My Hoth Imperial army

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

Finally have the foundation of a right proper army of snowtroopers! I do not intend to use my core set imps except in demo games. But now I have 3 corps and a commander that makes thematic sense. What's next? Probably 1-2 more squads like these. Or an AT-ST. Eventually all of the above plus E-Webs. I'm puzzled by the long lead time on FFG releases, E-webs were announced before I even got into the game, I jsut assumed they'd be out by now. Anyways. I painted my snowtroopers much paler than most people do. Carefully combing through primary source evidence, I find that the off-white and/or grey nature of their cloth accoutrements has become much exaggerated in the retelling. Also it bears reminding that distance distorts color, and to be far enough away from a person for them to appear a couple inches tall, the difference between white and light tan would blur considerably. Didn't stop me from painting Veers grey even though his costume was green, but I prefer to think of him as a different person than the real Veers anyways. I paint one shoulderpad on each squad leader a contrasting color, and the underside of the bases of every model have a daub of that color on them too, in case it becomes necessary to figure out which trooper goes to which squad, such as in a crowded melee. I haven't decided exactly what I want to do with my SW:L bases yet so they are all just painted very light yellow for now.

Edited July 29, 2018 by TauntaunScout

[wintermoonwolf 146]

...really nice snowies!....and the off-white works so very welll!..thank you for sharing!!!....

[JohnnyTrash 404]

The one and only way to use snowtroopers in Legion games! Blizzard Force ftw!

[Zrob314 833]

Veers is gonna get real bad frostbite on his fingers.`

[Albertese 159]

Looks really great! 

[Son of Skywalker 22]

Very nice paint job my friend, very clean and crisp.  Now all that you have to do is give them an equally nice basing. 

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

1 hour ago, Son of Skywalker said:

Very nice paint job my friend, very clean and crisp.  Now all that you have to do is give them an equally nice basing. 

Yeah I can't decide what to do. The whole SW:L collection is getting the same bases when I figure it out. I wanted to make it match my terrain but that's turning out easier said than done.

Also debating if I should paint my spare unit of speeder bikes in a Hoth color scheme, or trade away my second set of core imps for more core rebs. If this second set of speeder bikes goes to Hoth, I guess I'll save the spare core stormtrooper squads to make a custom army later. I am thinking about the personal army of an ex-moff turned petty warlord in the aftermath of Endor. Paint the stormtrooper army in his personal colors or something. In the backstory they're not real stormtroopers, he just acquired lots of stormtrooper armor and equipped his men with it. That way, I'd have an imperial army that could fight rebels or imperials with equal plausibility.

My new core rebels are mostly being saved for a very specifically themed all-infantry list.

Edited July 30, 2018 by TauntaunScout

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

On 7/29/2018 at 11:05 AM, wintermoonwolf said:

...really nice snowies!....and the off-white works so very welll!..thank you for sharing!!!....

It's a very fast process. Off-white primer such as the old Citadel Bleached Bone. I used "Ivory Satin" enamel spray paint from a craft store.  Heavy white drybrushing on all armor parts and backpack. Wash cloth parts with a light brown homemade wash*, keep it off of the armor. Wait a long time for drying. Lightly drybrush the cloth parts white for a highlight. Paint guns, commanders shoulder bag, and binoculars grey. Paint bases yellow. Allow to dry. Wash guns and binoculars black, put black wash into eyes with tiny brush. Wait a long time for drying. Dab white on any mistakes. Very light white drybrush on the commander's bag. On to the next unit.

Paint commander's shoulderpad to indicate different squads usually when I paint the guns grey, and then just give that shoulderpad a quick drybrush later.

 

*A few drops each of matte medium and water to get the consistency I want, a drop of brown ink, which on the third squad I decided is really too red and too dark for what I'm doing, so also a drop of yellow ink. Then I scrape a paintbrush handle across an old styrofoam plate that has dish soap dried on it, and use that to stir the wash together.

 

Edited July 31, 2018 by TauntaunScout

[hemblecreations 190]

Great looking Snowies.

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

5 hours ago, hemblecreations said:

Great looking Snowies.

Thanks. Working on my army list. I am thinking Veers, 6x snowtroopers, and 2x speeder bikes. The fact is I simply am not motivated to paint (another other) AT-ST. I am working on my first round of speeder bikes for them now, then it will simply be a matter of doubling all my work If I don't like how my snow bikers turn out, I'll have to revise the list though. An AT-ST is eventually inevitable but I'm just not feeling it anytime soon. They are easy and fast to get drybrushed up to tabletop standard (or higher) though so that's fine. In the end the army may simply be dictated by what's in stock at the shops, I hate to buy this kind of thing from online discounters.

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

On 7/29/2018 at 5:49 PM, Zrob314 said:

Veers is gonna get real bad frostbite on his fingers.`

Yeah but painting gloves on him makes the gun-hand look weird. Plus he doesn't really have enough different areas of color to get away with only painting his face pink. If I'd gone for a lighter uniform it would be fine but you really need to have pink hands to draw the eye around and around the model in a circle, instead of having the viewer's eye find the face and get trapped there.

[Zrob314 833]

58 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

Yeah but painting gloves on him makes the gun-hand look weird. Plus he doesn't really have enough different areas of color to get away with only painting his face pink. If I'd gone for a lighter uniform it would be fine but you really need to have pink hands to draw the eye around and around the model in a circle, instead of having the viewer's eye find the face and get trapped there.

That has not been my experience.

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

Snow speeder bikes are done. Not sure if I want two squads but these ones look good enough to use.

[Thevshi 127]

Very nice TS!

[CaptainRocket 527]

Thoose snowbikes look great!

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

Finally got back to this army! Added a walker. I did not enjoy this model much and went very basic to just get it looking ok in games. It shows how much I was not enjoying this: I think I glued the feet on the wrong sides. I didn't realize there was a right and left foot till I was almost done painting. Oh well.

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

And here's the whole army assembled. Up next: two more squads of snow troopers to paint. Then I don't know. E-Webs? Another walker? A 6th squad of snowtroopers? Time and chance will tell.

I made the generator and four snowy hills awhile back. Plus here's some snow shelters I made from paint tubs.

[Poniatowski 5]

I like the look! Like so many other comments.. the off white is nicely done!

[Bohemian73 161]

I have to second the off-white tones do look good. 

[Abwehrschlacht 168]

Nice work, I like the look of the speederbikes in particular. For your bases, I would simply add white polyfilla (spackle in the US, I think), make it undulating  and bumpy and give it a light brown wash.

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

On 9/19/2018 at 1:05 PM, Abwehrschlacht said:

Nice work, I like the look of the speederbikes in particular. For your bases, I would simply add white polyfilla (spackle in the US, I think), make it undulating  and bumpy and give it a light brown wash.

Thanks. Yes I might do many things with the bases... I have a particular plan but not sure how to achieve it. I want them to all match my geohex scenery. So that is Geohex (Howard Hues) paint on them and I have the matching flock. But getting the perfectly thin even layer like they do over there is really hard, and it really shows if you do it wrong.

The walker also wants some more coats of successively lighter grey but for now it's tabletop ready. However I have added a 4th squad of troops and a 5th sits with wet primer as we speak. So I have hit the point (Veers, AT-ST, speeder bikes, 5x Snowtroopers) where I feel the army has finally taken shape. Other than painting some E-Webs and droids I have no further plans to expand this army.

Edited September 21, 2018 by TauntaunScout

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

On 9/19/2018 at 1:05 PM, Abwehrschlacht said:

Nice work, I like the look of the speederbikes in particular. For your bases, I would simply add white polyfilla (spackle in the US, I think), make it undulating  and bumpy and give it a light brown wash.

Your method is a good nod to the old ways and I may do that. There were basically 3 styles of basing in ye olde Book. Woodland scenics earth blend (aka geohex desert), most common was some kind of apparently home-mixed brown turf, and probably tied for second with the desert blend was apparently the method you suggest, or one very close to it.

There is one further round of expansions planned someday, but it is dependent on future releases. I'll add Boba Fett plus (hopefully) a squad or two of mercenaries/bounty hunters/etc. Going for a real "Crystal Forest of Goratak" thing.

Edited September 21, 2018 by TauntaunScout

[Abwehrschlacht 168]

Cool, I should have been more specific, I thought you were doing them on snow and that is how I would do my bases if that was the case. ie with pollyfilla and brown wash.

For my bases, I use Vallejo's earth texture paste, washed in brown, drybrushed with Khaki and then sprinkled with static grass. I find that if a base is painted green below static grass it just doesn't look right, IRL earth is below grass!

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

On 9/21/2018 at 9:57 AM, Abwehrschlacht said:

Cool, I should have been more specific, I thought you were doing them on snow and that is how I would do my bases if that was the case. ie with pollyfilla and brown wash.

For my bases, I use Vallejo's earth texture paste, washed in brown, drybrushed with Khaki and then sprinkled with static grass. I find that if a base is painted green below static grass it just doesn't look right, IRL earth is below grass!

No if I was doing snow it would look a bit different. I would in that case cover it in spackle. Once dry I would paint the spackle light blue. Then drybrush a few coats of white on it. Snow and ice casts a blue shadow so blue shading works well to convey it, even if it wouldn't really be visible at that distance.

Brown is usually best under static grass. Green paint under green flock only works well if you are able to match the shade very closely. Otherwise it looks too obvious. For my assorted fantasy armies I tend to do morel like you are suggesting. I paint the edges of the base green, glue sand to the top, brown wash, light brown highlight, clumps of static grass.

Squads 4 and 5 are now painted and varnished. It is hard to fit all this into a list in a way that makes sense to me. I'm either a few points over or under any way I slice it. I don't see 6th squads of corps being added to this army as snowtroopers with grenades simply cost too much more than other corps units. E-Webs should solve this, being a cheap item I can plug in to fill a gap. Here's hoping they are released soon. I guess I have to get over my annoyance at not taking full squads, and trim some of the units down to include my speeder bikes and/or tool up my AT-ST with Weiss. I can't see ever adding another AT-ST either, as I just don't enjoy big vehicle modelling.

 

Edited September 23, 2018 by TauntaunScout

[TauntaunScout 4,276]

And this is the finished army.

 

...and them vs. my "Hoth" rebels.