Daeothar does Star Wars - More Stormtroopers

[Mr Tough Guy]

Cheers

I just checked Jim's catalogue, but these specific SW crates are not there.

MicroArt Studios has some very nice ones, but I'd be better off buying my own YT transport and fetching a full cargo hold from that galaxy far, far away...

I've been thinking of making them myself from cubes of wood (or plastic), an engraver and a drill bit. Labour intensive, but not as dear as the nice resin ones above.

Updates will be postponed one day, as I've just been summoned for a game of Bushido. My Temple of Ro Kan's first outing, so that should be fun too...

I got mine from crooked dice, they do separate crates as well as crate stacks, perfect for Legion

https://crooked-dice.co.uk/product-category/crates-and-containers/

[Warboss Nick]

Got to love the Tusken Raiders Camp! Great work and so thematic.

[Daeothar]

Thanks all, for the advise and encouragements; much appreciated.

But being the perfectionist that I am, I could not let it go, and the more I looked at my attempt, the more I considered them a failure.

So back to the drawing board. Well, not really; the idea was sound, the execution had just been lacking.

My second attempt had a different starting point. I had acquired quite a few styrofoam balls for use as Tatooine building roof domes (I was toying with the town name of Moss Vespa, but that might still change ), so I cut a few of those in half, and then cut out the door opening as per my previous attempt.

For the tent poles I used cocktail skewers, broken/bent into the right curvature, and then glued to the half spheres with fast drying PVA.

After drying (just an hour or so), I cut them off flush with the bottom, and pushed/screwed three thick and short wood screws into the bottom of the domes for added weight (which were also glued into place with PVA).

I then pretty much used the same method I used on the previous huts for the tent cloth; torn up squares of thick paper, soaked in a PVA/water mixture. I made sure to use larger pieces for the bottom, and smaller ones for the top. When finished, I tore up the leftovers into smaller pieces and added those to areas where there was very little texture, to break up the even surfaces.

The end result was much more pleasing to the eye, and significantly larger too, making the Tusken camp look more like a family camping area, instead of a festival terrain.

They're now also more in line with the huts/tents as seen in episode 3.

After the below picture, I already undercoated them, but this time with the wall paint I use for all my basing and tables (matched to the old GW Graveyard Earth), mixed with water and PVA. This made them stronger, obviously, but as I did not let the paper squares soak as long as I did the first time, they were not as mushy this time around, preserving the edges of the paper better, so the texture is now there as I had intended.

I will spray them in a sand colour after this, and I'm confident that the following washes will not be as dire now, as my with first attempt.


'And there was much rejoicing'

[OSHIROmodels]

Yes, they look good 

We learn by doing 

I'm still learning after 20 odd years 

[gamer Mac]

Glad you are happy with them there was nothing wrong with the last batch
Look good though will be better with some paint

[Mason]

They certainly cut the mustard.
 

If you have not already binned the others maybe you could use them as an abandoned village and have sand drifts piling up over them...?

[Daeothar]

Thanks gents

And Mason; that's actually a great idea. Of course I haven't binned them yet; I'll post a side by side picture of them together later, just to show the huge difference between the two batches.

I had already been thinking of a purpose for them (the village for my daughter's orcs is not off the table yet), but such an abandoned village has a lot of merit indeed. I might even add some blaster marks ('only Imperial Stormtroopers are that precise') and maybe even a scorched skeleton...

[Mason]

It would be a shame to waste them....although the idea of them housing your daughter's Orcs sounds equally worthwhile.
 

[Daeothar]

Here the two batches are next to eachother, in comparable WIP states.

Now to finish them off...

[aliensurfer]

They look really good

[Daeothar]

Well, between chores and physical work around the house, I did manage to finally finish the three Tusken Raider tensts/huts. The second iterations that is, obviously

I spraypainted them the same sand colour I used on my first Tatooine building, but this left the colour too close to it, so I decided to use flesh washes and other reds instead of the dark tones I used on the plasterwork.

And this worked out perfectly, since the tents/huts are supposed to be made from (animal?) skin. It's hard to make out in the pictures, but I picked out a lot of individual hides in different washes. The effect is subtle, but works really well to break up the surfaces of the tents. Sadly, it does not show up too well in the pictures, but believe when I say the effect is there.

I also picked out all seams/overlaps with Army Painter Dark Wash, slightly diluted, to make sure the different hides do not melt into eachother when looking at them from a distance.



After this, I drybrushed the entire tents with khaki, then sand and finally bone white. I used make-up brushes for the first time here, and they are great; very soft and big, and they're now a standard part of my painting arsenal.



Then the wood used for the frameworks. These are cocktail skewers, and they caught a substantial dose of sandcoloured spraypaint during that particular step, and it made them look very pale. In fact, to the extent that they looked very much like dried wood already!

But as there were also patches of black paint where I had accidentally touched them during the painting of the top opening, they needed to be painted over after all. I found a very good grey/green colour (VMC Stone Grey - 70.884) in my collection that matched the sprayed-on bamboo almost perfectly, so I used that to paint all the sticks (including those in the drying frame). They then received a wash of AP Dark Tone, and finally a drybrush of VMC Silvergrey - 70.883.

And the effect was perfectly mimicking very dried out wood!



That was the tents all done, although I might give them some sandy pigment treatment to the lower parts of the tents before sealing them.

The hide on the frame was painted in the same way as the ones on the tents, but here, I got a bit adventurous, and as the flesh wash (slightly heavier than on the tents; this is a fresh one after all) was drying, I repeatedly drew a clean, dry brush through the (now sticky) wash, to hint at a pattern of a spine and ribs. I'm pretty pleased with that effect, although the end result is still a bit flat and textureless, so I might stiple some paint on, let it dry and then repeat the process, after which a light drybrush can bring out the added texture.



But silly me did the above on both sides, which (unless they managed to find and kill a very rare type of siamese twins) is not very realistic   So I'll probably darken the rear side, and maybe even hint at a pelt. Maybe by using static grass? (now there's an idea...)

Also, the ribcage and skull pile on the base are blending into the sand a bit too well, so I might yellow those up a bit.


'The Synchronous Gaffi Stick Team went bananas when they saw their new camp'

Left to do is to make a camp fire, and some assorted scatter terrain pieces, inspired by the same picture I used for my tents. I believe it's from the Star Wars Battlefront game, and not episode 3, but hey; it works for me.

Here it is; you can compare my end result with this piece of inspiration and judge for yourself whether or not my first attempt would have fit the bill

[Mason]

They look top notch, mate!
 

I shall come back and steal all of your ideas when I make the yurts for my Dune Tribes.
 

[The Voivod]

Lovely stuff, dude.

It may have been frustrating, but it was well worth the efort

[Blackwolf]

Nice work mate Needs a butterfly 

[Daeothar]

  Everything's better with a butterfly hidden somewhere. But actually, there is a sand moth inside one of the tents... 

And thanks guys; much appreciated, as always.

In the meantime, I have added some pigment powders to the tents and sealed them. Also, I have revisited the drying frame, and added a paper front onto the plasticard hide, which I stippled with a glue/paint mix, and then treated exactly like I did the plasticard underneath, so a patterned wash for the inside of the skin.

Which is now an actual pelt, because I have added long fur to it by coating the surface in PVA, and then (starting at the rear end) added small bundles of a long, tan coloured static grass. I first rolled the grass between my fingers until the individual fibers aligned, so I could then tap them gently into the glue lengthwise (relative to the pelt). I then added more, all overlapping, working towards the front.

When the glue was drying, I 'combed' the hairs with a brush, gently stroking any recalcitrant hairs into the right direction. This was not a perfect job though, and there are still some hairs 'off', but this does make it look like a particular rough pelt, so it works.

Once the glue was dry, I simply gave the entire fur area a dark brown wash, and that was it. I'm pretty pleased with the result, as it adds another layer of realism to the pelt.

In combination with the pile of skulls on the ground, I will leave it up to the observer to judge if the raiders managed to catch a Wookie, or another furry creature...

Also, I made a fireplace, by gluing down a ring of rocks (read; pebbles), with some tiny twigs and sticks as firewood inside, all painted to look like a died down campfire.

Regrettably, I do not have any pictures at this moment,  so that will have to wait till this evening