Dan Becker's Days of Wonder Battle of Hoth 25mm Figures

This article discusses 25mm Star Wars miniatures from the board game company Days of Wonder.

Like other games from Days of Wonder, such as Memoir '44, Battlelore, and Ticket to Ride, Battle of Hoth is produced with high quality components, excellent rules, and great packaging.

Battle of Hoth is a game design by Richard Borg and Adrien Martinot. The game is the latest in the Command and Colors series, which has received great enthusiasm and longevity from players and multiple game companies. Many board gamers have played one or more of the many titles: Battle Cry, Ancients, Napoleonics, Samurai Battles, Memoir '44, Battlelore, etc.

This article will focus specifically on painting the plastic Battle of Hoth miniatures.

Days of Wonder Battle of Hoth 25mm Figures

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth board game components. You get a thick box and game board with lush quality color printing. The game board is double sided so you can make a bigger epic map with a second board. You get two decks of cards and two sets of polystrene card holders. You get several piles of cardboard terrain hexes and tokens. And you get a color rule book, scenario book, reference cards, and two campaign game scenarios.

Most interestingly, you get two armies of Empire and Rebel miniatures made of slightly bendy plastic in gray and tan.

This photo shows a closer view the painted Battle of Hoth miniatures.

The infantry figures are about 25mm scale. This is larger than the Battlelore or Battle cry figures and on par with the infantry from Memoir '44. There is only one pose per army, but the detail and the lively poses are excellent.

Each army gets it's own special mechanized unit figures as well. The Empire army gets three AT-AT walkers and four probe droids. The Rebel army gets nine snow speeder flyers and two laser turret cannons.

Additionally I purchased the promo set of structures which includes the ball shaped planetary laser and two shield generators. These minis certainly look nicer than the flat cardboard versions provided with the game.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Empire view of all the miniatures.

Included are additional third party miniatures available for the game. The center and corners of this photo show four ice chasms and four ice seracs designed by Andy at Meeple Forge. Since I don't have a 3D printer for the STL files, I ordered prints from MyMiniFactory in which they included a hedgehog shown at the back of the photo. The freebie was much appreciated.

These Meeple Forge prints are high quality. A silky hard resin with high resolution and virtually no print seams or pixelation.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Empire view from the left.

Overall I used the box cover art as a guide to paint the figures. The Empire infantry is a light gray as in the movie. The Rebel infantry is a warmer light tan.

Most of the mechanized bits range from a nearly white gray to darker gray for the AT-AT walkers and nearly black for the probe droids.

The ice scenery are mostly white highlights but with some gray-blue, turqoise-blue, and green-blue lowlights.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Empire view from the right.

The infantry figures shown here are about 25 mm scale. The other units and structures are certainly a smaller scale. It would be difficult on this small game board to have a massive AT-AT walker in 25 mm scale.

Back in 2006 and 2007, I painted my plastic miniatures for the Games of Wonder Battlelore game. Those figures are a smaller 20mm scale. See and read about those figures in my Painted Battlelore Miniatures article.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Rebel view.

The figures were painted mostly with Vallejo Xpress Color and ArmyPainter Speedpaint acrylic inks.

These acrylics are similar to washes. They are translucent and show the base color below which here is plain white primer. Additionally the medium for Xpress Color and Speedpaint shrinks as it dries and draws the pigments into the cracks and crevasses of the model. Thus you get one coat highlighting and lowlighting of the miniature figure.

Since my goal was to paint both armies quickly, speed painting was a good solution.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Rebel view from the left.

Beyond the base color, a very minimal amount of detail work is done. Most weapons are highlighted. The snow speeders get some gold, blue, and red color stripes. Goggles and glassy windows get a color. And the Empire get a black ring on the base to help identify the sides.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Rebel view from the right.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Rebel emplacements

The two laser towers are included with game set. The ball-shaped planetary laser and low field generators are included in the Battle of Hoth Promo Set from Days of Wonder for early buyers. I was not an early buyer, but picked this set up from online markets.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Rebel emplacements from the left.

There are also lots of structure and miniature soldiers from the Star Wars universe for the Star Wars Legion miniatures game from Atomic Mass Games. The character figures are a slightly different scale, but lots of the structures and landscape minis work well in Battle of Hoth.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Rebel emplacements from the right.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Rebel Snow Speeders.

These are great models with lots of details that closely match the movie. Besides the off-white base, I highlighted the cannons, exhaust and front windows.

The speeders get gold, blue, and red stripes so you can shout out "Gold Leader, Gold Leader attack!" when you play.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Rebel Snow Speeders from the left.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Rebel Snow Speeders from the right.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Rebel infantry.

These miniautes get a light tan base, followed by a darker brown for the boots, some green accesories, a flesh tone, and gree goggles.

The bases have a granular white snow mix.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Rebel infantry from the left.

The details on these miniatures really are enhanced by the washes.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Rebel infantry from the right.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Empire AT-ATs and Probe Droids.

Besides the very light and very dark grays, these models get red glowing vision ports. Like the snow speeders, the probe droids have white pedestals to show their flight. The pedestals are hard to see against this background.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Empire AT-ATs and Probe Droids from the left.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Empire AT-ATs and Probe Droids from the right.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Empire infantry.

In the movie, these Empire infantry are in off white. This is somewhat hard to see, so I painted black bands on the bases.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Empire infantry from the left.

This photo shows the Battle of Hoth Empire infantry from the right.

This photo shows the Meeple Forge Ice seracs and chasms.

The ice seracs are all different designs. One has a crashed vehicle. The ice chasms two have different designs. I likely will need more to cover all the scenery in the game scenarios. However, I wanted get an idea of the print quality before I bought many. The detail and lack of seems and pixelation are excellent.

This photo shows the Meeple Forge Ice seracs and chasms from the left.

The ice scenery are done in a variety of blue-gray, turquoise-gray, and green-gray. I did not know which color scheme I would like best, and after experimenting, it's still a toss up. I will keep with the variety.

This photo shows the Meeple Forge Ice seracs and chasms from the right.

This final photo shows the free hedgehog miniature that was included with the order. He is carrying a basket of apples. I love the hedgehog. He will be my Hoth Wampa figure.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the photographs, descriptions, and details of these figures. I have just started with playing the game, but I already enjoy it more with painted miniatures.