Star Wars: Battle of Hoth

I didn't even try to resist this Commands & Colors ruleset for the Battle of Hoth, with little toy AT-ATs and snowspeeders. Speedpaints always help with these, and the bases are just sand, painted blue-grey and drybrushed white. The infantry are ~20mm.

The game comes with two branching campaigns of four games each, which is a great way to tie it all together. A game takes under 30 minutes, so a full campaign can be knocked out in an evening!

I threw everything I had at this unstoppable AT-AT,
but it lumbered through my lines and took out the orbital cannon.

Star Wars Rebellion: Rise of the Empire

Rise of the Empire is an expansion for Star Wars: Rebellion, offering more toys and, importantly, an improved replacement of the original's clunky combat system. It brings in a lot of units and characters from Rogue One.

The Empire

Interdictor-class Star Destroyers

Occupier Assault Tanks (with a horrible underslung turret...)

TIE Strikers

Shield Bunkers

The Rebellion

Nebulon-B frigates

U-Wings

Pathfinders

DF.9 Turrets

Rise of the Empire

Imperial Assault: Tyrants of Lothal

After last week's rebels, here are the other figures from FFG's latest IA release, Tyrants of Lothal.

Grand Admiral Thrawn

Death Troopers

Hondo Ohnaka

Tress Hacnua

CT-1701 'Wildfire'

Star Wars Rebels

I've painted more Imperial Assault figures, for which FFG have used the Rebels cartoon series. The cartoon itself isn't bad, and uses some original 1970s Star Wars concept design work from Ralph McQuarrie.

Star Wars Rebels

Ezra Bridger, Jedi apprentice

Kanan Jarrus, Jedi

Sabine Wren, Mandalorian artist

Zeb Orrelios, muscle

Chewbacca concepts, 1975

Here's Spectre Cell with Hera and Chopper:

Spectre Cell

And here are some Loth-cats, felines found on the main Rebels planet Lothal. Their ears resemble the McQuarrie-inspired rock formations on the planet.

Loth-cats

McQuarrie ~1980

Imperial Assault- Ahsoka Tano and friends

I've finishing with the latest bunch of heroes from Imperial Assault, and I quite like them.

Firstest with the mostest is fan favourite Ahsoka Tano. She first appeared as an annoying young teen and Anakin Skywalker’s protégée in the Clone Wars animated series. She (and the series) later improved and matured, culminating in her breaking with the Jedi path having been accused of a crime she didn’t commit. She returned in the Rebels series as a grown woman, and it is this aspect of her that I have painted. She senses something familiar about Darth Vader...

Ahsoka Tano

She was great fun to paint. She’s got an interesting colour palette, and some fine details on her front armour. Her head tails look better than they do in the blown-up images. She carries white lightsabers (in that distinctive but questionable dual backhand grip), which I painted a very pale glowing grey and I think came out OK. I decided not to do any significant OSL, as I struggle with just white and paler surfaces.

I didn’t feel so enthused by the next hero, Jarrod Kelvin. He strikes me as an impractical Wolverine-wannabe.

Jarrod Kelvin

In contrast, I do like Ko-Tun Feralo. She seems an eminently practical Rebel.

Ko-Tun Feralo

Finally, I love Drokkatta. Consensus is that she’s female, and I’m not going to question a Wookie demolitions expert. With her wacky goggles, grenade launcher and thermal detonators, I can’t wait to get her into battle.

Drokkatta

Heart of the Empire rebel heroes

Imperial Assault- Heart of the Empire Imperials

Heart of the Empire is the latest expansion for Imperial Assault. Here are the Imperial forces from that release, starting with the reason for it all:

Emperor Palpatine

Finally, a chance to use the Royal Guard!

Next, some Riot Troopers. I really like these figures, although I'm unaware of any canonical source. I've neatened up the bases since this picture was taken.

Riot Troopers

The next figures are Sentry Droids from the Rebels series. They're a little prone to twisting at the waist, but a simple paint job serves well.

Sentry Droids

The All Terrain Defence Pod (AT-DP) is a bit of a crowd pleaser, standing even taller than my AT-ST!

AT-DP

AT-DP

Finally, not Empire, but some mercenary scum of the shapeshifting Clawdite variety. They're based on the forgettable Episode II bounty hunter Zam Wesell. I wasn't really enthused by these figures so they got a quick paintjob only.

Clawdite Shapeshifters

Don't be fooled- she's an alien shapeshifter!

Next week: Rebel heroes!

Imperial Assault- Maul

Maul- formerly Darth Maul- is back from being cruelly bisected by Obi-Wan. Through powerful fan armour he has recovered and been grafted cybernetic legs. In Rebels, Maul disguises himself as an enfeebled shell of his former self.

I painted him off a red undercoat. I carefully did his skin markings in black. The first photo is untouched- it came out slightly overexposed giving a great effect to his signature dual-blades lightsaber. It is actually more pink, as can be seen in the other shots.

Overall, I’m happy with how he came out.