Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Future Wars => Topic started by: Cubs on June 27, 2019, 10:03:26 PM
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I've always loved Star Wars, I've always loved miniatures. Until now they have never combined. I blame Grant for flogging off a bunch of his Star Wars Legion mins cheap.
So here he is then, my first Star Wars miniature in what will no doubt be a very, very slow project - Darth Vader. Go big or go home, eh? The base is homemade from some scraps of things in the bits box - I wanted something that looked a bit like the Bespin interiors, with those orange floor lights and metal gratings.
(https://myalbum.com/photo/xPXt2d2gG8N4/1k0.jpg)
(https://myalbum.com/photo/XWLVxrrrHyWD/1k0.jpg)
(https://myalbum.com/photo/7B4TbyACbpM6/1k0.jpg)
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Wow...gees that is amazing :o :o :o
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Really great start :-*
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o_o
That had to be the power of the dark side..
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Terrific! You've made the shiny armor and other black textures look very different :-*
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Absolutely stunning :-*
I hope you do more soon.
Subscribed ;)
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What a cracker 8)
Those reflections are spot on :)
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Thanks dudes, very kind.
Obviously getting the different textures right was key to this guy, so trying to mess about with highlights and get them right was what I concentrated on. The armour was a be-atch and I repainted the helmet slightly because the first time I did it, I made it too symmetrical and it was just a bunch of evenly spaced white streaks. I realised my mistake and stuck some random blobs in here and there and gave it more patches of black to stop it looking too zebra-like. The armour needed blobs of pure black going to white highlights to show it was shiny - the cloak needed more of a gradual blend through greys (without an extreme highlight) to show it was dull, and the arms & legs were somewhere in the middle.
Like I say, this is only going to be added to very slowly, because the paying work comes first, but hopefully it will get a new addition every few months or so.
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Excellent painting, you've nailed those different textures with the different highlights.
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Fantastic paintjob, really amazing!
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The paint on the fella is cracking and you have really nailed that base too.
:-*
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Superb ;D
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Magnificent work!
A real inspiration.
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Great start! Keep ‘em coming! 8)
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I do like these models you know. They're big buggers at 32mm to the eye (more for the tall ones), which gives me a little more scope for the detail.
Luke Skywalker now, ready for a Bespin show-down with Dad. I tried to keep the base the same as Vader's but with the glowing lights at the front of the base and no cloak to work around, I was able to keep things a little neater. I love the bland colour scheme of his outfit contrasting with the glowing light saber. By choosing three likely angles for photos, I was able to paint streaks in the right place to look like a glowing effect.
(https://myalbum.com/photo/4ixZwFPbgXns/1k0.jpg)
(https://myalbum.com/photo/bfRvxthSBwkt/1k0.jpg)
(https://myalbum.com/photo/TBQ7dYqs5YeL/1k0.jpg)
And of course, now both of them are painted up on their lovely Bespin bases, I can do funky stuff like this -
(https://myalbum.com/photo/G53uAAr3p2se/1k0.jpg)
(https://myalbum.com/photo/S64D4nYaozBe/1k0.jpg)
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Stunning the effects of the lights is great :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-*
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Best version I've seen of that Luke sculpt. Top jorrrrrb.
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I have accidentally found a funky way of making great bases for models in space ships and I'm way more excited about this than I should be. I was trying to get a way of making sectioned metal floor plates for some Stormtroopers and Rebel dudes to stand on during in-ship fighting, and had an inspiration to use a plastic lid from a takeaway container (I'm sure I'm far from being the only person who hoards them and finds they come in very useful) cut into shapes with scissors.
When I cut out the inter-locking shapes I wanted I put a nice puddle (making the puddle was all-important) of superglue on the plastic base and arranged the shapes with a small gap between them (to show the join), planning to snip the excess off with nail clippers when dry. BUT! … when I went to do this, I found the glue hadn't adhered to the plastic lid at all and it just pulled away. I went from disappointment to rapturous joy when I saw the amazing result of the glue setting under its plastic piece mold.
Here are some pics of WiP, with added grating texture courtesy of some fabric netting I had (probably left over from an old project, but I think bit of old net curtain would also suffice). The fabric was cut to shape and glued on, then trimmed with small scissors when set and then the plastic pieces were put as previously. To glue the figures on I made sure to key the surface of the feet and where they touch the base, scratching the surface in a cross-hatch with a knife. I love accidental discoveries like this; they're so cool and I can't wait to see how they paint up.
(https://myalbum.com/photo/gZjfmrbgzv3r/1k0.jpg)
(https://myalbum.com/photo/KR4CyNrGLfh7/1k0.jpg)
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Nice looking bases, but the paint work on Luke in particular is :-* :-*
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That young Jedi chap is stunning, the face especially!
:-* :-*
And that is a cracking 'find' with the bases.
I shall certainly give that a go and see what occurs.
:)
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I know it's been a while, I've been busy! I'm trying to devote a little more time to my Star Wars lovelies, but those Stormtroopers ... yeeesh, they take years off me.
Anyway, as a fun distraction I decided to convert a model from the Legion 'Rebel Commandos' pack. One of them is an alien of some description - bald, with big eyes (the box artwork has it painted blue). I don't know what species it's meant to be, but I don't recall seeing it anywhere in the films, The Mandalorian or Clone Wars cartoons so it's out.
I was going to use a human head from a spare plastic sprue but I decided to convert it to another alien instead. One species we see in the films, The Mandalorian and especially in the Clone Wars are the Twi'leks and they appealed to me. The Rebel body looks more male than female to me (shame, a female option would have been cool) so I've made a male Twi'lek face and head.
I chopped the front part of the original face off (where the nose would be if it had one) down to the bottom lip and built up a nose and mouth with Greenstuff. I tried to give him a sneering snarl expression. Greenstuff is great for pulling around into facial expressions when it has been left for a couple of hours and is firming up but still pliable. The nostrils were shaped by poking a nail up for the hole and then giving it a little push to arch them slightly. The head tails are also Greenstuff with a 50/50 Greenstuff/Milliput mix for the head bumps and filler for the shoulder joins (it gives a smoother finish). I know some Twi'leks seem to have head bumps and some don't, so I did smallish ones on him. I didn't do anything to the eyes, because I can paint in the shape easier than faffing around trying to poke putty into the shape I want. He doesn't have ears yet (just noticed on the photos!) so I'll do them when the rest of the putty is fully set.
(https://myalbum.com/photo/uZnkvDxjCdFy/1k0.jpg)
(https://myalbum.com/photo/fXYuDdXpJYpM/1k0.jpg)
(https://myalbum.com/photo/VEBC6QU7ALZD/1k0.jpg)
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Terrific conversion!
I think the guy in the trooper set is meant to be a 'Douros' - https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Duros#:~:text=The%20Duros%20were%20a%20humanoid,hunter%20during%20the%20Clone%20Wars.
I think one of them appear briefly in the Cantina in A New Hope.
I've painted two Douroses (Douraii?) so far, one with a fetching lilac head (and orange eyes) and his mate with a mid blue head and dark red eyes. Both look okay.
Very interested to see how your Twi'lek turns out.
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Ooh,nice! He’ll look great painted up.
Memo; only one stocking leg,and it goes over the face...
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That’s great 8)
How have you found the gs sticking to the material of the figure?
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How have you found the gs sticking to the material of the figure?
The models feel a little greasy to me, so I scrub them with soapy water anyway, to help the paint stick. But the GS had help sticking with a little dab of superglue.
I think the guy in the trooper set is meant to be a 'Douros' - https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Duros#:~:text=The%20Duros%20were%20a%20humanoid,hunter%20during%20the%20Clone%20Wars.
Ah, now that clears it up, thanks. I do recall Bane now.
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Memo; only one stocking leg,and it goes over the face...
I notice that some Twi'leks wear stuff on their heads and head tails and some don't. I figured it was just a personal thing and decided not to over-complicate on my first try!
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An unusually confident-looking Rebel Fleet Trooper takes aim. PEW-PEW-PEW!
(https://myalbum.com/photo/CT9gHTcWZVKS/1k0.jpg)
(https://myalbum.com/photo/mtfdEDZpHsLn/1k0.jpg)
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Cracking paint work :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-*
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Amazing skin tones! :o
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Lovely
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Brilliant painting!
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And the Twi'lek is done! The face came out just how I wanted it to look, which is always nice. I couldn't be bothered to sculpt the ears with putty, so I just painted them on the head - the perfect crime! The ferns on the base are from my lovely box of old moss (collected from the garden years ago, preserved in glycerine and water mixed with green ink, then dried and stored in a tub) and the forest floor mulch is old tea leaves with mixed herbs, drybrushed with a swampy green when dry.
(https://myalbum.com/photo/iDNMnFnKEEM7/1k0.jpg)
(https://myalbum.com/photo/uPPrpU9A78Kd/1k0.jpg)
(https://myalbum.com/photo/bAykyjEEovJn/1k0.jpg)
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That is incredible. The face is indeed perfect, really an awesome model!
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Stunning job :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-*
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Wow! Nice :-*
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Fantastic 8)
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Cracking paint job, made all the better by the fact it’s a conversion
:)
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Superb!
:-*
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Thanks guys, he was fun. I really like the Legion mins, but sometimes they seem to hover on the line between gaming/display mins and boardgame pieces. Know what I mean? It's not just the mould lines, you sometimes get random little squiggles or defects in the plastic or an edge that isn't quite as crisp as it might be. They feel a bit like a 1:72 model blown up to 1:48 at times with simplified areas smoothed over, but at other times the detail is really good. I'm also finding that painting a 32mm mins needs slightly different treatment compared to a 28mm min, because everything's just a little bigger.
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Imperial Stormtroopers now, on board some ship or other. Okay, I realise this probably isn't the best range of models to collect but, I really really hate painting things pure white. It's just so ... boring and devoid of depth. I layer so much to try to achieve depth it always ends of just messy. The guy on the right is my first attempt, the guy on the left my second. Both have had repaints. The photos don't show it fortunately, but each has had a slightly panicked attempt to use NMM effects to get the shine on the armour and, well, let's just say it's a work in progress. It's okay, I'm hoping further attempts will both streamline and improve the process, but there's only so many shades between really light grey and white.
(https://myalbum.com/photo/ch8dVZHaYyEo/1k0.jpg)
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I think they look fine. Damn sight better than what I do 8)
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Very nice painting and modelling!
I have the Legion core set, but haven't had the guts to get the models assembled and painted, yet - I am trying to find a Clone Wars core box, as I find the prospect of painting more Jedi slightly more motivating (and the droid armies can simply be contrast and/or wash painted to a large extent - actually, I have already gotten two boxes of B1 Battle Droids, and started assembling the first squad).
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I am trying to find a Clone Wars core box
Bit like hen's teeth at the moment. I get my stuff from Dark Star Games - very good prices, crazy cheap.
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Lovely painting. :o
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Bit like hen's teeth at the moment. I get my stuff from Dark Star Games - very good prices, crazy cheap.
I usually get my FFG stuff from 'Hyggeonkel' here in Denmark - also much cheaper than the RRP, but I wasn't fast enough the last time the core box was available (I get notification emails, but sometimes a bit delayed). Well, enough of that, now back to gawking at minis ;)
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Playing around with different skin tones now for a change from the standard 'Western European' flesh shade.
The first pair I did with an Afro-Caribbean brown skin tone. I was still trying to get the uniform shades exactly how I wanted them with the guy on the left, so you can see his shirt is a little more blue and his trousers a little more brown than the rest. Some very clever person on LAF (I forget who, it may have been the late great Andy Zeck) told me to paint Afro-Caribbean skin by starting with a dark brown and then adding more 'flesh' (ie. the 'Western European' flesh colour) to highlight up, then do the last highlight the same with both skin tones. Raise my rent, but it absolutely does work and this is such a rich skin colour, much better than the flat brown shades I have produced in the past. The guy on the right had a 'tache as well, so it just had to be grey - "Just three more days to my retirement ... I'm too old for this bantha shit."
(https://myalbum.com/photo/GXsmCQziF5dw/1k0.jpg)
The second pair I did with a lighter brown shade, same sort of lightness as Western European, just with a brown tone as opposed to a peachy tone. At a pinch I usually use this for Asian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Latino, etc.. so it has a wide application. The running figure has so much right with it, but also so much wrong. I do like the movement in it, the fact that it's a great 'normal' female model without giant boobs or pouting lips, and the tilt like she's racing along a corridor. But, from the side it's a very awkward looking pose, very upright (I'd have preferred her to be leaning forward into the run) and she has her left arm and left leg both back. People don't run like that! Even if she's not pumping both arms because she's holding her pistol aloft, the left arm would still not be swinging back as the left leg is ... very odd pose. Anyway, probably me over-thinking again. if I get more of these models, she'll be one who's chopped up and re-positioned for variety, probably kneeling down.
(https://myalbum.com/photo/zDGek64gy3ug/1k0.jpg)
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Love the latest batch Paul - thanks for the tip on the skins tones, will have to give that a go at some point.
:)
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Brill 8)
Love the skin tone variety :)
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Nice work on the skin tone.
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Very nice indeed. The skin looks good
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Fantastic! :-* Its the thing I always love about your painting, and its shown again here, how rich your colours are when you paint! They're not just flat colours, there seems to be sooo many tones through them!
Is it just me or does the grumpy old man on the right resemble Harrison Ford?
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Thanks guys, just a couple now to finish off the squad.
They're not just flat colours, there seems to be sooo many tones through them!
Thanks, I do have a bad habit of trying to highlight too far quite often which just bleaches out the mid shade, so now I deliberately try to leave deeper shadows in the early layers, so I can get that depth of shade without losing the colour.
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Phew, one squad down! I repainted some little bits on the blasters I realised I'd done wrong. The little poky-out bit on the front of the sights are clear plastic or glass caps over a dark peg, so I did the best I could with such a tiny part (as on my wedding night). I also added little helmet aerials made from a split bristle (they're fibrous plastic and split easily) cut from the dustpan and brush I keep in the studio. I used a tiny 0.5mm drill bit in a pin vice and very very carefully drilled a little hole for each, then superglued them and trimmed them with a very sharp scalpel (to avoid shredding). I love 'em, they add such character. I know I should be doing lots of Stormtroopers but ... Odin's chin-dandruff they're boring to paint ... grey, white, black ... grey, white, black ... it's draining. These guys are so much more fun.
(https://myalbum.com/photo/ieh3Zy6b3noG/1k0.jpg)
I did Captain Antilles' uniform as in the film, but I'm a bit confused. According to the Star Wars bumf I found online, his rank badge (the five blue squares on his chest) denote General (Navy) rank. Perhaps he's referred to as 'Captain' because he was in command of the ship when boarded. Maybe I'm over-thinking. Anyway, further Fleet officers (if I do another pack of these guys, which I might well because they're just so cool and very easy to paint) will be of more junior rank with fewer squares. I'd like to do some NCO's as well, but I don't know what ranks badges they have (if any).
(https://myalbum.com/photo/UWonQpNTZzpy/1k0.jpg)
(https://myalbum.com/photo/SBuuU62VpAgA/1k0.jpg)
The grenade launcher is a bit of a worry. Perhaps not the sort of thing you want being let off willy-nilly in space and best reserved for ground actions. Maybe that's why they gave it to a solid veteran trooper in the shape of Reg. What they don't know is that Reg's wife left him this morning and he's on the edge, man ... he's on the edge ...
(https://myalbum.com/photo/wpUkXvHKTkzM/1k0.jpg)
(https://myalbum.com/photo/84o34GSjLwNd/1k0.jpg)
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Fantastic 8)
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They look wonderful, really gritty and 'realistic'.
:-* :-*
As for Rebel rank markings, this may help:
https://www.justingrays.org/my-blog/2018/2/10/rebel-alliance-ranks-explained
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As for Rebel rank markings, this may help:
https://www.justingrays.org/my-blog/2018/2/10/rebel-alliance-ranks-explained
Aha! So it was as I suspected! It is a bit of a tooth-grinder that the models all clearly have square rank pips though, where they should be round. I just know this will get to me eventually and I'll end up ruining all my officers by chopping away at their insignia. They don't seem to have any ranks equivalent to NCO's though.
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Wow! Fantastic!
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Stunning :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-*
Love the faces
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These are excellent, Paul! :-*
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It's been a while (grown-up stuff getting annoyingly in the way) but I've done a couple more. These are the Star Wars Legion Hoth 'Rebel Veterans', or at least 3 of them. They were a surprising ball-ache for me, blending up several different off-white shades for the various parts of the uniforms and kit, just for them to basically come much the same. Bum. The snow flock is a lovely product I bought years back from a railway shop with just the right balance between powder and sparkle, but it's a bit of a pain to apply. If you just glue it the flock soaks up the glue and goes translucent, so I paint the base white, then mix up a paste of glue, water and flock. I brush a thin layer of glue on the base and then apply this paste to it and tamp it down as well as I can with a sculpting tool. When it's firmly in place but still moist, it gets dunked in the flock and left. I then get a nice thick carpet of snow that still sparkles on top (although the photos don't really show that off too well).
(https://myalbum.com/photo/4yX93BWPd4jG/1k0.jpg)
The first dude had a Sullustan (the species that Nien Nunb is, with the big pleated cheek flaps) head, which didn't sit well with me, him being standard height and all with Sullustan's being usually much shorter than humans. Thus I decided to carve away his big cheeks, cover the bottom half of the face with a cloth (a cheat I know, but he already had one round his neck) and reduce the size of his eyes during painting to make him a human. It came off fine, especially since his face is largely in shadow under the peak of his cap anyway.
(https://myalbum.com/photo/ycL4qEaeS8Q7/1k0.jpg)
(https://myalbum.com/photo/8PqcUQkmLFeX/1k0.jpg)
The second model I was surprised to find was female during the painting. I do like the female models in the Star Wars Legion range - they're not overly obvious (body shapes aren't easy to distinguish under all that padding after all) but have subtle proportion and facial hints. You could paint her as male quite easily if you wanted to, but why bother? She's a great pose with a great face and ... some sort of big gun. I don't know, more knowledgeable Star Wars peeps can no doubt tell me what it is.
(https://myalbum.com/photo/pJ4KqYmpwwGu/1k0.jpg)
(https://myalbum.com/photo/eiVjA4WMH2mV/1k0.jpg)
The third model is a great pose but the beard looked a bit odd to me - too much like a Lego beard stuck on. Maybe he's in disguise? Or he's on the way to a fancy dress party? I appear to have gone mad with the flock here, because he's had a liberal dose of the stuff and I failed to brush it all away before taking the photo. However, there is a peek into my OCD here - I always need to paint something on the bottom of feet if they show. In this case, I wanted to put a realistic snow-boot texture on the bit of heel he's cheekily showing as he crouches. It's a sickness, I know.
(https://myalbum.com/photo/p4tuBphcVzjZ/1k0.jpg)
(https://myalbum.com/photo/RfFhvhh4PzU2/1k0.jpg)
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Lovely :)
Keep scratching :D
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Excellence. They all look absolutely fantastic.
As a side note, if you're bored by painting the stormies just white, you could go for the dirty distressed look that they have in some episodes of the Mando. That should make it more fun.
Or you could go all out like these guys from Empire toy works:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51823334825_6c61e2fe5a_z.jpg)
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Very nice :-*
The chaps with the white helmets,do they have a magpie problem?
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Absolutely fantastic looking figures
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Cor, has it been that long since I painted a Star Wars figure?
I guess so, I must put that right soon. Anyhoo, after a kind recommendation I got a (not) Willrow Hood figure from Skullforge (printed for me by Proteus 3d Modelling) and painted him up (one for me, one for Willrow's daughter, who just happens to be one of MrsCub's best mates!). Because Imperial Stormtroopers are naughty and don't deserve ice-cream.
Not the most challenging model I've ever done, but sometimes when there's less detail there's nowhere to hide the mistakes!
(https://thumbs-eu-west-1.myalbum.io/photo/360/7f7b6eb3-6c5c-4cc1-a495-9797bd15ddfd.jpg)
(https://thumbs-eu-west-1.myalbum.io/photo/1k0/753a19f3-682c-40ed-aecc-682600c59a0e.jpg)
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Love it 8)
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Willrow looks great - a true Star Wars legend!
:)
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He's superb. 8) 8) 8)
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Brilliant! Great figure too.
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Nice painting and conversions! :-*