Jodain’s SW:L Hobby Weekend

I’ve had this on the backburner for a while now. The main body was printed on an FDM printer and I just couldn’t get down through the layer lines on it.  The guns were resin printed by a friend of mine.  A fairly quick paintjob but I think it works.

Well it was Star Wars day on Tuesday and I had spent time last weekend starting on my Clan Wren.  Decided on two things quite quickly:

1. I don’t want to paint grey and yellow (I have a cygnar army in those colours).
2. I don’t like the clear flight stands.

The solution to the first was fairly easy, rather than paint Clan Wren, I took inspiration from the Mandalorian Season 2 and painted Bo-Katan and the Nite Owls.  I have tried my best to include the helmets of all three Nite Owls that were shown in the series, I leave you to decide if I managed it.

For the flight stands I went to Deadly Print Studios and picked up their Wren backpack smoke resin prints.  I could have gone with the stl files but my resin printer is not working so as I only needed three I ordered them printed.  The print quality was excellent.

To paint these I started with Contrast Black Templar and a little Contrast medium to get the undersuite.  The Blue is Vallejo Air Ultramarines Blue with GW Drakenhof Nightshade wash and then a highlight from P3 Exile Blue.  The leather is a Horse Tone I think, but the name has long disappeared from the bottle.  I tried to show some plates in the highly metallic Beskar as well and used Vallejo Silver and Steel for those, with a wash of AP Soft Tone.

The smoke stands are painted with Cassandoran Yellow over Wraith bone, then dry brushes of white at the top, orange in the middle and red lower down.  The bottom was painted in AP Necormancer Cloak with dry brushes of Uniform Grey and Sky Grey to finish off.  I dry brushed the grey further up over the colours to suggest some smoke further up the plume.

I spent sometime over the last week painting up three more trees that I had 3D printed.  Two of them I had cut in two and printed length ways so that the layers lines run vertically rather than horizontally through the tree, not sure the result is better.

I printed this out during this third lockdown and got round to painting it recently.  My Eta-2 and a couple of trees are there to put it in context, it is rather large and there is obviously space for the other Eta-2 that I need to put together.

Reinforcements arrived for my rebel troopers this week in the shape of 4 new troopers.  The mix of more non-human miniatures into the mix is good.  The green skinned miniature was an interesting attempt.  I base coated it in GW Wraithbone, then used a pale green from miniature paints followed by an old green glaze I had (I think it was Waywatcher Green), that didn’t quite give me then effect I was after so GW Athonian Camoshade was used to finish it off.

The purple skin tone was a base of a mauve colour, again Miniature Paints I think, with AP Purple Tone over the top.

The other two are straight contrast colours.  I really like how the different skin colours have come out on this batch and have enjoyed mixing them up (I did the two on the landspeeder around the same time.

I’ll be taking a break again from this project until I get Clan Wren and Lando.

Well with the price tag for this unit I certainly didn’t have a demand for it, but then this year I decided what the heck I should add it to my collection anyway.

Base coated it in Plastic Solider Company WW2 British Armour spray.  My eldest was then responsible for the camo pattern with Contrast Wildwood and Creed Camo.  The gun on the front is Vallejo Metallic Black with a dry brush of Steel over the top.  Weathering is a mix of a AK Interactive dust paint and Vallejo burnt umber pigments.  Unfortunately I didn’t varnish until I had the clear plastic on which then has completely misted over – need to clean it off.

Why is that I only spot the bit I missed when looking back at the photographs.  Still needs to come back to the painting table to get the windshield sorted.

So got myself some Tauntaun Riders, as my army is Forest based I decided to introduce the lesser spotted Forest Tauntaun.  My two young boy helped with painting the fur (I can’t remember the paints on this one) with a base coat, wash and a couple of dry brushes.

I’m back on a few Star Wars figures that I have been meaning to buy so the Rebel Specialists arrived and have been painted.  Nothing special with these.  The Medical droid was undercoated in AP Chainmail Silver and then Leviadon Blue Contrast was used to paint him up.

So I was talking basing with a friend the other Friday Night so I’ve taken photographs of my basing technique for my Star Wars figures – yes more figure have arrived.

I promised some group photographs a long time ago and today was the first chance I really got.  Photographs taken outdoors.

So I don’t have all the figures for the rebels in Star Wars Legion, I have painted all the ones that I currently own.  There are others I want to get, and others that I hope to see produced, but for now I am putting this lot to rest.

The AT-RT is a mix of painting, the pilot it painted with contrast, whilst the walker itself is normal paints with washes, drybrushing and chipping in place.  Luke is painted with a Halfords grey undercoat on his trousers, shirt and belt and Citadel Wraithbone for the boots and gloves (yes I went with two black gloves).  Both of these were painted over with Contrast Black Templar, which has produced two different blacks.  The lightsaber is a mix of the primers and then a mix of AP Green Tone and GW Waywatcher Green.

The 1.4D Laser Cannon was the most fun, the cannon itself is Contrast Space Wolf Grey over an AP Chainmail spray primer.  The camo net is a piece of bandage from a dressing (I have lots of out  of date ones as I teach First Aid), it was sprayed with Model Mates (now Dirty Down) Moss Green, Oil Brown and Rusty Red.  It was glued in place and the uprights put in to hold it up at the back.  PVA was put into the netting to make it a bit more rigid.

At somepoint over the weekend I’ll take a group photo to post up and give the log a proper close for now.

So the last time I posted about the Eta-2 Jedi Interceptor sundancer suggested it needed some pigments to dirty it up even more.  Having agreed I reached out the two relevant pigments I have Vietnam Eath from Secret Weapon and Burnt Umber from Vallejo.  Having applied them I gave it a quick dusting with AP Anti-shine to hold the pigments in place.  It does look much dustier and dirtier now.

Last night during our Club Zoom Hobby Hangout I cracked on with the last 5 rebel troopers that I have to paint.  Contrast really speeds up the painting on them!

Whilst I was finishing them off I finished the last bit of Sabine Wren who I have started on last Friday and spent a few odd minutes here and there.  At some point in the future, I might be tempted to try painting here again – she’s good enough for the tabletop but I’m sure I could do better.  Contrast is good for the bulk troopers, but I think in future for the hero figures they should get a get painted with normal paints.

A few more troopers have been finished off and photographed today.  I haven’t really changed the painting pattern but have been experimenting with the undercoat.  Three grey ringed troopers complete the squad from Episode 18 and the others start a new squad, these guys have been undercoated in Halford Grey Primer and then painted with contrast paints in a similar pattern to one of the previous squads.  Only 5 more troopers to go, then an AT-RT, a 1.4FD Laser Cannon and finally Operative Luke – the rest of the rebels haven’t been purchased.  Oh and Sabine Wren is awaitng basing and varnishing.

I’m going to follow Sundancers advice on the Eta-2 and get out the weathering powders.  Still have one to go as well.

The next batch of Rebel Troopers have hit the painting table and been finished whilst chatting to friends on Friday Night – took me until today (Wednesday) to base and varnsih them though.

I did make progress on the Eta-2 and it is now ready for weathering.  Whilst I was working on it I also cracked on with two figures.  Jyn Erso has been finished off today as had the one Rebel Commando that I realised that I had missed when I painted the rest (good job I listed the paints used).  For Jyn I painted the scarf and shirt in Contrast Dark Angels Green, the trousers in Black Templar.

So I purchased the Eta-2’s a while ago now and I’ve assembled one, see Episode 13.  Tonight I want to paint it, so I did some more research as I didn’t fancy painting yellow over Halford’s Grey Primer.  After a hunt I found an Eta-2 in Green which was the colours used by Yoda, so this is what I am going to do:  https://www.artstation.com/artwork/DxBvA0

So I’ve been really busy with work, but forced myself into some down time to finish off the squad of rebel troopers and Luke Skywaler.  The wife also insisted that I clear the craft table so the boys can use it for work.

When I say really busy – I’m a school teacher and have spent the last two weeks training our staff to remote teach.  As of tomorrow (Monday), I’m going to be online during our normal lessons teaching the students who are sitting at home all round the world.  So no extra hobby time for me.

Luke’s jump suite is painted with Skeleton Horde thinned about 1:1 with Conrast Thinner.  The lightsaber is Contrat Space Wolf Grey with Ghost Tint Plasma over the top.

The tree are 3D printed (so entry earlier in this project), I’ve tried to emphasis the vertical marks to hide the horizontal lines from the printer.

Spent sometime this weekend painting up Han Solo and 4 of the next squad of Rebel Troopers.

Went the full contrast route with them all again (problem is I keep spotting white bits when I take the photographs!).

Camo and Han’s coat are Creed Camo

Coloured spots on Camo Are Dark Angels Green, Gore-Grunta Fur and Snakebite Leather

Skin: Gulliman Flesh

Solo’s trousers – Gore-Grunta Fur

Alien skin flesh – Space Wolves Grey and then Drakenhof Nightshade (Shade)