Star Wars Imperial Assault Painting Guide Ep.21: Rebel Saboteurs

[@rstott24]

Thank you for doing these videos. Thanks to your encouragement, I have painted about half my base set. Your step by step direction is immensely helpful. You are the biggest reason why I even considered painting my IA set, and I am grateful to you for that. I have fallen in love with the hobby. Thank you.

[@Sorastro]

+rstott24 Thank you so much! I'm always happy to hear that my videos have helped someone get into miniature printing :)

[@jeremydailey]

Sorastro your videos are top notch man. I used to paint minis way back in my LOTR/Warhammer days. I did it for years and even entered some local GW painting competition but I ultimately ended up selling off all my minis, terrain and game accessories. It's been nearly 8 years since I've painted a miniature and after gaining interest in Imperial Assault and stumbling upon your videos, you have inspired me to get back into the hobby. I'm headed out today to pick up my core set and I have all my paint, brushes and tools ready to go. I am subscribed and will watch everything you post! Keep up the great work man, you're fantastic.

[@Sorastro]

Thank you so much Jeremy! I really appreciate your taking the time to comment, and I'm always happy to hear I've helped inspire someone to get back into the hobby! You will be seeing a LOT more videos from me from September as I've just given up my day job to focus fully on producing these tutorials - happy days! :)

[@jeremydailey]

Living the dream my friend! I wish you all the best! ;)

[@Sorastro]

+Jeremy W. Dailey (PineconeGrenade) Thank you sir!

[@Mpearator]

I love the lightened shades for the white. Will come in very handy for the extra storm troopers!

[@Sorastro]

+Mpearator :D

[@michaeljdauben]

Another great video. On this one I particularly liked the blue/green/yellow transition on the skin shade and highlighting. You've actually inspired me to pick up a copy of the game to do some painting of my own.

[@Sorastro]

+Michael D'Auben Thanks Michael! I'm glad you like the skin tone :)

[@jeroendriehuis1740]

I love it. Very nice paint job

[@Sorastro]

+Jeroen Driehuis Thanks Jeroen - glad you like it :)

[@Tvboy777]

Just want you to know I wouldn't have gotten into Imperial Assault if it weren't for your early videos showing me I could paint. Now I'm able to paint any model to my liking thanks to all the techniques I've learned from your videos, including your other games, and I don't have to wait for a tutorial anymore. I've even started to discover my own style by combining your techniques in different ways, and figuring out things that work better for me and my giant fingers and terrible eyes. I've found that I like a heavy dark wash followed by a dry brush highlight instead of gradual washes and manual highlights as its quicker and gives the model more pop from a distance. Everytime you post a video of a model I've already painted though, I wish I had known whatever new technique you're using (like a Sepia wash over silver to make gold, way better than what I was doing) but then I can apply it to my next project. You even inspired me to try painting my x-wing ships, a game that I play because I knew the models would never have to look better than they do out of the box. Anyway, just wanted you know your videos enabled me to own and play this awesome game, and that I don't need your videos anymore but I still love them. You are the Bob Ross of miniatures. I'll definitely check out your patreon.

[@Sorastro]

+Kainoa Pestana Thank you Kainoa! Teaching someone well enough to the point that they become creatively autonomous is I suppose the highest goal in teaching, so I'm very happy to hear that you have reached that point and are getting so much out of the hobby :)

[@keithbrown2711]

I discovered you when teasing with the idea of painting some of my games. I am still frightened and don't really know what paints and equipment to order or where to start but these are terrific at pushing me towards an attempt.

[@Sorastro]

+Keith Brown Thank you Keith! I might suggest that you work through the first few episodes in order as they will ease you in to the basic techniques that then become a bit more refined as the series progresses. If you want a really gentle start however you could begin with the probe droids rather than the storm troopers :)

[@thidhus6589]

amazing tutorial as usual

[@Sorastro]

+Cośtam Cośtam Thank you Cośtam! Glad you like it :)

[@IamNintendocore]

Yay another video!!

[@Sorastro]

+IamNintendocore Hooray! :)

[@mikemee8002]

Another awesome guide dude. Some times a lack of patience is what kills my paint jobs, but I can't curb this habit. Nice to see that you have ;-)

[@Sorastro]

+Mike Mee I sympathise.. It's worth noting that I tend to put a lot of love into certain areas (like the skin on these sabs) which will draw the eye, but will then cut corners to save time on other areas :)

[@mikemee8002]

+Sorastro's Painting - Like most sane painters ;-) A little patience goes along way, somthing I really need to hammer in. I look foward to the next tutorial. When are you doing the Tuskian Raiders? Would be intrested to see your colour choices. I see alot of similarities between mine and your choices, but when I did my Tuskian Raiders I lost patience ;-)

[@Sorastro]

+Mike Mee I'll get to the tuskans at some point - it's usually my patrons who vote for the order I paint the minis :)

[@mikemee8002]

Makes sense ;-)

[@MrBMBuilder]

Great job and nice filming

[@Sorastro]

Thank you sir!

[@rubenblazquez8181]

Awesome like always! The job with the skin was really really good! Regards from Spain!

[@Sorastro]

+Ruben Blazquez Thanks Ruben! :)

[@nanodave1980]

nice work love the skin

[@Sorastro]

Thank you nanodave!

[@johnnycooper7019]

Dear Sorastro, You have excelled yourself yet again! Amazing tutorial! I can only echo Kainoa Pestana's comments, but I am not adventurous enough to jump ahead....I am however waiting with baited breath for the Snow Troopers and Raptor Tank, but that is just a suggestion - lol! Take care and please continue helping us mortals, Kind Regards Johnny

[@Sorastro]

+Johnny Cooper Hi Johnny! Thanks for the kind feedback as always. I'll be producing lot more Imperial Assault videos from September so will soon catch up to the snowey stuff :)

[@PanagosAndrovitsaneas]

love your videos

[@Sorastro]

+Panagos Androvitsaneas (UNDO) Thank you!

[@genomyoshida5205]

Great job. A lot of work went into these videos. Really appreciate it. I kind of wished FFG would release minis in bulk, without the need to buy the whole game. Especially since so many play the RPG now.

[@robbierauch2952]

Well done mate! best painting tutorials on the internet...of any game system. I do have one question: Do you have a schedule of sorts of what minis you are doing next? Not time based of when it will be released....but more like what order you are going to do the mini's in?

[@Sorastro]

+Robbie Rauch Thanks a lot Robbie! I'm roughly keeping to the release order but sometimes jump around a bit; however it's mostly my patrons who decide by vote which mini I paint next :)

[@TheGGrzebyk]

Awesome skill man :)

[@Sorastro]

+TheGGrzebyk Thank you! I am always trying to improve along with everyone else :)

[@TheGGrzebyk]

I started my adventure with painting miniatures guided by your videos (Star Wars Stormtroopers) and those were my first ever so im really happy that you still do great job and i'm definitely going to paint more of them with aid from your tutorials. :D I remember when I tried to find best painted version of Han Solo and yours is the greatest. Those details and good choice of paints is really really good work. Once again thanks for your tutorials because they gave me inspiration to finally paint my figurines. :)

[@TheGGrzebyk]

Sorry for bad englando. :D

[@Sorastro]

+TheGGrzebyk Thanks again! I'm very happy that you've found my videos so helpful (your English is amazing by the way!) :)

[@jonathangutierrez3607]

Awesome job again! :D

[@Sorastro]

+Jonathan Gutierrez Thanks mate! :)

[@khairulahmad1865]

Nicely done :D

[@Sorastro]

+Khairul Ahmad Thank you Khairul! :)

[@Ollienorth05]

Another awesome mini paint job. I really enjoyed the lightning/shading effects you did on this one. The ultra smooth gradation you did on their bald heads is simply great. But while I'm at it, I'd like to ask you somethin. Apparently, Canada has run out of Quickshade Strong Tone. I went to 4 of the biggest mini shops in my city and they all ran out of QsST AND it's been backordered for months now. After a quick search on some online shops on the net, I was able to find some but they're selling it for as much as twice the retail price !! So here's my question : how drastically different are the tones (Light vs Strong vs Dark)? Can I hope to achieve similar results by using the Light QS instead of the Strong QS? I guess the best option would actually be to use different colored, smaller Quickshades from Citadel or AP but I'm running on a small budget. Any suggestions?

[@Ollienorth05]

I do have to say that I also watched (many times, lol) your Z:BP Zombies Painting Guide and noticed you offered 3 different ways to apply the shading. Either using Warpaints' Deep Shader, Citadel's Nuln Oil & Agrax Earthshade or the QS:Strong Tone. I personnaly think the QS:ST did the most outstanding job and it corresponds the most to the grim effect I want to bring to the table. So my question is truly really related to the difference between the 3 QuickShade tones.

[@Sorastro]

Hi Ollie! Thanks for the comments :) Sorry to hear the Strong Tone is out of stock in your area.. If you really don't want to wait for a re-stock I would recommend getting the Dark Tone version instead; you can actually see an example of it in my Zombicide BP video (it's the fattie in the orange jump suit: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gn6yhaCFmM1-r7Mm13s). As you can see it gives a nice level of contrast, it just has a more black look rather than the rich dark brown of the Strong Tone. Hope this helps :)

[@Ollienorth05]

Thank you for the advice (and the quick response). That fattie does indeed look very good. I guess the rule of thumb would be that the darker the Shade we use, the lighter (more vibrant) the Base color should be. ;)

[@butlersmodellingpaintingan3974]

Top job, again

[@Sorastro]

+Butlers Modelling Thank you! Much appreciated :)

[@raillery2443]

what is your typical process? are you doing each of these models as shown in the videos or doing batches similiar to blacktide and editing each set separately?

[@Sorastro]

+Tony Crostic Hi Tony. I'm painting these individually as I get to them :)

[@raillery2443]

On average what would u say the total paint time is compared to the edited video? 1/2 hour edited is 1hr painting? Or 1.5 hours? My level of painting is about where you say "you could stop here and have a perfectly good model" :D looking forward to trying your highlighting style on scythe

[@Sorastro]

+Tony Crostic That's very hard to say as the filming/re-positioning of the camera adds so much time. I'll have to time myself when I'm not filming one day :)

[@reyrey8562]

How do you maintain the sharpness of the brush?

[@beld9670]

What are you using as a palette? Looks like it has fairly deep cups for mixing, and a lot of them.

[@Sorastro]

+B Eld It's just a generic paint palette I got from a local art shop years ago :)

[@stormy7722]

Excellent as always. I have to ask; are you a Star Wars fan, or just a miniature/painting enthusiast?

[@Sorastro]

Thank you Toronto! I grew up with the original trilogy so it's kind of in my DNA (I also really enjoyed The Force Awakens!) :)

[@stormy7722]

lol..I was 10 when episode IV premiered so I have always been a huge fan. Excluding 1 very prominent part of The Force Awakens, I too enjoyed it thoroughly.

[@edwardpatterson293]

These are spectacular miniatures, I am looking forward to your next video! Also how much have you played the game because it is a great game.

[@Sorastro]

+Edward Patterson Thank you Edward! I confess I haven't played nearly as much as I would like but am hoping to get it to the table this summer :)

[@SmashingNine]

Do you have any suggestions for magnifying glass, or other necessities?

[@Sorastro]

Hi Montgomery! I never actually used a magnifying glass so can't really advise; sorry!

[@SmashingNine]

All good, I'm surprised you don't though. The eyestrain when painting these things is rough.

[@Sorastro]

+Montgomery Bill Fryerson Oh I'm sure the day will come when I need one :)

[@jace76ful]

You are so awesome!

[@Sorastro]

+jace76ful -blushes- Thank you!

[@alvinsilva2859]

Top quality tutorials, you make it look so easy. question, what's your take on the P3 paints? have you ever used them?

[@Sorastro]

Hi Alvin! I am gradually collecting paints from other ranges but haven't yet got any P3. I believe they're very good, and I think the fact they don't have such a dauntingly large range (72 in total I think?) makes them an attractive option as the complete set wouldn't cost the earth :)

[@noreasternbrewmaster8705]

These videos are amazing. Just out of curiosity do you use any kind of magnification while painting? I'm just amazed at your ability to really pick out and properly paint some very fine details.

[@Sorastro]

+Nor'Eastern Brewmaster Thank you very much! No I don't use any magnification (not yet anyway!) :)

[@JediInJeans]

Wonderful video, as always. I don't know if I've said before, but I really love the compositions you make for these videos. Any chance those might be available somewhere? Also, I was curious what alternative paint colors you might suggest for the skin tone and highlights if I wanted them to be almost exclusively light blue in tone? There's quite a bit of variation in color for the Duros, depending on your reference material, and I was thinking of using their appearance from ANH as a basis.

[@Sorastro]

+JediInJeans Thank you! For a pure blue look, you could use any shade of blue you like (Temple Guard Blue perhaps?) then highlight by simply adding white :)

[@Sorastro]

+JediInJeans Oh I forgot to answer your question about the music: I'm releasing an Imperial Assault-themed album in a couple of months :)

[@JediInJeans]

Thank you, sir. This news excites me so!

[@MrRouggy]

Nice job! Do you play with the game ?

[@Sorastro]

+MrRouggy Thanks! I don't get to play as often as I'd like but I do enjoy it when I can :)

[@Nero_479]

Always amazing. is there a paint brand you could recommend for a beginner on a budget? Citadel is the best, but also the most expensive for a beginner. Regards.

[@Sorastro]

Hi Kevin! Thanks a lot! I would strongly recommend Vallejo; they're cheaper than Citadel but still excellent paints. I would however consider buying some of the Citadel shades :)

[@Nero_479]

Thank you for the recommendation! Would you also care to recommend any "essential" shades to get first. Nuln Oil I would imagine would be one. Thank you for these videos. They are terrific.

[@Sorastro]

+Kevin Latta No problem Kevin! Yes I would certainly suggest Nuln Oil and probably Agrax Earthshade. Then later on you might want to pick up a green or two for the trandoshans (Athonian Camoshade if you just buy one) :)

[@maxbrandt6]

Kevin, I'm sure you've heard of Scale75 paints by now, if not look them up. You can purchase them over at MichiganToySolider.com, they are excellent paints that cover very well and can be thinned quite a bit and still look good. Army Painter and P3 paints are also a good alternatives to the expensive Citadel Colour range.

[@lachance7396]

Oh great Teacher I have a question for you! what do you use to mount your minis so you don't have to handle them?

[@Sorastro]

+Lachance Hi Lachance! It's just the lid from an empty eye cream bottle or something :)

[@lachance7396]

Thanks for the Reply! I meant what is the compound you use to actually stick the model to the lid?

[@Sorastro]

Oh! It's just white tack: www.amazon.co.uk/UHU-White-Handy-Re-usable-Adhesive/dp/B000TAUOJ8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1469087939&sr=8-2&keywords=uhu+white+tack

[@lachance7396]

Sorastro's Painting Awesome Thank you so much!

[@88Renji88]

Are those shades like Vallejo inks?

[@Sorastro]

Hi Renjie! Although I haven't compared them I believe they're probably more like the Vallejo washes :)

[@88Renji88]

Oh ok, I got a set of vallejo ink for my bday. No idea what the application for is or how to use it. And there is no video out there to explain the use. :(

[@Sorastro]

They're a bit like washes in that they're quite watery, but they are much more concentrated. They'd be good for applying depth to specific parts of a mini - like in the cracks etc. Or they could also be thinned to use more like a regular shade (I would use medium to do this with though rather than water) :)

[@88Renji88]

Thanks so much! You're the best! ^_^

[@Sorastro]

No problem Renjie :)

[@NoBigBoss]

Awesome! As always! I've always wondered: How much time do you spend on such skillful painting?

[@Sorastro]

Thank you! Do you mean how long does an individual mini take or how long do I spend painting/practicing generally?

[@NoBigBoss]

+Sorastro's Painting Both)))

[@Sorastro]

+NoBigBoss It's hard to say actually. I don't often get time to paint outside of making these videos, and I spend around 40+ hours creating each episode, but that includes testing various colour combinations out and then there's all the editing/composing etc. I'd guess if I was just painting I'd spend between 1-4 hours on a mini depending on the figure :)

[@Sorastro]

+NoBigBoss It's hard to say actually. I don't often get time to paint outside of making these videos, and I spend around 40+ hours creating each episode, but that includes testing various colour combinations out and then there's all the editing/composing etc. I'd guess if I was just painting I'd spend between 1-4 hours on a mini depending on the figure :)

[@NoBigBoss]

+Sorastro's Painting Thank you for your reply. Your videos are great and helps me a lot.

[@Hepabytes]

What size brush are you using for he basecoat?

[@Sorastro]

Hi JP Morris! I typically use a size 2 Rosemary and Co, or sometimes a size 1 Windsor and Newton :)

[@Hepabytes]

Thanks, mate

[@samh62695]

Hi. Trying to reduce the paints I have to buy. Do you have alternative skin colours I could use?

[@Sorastro]

Hi Sam! If you let me know which blue/green colours you have in your collection I might be able to suggest which might work best :)

[@samh62695]

Sorastro's Painting ok green I have caliban green, waagh! flesh, Elysian green and castellan green And blues I have kantor blue, caledor sky, dark reaper and thunder hawk blue Thanks

[@Sorastro]

Cool - do you have Screaming Skull?

[@samh62695]

Sorastro's Painting yeah

[@Sorastro]

OK - your mid tone could be Elysian Green mixed with some Thunderhawk Blue (roughly equal measures). This could then be lightened my mixing in increasing quantities of Screaming Skull. You could bring some depth to the shadows either with some shades (Coelia Greenshade perhaps) or by mixing some Caliban Green into you mid tone to darken it (or just apply the Caliban Green in thin layers/glazes into the shadows). Let me know how it turns out! :)

[@CrashBull]

can you show how painting blood rage miniatures ?? :)

[@Sorastro]

+Tomasz Pijanowski Hi Tomasz! Yes; I'm going to be producing a set of Blood Rage videos later this year :)

[@CrashBull]

thanks :) i can't wait :)

[@Sorastro]

+Tomasz Pijanowski :D

[@666lupine666]

16th like.5th comment (not exactly first, lol) good job, man. always a privilege.

[@phoen31]

Is it wrong that the first thing I think of when I started watching was.. The Mad Bomber what Bombs at Midnight!

[@Sorastro]

Ha ha :)