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!