Star Wars Imperial Assault: Gaarkhan the Wookiee (Jewel of July ’18)

Firstly, how is it that the spell-checker doesn’t automatically recognise the word “Wookiee”? Crazy, I tells ya!

Anyway, as I’ve noted in one or two of the last few posts, we started playing Imperial Assault last week, and so with that as motivation, I started painting a few of the models. The models I chose were the three player characters that we’re using as well as a few others that come from different campaign boxes – The Royal Guards and their Champion were actually painted before we knew we were going to play the game, and the Imperial Probe Droid was also selected as something to paint before then (though it was misplaced/lost at the time we played).

Naturally the best laid plans of Mice and Men went astray, and I haven’t had time to complete either of the other two player characters, so we’ll be using some WotC prepaints instead tonight (you know, I forgot that I had those as nearly perfect proxies for most of this unpainted stuff until after our friends had gone home last week.

Marouda will be playing the role of Gaarkhan, since for some reason she always wants to play as the Wookiee. Pyrowave is playing as Jyn Odan (aka Girl Solo) and I’m playing as Fenn Signis (aka boring soldier guy with a rifle). Hopefully they’ll both be completed this weekend for next week’s prospective session.

I’m also scheduling this post so that it goes up too late for either Orez, who will be the Overlord or Pyrowave who is playing as Jyn to see – so the first time they see this model will be in person.

A reenactment from last week’s game. And the intro game. And probably tonight’s game.

As far as painting and modelling goes, I gave the Vibro-Axe a few more colours than shown on the art to make it a little more interesting, and also rebased Gaarkhan onto a 32mm Sector Imperialis base that didn’t feature any aquilas or other distinct 40k iconography. I’ll probably rebase the player character heroes, but I won’t rebase every single model. I’m still in two minds still about whether to rebase “hero villain” models – not stormtrooper commanders, but “named” Imperials and Scum.

Star Wars Imperial Assault: Elite Probe Droid (Jewel of July ’18)

Star Wars Imperial Assault: Elite Probe Droid

Today’s post is another Star Wars one. We started playing Imperial Assault last week, and while we only got through the intro and first missions, it was quite a bit of fun. One of the enemies that the GM (Overlord? whatever) had in both missions was the Elite version of the Imperial Probe Droid. At the time, I didn’t know where my figures were, as the original three in my IA set were all (yes, all) broken, and FFG had sent me one as a replacement (which has been moved from its place on my desk). So we just used a Terminator model instead. Sure, wrong franchise, but it worked for game purposes.

Star Wars Imperial Assault: Elite Probe Droid

I noticed in images online that the Probe Droids have a fair few markings on them in a burnt orange, so I attempted to replicate the feel of those. The sculpt isn’t 100% accurate, so I couldn’t make the markings 100%, but the overall look and feel is pretty good.

Star Wars Imperial Assault: Elite Probe Droid

As with the Royal Guard, as an Elite mob I added the Imperial Cog to the model’s base. To make it even more obvious on the table, I chose to paint the main “eye” lens of the droid with a glossy red instead of the black. While I do think the cold black looks a bit better/more menacing as it gives off an alien or insectoid feel, it’ll make an easy point of differentiation combines with the cog, without doing something like red base rims.

After painting this guy last weekend, I spent way too long searching for the three broken ones, as I’ll attempt to repair/rebase them. Then on Monday the other two replacements arrived in the post, so I may have a few ready to go shortly. Assuming the next mission also makes use of the Probe Droid, this guy will make his tabletop debut in two nights’ time…

No post yesterday – when I got home from work there was no internet, no phone, no cable TV – so expect a few more in a row while I catch up. Oh, and lastly. Does a Probe Droid count for Jewel of July? At first I thought no, but then I thought.. actually maybe. These three criteria are the relevant ones to consider – as it’s sort of a low-level hero/mechanical monster as opposed to a “proper” hero or villain or a huge mech. Like a minor ogre hero in an RPG:

It’s for Heroes. Big or small. named or otherwise. A Lieutenant or a Medic or a Warlord Riding a Dragon. An Inquisitor’s aide or a Star Player or a Bounty Hunter.

It’s for Monsters. Ogres or Ogors. Dragons, Giants, decent-sized Daemons. Bronze Bulls and Dinosaurs and Great Wight Sharks and Goremaw and Cthulhu.

It’s for Mechs and the Mechanicum. Steampunk walkers, Dreadnoughts, Imperial Knights, Warjacks, Tripods, Titans.

What do you think?

Ok, you convinced me. Good points made.