Tuesday 16 April 2019

Rebel Troopers, Star Wars: Legion

I had resisted Star Wars: Legion for a good while, frustrated at the initial reports that the miniatures were not compatible with those that I was amassing with Imperial Assault, also by 'Fantasy Flight Games'.  However the idea of playing fully fledged skirmish games in a galaxy far, far away was always going to prove too much of a temptation. 
It wasn’t until Mike, ‘The Dark Templar’ Reynolds succumbed and bought the core box that I finally found my own resolve falter.  Mike has always had a thing for the dark side, and so what better excuse did a chap need to start a rebel force than to halt this evil oppression in its tracks?
The core box was duly ordered for what I thought was a reasonable price only to be told that there were not enough miniatures to field a full army list, really?!  There was nothing for it, but an additional box of troopers had to be ordered!  Assembling was straightforward enough given the designers attention to detail, each arm, leg or torso had a different homing slot to reduce mishaps.  I had been forewarned about the material used and the need to use superglue, so all in all a successful start.  There were one or two gaps at the joins, but these were easily filled with Greenstuff, although I have subsequently found out that matt varnish has the same effect.
When it came to painting them, try as I might, I couldn’t see past the Rebel Commandoes, led by Han Solo in the Return of the Jedi.  Once again the incredibly talented Sorastro came to my rescue with a tutorial that explored creating camouflage patterns, by layering washes on to areas of water, allowing the colours to bleed and run into each other.  It is well documented that my attention span is not of the highest order when it comes to batch painting, but fortunately there was enough variety in the effects used to keep me on track.
Still smarting at the scale discrepancy between the two ranges, I couldn’t bring myself to use the unnecessarily tall bases included in the core box.  I can’t explain why, but I have taken against them, perhaps because I prefer to base my wargames miniatures on a lower profile to fit better with the terrain?  Whatever the reason I made the decision to base my efforts on my usual 25mm MDF disks from ‘Warbases’.  I happen to think that they look better and given that I am unlikely to be entering any tournaments, I am not overly bothered what anyone else thinks!

So with a final coat of varnish my first completed miniatures for Star Wars: Legion, a full three squads of core troopers.




44 comments:

  1. Christ they're nice, will you be doing the clone wars for Legion?

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    1. Thank you Fran. Not sure about the Clone Wars instalment, but just watching masses of Battle Droids been blasted off the board is very tempting.😄

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  2. These look fantastic Michael, still resisting temptation on legion as I don't want to redo everything in a different scale, I think they missed a trick keeping it the same scale as IA as they would have doubled their market appeal and increased sales over both gaming systems

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    1. Thank you so much Dave. I know exactly what you mean about scale and part of my reasoning about the bases was to try and have both sets of miniatures on the board, but it isn't a comfortable mix.

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  3. They are lovely sculpts and your paint job is amazing.

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  4. These look very good indeed and I appove of the use of thinner bases, rather than the plinths used by many.

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    1. Thank you Joe, I just couldn't get on with the thicker bases.

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  5. Lovely looking bunch of rebel troopers!
    Best Iain

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  6. Brilliant stuff Michael! Much like you I couldn't resist a skirmish game set in that galaxy far, far, away :) Looking forward to seeing more!

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    1. Thank you Ivor, it is proving to be a wonderful diversion.

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  7. Splendid they are, a wonderful job you've done Michael!

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  8. Awesome stuff, Michael. I absolutely love' em!!! :-)

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    1. Thank you so much Simon, I am jolly pleased with them too.

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  9. They look fantastic. I sold my copy of Legion as being too big a project to take on. These kind of images make me begin to regret that decision.

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    1. I think I might have thought the same, but as I am only doing the Rebels and Mike is doing the Imperials it halves the workload.

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  10. They turned out quite well Michael! Of course your now on the path down the rabbit hole! I've managed to stay with Imperial Assault, though a couple buddies have the SW legion stuff so I may get to play with theirs! Bet you can't wait for the Ewoks!

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    1. Thank you Terry, they are really starting to speed up the new additions too, I could be in serious trouble!

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  11. Wow, this is utterly fantastic. I`ve got soooo much to catch up on and read. I`m looking forward to it. Been away far too long.

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    1. Thank you so much Tarot, it's been a difficult couple of months in the real world, but determined to keep things moving along.

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  12. My my Sir M, they do look good!!!

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    1. Thank you Ray, all thanks to the handy tutorial.

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  13. Very nice Michael. I am constantly tempted by Star Wars, but cannot justify the cost at the moment, although having a complete Imperial battle force at my disposal does kind of appeal.

    And I missed out on praising you on your Universal monsters, which were sublime and very well presented in suitable scenic arrays. Excellent work, Michael.

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    1. Thank you Jez. I think spreading the cost with Mike, as it were, helped my decision to dive in. Thank you also for the kind words regarding the Universal Monsters, such a great set to work on.

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  14. Lovely work. They are cranking out some brilliant models lately for the SW universe.

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    1. Thank you Simon, I couldn't agree more - lots of tempting goodies.

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  15. Beautiful work as always Michael 😀

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  16. These bases are far better than the original ones, it's a thing I actually appreciate about, among other things, Bolt Action and the Wasteman game too.
    And that's once again a job well done when it comes to painting!

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    1. Thank you! The tall bases just seemed to take me out of the game, but this is a purely personal preference.

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  17. Inspired and totally inspiring Michael. You sure have immersed deeply into the subject. Your modelling just gets better and better, and it was pretty amazing to start with.

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    1. Thank you so much Steve, Star Wars has been such an important diversion at the moment.

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  18. Those are very fine. The two different scales is a balls though isn't it?

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    1. Thank you and yes it is, it really is. No matter how much I try to convince myself otherwise.

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  19. Fabulous looking Rebs Michael! Too bad they‘re fighting for a lost cause. Poor misguided sods... but the magnanimity of the Empire will bring them back into the fold 😉

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  20. Brilliant work Michael ... these look fantastic.

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