Star Wars Imperial Assault: Nexu + Contrast Paint Experiment #7

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Star Wars Imperial Assault Nexu

Back to Star Wars Imperial Assault today, with a pair of Nexu, originally seen in Ep2: Attack of the Clones. They only vaguely fit into the Imperial Assault campaign, as for some reason it appears that both the Imperial Forces as well as “Scum” forces have a whole lot of these things as attack-dog style pets. For those not familiar with them, in the film they’re depicted more akin to Lions or Tigers – and used as wild gladiatorial beasts.

Anywho, they sat around on the desk, entirely unpainted but annoying me for ages before I decided to knuckle down and get them done recently. As with a bunch of things, the most effective motivation was to play with the Contrast Paints.

I followed the “official” scheme for these for the most part, with just the smallest bit of variation between the two so they could be told apart on the tabletop. One is a little darker on top and in its stripes and also has a dark snout.

Star Wars Imperial Assault Nexu

As far as the actual painting went, thinned Snakebite Leather Contrast was used for their fur, over Wraithbone. The stripes were done with only-slightly thinned Snakebite Leather on one, and 50%-thinned Cygor Brown for the other, including the snout. The tails were done with a thinned mixture of Gryph-Hound Orange and Fyreslayer Flesh. The dorsal spines were 50-50 Cygor Brown and Black Templar, highlighted with thinned grey. Mouths with Volupus Pink and tongues touched up with thinned red paint. I still gave the fur a final drybrush to unify it all a little more.

Overall, the stripes using Cygor Brown don’t blend quite as smoothly with the rest of the fur as those with Snakebite Leather, but it was overall easier to do all of this, especially on areas like the overall fur, the tails, the mouths and the spines with the Contrast Paints than it would be with traditional washes, due to their physical properties – less viscosity, and the stuff adheres a little better rather than all pooling via gravity. It did also help with overall speed, and especially, with motivation to paint models I wasn’t all that keen on doing.

I’ve got some upcoming models that I’m actually keen on painting, that I also think will also make good Contrast Guinea Pigs. They’re still a ways off, though – all I’ve done so far is select them from a set, so don’t expect to see them too quickly. 🙂

14 thoughts on “Star Wars Imperial Assault: Nexu + Contrast Paint Experiment #7”

    • Yeah, to be honest I’m not sure how it would stack up to thinned paint for stuff like stripes on hide. I think on models I care more about I’d still use the thinned paint in several built-up layers for the same effect, but more refined.

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  6. Fantastic work! I love seeing Star Wars minis (I’d probably give the game a shot if I wasn’t so wrapped up in LOTR) and while these are obscure creatures from Star Wars, I think you nailed their look very well because I instantly recognized them. I hadn’t thought about having them allied with bounty hunters but I think they’d be perfect in a unit or army of those. They look very menacing which you captured well here. I may just be hyped after seeing the trailer (for the first time in too long with Star Wars) but I say bring the Nexxu to The Mandalorian!!! 😀

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    • Thanks mate – I actually wouldn’t avoid Imperial Assault if you’re interested. You can simply pick up the core set and have a nice little self-contained game, and then pick up boxed/figure expansions as you like – or not at all. It’s a 1-vs-many style of game, so one player takes on a GM-ish role, but they also have an app now that takes control of the Overlord (GM) so all players can play co-op against the AI. This also allows for Solo play. A much cheaper and simpler buy-in than any full-on wargame.
      Oh, there’s also a wargame mode that has a lot in common with the old WotC SW Miniatures game.
      And yeah, I’m trying not to be hyped about The Mandalorian as well (after the last couple of SW things). Jon Favreau at the helm is a damned good thing!

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      • I’ve definitely thought about it! 🙂 FFG would be wise to do a version that is full-on solo friendly like they did with LOTR. That would probably rope me in to buying it even though I have no idea where I’d find the time to paint everything up! Jon Favreau is great and hopefully can return Star Wars to its former glory!

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