Star Wars Miniatures Viper X-1 Droid Repaint

I purchased these awhile back as combat robots suitable for a variety of scales. The Viper X-1 Droid comes from the Dark Empire comic series that also featured a couple more Imperial superweapons, the New Republic E-Wing starfighter, and the notion of resurrecting Emperor Palpatine. Even as a part of the Star Wars Legends continuity, these should be obscure enough to fit into a variety of sci-fi settings with looking too out of place. These models were made by Wizards of the Coast as part of the Star Wars Miniatures game.

There's a local crawfish boil coming up. Don't know why that came to mind.

Repainting these models serves a few purposes:

• One of them had some surface damage when it arrived. A coat or two of paint covers up the scuff marks nicely.
• Changing the colors further obscures their origins.
• I just really didn't like the brown color.

I couldn't make up my mind on which military themed color to use. Olive and khaki are both classic colors for military hardware, but aren't suitable for all terrain. Since I had two models, I decided on one of each color.

Priming
Both models were pre-painted, so I didn't feel the need to prime them.

Spray Coats
I began by spraying the underside of both models with Krylon Camouflage Ultra-Flat Black. Next were the base colors for each model. One got a coat of Krylon Camouflage Ultra-Flat Khaki and the other got the same brand of spray paint in Olive. The base colors were sprayed in a downward direction on the upper portions of the models. This left the black layer on the bottom of each model intact to provide shading.

Front and rear comparisons.

Wear Marks
The appearance of paint worn away to bare metal was achieved with a Sharpie Silver Metallic marker. I ran the marker around edges that seemed more likely to suffer from wear – the claws and areas that might bump into surrounding objects while moving.

Detailing

The one detail I wanted to pick out were the optics. They were originally painted black, but I wanted them to stand out. A little Reaper 09279 Fresh Blood did the trick.

Wash
I brushed on some black wash all over the model and wiped off the excess with a sponge. The wash was a mix that was left over from a previous project. It works well enough for terrain or large models like these. In addition to bringing out the recessed details, it all smoothed out the shading provided by the spray coats.

Scale comparisons with 28mm and 15mm figures.

Basing
I painted the base edge black and spread some sand over a layer of watered down PVA glue over the base surface. After the glue dried, I applied a mix of PVA glue, brown craft paint, and water to color and further secure the sand. Once the glue/paint/sand mix dried, I brushed on some lighter colored craft paint to create the appearance of dry soil.

The repaint turned out well. Although I can't decide if the weathering is too much or not quite enough. In any case, I'm looking forward to when these robots will be menacing some 15mm or 28mm figures on the tabletop.