Sokos Star Wars Painting Log

[Han Soko 43]

Hi,

I was really on the fence with this game. On the one hand I love Star Wars on the other I had concerns about the quality of the models and the fact that there are no posing-option for your stormtroopers and stuff like that.

I just painted two dozens of Malifaux-models before and maybe five Infinity-models and their quality is simply excellent.

I watched some friends playing the game and it looked fun and easy enough for me (another point: I am not the hardcore gamer) ... the quality of the models seemed to look ok at least.

I decided to pick up a box of Snowtroopers which just came out. To be honest: I don´ t like them very much - I mean their look. But I wanted to test myself if can make something of it in a reasonable time, which I am happy with (And if so I would have my least loved unit done ... hoping I don´ t need another one game-play-wise).

Removing the mold lines from the models was a PITA, but during the painting I realized: Even though the models are bit bulky and some parts (where the mold lines were too thick) were messed up, they are a real fun to paint. I can not get lost in an amount of details like with Infinity-models and I got the first 7 figures done in a time of maybe 1,5 Infinity-model. They seem to be made for easy painting and that´s a good thing regarding the amount of stuff you need.

But the most important thing why I bought the core-box last week is: It is Star Wars ... Although my first unit is maybe  a bit off from the orginal-theme, my excitement grew to build a full imperial army with the visual touches I want them to have (small touches only, I like the original look too much ).

So here is my painting log. My goal is to have some good stuff done to play in August (I am 36 and have two kids, so I have to stay realistic here). 

 

 

[Han Soko 43]

First: My approach on the snowtroopers:

 

 

Since my gaming-table (which I just started working) and basing will be more in a forrest-style I decided to leave the canon here and give them an appropriate look.

In April I bought an airbrush which I used for the first time for priming here. Vallejo-Gray-Primer mixed with a bit of Black-Primer from the bottom and Gray from the top. It helped a lot especially with the cloak.

The bases - and maybe some final touches - will be done, when I finished my other stuff, to get the things in sync (at least I need the basing material and I want to order a lot of that, since I want to use that for the table too).

So better pictures will come when that is done.

 

 

 

Edited May 20, 2018 by Han Soko
typo

[Han Soko 43]

And here is my core-box in the priming stage. I went a small step further with the airbrush this time (two more thin coats of regular gray and white from the top) and reduced the amount of black I used in my Gray-Black mix that I sprayed from the bottom.

I am really happy with the result and think this will save me a lot of time.

Forgot to mention: My wife gave me an extra box of speeder-bikes as a present for the "fathers-day" (an inofficial holiday we celebrate on the "Feast of the Assumption"-day here)

 

 

 

 

 

[Indy_com 1,144]

5 hours ago, Han Soko said:

The grey coats on those guys remind me of WWII German Soldiers in their Winter coats.

Was that an intentional visual reference?

[Han Soko 43]

Not intentionally... but the empire aesthetics in general for me is a reference to ww2 ... from Darth Vader’s helmet to the bits used to create the starship Models. So it’s okay to me if it looks like that :)

[Han Soko 43]

Here are some other shots from different perspectives:

 

[BigBadAndy 640]

I could tell from the bases you were using zenithal highlighting.  These look fantastic.  They came out really nice. I think you kept a very “true to the source” look even with the gray cloaks.

[Han Soko 43]

Thank you. For me the look of Star Wars is: muted colors, rough fabrics and leather/buckskin-stuff combined with high polished (but more often worn and scratched) Sci-Fi armor. Nor Star Trek neither Mad Max... a combination I always loved.

[Bohemian73 161]

True, the miniatures don't have the detail of Infinity or some other games. I am okay with that as I am only looking for tabletop quality as I hope to get a lot of play from them. I can spend less time painting them. I like your color scheme on the snowtroopers. 

[Han Soko 43]

Yapp. I started seeing it as an advantage . I never would have a full painted a full squad in that time before and the Stormies will be even faster I think. Only the mold-lines or my inability to remove them correctly bothers me a bit.

[Han Soko 43]

Here is my Stormtrooper Testmodel.

I am a bit unsure about it, since it - the white - has much less contrast then my other stuff...

But on the other hand that strong black-white contrast by the design of the armor itself looks really good as it is.

 

[KalEl814 1,510]

That’s a solid looking Stormie, nice work.

[Ritalbringer 183]

Excellent! Keep going!

[Jabby 1,042]

Tis a great looking stormtrooper.

[wintermoonwolf 146]

darn!!!......your SCHNEE-troopers are AMAZING!...wunderbar!....dude.....serious!....     and the STORMIES are great!   Some of the BEST I have seen on here!!!!

[Chucknuckle 2,811]

The zenithal approach really gives some nice shade and depth to the stormtroopers. It lets you play around with shadows and light so the white armour isn't just WHITE. I do think you could improve the models by carefully adding a thin wash to the creases of the armour to improve the definition.

Your models look EXCELLENT. Really good.

[hemblecreations 190]

You've done an awesome paint job on the figures.

Ron

[Han Soko 43]

Thank you guys!   As I said I am really on the fence with this one... I am currently in the grindy "assembly line" stage with the rest of them. After the black parts are done here (and cleaned up) I will try one or two things with my test model. Currently after the airbrush stage I only used some light blue glaze for a more interesting transition and some white to make the details on the helmet pop ... well and some brown on the lower parts.

[Jabby 1,042]

How did you paint your snowtroopers?

[Han Soko 43]

Wrote this somewhere else. Give me feedback i you want if it helps and where I have to be more precise:

Priming: I used the zenithal priming technique here. I just mixed black primer and grey and sprayed it from the bottom with my just purchased airbrush - absolutely recommend to get one - and then grey primer from the top (Vallejo Primers).

Cloak: I did these first. I started with a greenish wash (Black + Dark-Green with Citadels Lahmian Medium, which is great to create custom washes) and then did a layer of highlights (with a kind of greyish beige Glaze).  I repeated these steps three times I think. It took some time but it is worth it to create some smooth transitions here.

For the White: I mainly glazed here with three shades of gray (all a bit blueish) and white. The zenithal highlighting helped and guided me where to use the almost white and where to use darker grey ... the transition I did with a gray that had the strongest blue tone (it was more a bright blue then grey) ... finally I did highlights with pure white on the edges and did some glazing with the white on the top areas.

As a general rule I focus (and did the most highlighting) on the most interesting parts, like the helmets, shoulder pads and cloaks in this case. I try to make these part to look as good as possible (+ the easy parts like the bags) and almost ignore the rest. I also always look from above from time to time to check which are the parts that need the brightest colors - as I said zenithal priming helped here a lot.

Almost forgot: In this case I also did some kind of black-lining with strongly diluted black, before I did the glazings for the white (and in between on the cloak). ... you can use dilluted Nuln-Oil also for that.

With glazing I mean simply to use diluted colors so they are transparent (sometimes more sometimes less, I am still struggling to get the perfect mix ). Vallejo Glaze Medium is a great helper to easily create those glazes (but pure water works too).

You don´t really need that much white to paint white. Just make sure too have some highlights here and there. The cloak gives an additional contrast, to make even dark grays look "white".

Edited May 24, 2018 by Han Soko

[Han Soko 43]

I was a little busy in the last two weeks ... My Birthday, My Daughters Birthday, Friends Birthday ... May/June-Craziness, that didn´ t help getting forward with my army.

But here´ is a little update on my stormies ... For one squad only the weapons and the shoulder pad of the commander needs to be done ... The other one is also missing some highlights (looking at the photos it seems like an almost useless step ... anyway).

In general they came out with much less contrast then my snowtroopers - but I think I am okay with that .. they look good enough and my Birthday had the result of an other core box, an AT-St and a Veers box ... so no time to think or to worry about that. I have to paint, paint, paint.

For the bases I am still waiting for some money to make a big order of woodland-scenic stuff that I also want to use for my gaming-table. Hope I will get that soon, to finalize that stuff.

A comparision shot.

And here is my current work bench ...

 

Edited June 9, 2018 by Han Soko
typo

[1st Due Apparatus 4]

those snowtroopers are unbelievable.  I wasn't going to buy any until I saw your paint job. I apologize, but I'm going to copy them exactly for my army!

[Han Soko 43]

Thanks a lot, man.

[Mep 2,291]

7 hours ago, 1st Due Apparatus said:

those snowtroopers are unbelievable.  I wasn't going to buy any until I saw your paint job. I apologize, but I'm going to copy them exactly for my army!

They are really good. Mine came good actually but in comparison to these they are rather blah. These could easily be entered into a contest and win something.

[Han Soko 43]

Haha. Stop that please. I think the photos make them look better as the actually are.