Star Wars Imperial Assault: IG-88 (Jewel of July ’18)

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Star Wars Imperial Assault: IG-88

Here’s one for the books. I painted IG-88 last week, but still needed to varnish it when we played Imperial Assault this weekend. We happened to draw IG-88’s side mission, and so used the WotC prepaint model as a proxy. We succeeded in the mission, defeating IG-88, and thereby removing IG-88 from the campaign. Sunday I got to varnish the model. So… now it goes on the shelf. 😡

L-R: Dengar, IG-88, Boba Fett.

Star Wars Imperial Assault: IG-88 Star Wars Imperial Assault: IG-88

Star Wars Imperial Assault: IG-88

Star Wars Imperial Assault: IG-88, Gaarkhan

IG-88 and Gaarkhan reenacting a scene from last weekend’s game.

IG-88 is a pretty simple model, and was a quick and easy paint. Once again, I checked out Sorastro’s YouTube painting guides for ideas and used his “OSL glaze” concept, giving IG-88’s left side a subtle red shade and it’s right side a subtle blue shade – just to add some interest in what would otherwise be a pretty plain model (even though I tried to oil-stain it up a bit as well!)

43 thoughts on “Star Wars Imperial Assault: IG-88 (Jewel of July ’18)”

  1. Nice work. Always wanted to see more of IG-88 and the background of the assassin droids in the movies, but sometimes the mystery is far better.

    Glad you pointed out the OSL,
    otherwise I would’ve just alluded it to regular lighting or camera tricks. It does add some interest. Not sure if that’s a technique I would want to play around with anytime soon. I’m probably just not there yet.

    That mini looks like a fairly simplified version of IG-88. I think your paints made it better than it would be otherwise.

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    • it is simplified, but the IA models are a touch smaller than GW ones, and closer to truescale to boot, so it’s a pretty decent representation when all of that is taken into account.
      I’m not super aboard the OSL train these days, but the version used in Sorastro’s video is pretty easy to do. It would definitely have counted for me in August, though (and still would, since I’m not exactly super-confident or an expert with it.

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      • Yea, I wouldn’t really expect those minis to be super detailed due to the size and cost. There’s a ‘collector’ part of me that would be interested in some nice detailed Star Wars character minis to paint. But that is counter-balanced by budget and ‘What the hell would I use them for?!’. So even if they made them (or they are already out there), there is a good chance I would just admire other people’s work and go about painting more GW Specialist games minis.

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      • Well, the cost part is more expensive than you’d think. But then they come with a bit if printed material like cards, a scenario sheet etc. If you wanted some really nice Star Wars miniatures to paint and display look for the Knight Models sculpts from a couple of years ago. Expensive, though.

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      • I’ve seen pics of the Knights Models online. I thought they were prepainted (which doesn’t stop people from repainting them anyways). Also, looks like they don’t produce Star Wars minis any longer, given that Star Wars and DC Heroes are from two competing companies, that wouldn’t be too surprising.

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      • Well, you do get both licences with the same company on occasion. Clix (or one of those things) has figures for games that happen to be cross-compatible. Lego Marvel and DC licences, Kotobokiya statues, Funko Pops…
        If you wanted a couple/few/whatever Knights Models, they are indeed OOP, but those via eBay would be your best bet for a few to paint and put on the shelf.

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    • It was in Empire Strikes Back. Just very briefly, in the scene where Vader’s giving all the Bounty Hunters the assignment to bring in the heroes. The “No disintegrations.” scene. There was a book called Tales of the Bounty Hunters that had short stories following each of them through their offscreen journeys after that. That was pretty cool as I recall, but I read it when I was like 15, and my standards weren’t very high then.

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      • The whole IG-88 backstory did the usual, unfortunate EU thing of disappearing pretty far up it’s own backside. Multiple droids, multiple consciousnesses. One uploaded into the Death Star II that was about to destroy the galaxy or some horseshit just moments before Lando blew it up.. that’s how bad it got. And an excellent example of why the SW EU got such a bad name.

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  3. Looks good! The OSL effect is definitely noticeable, but like Faust, I wouldn’t have spotted it as a painted effect. Which is just about perfect, really. The viewer should see the effect, not the paint.

    The sculpt itself looks kind of scrawny and feckless compared to the screenshot from the movie there. I think it’s that their casting process/material can’t capture enough of the hard edges, and makes some of the details (like the cables on the legs) look less like integral components and more like stuff hanging off it, reducing the amount of the bulk that feels like it’s actually part of the Droid.

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    • That’s good – the last thing I wanted was for a blue or red IG-88!
      I think the differences are – as you say – the PVC used for the sculpt that removes a lot of the hard edges, but also the controlled, dramatic lighting used in the film for those couple of shots and however many publicity stills taken at the same time, which isn’t something that we really have control of when we’re painting a model for tabletop use – like, I could try to emulate the film’s lighting – but however well I managed that (probably quite badly!) it still wouldn’t be terribly representative to how the model looks in use on a tabletop.

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  4. Oh come on though, isnt IG-88 a massive jerk. You should be proud to display him on the shelf of exile. We started a ln Imperial Assalt campaign last night using the AI app so we can all play as good guys in a full co-op game!

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    • Yeah, we suggested that as an option, but Orez is really very keen on playing as the Overlord. No matter – we can always have another campaign using the app down the line.

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      • I actually prefer the standard play, so if you have a keen nemasis then definately do that. The App is a good option if you dont do that and comes sith some cool differences, like more unpredicatable eney behaviour and bonuses. I feel like the player character developement is a bit… “Easy” though, so you dont really have to make much effort to decide how to develope. Ive only played the tutorial misaion so far though so we’ll see if they benefits are worth it.

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      • Oh yeah, we’re most likely going to play through the standard campaign, then if interest stays high, we’ll play through the boxed expansion campaigns in order with new characters (which they recommend) and add in the smaller figure expansions as we go.
        The campaign mode isn’t super complex, but there’s a bit of fun in seeing how much money you can get hold of, which upgrades you draw, and then what you’re going to buy for whom, and whether to hold off on exp skills or buy this one or that one right away.
        I mean, it’s not like a “real” RPG, but it’s both more in-depth and more accessible than I expected.

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      • We played again last night. It was brutal. It started slow and very RPG, with interactions with npc’s and asking questions… We had to rescue some rebels and that soon devolved into madness. After initially dealing with 2 of those royal guards and a strang room containing one of those strange big cat(?) Monsters, 2 tuskan raiders and a little pig man amaking scrap bots… We ended up with me and my brother having to team up against IG-88 while my wife tried to solo (in total) 3 droids, 5 storm troopers, 2 officers and Blaise… Who were all standing between here and the rebel transport.

        All the while trying to “escort” 4 rebel prisoners to the transport. 2 of which were killed almost instantly by the wall of imperial laser fire… The other 2 by the random event “killed by a stray blaster shot” before they could even make it half way to the transport.

        Bleak and hopeless. It could have only gotten worse if Cthulhu had woken up too.

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      • It was… Unpleasent. Just hopless really. We arent sure if the AI ramped up the reinforcemensts for the enemies based on the turn number, thats my brother and wifes theory because we spent the beginning of the mission was spent searching crates and asking questions.

        I dont think it was that though. Once the enemies started appeareing it didnt seem to increase with the following turns, it just started completely inasane. Even if it wasnt an escort mission (which is horrible in every format of game i have ever played) it was impossinle to just kill the bad guys!

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      • AI man, Terminator, they’re out to get us, and they’ll start with us geeks! Never played an RPG app assisted. Aside from a rather brutal mission, what’s your opinion of it?

        Liked by 1 person

      • Im enjoying its, theres’s certainly pro’s and cons. Obviously its ideal of no one wants to play empire, or if you want to solo the game. It does ad some fun rpg elements with choices to make in and between missions. Equipment and leveling work slightly differently which initially i didnt like but now im ok with. My only real issue now is the random mob generation is a little wierd because sometimes it doesnt seem appropriate for the location.

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      • That sounds like a crazy mission – were you playing campaign or a skirmish mission? We did another couple of missions last night, succeeded in one, but the second one was …well, I could say brutal, or I could say bullshit. That fucking timer is pretty unpleasant to have to run against. I guess it’s the miniatures-game-ish adversarial nature of the Overlord as opposed to the more orchestrator-narrator-facilitator nature of a DM/GM. We played well, but a couple of bad dice rolls, a couple of unknown-to-us special rules and a bit of random console placement ended up conspiring to screw us over by the last turn – aside from the Overlord’s actual cards and the mobs.

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      • These games we are playing are all campaign, using the AI map. We had another game last night, that went considerably better. I think the only real problem with this mode of play is that it seems to always generate random mobs based on the pool of models you own… So sometimes the spawns dont make a lot of sense. We had fun though and i managed to finishe another contender for Jewel of july! Not as interesting or involved as the Norris Possessed, but few things will be for a while.

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      • Good to hear! I’m still working my way through other people’s posts from the last week (as well as my own comments) but it’s great to hear you got another models done. I discovered last night that we’ve been playing with a pretty powerful rule wrong – as we only have three heroes, we’ve had that extra activation token. But we’ve not been resetting the exhausted abilities for that second activation…

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      • Thats something i will look out for too then. I seems like something we might have missed, but to be honest its been so hard that i doubt it woukd make a diference if we were reserring them after every action. Ww played another game last night, which we thought started well but then suddenly turned to shit. Never mind when my brother leaves sunday i can get back to modelling and painting in the evenings which is considerably less harrowing.

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      • We lost our last game and got captured, I’m sure that if we knew about the reset we could have gotten through due to that little edge it gives. Now we’re about to play a “jailbreak” scenario next, though we’ve only got a couple of missions aside from that left to play before we have to shelve these characters and start a new campaign…

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  5. You know, I remember reading a SW Bounty Hunters book once… IIRC, there were actually 4 IG-88s with a shared conscience, (A, B, C and D), and only one of those (B I think?) was the actual Bounty Hunter… The others were up to all sorts of mischief! IG-88B got pretty close to nailing Solo in Cloud City… Boba blasted it though, explaining the dead IG-88 in the ‘Chewy saves a dismantled C3PO from the pig-hobbits and their furnace in Cloud City’ scene. Long story short, there were more IGs out there, so feel free to bring that gorgeous IG-88 back in your campaign!!

    Fun fact – IG-88s head turns up in A New Hope behind the bar in the cantina – a case of props getting re-used throughout filming 🙂

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    • Yeah, I was aware of all of that through years of being a pretty big Star Wars nerd (who could have guessed?) but not a fan of the EU. I thought things like the resuse of the bar prop into IG-88 and Cloud City were nice little touches, but I also thought that they overdid it to the point of annoyance. Oh, and we killed three IG-88’s in that mission – including an extra-nasty one (that Wookiee has turned into a monster!) so there’d only be one left at best. 😉

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  7. Wow, as a bot lover, gotta say this guy is pretty cool. Would love to see how you got that look.

    I did not remember him in the movie so nice explanation in the comments section. OSL is intriguing, and interesting. Not sure if it would be helpful for me with units, but for dioramas it looks fantastic and I enjoyed the link you shared.

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    • Thanks Mark. A lot of it is very similar to this video that I watched and then combined with my usual style.

      OSL like the type I used here might be something to use on commander-bots?

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  9. Pingback: The Jewel of July – Personal Round-Up & July 2018 Painting Round-Up | Azazel's Bitz Box.

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