My Hoth Rebels

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

Pics to follow... Painted a core set of Rebels, plus another AT-RT and rebel trooper squad, in snow color schemes. I wound up acquiring a whole second set of core set rebels... Not sure how I want to paint the 4th squad, or the 2nd Luke.  Probably paint them in Endor/Bespin colors respectively and own a modest 800 point side collection of "not Hoth" to use in games when my arctic army would look just plain wrong. Plus I'll want a squad of Endor rebels to ally with ewoks someday.

Anyways. Took inspiration from this video, which many of you have probably seen. Made some changes but this was my jumping off point for Hoth guys. If I do a squad in green, I won't use this method though: tried it and didn't like the results. I mix my own washes though so maybe if I used the same paints as her it would have looked better.

https://boardgamegeek.com/video/173247/star-wars-legion/quick-easy-rebel-troopers-painting-tutorial-3-sche

 

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

Here's the pics! As you can tell, I was in a hurry! I had less than a week to paint the core game for a demo. This is basically a series of experimental paintjobs that I will use to inform the painting of "real" Hoth rebels when they are eventually released. I refuse to have a huge painting backlog with Legion, and I also refuse to use unpainted models. So I am producing quick and dirty paintjobs that look good on the table when you look at them from a foot away. I give them only one thin coat of matte varnish. I can go back and paint over that later to improve them but they will work as-is.

Once the speeder is done I'll have my 800 point force. Also working on a 4th unit of troops in forest colored uniforms, to ally with theoretical future ewoks. Other than that my rebels are done until Atgar towers hit store shelves. Then I will basically add Hoth and ewok stuff as it comes out. I guess I might make a sub-army out of that "forest" squad I mentioned plus 2 squads of fleet troops in an homage to the general look and feel of old WEG D6 rebel armies. But why when I can just paint actual WEG D6 minis?

In all I painted the below minis in maybe 10 hours of actual time on task. It was 5 minutes here, 15 minutes there, tucked in between other life tasks.

 

Edited July 22, 2018 by TauntaunScout

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

And here they are in battle... core set plus a Hasbro AT-ST and snowspeeder, a set of Legion snowtroopers and a squad of IA Hoth rebels. Visually the IA minis proxy in just fine as long as you don't mix the models together into a single squad. But since the battle, I have painted a 3rd rebel trooper snow squad, the 2nd AT-RT, Veers, and have a snowspeeder primed for painting. So I won't be proxying stuff any more I think. Almost one pic per turn of the game...

Then there's this piece of scenery I made when I was a kid, dragged out of retirement:

 

[Albertese 159]

Really great! I love the WEG style alien plants. And it's always great to see GeoHex stuff on a table.  I never owned any myself, but there was ab awesome hobby store here in Portland in the 90s and early 2000s that had a bunch for their store terrain and I loved that stuff. That store closed a number of years ago now and I had the opportunity to buy their terrain and I now regret that I passed it up. 

Great stuff! 

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

8 hours ago, Albertese said:

Really great! I love the WEG style alien plants. And it's always great to see GeoHex stuff on a table.  I never owned any myself, but there was ab awesome hobby store here in Portland in the 90s and early 2000s that had a bunch for their store terrain and I loved that stuff. That store closed a number of years ago now and I had the opportunity to buy their terrain and I now regret that I passed it up. 

Great stuff! 

Thanks. Geo Hex is back in business if you really want it. The guy who makes it simply runs it as an eBay store now. Only a couple items are usually offered for sale but if you message him he'll be able to get almost anything ready to ship in a few days. I get the impression most of his stuff is sold at cons so he has more than the eBay store shows.

[wintermoonwolf 146]

.....nice werk.......i would look forward to feeding my cannons on your rebel scum....

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

12 hours ago, wintermoonwolf said:

.....nice werk.......i would look forward to feeding my cannons on your rebel scum....

Well here's more of them. Not entirely happy with how the forest guys turned out but it'll do for now. They will be shelved until ewoks come out anyhow, in all likelihood.

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

I wanted my next squad to have a female Z6 trooper like on the card and a male ion trooper. The Z6 fit the female specialist model just fine but I had to put the ion gun on a regular guy and then give Mr. Z6 his rifle. I trimmed the rifle on his backpack down to look like a radio or spare parts.

[Thevshi 127]

They look great TS! 

Like the conversions for the next squad as well.  I might try that for one of the new squads I recently got in my second core set.

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

8 hours ago, Thevshi said:

They look great TS! 

Like the conversions for the next squad as well.  I might try that for one of the new squads I recently got in my second core set.

Yeah I started stripping the Endor guys though. Not happy with how they turned out.

If I get another core set someday, I'll experiment with giving the (non specialist) female trooper the Z6. She looks more like the one on the card.

I am going to "reassign" this converted ion trooper to an older squad. That way I don't have to choose which conversion to use, they can both be in play at once.

[srMontresor 165]

I really like those low-lying red trees. They're quite a unique looking piece of alien flora. Did you make those yourself?

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

8 hours ago, srMontresor said:

I really like those low-lying red trees. They're quite a unique looking piece of alien flora. Did you make those yourself?

Yes I did. I was copying ones from the old WEG SWMB book and got some very helpful advice from the company that made the originals in that book. I used woodland scenics tree armatures and their clump red foliage. They don't sell it alone, you have to buy "fall mix" clump foliage. Hence I had orange and yellow leftover to make some short bushes out of.

Edited August 3, 2018 by TauntaunScout

[srMontresor 165]

I see. I recognise the pieces, now that you mention it. It's a great, simple, and effective terrain idea.

[Thevshi 127]

15 hours ago, TauntaunScout said:

Yeah I started stripping the Endor guys though. Not happy with how they turned out.

If I get another core set someday, I'll experiment with giving the (non specialist) female trooper the Z6. She looks more like the one on the card.

I am going to "reassign" this converted ion trooper to an older squad. That way I don't have to choose which conversion to use, they can both be in play at once.

Hmmm....I will take a look how the other female trooper looks with the Z6 arms.  My only concern, they might look a bit too bulky on her, as she has a thinner frame than the female Ion trooper (which I believe is in large part due to the Ion trooper wearing that bulky coat).

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

58 minutes ago, Thevshi said:

Hmmm....I will take a look how the other female trooper looks with the Z6 arms.  My only concern, they might look a bit too bulky on her, as she has a thinner frame than the female Ion trooper (which I believe is in large part due to the Ion trooper wearing that bulky coat).

Yeah I am worried about that. The one on the card has a waspy little waist like the generic trooper though so here's hoping I can make it work. If not, oh well.

[Caimheul1313 2,990]

Firstly, I love the paint jobs! I think the Z-6 looks fine, and the arms are likely hardly noticeable at 3+ feet anyway. Which is one of my primary concerns with my painting and conversions ?

Secondly: What are you using for basing? The solid white is a bit hard to see. Are you just painting the bases, or using a snow effect? I have a Bolt Action army of winter Finns, so am curious how you represented snow., and have a fairly easy/quick method of modelling up some decent looking snow. If you're interested I can snap a photo tr to and find the tutorial I used. 

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

50 minutes ago, Caimheul1313 said:

Firstly, I love the paint jobs! I think the Z-6 looks fine, and the arms are likely hardly noticeable at 3+ feet anyway. Which is one of my primary concerns with my painting and conversions ?

Secondly: What are you using for basing? The solid white is a bit hard to see. Are you just painting the bases, or using a snow effect? I have a Bolt Action army of winter Finns, so am curious how you represented snow., and have a fairly easy/quick method of modelling up some decent looking snow. If you're interested I can snap a photo tr to and find the tutorial I used. 

I paint the bases with "Geo-Hex Desert" by Howard Hues, it's a light yellow-tan color. The plan was to coat the tops in Woodland Scenics desert flock so they'll perfectly match my nicest terrain. However. It doesn't match like I thought because the folks at Geo-Hex are able to get a much more consistent layer of flock than I can, I scraped the flock back off my test model's bases! So back to the drawing board.

In the end, all of my Legion collection will have the same bases, some kind of yellow or brown color. Dirt, sand, and rocks on bases are less out of place with snow models/scenery than grassy bases would be. They're less out of place on green terrain than snowy bases would be. They are less noticeable inside a spaceship than spaceship hallway bases would look on outdoor terrain. Etc. etc. etc.

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

1 hour ago, Caimheul1313 said:

Firstly, I love the paint jobs! I think the Z-6 looks fine, and the arms are likely hardly noticeable at 3+ feet anyway. Which is one of my primary concerns with my painting and conversions ?

 

Done and done. I painted the whole 7 but nothing new about the others. This give me 5 squads of  snowy-looking rebel troopers, 3 scrap metal tauntauns, Luke, and a snowspeeder. I guess it's time to pump the brakes on my rebel army for a bit.

[Caimheul1313 2,990]

@TauntaunScout Ah okay. I don't particularly care about my bases matching the terrain, I have the bases match the miniature in some way, or at least tell a story about my units.  I'm playing on boards at my FLGS, so the terrain can vary wildly. 

[M.Mustermann 70]

I am going for a Hoth theme for my Rebels as well. Unfortunatly, I am more of a player than a painter. ?

I still have 17 or 18 more  troopers to paint before I finally can go on to Leia, Fleet Troopers and the august releases. I also have to build some smaller snowdrifts to fill up the board a little bit more.

 

 

Edited August 6, 2018 by M.Mustermann

[M.Mustermann 70]

Edited August 6, 2018 by M.Mustermann

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

1 hour ago, M.Mustermann said:

I am going for a Hoth theme for my Rebels as well. Unfortunatly, I am more of a player than a painter. ?

I still have 17 or 18 more  troopers to paint before I finally can go on to Leia, Fleet Troopers and the august releases. I also have to build some smaller snowdrifts to fill up the board a little bit more.

 

 

Well they look a lot better than mine that's for sure.

Does your opponent also use an all-snowtrooper army?

[M.Mustermann 70]

Nah. All of them play empire and dont do basing at all.

Dont think my painjobs are better though. The basing, the headswaps and the low resolution  just give that impression.

Edited August 6, 2018 by M.Mustermann

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

1 hour ago, M.Mustermann said:

Nah. All of them play empire and dont do basing at all.

Dont think my painjobs are better though. The basing, the headswaps and the low resolution  just give that impression.

The jury is still out on what kind of basing to use on my legion collection. I'm thinking brown or yellow, same bases for every army.

[M.Mustermann 70]

No snow bases for Echo Troopers?