Tag Archives: Imperial Assault

Star Wars Imperial Assault: Imperial Probe Droids

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Star Wars Imperial Assault: Imperial Probe Droids

Today’s post is all about Imperial Probe Droids.

Regular visitors to the Bitz Box will be aware that I painted up a single Imperial Probe Droid from Imperial Assault last month. The reason I didn’t paint all three is because, well, all three of the Probe Droids were broken, right out of the IA box – one had one leg broken off it’s base, the next had two, and the third.. well, you see the pattern here right? Yep, it was broken completely and clear off it’s base. I contacted FFG, who were kind enough to send me out …a single replacement Probe Droid.

Star Wars Imperial Assault: Imperial Probe Droids

So I contacted them again, with a bit of an “ahem – all three are broken, but you replaced only one.” – and resent the original photos. No problem, they said that they’d replace the other two, and in the interim, we started playing, and as the Probe Droids appeared to be a unit type that was turning up in every scenario, I painted that one model, so we could at least represent the elite with the proper model rather than with a T-800 Terminator model.

Star Wars Imperial Assault: Imperial Probe Droids

Fast forward some time, and the others finally turned up, and I’d been thinking about mounting the broken ones on flight bases, which (I believe) Alex Faust also suggested. So last week, once Jewel of July was over, I got cracking on all five of them.

Star Wars Imperial Assault: Imperial Probe Droids

Pretty quick to paint, all up. I ended up painting the secondary lights on them in different gemstone colours in order to differentiate them on the table. The Elite of course having the main lens in red rather than black.

Star Wars Imperial Assault: Imperial Probe Droids

A few small details on them in burnt orange. I hadn’t noticed those details from the films, but all official models and statues of them from Kotobukiya, Sideshow and everyone else seem to have the markings, so I can only assume that they’re on the original screen-used props but didn’t end up visible in the films. The final shot here shows the five additional Probe Droids reunited with the originally painted one, along with an Emperor’s Royal Guard to provide scale.

In a way, I think the formerly-broken ones actually look a bit better, raised on their flying stands, though they are also a lot more fragile in a way, held on by that little peg.

I know I’m way behind on replying to comments here and keeping up with other people’s blogs. I’ll catch up when I can. Lots on IRL, especially with longer hours at work right now.

 

Star Wars Imperial Assault: AT-ST (Jewel of July)

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A few days ago, Pandora’s Bitz Box painted up an AT-ST. Deciding immediately to rip him off, I quickly cleaned, assembled, sprayed and painted my own AT-ST.

Well, that’s not entirely true. In fact, it’s a load of bollocks. I cleaned up the sculpt over a couple of weeks at work during my breaks, assembled it a week or so ago. Attempted to murder my gaming group via poison gas (so I’m told) 2 weeks ago by spraying it in the yard while they were in The War Room, setting up an IA game, and then painted it over the course of the following 2 weeks, forcing myself to complete it last Saturday morning. With both Marouda’s model as well as my own for Morikun’s contest needing to go up before the end of July, and my own challenge being about completion rather than posting (and a rather well-received rant, inspired by IRO), the AT-ST got bumped – and then Pandora’s AT-ST appeared!

As with a lot of the Star Wars stuff I’ve been painting recently, I looked over Sorastro’s YouTube guide for ideas before getting fully stuck in. I’ve never met or interacted with the man, but he’s a talented painter and an amazing resource for anyone planning to paint Imperial Assault, or any of several other board games’ figures.

I kept my walker a bit lighter and not as heavily weathered as Sorastro, but there’s still a fair bit of weathering, muck and grime across the model, with more concentrated on the feet, legs and undercarriage as well as the back and underside of the “head”.

Now that I’ve finished this one, I need to paint up the General Weiss AT-ST, which I just finished cleaning at work a couple of days ago (somehow, I missed one of the legs!) And then get started on the AT-DP from Heart of the Empire..

As I haven’t yet started on a single Stormtrooper at this stage (WOTC Prepaints are doing the job nicely while I work through other models), it’s left to the Emperor’s Royal Guard to provide scale and ground-level security to the Empire’s Light Walker. I should paint some Adeptus Custodes next to a Sentinel and have them do a face-off!