Firstly, Christmas greetings to you all! I hope you are having a splendid day and getting time to unwrap your presents and have the joy of more things to add to your projects. Will it jump to the front of the queue in the lead/plastic mountain? The big question!
Secondly, it feels like Christmas as I have finally had time to sit down and complete something. This time the opposing Rebel force for the Stormtroopers in my last post. I have been a way for much of the last couple of months, and when I haven't been away, I have been preparing to go. Life seems to be a case of packing and unpacking all the time but there we go, I cannot complain as it pays for my hobbies.
These are from the Star Wars Legion Boxed set. It is a fine boxed set too, with many figures inside and three Star Wars machines, a walker and two speeder bikes. Everything is really well sculpted and it all fits together really well.
I decided to use the Army painter washes to do a lot of the work for me. They really are excellent and it only leaves a little further lowlighting, highlighting and touching up after the block painting. I think choosing the colours for the equipment was the hardest bit. I had to do some image searching on Google and make some best guesses for colours, but I think these are not too far off. There was a lot of Vallejo Iraqi Sand paint in use!
One effect of the wash was to show some of the moulding seams that I had initially missed. These are always apparent in our figures so its something we are used to, but some of these were quite thick and ran deeply down creases, needing some good work with a sharp blade.
I really like the poses of the figures. This officer (of which there are two in the set) is excellent. I love the way the great coat is lifted by the wind as he walks. The only thing that troubles me with the figure is that his rifle muzzle is in the ground or just touching it. Anyone who collects firearms or is ex/serving military is going to be constantly bothered by this and wanting to yell at the figure!
I just wanted a game where the command decisions of the commanders were what really mattered, ok and with a few Jedi tricks for the right 'movie feel'. Chain of Command I like a lot as a set of rules and I wondered how I could modify it. When I gave it more thought I then wondered if it had been done by anyone else. The answer....oh yes! There is even a Facebook group set up just for this. If you don't have Facebook as it is a sapper of time then set yourself up with a silly name and subscribe with that so that no-one you know can send you links about amusing kittens etc, and just subscribe to the group. There are downloads of all the data you need to modify Chain of Command for Star Wars. The group link is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2038080069817639 or just search 'Star Wars Chain of Command' and it should come up.
Hopefully that will be of use. I am looking forward to adding more to this collection over time. I have been given the wonderful present of 3D printed Ewoks for Christmas, compatible for Star Wars Legion (an Etsy purchase). This should give plenty of variety of play. I can imagine Ewoks being great in the woods, but awful at running in the open and very squishy should the walkers get them. Lots of fun all round!
For anyone wondering, the different colour bases are just a way I keep track of my command figures at a glance. I could even do my different sections in different colour bases but I might just use dots or numbers as per my WW1 Chain of Command collection.
The 12 basic infantrymen follow in the pics now. There are two of each pose in the set. Nice poses, lots of interesting kit and two figures with blue heads which remind me of the 'Blue Man Group' that entertaining music band.
I have glued a small round magnet beneath each stand to enable them to stand up and not move on the magnetic sheets in their box. This saves me the expense of having to buy their special boxes with individual cut outs. I don't plan on taking these anywhere anyway but at least they won't rattle about when I pull their box down from the shelf.
I'll stop here and let you scroll through the last remaining pictures. I think I will be going back to proper history figures again next. I feel the need to do something of the redcoat and tricorn period.
Have a wonderful Christmas!
Best wishes,
Jason