Chicken Walker, Taris Ranger

This week we color spray the AT-ST from Star Wars: Imperial Assault! We’ll also take a look at rust and weathering effects.

Ah… The All Terrain Scout Transport… Truly a marvel of modern engineering! Known to be effective in all terrains and against all enemies, who are not rock wielding primitives, the Empire will always send in the chicken walkers when it wants to be taken seriously!

This is one of the few models in Imperial Assault which requires some assembly. I’ve heard tell that folks have had problems fitting the front guns into the “mouth” of the unit. It is a tight fit, designed to stay in place without gluing to preserve its ability to tilt up or down.

If you are having issues getting the gun attached, you have a few options:

Force it: I don’t recommend this. You’ll end up breaking the guns off.

File it: You could take a file and shorten the knobs that keep the attachment in place. This may work, but it’s tricky. File off too much, and the guns will be forever falling out of the mini. If this happens, you have to glue it in place and lose the ability to tilt the guns.

Heat it: This is a good option. The two most frequently used methods are to heat some water to near boiling and submerge the mouth of the mini for a few seconds. This will make the mouth, temporarily pliable, allowing the attachment to slide into place. Another option would be to blast the mouth with a hair drier for a few seconds, achieving the same result. If I were using heat to attach the guns, I would use the hair drier method.

Use leverage: This is the method I finally selected and it worked great. Instead of trying to press the attachment into the mini, place the attachment on the end of a table. Then press the head of the mini down onto the attachment. I got it to safely snap into place almost immediately.

With that done, we need a stand that will hold the mini while we paint. I use a cap from an old can of primer. In order to give it a little more weight, I have some modeling putty pressed into the top of the cap. This gives the whole thing a nice feeling of heft.

I primed the mini grey, then gave the armor a base coat of Vallejo Game Color Stonewall Grey. The guns and eyes got a base coat of Vallejo Model Color Dark Grey. If you don’t have a dark grey, a mix of half black and half grey would work fine. Then I dry brushed the guns with Vallejo Model Color Natural Steel.

With this miniature, I am going for a heavily worn and rusted look. My wash was one part Vallejo Oiled Earth wash, one part Vallejo Rust wash and one part Vallejo Black shade. I think it turned out ok. But a black wash would have been fine as well.

I applied this wash with a larger, flat brush and a downward brush stroke. I’ll be applying additional rusting later, and I wanted to get a feel of where water would naturally flow down the unit and where it would pool and cause corrosion.

The guns got a black wash of Vallejo Black Shade.

Next, I hightlighted the flat portions of the armor with stonewall grey. I left more of the the rust wash visible in the interior of the unit and in areas were water would pool. I also applied some black wash to selected areas around the face, as it is the focal point of the miniature, and needed some darker shading.

For additional weathering, I took a page out of the book of historical miniature painters and how they apply rust effects to tanks. I used some weathering powder to apply rust to the armor. The product I use is Weathering System from Bragdon Enterprises. I suspect that it is mostly ground pigment, however they say that there is actual rust in there too. Whatever it is, it works great and is one of those things you buy once and use so sparingly that it’ll last just about forever. What I like about this particular product is that you can just apply a small amount with an wet (older) brush and it goes on much like paint. Many other brands require special preparation or sealers to get the rust effect to apply properly.

If you don’t want to pick up weathering powder, I’d recommend layering on some Reaper Chestnut Brown and then layering some Reaper Rust Brown over the top of it.

I applied the rust with downward strokes in areas where water would naturally stream down the unit.

Note: One of my sons objects to this, claiming that the Empire would take better care of their equipment, even on a remote outpost. Like any good father, I informed him that when he is a mature and sophisticated adult, he can play with HIS little toy soldiers however he likes…

To mute the rust and help it blend in, I mixed a grey glaze and applied it over the armor. Two coats gave me the look I was after. Then I painted the base black and gave it a shot of Testor’s Dull Coat.

With that, we are ready to go crush us some Ewoks! What could go wrong with that?