Han Solo and Chewbacca are arguably two of the most popular characters across the entire Star Wars saga – how many of you punched the air when they appeared in the trailer for The Force Awakens? Ostensibly based on their appearance during the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi, the Real Quiet Like squad pack for Shatterpoint gives us our first version of the duo in their most iconic form, although it would have been cool to have General Solo in that oh-so-eighties camouflage trenchcoat.
Awkward “Captain Morgan” stance aside, the model’s likeness to Harrison Ford is spot-on, and Chewie is in a suitably dynamic pose – you can almost hear the growling and roaring as he stomps an IG series droid into the ground…wait a minute, I don’t remember that scene in the film. Never mind, let’s get these models ready for the table.
Assembly & Preparation
This was by far the easiest assembly of any Shatterpoint squad pack so far. Han must be a record at a mere three assembly steps, and Chewie, the most difficult model in the set, is only six steps. There are no alternate parts to decide on, so getting these put together was a breeze.
For Chewie’s base I added some Vallejo Earth Texture where the stuff he’s standing on meets the flat part of the base, changing the metal floor into forest ground.
I primed all four models in Vallejo brush-on black primer, followed by a multi-step drybrush in Army Painter Bootstrap Brown, Leather Brown, and Paratrooper Tan, staring heavy with the darker brown and going progressively lighter with the other two. This serves two purposes – it highlights the details so I can see them better as I paint, and it will act as a base coat for many areas of the models, especially Han’s hair and paints, nearly all of Chewie, and a lot of the details on the Rebel Commandos such as gloves and belts.
General Solo
Han was a fairly easy model to paint. With the brown undercoat in place (see above), I started with his face and hands, first doing a base coat in Army Painter Topaz Skin, and then adding highlights along the forehead, cheekbones, nose, and the fingers and backs of the hands in Army Painter Tourmaline skin. I did a few quick slashes of white followed by black dots for the eyes, using the Topaz Skin to clean up around the eyes where needed.
For his shirt I started with Reaper Desert Stone, covering the whole area except the deepest creases where I let the brown underpainting show through. For highlights I used Reaper Polished Bone, but honestly the “highlights” ended up being most of the shirt, with the darker Desert Stone only showing through in the folds at the elbows, chest and collar.
I used the undercoat as the base for the pants, going in with Army Painter Bootstrap Brown and Leather Brown in a few areas where I wanted lighter highlights. The yellow stripe up the side was done in Army Painter Barren Dune, then touched up with Army Painter Brigandine Brown where needed. His belt is a lighter brown so I went over the whole thing in Leather Brown, except for the metal buckle on both sides, which I painted Army Painter Plate Mail Metal. Then I hit the whole belt and holster with an Army Painter Strong Tone wash to fill in the deeper cracks and crevices.
Han’s vest, boots and gun are black, but of course I wanted the texture and detail to show through. As a bit of a shortcut I switched to Army Painter Speedpaint, using Grim Black. This acts as a highly pigmented wash, filling in the deeper areas with black while also changing the brown undercoat to a dark grey. A quick drybrush with Reaper Yellowed Bone brought back some highlights.
For the wrecked droid he’s standing on I used Vallejo Model Air Copper followed by an Army Painter Strong Tone wash.
Chewie
The mighty Chewbacca was more of a challenge than I was expecting. I intentionally didn’t review my notes from when I painted him for the This is Some Rescue squad pack. I wanted to come to it with a fresh approach, but I wound up doing a lot of course correcting to get his fur to its particular shades of brown.
Chewie’s fur is actually two different colors, a lighter almost orange brown with darker grey-brown along his shoulders, chest and the top half of his legs. Since I was starting with a brown undercoat, I thought I would be able to get this done primarily with Army Painter washes. I started with Dark Tone for the darker areas of fur, and Sepia Tone for the lighter areas. When the washes had dried, I hit the whole model with a very light drybrush of Reaper Yellowed Bone, my go-to solution for quick, easy highlights. I overdid it a bit, so I dulled the highlights down with Army Painter Soft Tone wash mixed with a little Speedpaint medium, which makes a pretty good thinner for washes.
The dark areas looked fine, but I wasn’t happy with the lighter areas – they just weren’t orange enough.
I tried a few different things to get the color where I wanted it, but what ended up working was Reaper Harvest Brown thinned with about 30% water. This added the orange tone I wanted while retaining the shadow and highlight areas.
With the fur done, the rest was pretty straightforward. For the face I used white and black for the eyes, Reaper Sunburn Flesh for the inside of the mouth, and Reaper Yellowed Bone for the teeth, remembering to darken his nose and upper lip with a bit of Army Painter Brigandine Brown. His ammo belt and satchel were done in Army Painter Leather Brown and Gun Metal, followed by a Strong Tone wash. I painted the weapons in Vallejo Model Air Metallic Black, and the dangling droid arm in Army Painter Gun Metal, hitting both with a Dark Tone wash to add some shadow areas.
Chewie’s base has a lot going on – rocks, shrubs, dirt, and the wreck of an IG droid from what I can only conclude is a lost deleted scene. I painted the droid body using Army Painter Gun Metal, with the exposed wires at the shoulder done in Reaper Rust Brown (which is actually quite red) and Reaper Sun Yellow. After the paint had tried I added a Dark Tone wash to pick out the details.
The rest of the base is a little vague, but I picked out some shapes that looked like rocks in Reaper Wolf Grey, and some areas that looked like they could be moss in Army Painter Eternal Hunt and Emerald Forest, and Reaper Muddy Green. Then I hit the whole base with a Strong Tone wash, and after that had dried I drybrushed all the textured areas with Reaper Yellowed Bone.
Rebel Commandos
As befits an underfunded guerilla force, there is a fair amount of variation among the Rebel Commando uniforms in Return of the Jedi. For mine I decided to use the activation card artwork as my primary reference.
I painted the standing, female commando’s face with a base of Army Painter Dryad Brown, followed by Reaper Sunburn Flesh for the highlights and Army Painter Brigandine Brown for the lips. The crouching, male commando’s face was done using the Army Painter Topaz Skin with Tourmaline Skin highlights. For both the eyes were done with white and black dots, touching up with the darker skin tones around the eyes as needed.
I left the brown undercoat in place for the cloth tops and sides of the helmets. For the metal ring, I started with Reaper Muddy Green (AKA Muddy Olive) and added some weathering along the edges with Army Painter Gun Metal, then hit the entire helmet with a Strong Tone wash. I used the same colors and wash for both commandos’ backpacks.
The standing commando’s undershirt was painted using Reaper Wolf Grey with Polished Bone for highlights. The vest was done in Reaper Shield Brown and Leather Brown. For the camouflage pattern on her pants, I used Reaper Shield Brown, and Army Painter Paratrooper Tan and Urban Buff, painting in blobs of the different colors and leaving the undercoat showing in some areas. I then added a Strong Tone wash to bring back the shadow areas.
Using the activation card artwork as a guide, the crouching commando’s camouflage pattern is a bit more involved, and covers the undershirt as well as the pants. For this I used a mix of 1/4 Army Painter Leather Brown to 3/4 Emerald Forest, thinned with a little water, to make a greenish-brown color. I also used Army Painter Rainforest and Reaper Desert Stone as additional colors for the pattern, again followed by a Strong Tone wash (thinned with a drop of Speedpaint Medium) to bring back the shadows in the creases of the fabric.
The crouching commando’s vest was done using Army Painter Deep Grey as a base coat, with Reaper Cloudy Grey mid-tones and Rainy Grey highlights. His gloves are darker in the artwork so I hit them with a Strong Tone wash to darken them down a bit. I painted the shrub on his base in Army Painter Eternal Hunt, and the rock in Reaper Wolf Grey, with a Strong Tone wash over both. I’ll talk more about the bases in a moment.
For both commandos, I used Army Painter Paratrooper Tan and a Strong Tone wash for the leg wrappings, leaving the boots in the undercoat brown and going over the strap near the top in Brigandine Brown. Their rifles were done in Army Painter Speedpaint Grim Black.
Bases
For the metal floor on the bases I started with a black base coat and then drybrushed Army Painter Deep Grey followed by a lighter drybrush of Uniform Grey and finally just a dusting of Reaper Rainy Grey. I wanted forest rather than desert for the dirt areas, so I left them in the underpainting brown and just filled in the rocks with Reaper Wolf Grey.
After giving the paint a day to dry I hit all four with a coat of Army Painter brush-on Matt Varnish. But after taking photos for this article, I noticed that the crouching commando looked a little sad trying to hide behind that one little shrub. I decided that even though I don’t usually like to add to the provided Shatterpoint bases, this time I would try adding some plants and grass to make it look more like they are standing in the Endor Forest. I dug out some Army Painter Swamp and Jungle tufts I had left over from a previous project, and also picked up some Gamers Grass shrubs and paper plants for extra variety.
The Gamers Grass Bracken plants were far too large for the Shatterpoint bases, but the Monstera plants were perfect. I punched out and shaped a few to add to the crouching commando’s base, covering the area where their stems meet the base with Army Painter tufts. I then added one of the smaller Gamers Grass shrubs, which filled out the base nicely.
I put the standing commando on one of the bases that’s mostly floor with just a strip of dirt and rocks, but there was enough room to add a shrub and a tuft, giving the base some much needed color. The greenery really does make the bases come alive, and while I don’t think it’s always going to be appropriate, I’ll probably try to experiment more with this sort of thing in the future.
Ready for Battle
I thought this squad pack would be a little dull to paint, with all the greens and browns, but I actually had a good time with it, especially the commandos. I almost find myself hoping that we’ll get another Endor squad pack, with a few more troopers (maybe even old man Rex!) and a trenchcoat for General Solo…
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
