Imperial Assault, Twin Shadows Part Two: The Heroes and The Hunter

Part Two of my Imperial Assault: Twin Shadows painting is complete, which means I have finished all the miniatures from the boxed expansion and the ally and villain packs released along with it.

There are two rebel heroes in the Twin Shadows boxed set. This is Saska Teft, a combat engineer. As far as I can tell, she makes things blow up pretty good.

The other hero is Biv Bodhrik, the stereotypical “heavy weapons guy.”

Looks like he has some skin problems. Chalk it up to poor layering on my part.

Next, an Ally Pack featuring some familiar faces: R2-D2 (does he even HAVE a face?) and C-3PO.

Another fun fact: I bought this pack twice, because I purchased the first one from “Amazon World Marketplace”. The description said that was based in Great Britain, but the package shipped from Spain, and I got this in the mail: the Italian version. Although the miniatures are the same, all the game materials are in Italian. This is useless to me as I don’t speak or read Italian. So, I put this on eBay, thinking someone else must need it. So far, no one needs it.

Between the primer fiasco and the duplicate droids, this Twin Shadows project was getting fucking expensive.

Like many of my Imperial Assault miniatures, I painted these by following Sorastro’s tutorials on YouTube. I like his tutorials because I often learn new ways of doing things. For example, the gold base color on C-3PO is not gold paint. It’s GW’s Leadbelcher washed with GW’s Seraphim Sepia, then highlighted up. This provides a nice depth of tone and it’s a trick I will absolutely use again, whether I’m painting shields or armor.

Finally: Boba Fett, a bounty hunter who is even cooler than Dog, the Bounty Hunter (didn’t think that was possible, did you?). He’s featured prominently on the box cover and in several Twin Shadows missions; so naturally he’s sold separately. Thanks, Fantasy Flight.

Boba Fett is a great-looking miniature, especially for Imperial Assault, where some of the miniatures are pretty lame (just wait until I get to Ahsoka Tano). Of course, the Star Wars Legion version of Boba Fett is so much better-looking, I try not to think about it lest I get depressed.

That’s it for Twin Shadows, but I have many more Imperial Assault miniatures to go. I’d like to collect the entire run of the game, but that doesn’t seem likely. Two days before I wrote this post, a Grand Admiral Thrawn villain pack sold on eBay for $152.50.

That’s one hundred fifty-two dollars and fifty cents for one plastic miniature. That’s fucking stupid.

It’s ok. I can live without Thrawn for sure. In addition to two more boxed expansions (Return to Hoth and Bespin Gambit), I have 18 more ally and villain packs waiting for my paintbrush. When will I ever get to them all?

That’s what New Year’s resolutions are for…

13 thoughts on “Imperial Assault, Twin Shadows Part Two: The Heroes and The Hunter

  1. Dave Stone

    Great work on all the heroes and villains Keith, very much in keeping with the art.
    You can download all the relevant literature for each character, and there are some very nice 3D prints of Thrawn available, a nicer prospect than $152 !

    1. The Angry Piper Post author

      Thanks Dave. I really don’t need Thrawn. I would pick him up if he wasn’t stupid-priced (yep, that’s American), like I did with some of the other expansions. It’s not so much that I’m a Thrawn fan (he’s ok); it’s more for completeness. Presently, there are three boxed set expansions I don’t have and about 10 blister expansions. Thrawn was released as a villain pack with the Tyrants of Lothal boxed expansion (currently listed at $78.00 on Amazon). None of them are getting any cheaper, so I think my IA collecting has come to a stop.

      1. Dave Stone

        I’ve still got two box sets I’m after, the miniature expansions, I’ve got covered elsewhere now, with 3D prints, or what I’ve built myself, but they are all getting very expensive as you say, so will have to see what I’m able to get.

          1. The Angry Piper Post author

            There’s a FLGS near me that has two copies of Jabba’s Realm, and a bunch of IA packs that have a layer of dust on them. He hasn’t sold any IA stuff to anyone but me in a long time. I’m thinking of making him an offer for one of the Jabba’s boxes, but I kinda feel weird about it. I wouldn’t want my FLGS to become just my LGS.

  2. Matt

    All these minis look awesome, but Fett is an outstanding paint job on an iconic figure! You’ve even got his armour emblems right, something I wouldn’t even attempt myself. Same goes for the Rebel logo on Bodhrik’s shoulder pad.

    I have to admit, I like how C-3PO isn’t blindingly shiny. And R2-D2 looks as annoying as ever. I’m assuming the different coloured base rims are for factions/sides/teams?

    “He’s featured prominently on the box cover and in several Twin Shadows missions; so naturally he’s sold separately”… nice to see Fantasy Flight taking a leaf out of Games Workshop’s Big Book of Business. And $152 for one mini is just obscene. Even my Oldhammer Undead Chariot didn’t cost that much, and it’s 40 years old, OOP and made of metal. Is the Thrawn mini really that rare, or are the Ebay scalpers out in force?

    1. The Angry Piper Post author

      Thanks, Matt. The different colored rings do indeed denote different sides. Red are the bad guys, blue are good guys. Although there are some grey rings, too…these are generic bad guys, whereas the red show upgraded bad guys and special characters, like Boba Fett. Some folks use stickers that are included in the game to differentiate, but that looks like shit. Others rebase them on scenic bases, which is nice, but makes more sense if you play IA as a skirmish game IMO.
      The C-3PO wash trick was really something cool that I will absolutely use again. I assumed I would just pile on the metallic bronze and gold and hope for the best, but I quite like how this came out and it’s a technique I will certainly use elsewhere.
      I honestly don’t know if the Thrawn miniature is rare. It’s one of the last ones released, so perhaps FF knew they were winding down the game and didn’t make as many; but I seem to recall seeing him at the FLGS. Perhaps it’s because his star is in the ascendancy with his mention in The Mandalorian that people are losing their fucking minds.

  3. Dick Garrison

    Lovely work on all of these, I liked the comment “She’s good at blowing thing up” yep looks like she’s blown a couple of things up already ().

    That is a stupid price for a single figure, I wouldn’t pay that if it was made of gold! (but then I am known for being cheap! ) especially as I don’t even recognise the character.

    Cheers Roger.

    1. The Angry Piper Post author

      Thanks, Roger. Thrawn is the big (until recently) non-canon bad guy that came after Palpatine. One of Palpatine’s admirals, he went on to rally the remains of the Empire under his banner after Endor. He was the main villain in Timothy Zahn’s “Heir to the Empire” series, which was one of the first Star Wars novels written after the original trilogy. He’s a brilliant tactician who uses his understanding of art to plan his battle strategies to devastating effect. Ahsoka Tano name-dropped him in The Mandalorian and you probably felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of geeks ejaculated at once and were suddenly silent.

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