The snappiest dresser in the Star Wars universe takes center stage in the What Have We Here? Squad Pack for Star Wars Shatterpoint, supported by his enigmatic right hand man and a couple of what may be the game’s first and only actual police officers. Lando is a colorful character and this pack should be a lot of fun to paint, but we’re going to need a lot of blue…
Assembly & Priming
There aren’t any alternate parts or tricky poses in this box, so assembly was a breeze.
Since Lando will be painted in some lighter colors (especially the inside of his cape) and Lobot’s outfit is almost entirely white and light grey, I primed them in Army Painter brush-on Grey Primer. After giving the primer a day to dry, I drybrushed both of them in Reaper Skeleton Bone to lighten them up a bit more and bring out some of the detail in the models so it will be easier to see. It will also function as a shaded underpainting for some of the lighter areas, especially Lobot’s sleeves.
I primed the Wing Guards in Vallejo brush-on black. I then drybrushed them in Army Painter Royal Blue followed by Reaper Sky Blue to add some additional highlights — after that all I’ll need to do is paint in some details and they’ll be done.
Bases
I’ve recently started doing the bases first, reasoning that it will be easier to touch up the base than the figure if I splash some paint in the wrong place. Normally I try to make all my Shatterpoint bases match the way I’ve painted the terrain, but that’s getting a little boring so I thought I would do something different this time. For Lando and Lobot I wanted to mimic the gleaming white floors we see in Cloud City. I put them both on the basic “indoor” base (swapping out a few bases from other sets), and I’ve already primed and drybrushed these two to an off-white, which means most of the work is done already. I tried a few different things, but settled on a few layers of Reaper Skeleton Bone to flatten out the floors, with Reaper Wolf Grey for the lines between the floor plates.
I put both of the Wing Guards on the base with the grating along one side, thinking that I’d place them in the carbon freezing chamber. They’re primed in black so this will be fairly easy, just a quick drybrush in Army Painter Deep Grey followed by a lighter pass in Reaper Cloudy Grey. I drybrushed around the grating in Reaper Burning Orange to give it a glow effect, and then painted in the “under the grating” area with a few layers of Burning Orange followed by Reaper Highlight Orange.
Finally, I went over the edges of all the bases with Reaper Pure Black.
Lando Calrissian, Galactic Entrepreneur
My plan was to do Lando using a pretty standard base color-wash-highlight technique. However, washes don’t always play nice with cloaks and capes – the wash liquid tends to pool at the bottom of the cape unless you keep pushing it back into the creases with your brush as it’s drying. I’ve found that it’s easier to do capes by starting with a dark shadow color and then drybrushing up through the mid-tone and highlight color, so that’s what I did here, and since drybrushing isn’t very precise I did the cape first. I started with Reaper HD Nightsky Blue mixed with a bit of Reaper Pure Black, then a heavy drybrush of Reaper True Blue, followed by a lighter drybrush of Reaper Sky Blue.
For the cape’s inner lining I decided to mimic the Shatterpoint card artwork. I started with a base of Army Painter Leather Brown, then painted in some highlights first with a mix of the Leather Brown and Army Painter Wasteland Clay, followed by the Wasteland Clay on its own for the lightest areas. Then I painted in some thin squggly lines in Army Painter Angelic Red, and some heavier blobs of color in Army Painter Pharaoh Guard. After that had all dried, I went over the lightest highlight areas with Wasteland Clay thinned with a little water, the goal being to lighten the areas up without obscuring the colorful pattern.
Lando himself would probably argue that the cape is always the most important part of the outfit, and with that done the rest was pretty simple. The shirt was done in a base coat of Reaper True Blue followed by a wash with Army Painter Dark Blue Tone wash, thinned with a few drops of Army Painter Speedpaint medium (supposedly better for thinning washes, I’m not entirely convinced).
Lando’s face and hands were done in Army Painter Leather Brown, and his hair in Army Painter Brigadine Brown. I did his eyes with a swipe of Reaper Skeleton Bone and a dot of Pure Black, then a wash on his face and hands with Army Painter Strong Tone. The wrist communicator is Vallejo Model Air Steel with an Army Painter Dark Tone wash. After painting the face and hands I did the collars of his shirt and cape in Reaper Pure Black (they’ll get some highlights later).
I got a little lazy with the pants, belt, shoes and gun. They’re all black, so I just painted them in with Army Painter Grim Black Speedpaint, picking out a few details on the gun with Army Painter Gunmetal.
This was Lando nearly done, except…I wasn’t happy with the shirt. It was a little too dark, so I went over it with layer of Reaper Sky Blue thinned with some water, enough to make it transparent but keep the color. This helped lighten up the shirt and get the color closer to what it should be.
The final step was made utilizing my secret weapon: a cheap makeup brush and Reaper Yellowed Bone. Makeup brushes have very soft bristles, which makes them great for a light, subtle drybrush when you’re just trying to pick out highlights and details without obscuring the colors you’ve already painted. Yellowed Bone makes for a perfect highlight over almost any color where white or even off-white can end up looking too stark.
Lobot, Computer Liaison Officer
Lobot’s grey and white ensemble makes him stand out among all the blue his colleagues seem to favor. I had already primed him in grey, so a quick base coat over his tunic and pants in Army Painter Deep Grey, thinned with a bit of water, got him most of the way done. I drybrushed some highlights on his tunic and pants in Reaper Wolf Grey. I needed to lighten the sleeves and warm up the tone just a bit, so I used Reaper Linen White thinned with water, the same technique I used to lighten up Lando’s shirt above. His shoes were done in Deep Grey mixed with a little Pure Black to make them just a little darker than the pants and tunic. I used Army Painter Gravelord Grey Speedpaint to darken his belt, and Reaper Sky Blue for the blue lights on the front of it.
Lobot’s face and hands were done in Reaper Caucasian Flesh and Army Painter Flesh Wash, with a simple black dot for each eye. His cybernetic appliance was painted in Deep Grey, with a few details picked out in Wolf Grey and Army Painter Angelic Red for the tiny lights. Finally, I did a soft drybrush with Reaper Yellowed Bone over the entire model.
Cloud City Wing Guards
As mentioned above, these two models were primed black, then drybrushed in Army Painter Royal Blue to give me a dark blue base, which is the majority of the uniform. I did a lighter drybrush in Reaper Sky Blue across the heads, shoulders and parts of the arms and legs to establish an overhead light source and also pick out little details in the cloth folds around the elbows and knees.
I touched up the boots in Reaper Pure Black, then drybrushed them in Army Painter Deep Grey and Reaper Cloudy Grey at the same time I was doing the bases. Then I did a quick wash with Army Painter Dark Tone to darken them up a bit so they didn’t blend in with the floor.
For the female guard I used Reaper Caucasian Flesh and Army Painter Flesh Wash for the face and hands, and Reaper Burning Orange with a Strong Tone wash for the hair. I used Army Painter Leather Brown for the male guard’s face and hands, and Brigadine Brown for his hair and moustache, with a Strong Tone wash over both.
Their collars were done in Reaper Wolf Grey, and the cuffs of their sleeves in Reaper Carnage Red and Crimson Red. The gold trim was painstakingly picked out in Army Painter Wasteland Clay, with numerous touch-ups in Royal Blue mixed with a little black. I splashed a little dab of Strong Tone wash at the corners of the uniforms to help pick out the flowery detail, but I’m not sure it was necessary.
With their predominantly dark colors, the Wing Guards benefited the most from the final drybrush in Yellowed Bone. I also added some source lighting to their sides and backs using Reaper Burning Orange and Highlight Orange, which livens up these models a lot.
Finishing Up
After letting them dry overnight I gave the models a coat of Army Painter brush-on Matt Varnish thinned with a few drops of water. I’ll give that a few days to completely dry, and after that Lando and his crew will be ready to make a run for the east platform, hopefully in time to save Han from the bounty hunter…
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