Collins Does Star Wars Legion

this chap was a quickish job using mostly contast paints. munitorium green and bright yellow.

I tried to paint up these two officers (generic and veers) using the contrast paints I had on hand, the idea of my empire force is to use what I have and do it quickly.

you’ll note I haven’t put tuffs on them. that is because although they are ‘done’ I am not happy with them and so they will be redone at some point. probably using German field grey to get a reasonable grey/green mix. the duster coat on the generic officer also isn’t the shade of brown I would want. im not sure what I would use agreos brown contrast paint for to be honest, it strikes me as a bit of an inbetweeny non-specific colour.

pumping out some more contrast quick paint jobs over a white primer

the primary colours used are space wolves grey (papa palatines cloak) and templar black (Vader armour) and basilicanum grey (Vader clothes and cloaks).

the lightsaber effect was achieved via the medium of blood angels red contrast and then a thin sliver of white paint down the centre to give the impression of an inner glow which is only possible if viewed from one angle… but then people only ever see Vader from the front before he murders them to death… just ask the fleet troopers on the profundity in Rogue One…

Back into the stars I go, been a while since my last update (over a year!!) and I am restarting with another faction, the Empire.

Ive decided to make use of a cracking base I saw on Facebook. I cannot claim credit for this so see the piccies for the creditable person.

I asked the House of Water #besthouse for advice on which of these two schemes was the best. the vote came back as blue clothing with black armour, so a mix of the two schemes.

I then swiftly ignored the masses and went with grey clothing and black armour as I felt it would be better.

The paint colours I’ve used are

• White Primer
• Black templar Contrast
• grey contrast
• evil suns red
• enchanted metal speedpaint
• nuln oil
• cadian fleshtone
• fleshtone wash
• Kislev flesh

so for the most part, these models have been done with contrast and no highlighting except on the faces and bases. Relatively quick paintjob to be honest and the face/bases distract from how little effort has actually been put into these.

The little droid was pictured in all the promotional material as having its own base. It was then delivered without the flying stand and base. as far as im aware the newer made ones rectified this but there wasn’t a course of redress for people who bought an older packaged one.

I solved this little conundrum (as I don’t think the droid has much need for its own base, and if it does, I can re-solve or apply the DILLIGAF rule) using a paperclip, and black contrast paint. The paperclip was straightened out and then bent into a sharp 90 degree L shape where the base of the L is glued to the underside of the base and the upright passes through a small drilled hole and up into the base of the droid. all secured with superglue.

Been a while since I visited the world of Star Wars (criminal I say!) so I eased myself in gently with a simple paint job with an airbrush.

simply grey seer prime, then a nice vibrant green (moot green I think) over it in areas that I had masked off.

farted about with white a blue on the engines and a few contrast colours to show heated metals on the exhausts too, won’t be seen by many people though so semi pointless.

then I sealed it with lacquer (shiney stuff) and gave it a lamp black oil wash and let it sit for a few days to cure. Then sealed that with matt varnish.

after that it was onto stippling and airbrushing weathering.

the final step was to glue it all together (I painted it in subassemblies) and put the pilot in before glueing on the windscreen.

simples.

I did swap out the head and keep the sullustan head for a different model to make best use of it

So I might have been a bit busy recently looking after the new member of the family… our own stormpooper made an arrival and all other things got put on hold! It’s been rough but we have all settled down and mostly adjusted to our new life. So today I managed to finish off this boxed set of rogues.

to get what I wanted out of the republic boxed set I had to break out milliput to make additions to the fur. that way I could use all the special weapons and still get a unit of carbine wielding Wookiees. came out ok in the end one it was primed, not perfect but it’ll do!

finally I then added a few more close combat ones from my 3D printer.

I’ve been having a few temperature related issues recently based on where it is stored/used (garage is too cold) but instead of throw it away I decided to upcycle it with the tonne of spares you get from the republic boxed set.

this lot will allow me to run the maximum of 3 squads. 2 being close combat and 1 being ranged with a variety of additional weapons.

Legion comes with cardboard tokens… everyone knows cardboard tokens are the most basic of tokens. what you need is 3rd party upgrades!

Step into the breach Pocket Dimension Studios with their super cool, totally rad 3d printed resin tokens (stl files).

I bought the bundle to get all kinds but really I just wanted Sabine’s Phoenix starbird.

Everyone tells me that yellow it a bitch to paint. I didn’t find it too bad until I started to use a brush. airbrush was fine (and I am not experienced in airbrushing) but normal brush to correct mistakes etc was just pain.

I started with Halfords grey primer and then used 3 different citadel yellows. 2 through the airbrush (and touch up by brush) and 1 as an edge highlight by brush.

I used vallejo negro through the airbrush to create the black lines. Id used regular painters masking tape to mask it off. it worked a treat. I might have to get some more Vallejo paints to try them out through the brush as there was no mucking about with it. dreamy.

I then weathered with typhus corrosion and agrax earth shade. one of my favourite steps for vehicles.

The riders were done using basic scheme for the rest of the new army (karak stone, basilican grey and administratum grey).

For this Twi’lek I tried to go different yet again, didn’t work out as well as I had hoped. I wanted a pale lilac (see left figure below) but i think I went too bright white, or didn’t start off lilac enough. I used palid witch flesh with a purple wash as a base and highlighted up from there.

Won one of the last few golden buttons of 2021 and started 2022 by painting a few more minis. This time they’re FFG/AMG official minis, the rebel trooper upgrade pack and the specialist upgrade pack. The trooper one is of the few ones that contains a complete spread of races.

An Ishi-Tib

A Gran

An Ithorian

a Theelin

Two are commonly known and two are somewhat obscure.

The specialist upgrade pack was mostly boring droids and humans. However the male is a character from Imperial Assault (Gideon Argus – I gingered his beard though) and the female is a spec ops trooper from the age of rebellion role-playing game.

So I had to change the list due to the points change, frustrating but it doesn’t really make any difference. I just have more models painted for more variety going forwards.

Link to bio

Link to bio

Graf is a Gamorrean who has an interest in fire support. He refers to himself as the bringer of despair, reason being either he is despairing when he misses or his enemy is when they’re suppressed and peppered.

He has also taking to looting, having stolen some armour from a fallen imperial army trooper. Several people have told him to doesn’t fit him but he doesn’t care and is happy with his T-Shirt save.

bio

bio

Link to bio

Link to Bio

Link to bio

Ranglhar left his home world when it fell to the Empire. The troops he fought alongside suddenly became cold, distant and aggressive towards his kind almost as if someone had flicked a switch. He and a few others managed to escape at the last moment and then, with no honest way to earn credits without registering he turned to smuggling, becoming an experienced freighter pilot. At one job he cottoned on that he was smuggling supplies to an underground movement rather than a simple criminal organisation or altruistic aid group. When digging around Ranglhar found himself disappeared only to reappear in the cockpit of an X-Wing striking out against the people that drove him from his home.

Sheltav is someone who is young enough never to have inherited their family’s ceremonial blades. Those sadly are now a trophy in some Imperial admiral’s art collection. He is on a personal quest to recover what is rightfully his. Until then he will make do with second hand armour and blaster from some poor stormtrooper who got in the way of his goal. The trooper didn’t need it any longer as the laser burns in the breast plate can attest to. Being a young Wookiee without the constant guidance of an elder Sheltav has decided to stylise the fur on his top lip into a moustache nobody knows why but they just accept it.

When you need some heavy support its probably because you’re facing a lot of infantry or maybe a lot of armour. What do you do if its both? Well Sateen decided that she never wanted to be in a position where she could never meet a threat with a tailor made solution. Thats why she brings a Z6 and a missile launcher with her everywhere she goes. Given how strong Wookiees are the weight isn’t an issue, so long as imperials perish she doesn’t mind the weight.

Being a local peacekeeper had its perks, namely that Ronhar had issued body armour and a service weapon but that was about it. The bad guys hate him, the population blames him and somewhere deep down he feels there must be good guys but they were remarkably quiet when he needed their support. When the Empire came to town they brought their own ‘peacekeepers’ and Ronhar was out of a job, similarly those he served were also out of jobs and came to the realisation that he wasn’t a bad guy after all, just someone doing the job they didn’t want to

Angetenar and Ronhar go way back… They would usually spend the first evening of the weekend meeting up and chewing the fat. Usually about how much they’d had to drink and where Angetenar had liberated that cone from. The following morning Ronhar would regularly give out the same old advice and the same 5 credit fine that really made a mockery of it all as it was cheaper to spend the night in the drunk cell than the town’s motel. Now under the Rebellion the two have become firm friends carrying out fast attacks from the flanks and running off before their foe knows what’s hit them.

the rest of my Legion force was done by gluing sand down then painting with steel legion drab and adding a terminatus stone dry brush. add in pebbles, tuffs and flock and it worked but it was a lot of effort and was not overly similar to the mostly green of the models.

for these im looking at doing something easier. ive used a lot of geek gaming scenics base ready range and made a few of my own up in the past. but I don’t have a suitably deserty one that isn’t the exact same colour as the cloaked minis.

I made this mistake once before (at the Star Wars legion bootcamp) where my battledroids were put onto bases that had a similar colour on them and they just disappeared. couldn’t tell what was droid and what was palace floor tile.

I don’t want to make that mistake again

so left to right we have

model with base coated base

base with ‘desert sand and stone base ready’ painted with steel legion and dry brushed terminatus stone with the two tuft colours added

‘desert sand and stone base ready’ painted with brown wash

‘desert sand and stone base ready’ painted with black wash

‘desert sand and stone base ready’ painted with sepia / soft tone wash

then the large base shows natural ‘desert sand and stone base ready’ and 2 sides with simple steel legion and one also dry brushed with terminatus.

I believe the natural ‘desert sand and stone base ready’ is too similar to the model and will be lost but I also want something semi neutral that the tufts can stand out on. HELP!