May the 4th be with you! Happy Star Wars day!

So as its the 4th of May today, I thought it quite apt to share with you what I was working on through the cold British winter Christmas holiday of last year.

I was given a super cool Christmas present of a 1/10 3d printed vignette of Star Wars legends Luke Skywalker and Han Solo as they appeared in my favourite Star Wars movie Episode V-The Empire Strikes Back.

Here is what the kit looked like after assembly:

My goal was to try to emulate a scene from the film, like this:

This 3d sculpture was nothing short of incredible! I cleared my workbench and set to work right away with great energy and enthusiasm. In shot order, the large scale Tauntaun, Luke and Han were assembled and ready for paint. I felt compelled to watch The Empire Strikes Back again to take notes about Luke and Han’s uniforms and the close up visual effects that brought Luke’s Tauntaun to life.

The Empire Strikes Back opens on the remote ice planet of Hoth, where after the battle of Yavin, the Rebel Alliance take refuge on the run from the evil Imperial Empire and Darth Vader, the lord of the Sith who is obsessed with finding Luke Skywalker and crushing the Rebels.

Having watched the film and studied a lot of stills, I did my best to replicate the look of the characters and produce a unique vignette from my favourite Star Wars movie.

Assembly was straightforward, simply a matter of putting the figures together and filling any gaps with putty. I then began the painting process by airbrushing the block colours onto the figures. The Tauntaun was going to be interesting as it’s an animal with thick fur that is a mixture of white and grey. I decided to spray the Tauntaun in white first and then I would pick to the top coat of fur in shades of grey. The excellent sculpt detailed the texture of the fur superbly .

Both Luke and Han were airbrushed in white primer then I set about hand painting their uniforms by continually referring back to reference photos so I could be screen accurate. I spent a great deal of time on the figures faces using a tonal layering technique. I’m the first to admit that I am not the best figure painter, but I think that I managed to capture the on-screen essence of the characters.

Here is how the piece looks after painting:

To capture the weather beaten look of the snow and ice that was hanging off the Tauntaun, Luke and Han I used AK Interactive Snow texture paste and Ice sprinkles. It was literally time for weathering!

After a lot of AK Interactive snow and ice had been applied to the figures and the base I thought that I had something that I could be proud of. So allow me to present, ECHO Patrol- Commander Luke Skywalker and Captain Han Solo checking markers on the Rebel base perimeter on the harsh, winter landscape of the planet Hoth………..

Hope you like this one- Thanks for stopping by and looking at my model.

Until next time, Happy Modelling!