Up River...one nerds trip to a miniature heart of darkness: Star Wars...yup, Legion

Howdy all,

So, yeah...at the end of 2017 and in my recap of the year that was and the year that is going to be, in 2018 I indicated that I was planning on stepping into the Star Wars Legion realm. As is generally my style, I was late to the starter box scene...no problem...my initial purchase into this world was more a way to dip my toe into the water and see a few things:

1. How do the models look...they are billed as larger than Imperial Assault figs...however, I think the largest part to them is their base...otherwise, I think they look good, very nicely detailed, and with some extra care in the prep and part making...Overall NICE MODELS

2. Try my hand at painting them to see if my style could adapt to my ocd expectations for what these models should look like. There's nothing worse than buying a figure, having an image of how it should look after painting, and then not meeting that expectation. I was okay with missing the starter box as I could spend some time recce'ing the figs to see how I liked painting them...

RESULTS: As I've heard and said before...time on recce is never wasted! And this was certainly the case with these figs...I now have the starter box on order and am waiting ever so patiently for its arrival...along with half of the free world.

I thought I'd try my hand at the Rebel Troopers and Airspeeder first. Looking to my main guy and inspiration, Sorastro had already tackled these figs and model...so my ocd-stress had a way 'out' if needed.

The troopers were fairly easy to assemble...the main issue I am having with them are mold lines that only appear once you have a few layers of paint on the model and start dry brushing. Seriously, they are not that noticeable at first...but then they kind of pop. So, time on prep...not wasted...it will save you taking the file/blade to a 1/2 to 3/4 finished paintjob and hacking down to the bone to get that line out of the way...the good news, there are not that many lines to deal with!!

The troopers were good...nice fit, good looking figures, great detail. I elected to paint mine up ala Tattoine-style warriors...kind of like a Mos Eisley Militia. A mix of kit, different colours, some veterans, some FNG's, and a wide variety between the figures...however with some standard colours that are common between them because...well, because Tatt is dusty as hell...so yeah, browns are cool!

The Troops...Mos Eisley Militia, the old man, a vet or two of other campaigns...some distinctive non-standard styles.

Overhead shot of the troop...

Overhead shot...back angle...a nice variance on the equipment and clothing...my favourite piece has to be the trenchcoat of the unit leader...I was heavily inspired by a diamondback camouflage pattern I had seen on a helmet in a Modern Combat magazine...I tried my best to replicate it and am pretty happy with the result...

Normally, all of my pictures NEVER have enough light...this time I changed the background to all dark and felt like I had too much light...there's a happy medium there somewhere...

For some of the troops, I painted helmet colours either Green-Brown or Dark Camo Green, with some light green highlights...this trooper has a nice green coat that would be more appropriate for Endor...again, trying to capture other possible campaigns

This trooper was a lot of fun to paint up...I wasn't sure at first what colours to go with, in the end I elected to go with a very dark Camo Green for the base colour with some light green highlights to make the 'quilted' look really pop.

When I saw this figure, I was immediately inspired by pictures I have of World War 2 German Fallschirmjager airborne troops North Africa I had collected from previous research. On top of that, I wanted her ion rifle to look very beat up; lots of shine and scratch.

This fellow was just a good ole Tattoine boy sporting the highest fashion in browns and greens...a pretty straight forward figure to work through...

For the heavy gunner, I took the same approach as the good ole boy...fairly simple, the best and most prominent part of this figure is the rotary cannon...again, given the 'Militia' backstory, something that screams beat-up and worn...

A couple more shots of the troop, with focus on the paintscheme on the coat of the unit leader...basically I outlined diamond-type patterns with burnt umber...I then mirrored that outline with a stone-grey, and then I think I hit it with desert yellow or Iraqi sand in the middle of the diamond...I then softened the edges out...a lot...

The troops posing with some close air support...a very heavily weathered and beat-up airspeeder. Given that I am painting up Rebels...and they are very much your rebel on a budget Militia variety, I then needed to make sure that any big piece of kit they field looks like it is literally beat to hell.

And when I say beat-up...we're talking, if this thing crashes we're going to scavange the hell out of it and salvage everything we can!! So, to compliment that theme, the speeder had to look like it has been through all sorts of Imperial hell...For the slash and damage marks on the fuselage and front of the speeder I had put down a few layers with varying degrees of gunmetal and then eventually adding in silver and ultimately with a silver streak, giving it that down to bear metal look. On top of that I traced the 'score' marks with army painter strong tone and nuln oil.

The bases for the troopers was fairly easy when I consider the work I put into the speeder base...it is desert yellow base coat, agrellan earth and badlands for texture and the cracked appearance. On top of this I dry brushed US earth tone and then on the badland textures I also went with Iraqi sand and buff. I also added a few additions of animal skeletons...you never know what you'll find in the Tatooine wildlife, so I had to have some appropriate looking spinal columns to fly over...also, from what I understand, it is worth highlighting and not loosing the arcs that are etched on the bases.

I gave them strong tone look with highlight of orange to make the tips pop.

Keeping with the wear and tear theme...I also purposely kept the orange markings at a faded appearance...as well, you can see where I went to town with extra gunmetal and silver highlights to give a much more battleworn and recycled look to the model.

Really pushing that idea that this is an old airframe with tons of hours behind it...but also a franken-vehicle collection of spare parts and bits robbed from scrapyards, battlefields, and derelict vehicles.