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.