'Epic Fail' from SimonM - The Death Star Plans

These five large 28mm scale plastic “Fantasy Flight” models of Darth Vader, a pair of Imperial Stormtroopers, See-Threepio and Artoo-Deetoo are from the company’s “Star Wars” strategy board game “Imperial Assault”. The miniature of the Dark Lord of the Sith can be found inside the Core Set. Whilst the bucket-heads come from the Stormtroopers Villain Pack and the droids from the R2-D2 and C-3PO Ally Pack.

Based upon the Empire’s attempt to recapture the stolen Death Star plans from the Rebel Alliance I thought this small ensemble of figures would rather fittingly encapsulate Vader’s ‘Epic Fail’ to do his master’s bidding…  

The Stormtroopers were initially undercoated with “Vallejo” White before being heavily washed with Pale Grey. This transparent acrylic not only gave the models some much-needed shading but also helped me ascertain where the joins in their overlapping plastoid composite plates were so I could ‘pick them out’ using “Citadel” Abaddon Black. Once all the ‘gaps’ between their standard armour had been finished, I washed the areas with some Nuln Oil, allowing some of the Shade to occasionally be brushed over the adjoining areas in order to create some heavier shadowing. Finally their E-11 blaster rifles were simply painted with more Abaddon Black.

Having finished his ‘escort’ I set about applying several coats of “Citadel” Abaddon Black to Darth Vader, as for some reason the plastic model did not seem to like the paint. Once I had a reasonably even undercoat in place I dry-brushed the Sith Lord’s clothing with “Vallejo” Charcoal and washed it with “Citadel” Nuln Oil. Once this was dry I then applied some Ironbreaker to his neck chain, shoulder plates, light-saber, chest and belt units. These were then also washed with Nuln Oil.

Originally I had tried painting his laser-sword with a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Red and “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson. But the end result was much darker than I wanted, so it was soon redone using “Vallejo” Dark Vermillion and the “Citadel” Glaze Bloodletter.

See-Threepio was originally undercoated using some “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna, before the droid was given two coats of Gold. He was then heavily washed with some “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade before being dry-brushed with more “Vallejo” Gold.

Artoo-Deetoo was initially undercoated with “Vallejo” White before being heavily washed with Pale Grey. As with the Stormtroopers this transparent acrylic gave the model some much-needed shading and also helped me to ‘pick out’ his numerous panels. These were either painted using Heavy Blue and “Citadel” Asurmen Blue or “Vallejo” Gunmetal Grey and “Citadel” Nuln Oil. As I wanted to add a little more colour to the astromech droid I decided to use a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Red and “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson for his wiring.

Having realised that his dome was actually metallic, it was given a coat of “Vallejo” Gunmental Grey and a wash of “Citadel” Nuln Oil, before being dry-brushed with more “Vallejo” Gunmetal Grey. I then ‘picked out’ all the details and plates on the R2 unit’s ‘head’ with Heavy Blue and some additional “Citadel” Asurmen Blue.