Oh, Officer!

Today we color spray the Imperial Officer in Star Wars Imperial Assault. We will also cover lining which can be used to give greater contrast where differing colors meet!

Ah… The Imperial Officer… Nothing gives comfort to a war weary population like a group of homogeneous special forces, separated from the general population, and given absolute power over life and death! It always ends well. Whether it is an alien species that needs to be taught their proper place, or suspicious planets that need renovation from orbit, there will also be an Imperial Officer on the scene to give the order!

After cleaning the minis and priming them grey, I went straight to the base coat. I decided on a dark bluish-green for the uniform, and a fair skin tone.

Skin	Reaper Fair Skin
Uniform	Reaper Highland Moss
Boots, belt, gun	Vallejo Model Color Dark Grey
Buckle, medals	Vallejo Model Color Natural Steel
Hair	Vallejo Dark Sea Grey

With the base coat in place, I decided to do some lining. Lining is a shading technique, like the washes we have relied on up to this point. Lining, as the name implies, is simply placing a line of dark color between two other colors, in order to provide a contrast and sharper demarcation.

Lining is often not required when using washes, because the pooling of the wash will usually provide sufficient contrast all by itself. However, lining is often advantageous when two non-black colors meet in a highly visible area. In this case the sleeves of the uniform transition directly to the flesh tone of the hands and the neck. We will be washing both the flesh tone and the uniform. Unfortunately, neither of the wash colors will transition cleanly to the other, which will result in a blurry and sloppy looking area on the miniature.

A dark line will provide shading, and a clean contrast, which will be more pleasing to the eye. Any dark color will do. Most often, people will simply use black for lining. In fact, this technique is sometimes referred to as “blacklining.” In this case, I used Reaper Grey Liner. The Reaper Liner paints are specifically formulated for this purpose, as they have extra flow aid added and a higher concentration of pigment. However you can achieve a similar result by simply thinning black or dark grey paint with flow aid.

With the lining in place, I moved on to washing the miniature. I mixed up a wash using Reaper Jungle Moss. Jungle Moss and Highland Moss are part of a Reaper triad, which means that Jungle Moss is formulated to be a good shade color for Highland Moss. So I used our normal wash formula, using three drops of Jungle Moss, nine drops of water and nine drops of matte medium.

For the skin, I used premade Vallejo Flesh Shade. For the boots, belt and gun, I used premade Vallejo black shade.

For the highlights, I layered some Highland Moss on the raised areas of the uniform, and then did a second round of layers with Reaper Pale Lichen. Then I lightened up the raised areas of the flesh with the Fair Skin.

The final step for the uniform was to mix up a glaze in order to blend the shade and highlight colors together. I mixed two drops of Reaper Green Clear with two drops of Reaper Blue clear and 15 drops of flow aid. This not only helps to blend in the highlights, but will also shift the color of the uniform towards a cool turquoise.

Finally, I added a couple stripes of Vallejo Game Color Bloody Red and Falcon Turquoise to their medals and painted the bases black. After a shot of Testor’s Dull Coat, I gave the boots a coat of half Vallejo Gloss Varnish and half water, to give them a bit of a shine.

Probed!

Today we color spray the Imperial probe droids in Imperial Assault! We’ll also talk about applying chipping effects.

Ah… The Imperial probe droid. It’s a common tale. Boy meets girl. Boy becomes Sith Lord and girl dies under controversial circumstances. Children are hidden in obvious locations and the Sith Lord searches for them. A story as old as time itself… But how, I dare ask, can that Sith hope to find his wayward, and genetically useful, progeny without a good probot? Space is big! Really big! He can’t do it alone! He needs his droids, and he is not known for his patience… So let’s get to work!

After cleaning and prepping the minis, I primed them grey. For a base coat, I wanted a slightly blue tone, so I went with equal parts Vallejo Model Color Neutral Grey and Vallejo Game Color Steel Grey.

With the base coat in place, I dry brushed the mini with Vallejo Model Color Natural Steel.

Next I washed the entire mini black with Vallejo Black Shade. This will darken the mini down to a nice metallic dark blue.

Then I wanted to get some wear and tear on the model and decided to apply a chipping effect by placing some irregular metallic highlights. A simple way to apply some chipping is with a piece of semi firm foam.

The piece I used came from an old Battle Foam tray. I ripped off chunks on one side to get an irregular surface.

Then I brushed on some Natural Steel onto the rough side of the foam. After that, I wiped off most of the paint onto a paper towel, in a manner similar to dry brushing. Finally I applied the foam to the mini in a stabbing motion.

It is easy to go a little overboard during this step. If that happens, just hit the mini with a little more wash to tone things down again.

Next, I painted the lenses. The lenses are suppose to all be back. However, I decided to paint the main lens a deep red to have a more defined focal point on the mini. I wet blended a little black into the red to give the lens a little more depth.

Finally I painted the base black, hit the mini with Testors Dull coat and gave all of the lenses a coat of Vallejo Gloss Varnish to make them shine.

The droids are all ready to go!  Now, where did those pesky kids get off to anyway…

This post was adapted from an article originally published on the Mad Adventurer's Society. 

Storm Troopers

Let speed paint the Storm Troopers from Star Wars: Imperial Assault!

Base Coat

After washing and cleaning the miniatures, I primed them white. Then I base coated them with Vallejo Model Color Off White.

That’s right. I primed them white then painted them white. Is that necessary? You’ll hear some folks say that if your primer color happens to be your base coat color… then you’re done. Move on! I can understand the point. It’s not a bad point, really. But I don’t care. I paint on a base coat color anyway.
Why? I prefer to paint on a nice, even base coat. Quality primer sprays pretty evenly, but it doesn’t match the evenness of a lovingly applied base coat. Primer is also rougher, because it needs some bite to stick to the smooth surface of the miniature. I don’t like running my expensive brushes over rough primer. Plus, painting white over white primer is hardly a difficult trick to pull off, so I find it worth the very modest effort.

However, these are minor points. If you want to save a step by washing and highlighting straight on the primer, go right ahead. It’ll turn out fine.

Next! I applied a base coat of Vallejo Model Color Dark Grey to the joints, eyes, mouth and gun.

We’ll be applying a black wash in the shading step below, which will darken the grey even further. If you don’t have a dark grey, you can just mix equal parts grey and black.

Shading

Now for the fun part! I applied a black wash of Vallejo Game Color Black Shade. I didn’t bother with mixing my own wash this time. Black wash is extremely useful and versatile, so I always have some premade on hand.

The wash will do what wash does. It’ll pool in all of the wonderful little details, bringing depth to the minis.

Highlighting

Now for the tricksie part. The wash provides that wonderful detail… but unlike the Royal Guard, we don’t want the raised areas to remain washed. Some grime and battle damage on the armor will look great, and will match the artwork of the game, but the raised areas of armor needs to be highlighted back up to a glossy white.

The level of detail on the troopers provides a challenge. The goal is to layer on thin coats of white paint, while leaving the shade in the nooks and crannies. This will take some time and some patience. If you get some white paint somewhere you didn’t intend, don’t stress about it. Either brush some wash into the area with a detail brush, or just leave it and apply some battle scars to that area, in the step below, to cover it up.

Finally, just know when to stop. We’re not competing for a trophy here… these minis work for a living!

I also applied some brown muck on the troopers feet and legs as well as some battle damage to their armor.

To apply both, I used a technique called stippling. Stippling is somewhat similar to dry brushing. Simply take an smallish, old (or cheap) brush and get some paint on it. Remove most of the paint by rubbing the brush on a cloth or paper towel, then apply the brush to the mini in a stabbing motion. The bristles of the brush will flare out applying the paint in a random, dotted pattern.
For the muck, I used Vallejo Game Color Charred Brown, and just stippled it fairly heavily along the feet and up the legs.

I used lighter stippling for the battle scars. I wanted a fairly dark center area, with stippling around it in a small area to look like a blaster scar. I used equal parts black, charred brown and dark grey. On a couple of the minis, I also applied a small area of Reaper Fire Orange and Reaper Fire Red to leave a smoldering ember matching some of the artwork in the game.

As mentioned above, you can apply the scars to cover any areas that you are unhappy with. I suppose you could also, theoretically, put scars on any parts of the trooper which you find it amusing…

Finally I painted the bases black, hit them with Testors Dull Coat, and then gave them a coat of Vallejo Gloss Varnish. I avoided putting gloss on the muck and the battle damage.

Overall, I don’t think they turned out horribly… but I’m a bit meh about them. It was a busy week at work, so I did all of these guys in one day. That’s rushing it a bit, even for speed painting. Also, painting so much white is not one of my favorite things to do. That being said, painting multiple units will also often mean less detail per mini (unless you have lots of time) and I am happy how they look on the table. So I’m calling it a win!