Jodain’s SW:L Hobby Weekend

I had a few minutes this afternoon so I though I would get on with assembling one of the Jedi Starfighters, so I went with Anakin’s one (although I don’t think there is any difference.

I decided not to stick Anakin into the cockpit and have hence left it empty, I also didn’t bother with the R2-D2 in the Astromech slot.  As this fighter is going to be on the ground I had to have a look to find a photograph of one landed.  The best photograph I could find comes from Harrow Modelling Society (http://www.harrowmodellingsociety.co.uk/picsscifi.htm)

As you can see the bottom wing is fully folded in so I had to take a hobby knife and run it along until the bottom part came off, which I then glued onto the other part of the wing.  Next up I need to mask off the canopy and get it primed.

I’ve had a bad week at work, which drove me to a bit of retail therapy.  Unfortunately for me that meant a search on Amazon and a purchase or two to add to my Star Wars Terrain.  I plan on building these a painting them up in the same colours and giving them a good weathering so they look a bit older and like something some desperate rebels might try and fly against the Empire.

I couldn’t think of something linked to a Star Wars Film to call this one, afterall Solo is rather singular and can’t simple be replaced and still hint at the name of the film.

I have decided to move on from painting miniatures for a bit as I had the barricades to paint up and I had an idea I want to put into action.  I’ve gone fairly simple here with a base spray of Uniform Grey from Army Painter, Soft Tone wash to give a bit of depth and some dirt.  I then decided that I wanted some graffiti on these, fortunately for me Wargames Illustrated had given away a set of Judge Dredd waterslide decals of graffiti so I cut some that I liked out and put them on using Humbrol DecalFix to help them follow the shapes on the barricade.  The screens and buttons on the reverse of the barricades have been painted as well.  Once the decals were dried on, I left them 24 hours, I tooks out some Vallejo Natural Umber and some MIG Vietnam Earth pigments to dust them up.  The photographs is prior to the varnish going on, but AP Anti-Shine should hold the pigments in place.

I outght to explain that I selected the big Chopper decal as I am a fan of Star Wars Rebels – now if only I could get Chopper from that to join my army.

I’m still enjoying getting some time to paint in 2020 and making use of contrast paint to get things finished and off the waiting table.  This time round is the unit of rebel commandos.

Cloaks and helmets are Creed Camo, undershirts in Space Wolf Grey, trousers are Wyldwood, backpacks, belts, boots and pouches are snakebit leather, human skin is Darkoath and Guns are Black Templar.  The Mon Calamari is Snakebite Leather over an a base of Orange (Khador Red Base if I remember correctly – I didn’t relabel the pot!), with spots of Wyldwood and Black Templar.  The eye is Casandoran Yellow with a spot of Black Templar.  The other Alien was Darkoath with Snakebite Leather over the top and Black Templar for the eyepatch.  The band and base rim are in Miniature Paints Terracota.

As I posted last time I planned on painting my Rebel Pathfinders with GW Contrast paints, I started off with an undercoat of Wraithbone from the rattle can and this afternoon I’ve sat down on cracked on with them.

The base green is Creed Camo, there is then a variety of browns from Wyldwood (Dark Brown), Snakebite Leather (for Bistan’s skin and the hair of the female), Skeleton Horde (tan trousers and leather straps).  Pao’s skin is Athonian Camoshade which produces a nice yellowy-green colour.  Darkoath for the human skin colours.  Space Wolves Grey for the beard and the lens of the goggles on the leader.  Black Templar for boots and guns.  I had to go in a touch a few bits, particularly from the Creed Camo so a pot of Wraithbone was handy as well.

I’ve gone with the Vallejo Earth Brown as the basis for basing for the Pathfinders.

The Hobby Weekend might be in the past and the next weekend if closing in, but I shall continue.  I made a pledge for 2020 to complete all my Star Wars Legion figures so I shall keep going with this Project Blog.

First off thought is the finish of the Fleet Trooper that I started last Friday.  I did the bases yesterday with a layer of Vallejo Earth Texture – Dark Earth (cheaper than the GW equivalents) then a dry brush of Mid Stone.  Finally they are finished with my Woodland mix of various flocks.  After two coats of AP Anti-Shine from a rattle can they are completed, yes I know two coats seems excessive but it gives an extra bit of protection.

And so onwards.  The next unit to hit the painting table are the pathfinders, I’ve decided to use some contrast paints on these to try and speed them up a little, so they have been undercoated with GW Wraithbone.  I’m going to GW to pick up a pot of Creed Camo for the cloths.  The rest of the colour need working out.

You may remember Paul from the battle report, well after posting the picture of my fleet troopers in Episode 5 he commented that the greens all merged into one and they looked a bit like green soldier men.  Well I considered the comment and even though in the flesh they don’t quite look that bad I decided that the traitor green hadn’t really worked.  I think the issue was the Military Shader over the top which enhanced the green and diluted the grey tint in it.  So last night whilst catching up the XLBS Live show I started to repaint the jackets on all the troopers.  I should thank @warzan for his comment about the troopers it does mean a lot.

So the jackets are now painted in Coat d’Arms Mid Stone, with a Soft Tone Wash and highlights from Mid Stone mixed with P3 Menoth Base.  I also went back and highlighted the boots with the original colour (AP Leather Brown) and P3 Menoth Base.  The last colour added was Vallejo Ultramarine Blue for the rank pips on the officer.

Next is basing.

On another point I am glad that the team launched this event as I had lost the desire to paint things and this weekend forced me to find the time and reminded me that I do enjoy painting and when I put time into it I can get some good results out.  So a big thank you to Warzan and the OTT team.

Whilst I’ve been working on my Fleet Troopers I’ve also been working a 3D printer and have so far printed out a couple of Endor Trees, well not the whole tree but the bottom part of it.  These stand about 11cm tall and have yet to be painted, a few more will need printing to build an Endor board on.

So I’ve got the first three troopers to the point where I’m happy and ready to base them. These aren’t going to win any prizes though. I made a couple of changes from the plan. I switched the traitor green to the jacket rather than the under shirt and painted the front panel of the helmet traitor green.

Hopefully these guys look fit to fight in the jungles of Endor.

I’m using my photography box that I got from flying tiger, it was very cheap and I think it shows.

As I said earlier I don’t want to use the basic blue/grey scheme seen in the movies and want something more suited to forest combat, whilst keeping block colours. So here are my proposed colours:

• AP – Army Green for trousers, jacket and helmet
• P3 – Traitor Green for undershirt
• AP – Leather Brown for boots and leather
• Panzer Aces – Flesh Base for skin
• Vallejo – Metallic Black for the body of the pistol
• Vallejo – Gunmetal for the end of the gun and to highlight the body
• AP – Military Shader to shade the greens
• AP – Strong Tone to shade everything else
• Vallejo – Silver to highlight the end of the gun
• P3 – Menoth Base to mix to create highlights for flesh and greens (potentially)

Unfortunately I don’t have 7 painting handles so this is going to be two batches of painting.  For painting handles I have 2 of the GW ones and have printed 4 other from thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2751788).  The downside of the thingiverse one is that it doesn’t quite fit the Legion Bases as it has adaptors for 25mm, 32mm, 40mm and 50mm, not the 27mm of the fleet troopers.  Still painting starting soon.

The third part of my Hobby Weekend was a re-match against one of my best mates, Paul and his Clone Army.  A few weeks ago my Rebels had won with a lot of dice luck on my part and terrible dice on Paul’s part.  I rolled out my Fleet Troopers for the first time along with Leia, Luke, Chewie, a couple of units of Rebel Troopers, a unit of Wookie Warriors and an AT-RT.  Paul putted out Obi-Wan, three units of clones and three BARC Speeders.  Paul used the speeders really well and gave me the complete run around putting two speeders into my deployment zone in Turn 5.  I put Luke and a unit of troopers into his deployment zone on the same turn, unfortunately in Turn 6 Paul wiped out the unit of troopers taking the win at 2VPs to 1.

Well the troopers are glued to their bases and they have now been treated to a coat of Army Green Primer from Army Painter.  I am going to try and go for a more green/brown colour scheme for them, but not using the camo pattern that my standard rebel troopers have on.  This will allow them to fit in more with my Endor type army.

Its Friday morning of the Hobby Weekend and it is time to crack on with some Hobby! Out came the Fleet Trooper box I’d ordered, which will allow done variety in my basic unit choice and support Leia nicely.

Unfortunately I managed to get my fingers covered in superglue for some reason, next is to glue the fingers to the bases.