evening off yesterday and only put magnets into my AT ST head. No painting today but I did manage to pick up some grass material from the Hobby Lobby and base these guys:

put a second coat of watered down PVA on them and they are pretty gooey right now. I figure tomorrow I will lacquer and tuft then. Then maybe over the weekend I can start on my last rebel squad from core set 1. That leaves just Vader and Luke (and then core set 2 and a snowspeeder and AT ST...).

The terrain I PVA’ed yesterday was dry so I primed it in Mechanicus Standard Gray. Still not sure where it’s going but I’m going to play around and see if I can’t do mossy rocky outcrop. Or something...

Okay, I put the finishing touches on my Rebels. Like the grass but was surprised a bit by the tufts. I expected the jungle and grassy bright green and yellow to work but instead the more contrasting wasteland, highlands etc looked better.

As always, I see a lot of flaws in here but plenty good enough for me to play the game with (if I ever get around to playing the game!).

Never play? Heresy!

What state are you in? I'll be right over.

But seriously though, you've mentioned making terrain with the kids. Is that an option? Possibly with modified rules? Also, don't be afraid to make the leap into the game store. For me, it was a big step to actually go play with strangers when I started playing X-ing. I got a lot out of it. Besides the games you'll end up playing, you make friends, build confidence in your abilities, exchange of ideas for strategies/plan of attack, painting, terrain, etc.

If you haven't tried playing at a local shop yet, you ought to.

I’ve played in one X-Wing tournament and enjoyed it. Both of the game stores by me have X-Wing on Wednesday nights - which just isn’t possible for me.

My son is 10 and he is interested in playing. I don’t know if he will make it through a full game but we will the core set game when the painting’s done.

My problem is I travel for work (I will be gone for three weeks in May). So then, when I’m home it’s tough to ditch the family and go play games with strangers for the better part of a day. But I will get to it eventually. I’ll get some games in with my brother if nothing else.

Work in progress Luke:

No wash on this yet. I’m trying to follow the Sorastro video and I’ve already made the light shade too light and the dark shade too dark. I might see if I can fix some of this after washing with highlights. I might also make my second Luke simpler.

So far not turning out as well as I had hoped, but I’m enjoying just having one figure to worry about instead of a squad. I will almost certainly try Vader next.

Finished look. He came out mediocre. I did the tiniest bit of OSL in his hair but decided trying to amp it up was going to go badly. The washes blended the outfit better than I expected. It’s still not great but it’s okay. I made a sudden split second decision to do the base in his lightsaber color which didn’t fully pay off. But the base, which started out as an attempt at Endor forest turned out pretty Dagobah, so I’m going to claim that’s what it is:

(His nose is not this bright in real life... not sure what happened in this pic)

I guess every mini I paint isn’t going to be my best one. I don’t think Luke is great but I will take it.

There is no reason not to repaint the base edge with a neutral colour. Another thing to enhance your look is adding a gradient to the saber so it is not a solid rod of colour. You did well on this mini, don't be too hard on it.

Okay, I decided to go nuts on an OSL Vader:

probay over the top, but I actually kind of like it.

I also cleaned up Dagobah Luke’s base:

Excessive, but not so much that it loses believability. I like it!

I pretty much just jumped right into the OSL on that Vader and looking at him there are some details I thought I would highlight. But then I realized that I didn't actually have to so I sprayed him with lacquer and stuck him in my box. This means I have completed my Imperials from the first core set and I'm just one Rebel squad away from completing the whole box. Yay!

Love the shading on vader! In all these figures are really nicely painted like most of the figures I have seen on this forum.

Another tree in progress:

Decided to go brown and green for my hill:

Not much of an update here but since I leave today and will be traveling for three of the next four weeks my son and I started the practice game even though in rebel unit is only primed.

Been out of town and I just have a week before I leave again so I’m trying to finish the core set. The base coat is going on very uneven with these guys and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s the primer? Anyway, here’s a group photo of my WIP dusty Rebels:

im not sure I’m picking the best colors but it will get the job done.

Super slow progress on these guys. I’m hoping to get a chance to do some of the final details and washes today...

i left the gloves unpainted and I realize now it makes little sense to paint them anything other than the dark grey matching the guns and boots. Oh well, no big deal just not very efficient.

I think painting them the color of the trousers could work. And give more contrast versus the guns they're next to.

8 hours ago, Brightguy said:

I think painting them the color of the trousers could work. And give more contrast versus the guns they're next to.

You’re right, that probably would have been better. I went with the gray and it looks... okay. Truthfully this is my worst squad although I think the bases are okay. I’m anxious to be done and finhave a little more time to think about it. I’m honestly thinking of getting a second airspeeder just so I can build a rebel army with as few trooper units as I’m allowed, lol.

It's hard. I'm inches away from finishing the starter plus some odds and ends. The prospect of doing three more rebel squads is a lot more daunting than throwing white on more stormtroopers.

Here’s the bases squad. I will add rocks and grass tomorrow: