We're back after the holidays with the return of Community Spotlight checking out what you've all been working on over the holidays and the first few days of 2017.

There's plenty to choose from over in the Hobby & Painting Forum but here are just a few of our favourites.

Star Wars Characters by collins

Kicking things off we're taking a look at what collins has been tinkering away on from one of the latest expansions for Star Wars: Imperial Assault and Jabba's Realm. Firstly we have Loku Kanola...

...followed by Bossk who plenty of people will be familiar with from the action figures. He even features on the card art for Star Wars: Destiny!

Finishing things off we also have the dashing Lando Calrissian.

The thing that stuck out with these models was a really good use of shading and highlighting to bring the characters to life. The schemes are simple but technically do everything that you need to make a figure look great and I can't imagine it must have taken too long either!

A particular favourite is Loku Kanola as I like the work that went into the eyes and the skin tone; plus it's always good to see the Mon Calamari doing something other than shouting 'it's a trap!'

Battle Cat by querion

Following on from that we're taking another trip into the realm of nostalgia as querion painted up his own version of Battle Cat for a friend.

This really tickled the ol' He-Man bone and made me smile which certainly deserves a thumbs up. While there's a lot of green here and it could have been done with a generous overall basecoat it looks like a bit of drybrushing and a bit of highlighting might have gone into bringing out the muscle definition.

I have to commend querion on the work that went into the stripes too. I always feel like I'm going to screw up with freehand, even like this, but I think he's done well to get good, clear, natural lines that don't clutter the model.

We hope your friend likes the model!

Wild West Exodus Condeferate by minigiant

Squeezing in some time to paint before he's away to China minigiant has been working away on his Wild West Exodus Confederates and while this is still a work-in-progress piece I'd be happy with it right now!

There's a really nice use of shading and highlighting once again to make the clothes pop out and the brighter colours work really well against the metallic parts of the model and the leather. The uniform is also in keeping with the Confederate colour scheme Historically which is a nice touch.

Keep up with your hobby as we proceed into the new year and we can't wait to see what you do when you get to sit down and enjoy a bit of time at the painting desk.

Make sure to get your forum topics posted in the Hobby & Painting Forum and show us steps if you can when it comes to painting up your miniatures. Finished pieces are also totally fine too of course!

Drop your thoughts below on what painting you have planned this month.