Well, that's another boardgame knocked off in my unending quest to paint all my games...... it's an unending quest because if, by some miracle, i paint all my games, no doubt I will just buy some more. Imperial Assault still hasn't hit the table yet, but I can't wait to give it a spin now it's fully painted.
There are some interesting bits about this game, it's probably a smidge over-priced (compared to Descent), but i put that down to the costlier licence and the higher quality figures.
My painting mantra for this particular job was to do it with reasonable rapidity, as this game should see a lot of use, but make sure everything looks reasonable good. So no spending 6 hours on a single figure, just take enough time to make it look good.
Special nod to the AT-ST at this time, the quickest paint job I have ever done on a model. The whole thing was airbrushed (with a ink applied liberally afterwards), and discounting the time to clean the airbrush, it took all of 5 minutes to do.
I looked at all the AT-ST images online from the films, it is literally a monochromatic paint scheme. The guns are all grey, so i figured it would be best to airbrush to ensure that nice, even, military look.
Next up are the Stormtroopers, in three groups of three. I borrowed the old 40k thing of having different should pads for different squads, it's not obtrusive, but allows you to pick out what stormy is from what squad.
If more stormtroopers come out for this game, i hope they have different poses or different armour types is all. A little bit of gloss on this figures helps
I still don't know why the Scout-trooper is the one with the e-web, but hey, thats cool. I hope the Scout trooper comes back on a speeder bike in an expansion though. That would be cool (although the expansion would probably also contain ewoks..... which is less cool)
In a strange bit of marketing, FFG put two "expansions/boosters" in the core game book.
You can't buy them separately, so i can only guess that the marketers intent was to introduce you to what will be in the booster packs..... which is to say , not a lot.
One mission, a card or two, and a figure. As long as the price point stays cheap, this will still be ok. The Vader sculpt is pretty nice, but damn is painting black AWFUL.
Again, some gloss here to show up the plastic armour bits and to break the figure up.
Here are the Royal guard, probably my favourite paint-job of the lot. I like painting cloaks, and red is easy to work with, but the bit i'm immensely proud of is how the helmets stand out. While the helmet is exactly the same colour as the robe, the black lining and multiple coats of gloss really make them stand out, just like the originals.
Imperial officers spawn in groups of one, so I wanted each officer to look distinctive and as though they were a part of a different service. Apparently, Black is for officers commanding Storm Troopers, the olive is a normal uniform, and the lighter one is a fleet uniform of some sort. Works for me!
There is only so much you can do with Probe Droids, they are cool looking figures, but also, monochromatic. (Must be an imperial thing).
The simplest thing was to mark them in different colours. My rationale for painting boardgames is always to remember that they are game pieces first, and that painting them too similar would lead to confusion on the board.
A friend of mine, when asked about any Star Wars matter, will say that it "Needs Moar Bossk". Apparently, the designers at FFG have heard this sentiment and included a nice helping of BOSSK, right down to the flight suit. This particular person also played a Trandoshan in my SW RPG.... because that game needed moar Bossk.
This is logic I have great difficulty refuting.
I painted them in bright colours, more like the Bossk toy i had as a kid than the actual original character. Again, these guys spawn in pairs, so each squad had to be immediately identifiable on the table.
I went a little off-base with the Nexu. I painted the one on the right closer to the classic Nexu from Episode two, but i felt like doing something different for the other one. I really like the contrast between the bluish fur and the bright red maw and eyes though, so i'm pleased with them.
And finally, the heroes!
It was only after I packed up the camera and lighting that i noticed the back models are out of focus..... ah well.....
The characters in this game are quite characterful, which is good. 3 Aliens and 3 Humans, including a Bothan who doesn't look at all stupid.
I'm particularly pleased with the old man officer model, it's one of those faces that just "comes to life" when you paint it.
The bonus pack Luke Skywalker figure is at the back, but why they decided to do him in his farm boy/escape from the death star outfit is beyond me. It's pretty bizarre that your helping out Luke and he still has a Storm Trooper utility belt on.
One can only assume another Luke figure, with a light-sabre, will be coming further down the line.
All in all, a good little project and a nice change from painting Cygnar blue everywhere.