Rebel Rebel

A while back I had played around with a jedi themed team. While it eventually morphed into a Rebel Spy team, I did finish some of the miniatures (Obi Wan still sits partially painted, missing his lightsaber and has a drop of flesh on the top of his head. Making him look like Friar Tuck).

Stop! In the name of love...

I'm not 100% happy with how Diala and her bent (no matter how hard I tried to fix it using the usual methods, I could not get it to stay in position) lightsaber turned out. I need a little more practice with the lightsaber glow on clothing.

I've read a few articles on object source lighting, but haven't had time to put it much into practice. In terms of her character card/abilities/command card go, I like her. She can discard a command card to remove an opponents defense die, which can allow her to drop characters in one hit with the right roll. Coupled with Leia's ability to put cards back into your command deck and it's a lot of fun.

Davith made the cut (partially because he's a spy) and is on my current Rebel Spy team. He is also a lot of fun. He starts the game hidden (which makes him harder to hit) and can cause a lot of chaos. He has a good amount of health for his card cost and his command card prevents him from being hit until his next activation. I was able to use him and his command card strategically in a tournament a while back. Dropping him right into enemy territory and contesting control of precious object controlled victory points.

I changed his paint scheme from the card art. Mostly because I didn't want to paint a mostly dark figure so shortly after painting those ISB Agents. I also wanted to give him more of a Clone Wars vibe. Hence the clone trooper like colored armor plates.

I also cut off his lightsaber and drilled a pin in there (this is happening to the unfinished Obi-Wan as well). I'm much happier with this result. Although, I've learned to be a little more careful about it. I almost wrecked his tiny hand trying to pin his lightsaber. I'll have to make sure to check in the future that the pin and drill are both smaller than the hand before I cut off the weapon.

I think that I got the lightsaber glow better on him than Diala. Although, to be fair, there was less needed here. Looking at him now, like the Royal Guard Champion, I'll bet I could put him on some ice skates and he would look rad. Long strides get you that extra speed and distance...

I'ma shoot and shank ya!

Despite being a spy, Verena never made the cut to the big leagues. It's not that I didn't want her. She has good health, decent attack die, and some nasty abilities. Unfortunately, her cost is a little higher than I would like for just the one unit (or figure). I would have had to cut one to two units to get her on the team. I couldn't figure out who to drop for her. So she got dropped. She's got a wicked sculpt though.

I'm really happy with how Verena turned out. Especially her duster and the snow (I think I used white glue, white acyrlic paint, and baking soda). I'll have to put her in a team just so I can show her off.

Halt! Halt! Halt!

I had been toying with the idea of playing a Rebel Trooper list, but it didn't excite me. I did however paint up these Rebel Troopers.

They turned out alright. I did some damage to their helmets and bases. Similar to the Stormtroopers that I had painted way back. The two larger bases were actually made from a cast I took of other bases that I had. I had some Fimo and figured why no? I'm not to concerned if a group of lowly Rebel Troopers (sorry guys) have bases that are less than stellar. I'll save the good bases for the unique characters or at least units that I like and use my poorly replicated ones for units like this.

There wont be any Imperial Assault Skirmish events where I play for December. Which is good. Because I'm in the middle of painting a LOT of skeletons. I'll post them when I finish painting them. I'll also try to post the members of my Rebel Spy team that have been painted. But that's an entry for another day.

Agent Blaise and the ISB Agents

A little while ago, my friend James and I decided that we should try out Frostgrave. It's a fantasy based skirmish game that is brand-free. So you can use any miniatures that you want. You get a Wizard, an apprentice, and then you hire units to your cause. Then I guess, attack the opposing Wizard in hopes of getting his treasure (and maybe his spell book?) I haven't read the rules, so I don't really know all that much.

Anyways, it sounds like a fun game. But we've both been way too busy to do anything more than talk smack to each other (that being said, I did start painting miniatures that I plan to use for my army). I mention this because I made some terrain for James as a part of his birthday gift.

These rock pieces were made from Femo (Fimo?) that I've had traveling with me for about ten years. I had a mold that I was able to make a cast from. Then quickly painted them up.

 

These pieces were made from some foamcore scraps that I got for free from a local art store. The styrofoam came from some packaging (go-go reuse!) . Plus the obvious basing materials. I think that they look pretty good for what they are. I don't really have place to store terrain, nor do I usually play games that require it. So I'll probably never make enough that my stuff looks amazing. But it gets the job done.

Alright. Now on to some sexy Star Wars miniatures. We had a tournament last week and I finished second via a coin toss (I was tied for first. It was a fun event and I don't really care how I place. So it was all good in my books.)! It was a Rebel Spy team. I'm sure I'll get to showing it one day. But the poorly taken pictures that I have to show you today, were not a part of my team. They pretty cool though. For a while I was trying out an Imperial Spy team (before I switched to a Jedi team which then morphed into a Rebel Spy team) and these units were the guys that made the team fly...

Look at me!

The ISB Agents were....I guess not all that fun to paint. I think they had more color in the box art. But my agents were pretty dark in tone. It was a while ago, but I think I painted them black and then did a lot of layering with greys to lighten them up. I wanted them to be black, but with a little bit of light reflecting. I probably could have highlighted more. But, as with most of my stuff, I kept it subtle.

No, look at me!

They are an interesting unit to play. You need to keep the group within line of sight of each other as they have an ability that lets the other interrupt to preform an attack. So you need to be aggressive enough to get their abilities to trigger. But safe enough to keep both units alive.

Agent Blaise is one of my favorite Imperial Assault miniature sculpts. I don't care what anyone says. His pose is unique and there is a ton of fun to be had, if want to spend the time to give his pose context. But I figured that since he looked like a scout trooper, I would go with the speeder bike theme.

And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!

Years ago, Knight Models had the rights to make Star Wars miniatures. They were glorious, but expensive (it was a British company. I probably could have dealt with the currency conversion, but the shipping? Killer.). I found out about them shortly before they lost their license. So most of the sculpts that I wanted were no longer available. I do however, have a few. One of them being a scout trooper on his speeder bike. Sadly there were no instructions to put the bike together and there were more than a few pieces. So I never finished putting it together and painting it.

Get back here and fix my bike!

I could have just chopped off the bike pieces that I wanted, but that seemed wasteful. So instead I made a mold of the nose and then made a cast from that. I used a pin for the broken shaft. When painting the bike nose, I tried to make it look dirty...although it does kind of look like how I make things look rusty. Eh, I still think that it looks cool. I think my scratching technique needs some work though.

I had a lot of fun painting Blaise, probably because he was in the scout armor, which at least breaks up all of white that you would normally see in stormtrooper armor (which I disike painting). I made him a little older looking with some white streaks in his hair. His visible age coupled with the five o' clock shadow, lends itself to the grumpy old man that I was aiming to create. I could have easily put him on grass with a sign saying 'keep off of lawn'. Agent Blaise is probably one of my favorite painted miniatures.

...and don't you ever come back! Wait, I didn't mean it. Come back!