This week on GeekDad Paints, I tackle the first part of the largest group of minis in Imperial Assault, the Stormtroopers.
There are nine Stormtroopers in the game, two standard deployments of three units each, and one elite unit of three. I managed to get through four of them before my desire to paint stuff white left me entirely (don’t worry, I’ll pepper the remaining units throughout future installments). Compared to last week’s Rebel Heroes, it was a much less dynamic paint, but equally challenging!
Taking a lesson from the E-Web Engineers, I primed the Stormtroopers black (along with some Probe Droids and a certain Lord of the Sith). No matter how careful I am, I just don’t have enough fine motor skills to paint black over white and not slop the black everywhere.
Once everyone was primed and ready to go, I mixed up a 5(ish)-1 ratio of Lahmian Medium and Matte White paint. The trick was getting a white paint that wasn’t so runny that it pooled on the miniature, but also wasn’t so thick that it didn’t spread out when applied (like the straight-out-of-the-bottle white). After one application, I was pretty happy with the smoothness of the armor (unlike I had been with the Engineers), but it was apparent that multiple applications would be the key to success.
Night two and I gave my first Stormtrooper another coat and started in on his compatriots. This continued progressively, adding layers until I was happy with the evenness of the coverage (or I was convinced that painting more white was just going to obscure the features). After that, I went back in with black to touch up, and Plate Metal to drybrush the blasters.
Confession time. This is not my first batch of Stormtroopers. My daughter and I painted the entire 9-figure phalanx last summer and they turned out… less than ideal. I primed them white and didn’t thin the paint, so we ended up with Stormtroopers that had more in common with the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man than Star Wars. It doesn’t show up as well in photos, but in person, it’s pretty obvious. So I’m painting a fresh batch, just to see how I do this time around.
After sealing the figures with Satin Finish, I wanted to jazz them up a bit and try my hand at some rudimentary basing. I used Stirland Mud from Citadel’s texture series to dirty up three of the trooper’s bases (one from each of the deployments) and the awesome grass I got from my Wargames Supply loot box.
I’m very pleased with the results and think they really pop when deployed on the outdoor tiles.
I can’t say that I’m looking forward to painting five (five!) more of these guys, but it is a nice, straightforward paint that gives you a figure that looks 100% better than the unpainted mini. More Imperials next week!
Thanks to Army Painter and Combatzone Scenery for supplying me with paints and scenery sets for this project (I’m working on some outdoor pieces next to go with those outdoor tiles). If you’d like to see the other entries in my Imperial Assault painting series, you can find them here.
Nice work! I’m intrigued to try the Lahmian Medium/White mix method. I painted my Stormtroopers, white/black/then white again, before trying to ‘plasticate’ with ‘Ardcoat’. It didn’t work how I hoped. It was not the hard plastic finish I was looking for (ahem). They just looked like Stormtroopers that had been varnished.
I might try your method for my E-web engineers.
Yeah, the ‘Ardcoat is good when used sparingly (like I’ll do for the Probe Droid’s lense); but I’m not thrilled how it looks when it’s applied to the whole figure (my “six-months-ago” Stormtrooper is finished with ‘Ardcoat in the picture above for comparison).
I think it’s partly that it shows up if where your paint isn’t smooth. The second batch I did, were cleaner due to the extra practice. The ‘Ardcoat really highlights those previously invisible brush strokes!