“Someone has to save our skins. Into the garbage chute, flyboy.”

— Leia to Han as she takes over the reins of her own rescue.

Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan is most well known as a leader of the Rebel Alliance during all three of the original trilogy of Star Wars films. She is the second commander to be available for the rebel faction on the game Star Wars Legion, published by Fantasy Flight Games. I will take you through the process that I used to paint her as seen in the photographs and video in this article.

Materials Used

You can find this model here.

I have written a couple of other star wars legion painting tutorials that you can find here:

General Veers

Rebel Fleet Troopers

Paint:

Here is a list of the paints that I used when painting this model

Mechanicus Standard Grey primer
Layer paints
- Citadel Rinox Hide
- Citadel Shadowed Grey
- Citadel Abaddon Black
- P3 Bastion Grey
- P3 Hammerfall Khaki
- Reaper Dark Highlights
- Reaper Tanned Highlights
Washes
- Army Painter Soft Tome
- Army Painter Strong Tone

Finishing Materials:

Citadel Stirland Mud
Citadel Lustrian Undergrowth
Army Painter Dull Coat

Brushes:

You will need a few different brushes to paint Leia Organa.

A good quality base coating brush. I used an Army Painter Base Coat brush.
A medium sized brush for relatively small areas and two brush blending
A fine detail brush for the small details that are on her like her belt
A dry brush, I used a medium round dry brush by Citadel

Steps:

Assemble:

The mold lines for this model weren’t too bad on her legs they ran the mold to line up with the stripe on her pants. There were some significant lines to be removed from around her head I accidentally took off part of one of her ears cleaning it up. I used the back of my hobby knife to lightly scrape these away. The plastic used for these models is quite soft and removes easily so you don’t have to press very hard. The standard pose for this model is pretty good for pre-assembly before painting, her arms don’t block access to any part of the model.

For an article that has a lot of tips for assembling models read it here.

Prime:

I primed this model with Citadel Mechanicus Standard Grey primer for two reasons. First, the grey of her vest is very close to the Mechanicus Standard Grey paint that I used. This will make it easier if I were to miss a small part of her upper torso. It would not be as noticeable as if you had used white or black because of the contrast of colors. The second reason is that this color allows me to really thin down my paint so that it will flow better when I paint it on, as well as build up semi-translucent layers of colors.

If you have any questions about how to prime models I have an article about it here.

Base Coat:

I like to start with the lightest colors first and work my way to darker areas of the models. This is because mistakes made with light colors are more easily covered up with darker paint than the other way around. I started with the exposed face and hands-on Leia Organa, applying thin layers of Reaper Tanned Highlights.

Next, I moved to her pants. I used Citadel Shadowed Grey. Despite the name, it is actually a light blue color. This is the perfect paint color to get the right shade for her pants. I thinned the paint and applied it in a couple of thin layers.

I used P3 Hammerfall Khaki to paint her tan shirt that she is wearing under her vest. This gave a nice contrast to her vest and also provided a slight transition zone from her skin to the vest.

I thinned up some P3 Bastion Grey, I used it to crisp up the line on the side of her trousers. Nest I added some Citadel Abaddon Black to the Grey to darken it up a bit. I used this mixture to paint the vest on the figure. since I primed with grey I got coverage easily with this slightly darker grey. Citadel Abaddon Black was used to paint her boots and blaster.

Citadel Rinox Hide was used to get all of the tiny little bits on her belt. I used Reaper Dark Highlights to paint her hair a nice dark brown.

If you have any questions about proper base coating techniques I have an article about it here.

Shading:

Most of the times I will get my shadows set in place before going on to my highlights. I chose Army Painter’s Soft Tone pre-made wash on the majority of this model. I like the way that it looks on flesh and leather, I tried to get it to pool in her eyes a little more so that it made it look like some definition since for tabletop play I almost never paint eyes. Army Painter’s Strong Tone was used on the pants and vest. Apply this wash fairly liberally guiding it into the natural low points with the tip of your brush. She has been leading her squad from the front and isn’t afraid of getting dirty like some of the other leaders who direct their troops from the rear.

If you have any questions about washes I have an article about using them here.

Highlights:

I mixed a little P3 Menoth White Highlights into the original paint colors to make my highlight colors. First I mixed it in with the P3 Bastion Grey at about 2 parts grey to 1 part white, and I did a light dry brush highlight on her boots. Since her boots are black it is easy to overdo it, go light and be careful how quickly you build it up. I did a very light dry brushed P3 Hammerfall Khaki on her hair to make it look like the sun was shining off of it. If you get too heavy with this it will look like you have lightened the entire color of her dark hair. I used the same khaki paint to highlight her belt and shirt. Don’t go too overboard on her belt, I was just trying to catch the edges to give it the look of something that had been used for a while.

No matter how careful you are with dry brushing there will always be some paint that gets where you don’t want it. You can see in the picture below that there are a lot of areas that will require some touch-up.

I have an article with tips for dry brushing here.

Next, I used a technique called two brush wet blending to highlight her pants. Wet blending works better on smooth surfaces like her legs and dry brushing tends to work better on surfaces with texture like her hair or belt. I mixed Citadel Shadow Grey with P3 Menoth White Highlight to get a lighter tone of the same color family. Then I put a small amount of the paint on her leg where the light would normally be hitting and it would make it appear to be lighter. I used a second brush with clean water on it to draw the paint over the area that needed to be lightened. This method results in smooth transitions and a natural looking highlighted area.

I mixed some P3 Menoth White Highlights with the Reaper Tanned Highlights and used hem o highlight her face and arms. again I used the two brush wet blending technique to get just the areas of the model that I wanted to lighten in color.

Very soon I will have an article about two brush blending on this site and will include a link here.

Touch up and sealing your paint:

Touch up any areas that got extra paint on them from your dry brushing or any other painting.

Once you are happy with your paint you should seal it. I like to use a dull coat made by Army Painter but you can use any sealer that you like. This coat is optional, I know several people who dislike the look that sealants give, but it does provide some protection to prevent chipping as you will be transporting your miniatures and handling your miniatures a lot during gameplay. Ultimately, it is your model and it is up to you.

Finishing the Base:

For this model, I wanted to give her the look of being out slogging through the muck and grime. I used Citadel Stirland Mud for the base of this model. It makes the base look like it is covered in mud. I used a product that has been discontinued called Citadel Lustrian Undergrowth. It comes out of the bottle in clumps that mimic bushes. I think that regular bushes that you can buy from your local hobby store work better for this. My current favorite are the tufts that you can get from Army Painter.

I used some summer flock that is made by Gale Force Nine to make it look like some grass is growing on the base near her feet. I simply pinched a bit of it between my fingers and dropped it in a clump while the mud was still quite wet. After it had time to dry I tapped it on its edges and the loose parts fell off of the base and left only a little that made it look more natural than the large clumps that I originally had on there.

Don’t forget to go around the base of your model with some black paint. This really cleans it up and makes it look crisp and new.

These are my recommendations of things that I use all the time when painting miniatures

My 3D Printer

My Paintbrush Set

My Vortex Mixer

My Ultrasonic Cleaner

The Starter Paint Set That I Recommend for small budgets

The Starter Paint Set That I Recommend for large budgets

My Wet Pallete

My favorite Airbrush

My Desk Mat

I like to listen to books on Audible while I paint