Imperial Assault- Stormtrooper specialists

I finished off the last of my Imperial Assault miniatures I had sitting around. It's a bit of a slog painting white armour...

First up are the Jet Troopers. I have to say, I quite like the idea of them zipping about the battlefield, even if they will never hit anything. These troopers are based on a Disney ride! The colours are taken from the invaluable 501st Costume Reference Library.

Jet Troopers

Next, a dewback patrol. The officer has the orange pauldron and the trooper has a bendy shock rod. I think the riders are strangely anachronistic in this age of hyperspace, antigravity, and lasers. The dewbacks look rather placid but pack quite a bite.

Dewbacks

Captain Terro

Dewback rider

 Finally, I had two more ISB infiltrators to empty out the plastic pile.

ISB Infiltrators

I'm looking forward to the next wave of releases in a few months!

Mystery Investigators

These intrepid souls are perfect investigators for Kooky Teenage Monster Hunters. I can also see them in a Mansions of Madness adventure- maybe where instead of going mad, you run away, or need to have a sandwich.

"Help me pull off Great Cthulhu's head- why, it's just that old Mr Lovecraft!"

These are from Hasslefree, and I really enjoyed painting the brighter colours. They were my entry for the AHPC VII theme round 'Character(s) and/or Scene from a Movie, TV Program, Book or Piece of Music', and I'm pleased to say I received third place!

Jabba's court

Here are the scum figures from the latest Imperial Assault release, Jabba's Realm, starting with the big fella himself.

Jabba the Hutt

His Gamorrean Guards are really characterful, classic pig-faced orcs.

Gamorrean Guards

The Weequay are nice sculpts, but I'm not really a fan of their pose.

Weequay Pirates

The main attraction is the Rancor. She is absolutely gigantic, and was a pleasure to paint.

Rancor

Imperial Assault rebels

More rebels for Imperial Assault!

First up, Luke Skywalker in his Jedi garb. He's not quite as green as he looks.

Next, some Alliance Rangers, which were quick to paint.

Finally, some rebel scum- these characters can be played as rebels in the campaign, or can be used as scum in skirmishes.

I quite like these sculpts, especially Vinto, who is full of movement and character. I didn't realise he was missing an ear trumpet thing. Omar is a solid slab of meat, and Shyla looks like she'll be a little tornado on the battlefield.

Plastic Soldier Company Great War Tanks

This collection of tanks are from PSC for their Great War game. They are single piece precoloured 1:100 models, and are very cleanly sculpted and casted. I highly recommend them.

The Mark IV comes in Male and Female varieties, with and without a pair of 6 Pdrs respectively.

Mark IVs

Mark IV Males

Mark IV Females

The British also get a Whippet.

Whippets

To make up for the scarcity of their A7V panzers (see last week's post), the Germans salvaged British Mark IVs and repainted them as Beutepanzers.

Mark IV Beutepanzers

These are all great sculpts and a pleasure to paint. I really like the asymmetry and oddball appearances of these early beasts, and I hope that PSC does a French range at some stage.

All the PSC WW1 tanks

I used Vallejo Dark Earth paste, drybrushed with US Tan, for the mud.

These were painted for AHPC VII.

A7V Mephisto

The A7V was introduced in the last year of WW1. Only twenty Sturmpanzerwagens were built, compared to the well over 1000 British tanks which fought.

These tracked and armoured fridges are 15mm A7Vs from PSC. They are very precisely sculpted pre-built models and I recommend them. I made up the camouflage and markings based on an amalgamation of historical vehicles. You can see the origins of the iconic Hinterhalt (ambush) colours. I stippled it on using an old brush. The crosses are decals I picked up from eBay- I would try to freehand one, but not a dozen!

Of the twenty A7Vs, only one survives- No. 506 Mephisto. It was stolen by Australian diggers (Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!) and is currently in our national war memorial (unmissable if you are in Canberra). Fellow Aussie blogger Kaptain Kobold has plenty of info and pics of his visit here- here's one showing the 'nose art'. The demon Mephisto is cheekily running off with a British tank! I tried to replicate this freehand, along with the name. Mephisto has a lot more green to it than mine, but I can live with that.

Photo by Kaptain Kobold

I confess I haven't seen Mephisto in the flesh, and I would love to do so someday.

[This post was my 'Armour' theme entry for AHPC VII]

Terran Studios portable hobby paint rack

Top left!

You will recall my loot from CanCon 2016 had a mysterious package from Terran Studio. I assembled it, and have now been using it for just over a year.

Slide off the end to reveal two pull-out drawers

My god, it's full of paint!

If anyone's got a more aesthetically appealing way to organise my colours, please let me know!

Yes, I carry around primed plastic otherwise unprotected.

So, it's a carrying case for paint and hobby tools and bits and bobs. Since January 2016 I have moved four times, and this carrying case has been great.

Pros:

• Easy to assemble
• Plenty of holes for paintpots
• Plenty of holes for paintbrushes
• Lots of shelf space for keeping works-in-progress on
• I can fit a cutting mat into it for transport as well
• Lightweight
• Carry handle

Cons:

• Not super-heavy duty, it isn't something you'd take on a plane or throw about casually
• Difficult to reach brushes down the back
• Shelf heights are fixed

On the whole, I highly recommend this product if you're moving your hobby area frequently.

Unfortunately, I don't know if Terran Studio is still an entity, but there is a Facebook page.