Painting Twilight Imperium?

By CanadianPittbull, in Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition

So this past fall a local used book/hobby store went out of business and I was able to pick up another copy of Twilight cheap. I said to myself that if I ever was able to get enough ships for each race that I would paint them so that each race would have race specific ships based on their token and insignia colours. So I figured over the holidays I would start the rather hefty task of actually painting all of these ships!

My question is: How maybe have also done this or thought about attempting it? I have painted quite a few minis in the past so the painting is not an issue. Just wondering if others have. I started with the Federation of Sol and so far the ships are looking rather cool even with the start. I figure I can get a compliment of ships/pieces done in about two days each and with 14 races I think I should have them all completed within a month. Give or take my busy schedule. I was thinking of putting decals on the flags and maybe a decal on a dreadnaughts to represent flag ships. Wondering what the best way to do that would be as I don't know if I have THAT much patience to actually paint the insignia's on.

Boardgamegeek.com has alot of discussions on painting figures from all kinds of games.

There would be alot more information over there than here.

btw how much did you get it for?

Bill

Yeah I frequent BGG quite a bit and checked but not a lot of actual images of people painting their Twilight stuff (and quite understandable considering the bulk of it). I finished painting the Federation of Sol and they turned out rather well. Now only 13 more races to go. And the Twilight I think I got it for around 40 bucks.

Well I got the Federation of Sol ships done. Let me know what folks think? I thought they turned out rather well.

FederationSol.jpg

CanadianPittbull said:

Yeah I frequent BGG quite a bit and checked but not a lot of actual images of people painting their Twilight stuff (and quite understandable considering the bulk of it). I finished painting the Federation of Sol and they turned out rather well. Now only 13 more races to go. And the Twilight I think I got it for around 40 bucks.

Nice pictures! Can you post details of what you did?

Bill

CP, when I saw you posted a message on the Twilight forums, I remembered your excellent work on his Descent minis, and said "sweet, this is gonna be good..." And sure 'nuff, those minis look great! I'd love to see the rest of your minis as you finish them.

I painted my ships so that every race would have its own color, but not like one would paint regular miniatures (no drybrushing, highlights, or extra colors). I just got some good spray paint.

These are the extra colors I did, and which race got them:
Xxcha light green
Sol light blue
Winnu light purple
Naalu pink
Saar tan
Yin white

THose look GREAT!

Make sure you post more pics as other races come out........I'm excited to see Sardakk (Personally I think they would look AWESOME as black with red highlights gran_risa.gif [nudge] [nudge]

Really nice paint job aplauso.gif And having a painted set for each race is gonna be sweet!

Man, one really becomes envy seeing this...

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement guys! The process is pretty much a 3 part base colour process as far as Base colour is dark, then a mid range and then a highlight. On top of that I then add their insignia colours and then do little touches such as paint in the metallics and the give the thrusters some colour to look like they are actually moving through space. I find the toughest part is trying to make the insignia colours applied in different ways so as to not always have the same basic look throughout on all the races ships. I will experiment with different ways of applying the colours but there are not that many different ways in which to make the ships unique other than by their colours.

Here is the L1Z1X Mindnet:

L1z1x001.jpg

Wonderful job!

All I have done is make sure each of the 14 races had their own specific color. I did not do any highlights to the ships as you have done. I do like those better those than just the solids I did for each race. The highlights give them more attitutde I think and do look great. It does make it easier for set up when each race has its own color and bag already set up for them.

Very nice! I may have to commission you as my own mini-painting skills are woefully inadequate.

Quick question where did you get the extra fleets (after the 8 that come with original TI + SE expansion) ?

4lterego said:

Quick question where did you get the extra fleets (after the 8 that come with original TI + SE expansion) ?

Try reading the very, very first sentence in this entire thread gui%C3%B1o.gif

Really cool paintjob on the Federation of Sol ships. I would like to paint up the fleets corresponding to their races, too, but I "just have" 8 sets of ships. I like the idea of having not only a "full set" but also different ships for different races to have some variation. Does anyone know a manufacturer who produces similar sized ships? I havn't found one yet. And since I want to paint them it does not matter how they are painted, but they should not be too big or too small, because this would not look good.

Looking forward to see more pictures of painted ships!

Wow! i am highly impressed!

Keep up the good work! gui%C3%B1o.gif

More.....

Glad you folks are liking these. I should hopefully have the Clan of Saar and the Yin Brotherhood images up by the weekend.

Finally was able to take some more pics:

Clan of Saar:

ClanofSaar001.jpg

Yin Brotherhood:

BrotherhoodofYin002.jpg

The Naalu Collective are next and it will be interesting to see how their ships come out based on their chit colour.

Yeah, very nice them all. Have you played with them yet?

What I like the most is that it not also looks better, but it kind of unclutters the gameboard a little bit since their are no longer such big, bad colour batches, but rather cool, distinct fleets. Very Nice!

Stefan said:

Yeah, very nice them all. Have you played with them yet?

No I have not. My gaming group have been busy playing a Descent: Road To Legend Campaign at the moment but we are looking at returning to Twilight once I get all the races ships done and we are finished the campaign. And I have to agree with JhonnyGoo that this will definately unclutter the game board visually and make it rather dynamic with all these very race specific coloured ships. I will be taking some pics once we get to playing it again just to show the contrast.

I'm looking forward to this. Thanks!

Here are the Naalu Collective:

NaaluCollective001.jpg

Next up: The Barony of Letnev.

These do look very cool...

I'm a bit curious if they can be as easily seperated from each other visually than the unpainted ones, but then you normally know where your units stand.

The Barony of Letnev:

BaronyofLetnev01.jpg

Next up : The Sardaak N'orr