Painting Challenge Submission 18 - Jyn Erso's Team from "Rogue One"

Ready to take a chance, until all of the chances are spent...

For my final submission to the 12th Edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, I went with a selection of 32mm figures for the game "Star Wars: Legion". The figures are a mix of "Fantasy Flight Games" miniatures and 3D prints sourced via Etsy.

I caved in to temptation and started "Star Wars: Legion" last year. The rules are so baroque and overly complicated that I find them to be barely playable - but the miniatures are generally great, and since there are a lot of other rules options with which to use these figures, I have been diving more and more into it. The range of figures from Fantasy Flight (or Atomic Mass, or Private Equity Tools, or whatever they are called these days) is fairly complete, and includes a number of character figures from the "Rogue One" movie.Even better, there is an amazing and talented community of 3D-print file designers out there filling in the gaps - and in this submission we find both kinds of figures.

Nearly all of the "Star Wars" films made under the Disney banner have been very poor. The three sequel films in particular were a tour-de-force in appalling film making, ranging from "very bad film with lazy writing that somehow makes the prequels tolerable in comparison" to "human excrement rendered as a digital HD experience". But there is one exception amid the Disney film wreckage - "Rogue One". It's awesome, just a great film, and certainly my favourite film of the whole Star Wars bunch. As DaveV introduced me to the 3D-printed-figure world for "Star Wars: Legion", I immediately ordered some characters inspired by "Rogue One".

So we have Bodhi Rook, the "brave defector" - this is a 3D printed figure.

Bodhi Rook, ready to help engineer a landing in a captured Imperial shuttle.

We have Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus, the displaced guardians of the Jedi temple. These are also 3D printed figures.

I love the pose on this sculpt - amazing to see what the 3D printing folks can do these days...

Love that weapon!

We have a team of Rebel Pathfinders - these are from the box set of the same name from Fantasy Flight Games. These are lovely sculpts, but the plastic-resin used in the manufacturing is bendy and crappy. Once you get the paint on them, they are not too bad, but I have ordered some additional Pathfinders from a 3D print supplier to expand this force later on.

Love that door-gunner character...only downside is that it makes the Pathfinder box very bespoke...hard to add variety when all of the figures are so specific. But lovely sculpts.

The Pathfinder team, ready for action!

And last, but not least, we have the amazing Jyn Erso, the young rebel who sets aside bitterness, cynicism and sadness to challenge the evil of the Galactic Empire head-on. This figure is from Fantasy Flight Games. I'm hoping Jyn will be an acceptable figure for a ride on Sarah's Star Yacht!

The sculpting is nice...Jyn is ready to break a knee to make her points...

Prior to the Challenge, I had painted Cassian Andor and the sincere-yet-tactless droid K-2S0 - both figures from Fantasy Flight Games. They won't count for points here, but it seemed wrong to leave them out of the group photo...

Ten people, ready to fight like a hundred...

Cassian and K2 lurking in the back of the group photo...

This was my final submission to AHPC XII. Thanks to everyone who took the time to leave a comment, and congratulations to all participants, particularly my fellow Fawcett Avenue Conscripts, who have made huge progress against their unpainted figure piles. All the best to everyone!

"Now THIS is podracing!" - Challenge Submission #4

 After recently watching Episode 5 of 'The Book of Boba Fett' TV show, I put aside the project I was working on and dug out an unbuilt, 1/48 scale diecast N1 Naboo Starfighter, from 'Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace'. I built it stock. (I also traded with Conscript FrederickC for an all-plastic snapfast kit, to eventually turn into The Mandalorian's rat rod version of the ship, seen in that episode.)

The pilot figure in the diecast kit is little Ani Skywalker, a 9-year-old kid. It looked somewhat blob-like to me, but after black priming and zenithal highlighting, it turned out to have a fair amount of detail. After some GW washes, I did some detailing and blending with artists' oils.

R2-D2 rides in the astromech slot behind the cockpit; after black priming I sprayed his head with Tamiya aluminum paint from a can. Details and carbon scoring were done with oils.

The cockpit had some details, mostly not screen accurate, which I just picked out with acrylics and washes, after gray priming.

The N1 starfighter is a  mostly metal kit, with either yellow enamel already painted on, or polished metal parts, and a clear canopy. I screwed it together with the provided screws, setting them into place with locktite fluid, and covering the screw heads with the provided metal caps. I added some of the 22-year-old decals, which fortunately did not disintegrate after liberal use of decal set and solvent solutions.

At some point I will have to go back and add some weathering to this ship. Blaster residue, exhaust stains, and such.

3D-Printed Star Wars Legion Snowtroopers from Squamous Miniatures

 

I'll admit it: I have a problem. It's a problem with Star Wars. Basically whatever kind of miniatures someone comes out with for Star Wars gaming, I eventually get sucked down the rabbit hole. Star Wars Miniature Battles, Star Wars Starship Battles, even West End Games stuff. I've been strong on some fronts - I managed to resist Imperial Assault and Armada, and even Star Wars: Legion for the longest time, but eventually the quality and coolness of the latter's models just wore me down.

The key to resistance is to limit the scope of the project. For Legion, I've decided to concentrate on the Hoth battle from The Empire Strikes Back, and limit the project to that theatre. AND THAT'S IT. So far, it's actually been a successful strategy. However, the emergence of third-party non-official models has really threatened the integrity of my plan. Witness these very cool 3D-printed snowtroopers from Squamous Miniatures.

Squamous funds its operations through Patreon and "sells" 3D files of models that supporters can print themselves. In my case it was Conscript ByronM who came through with physical resin prints of these 12 snowtroopers. They were painted in the simple scheme I've used on dozens of snowtroopers before - Rakarth Flesh, washed with Agrax Earthshade and highlighted back up, with the armour, webbing, and backpack painted Corax White with White Scar highlights. Clean up the eyes, drybrush weapons with Mechanicus Standard Grey, done.

The models are excellent sculpts and are all one-piece with no assembly required - they even come with files to print the bases. The poses are great (mostly) and they scale pretty much exactly to the official Legion models.

See what I mean? Squamous snowtrooper on the left, official Legion snowtrooper on the right.

And unlike the other third-party snowtroopers I got from Wargames 3D, the armour and gear on these Squamous models are pretty much identical to the official models. Score!

So I think this completes the Imperial forces for the project. I have a Rebel snowspeeder yet to paint, and will probably succumb to the charms of a box of Tauntauns, but escalation is well under control... I think...

"You don't know the power of the Dark Side!" - Challenge Submission #3

 

Star Wars: Legion has a very nice injection-moulded plastic model of Anakin Skywalker as he appears during The Clone Wars and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. There are optional parts for a couple of cool poses. However, I decided to paint Anakin in a kind of "What if...?" scenario, as a somewhat older Darth Vader, who came out of his original fight with Obi-Wan in better condition, and does not usually need his armoured suit.

I assembled the pose with Anakin holding his lightsaber in his right hand, and casting a Force power with his left. The only gaps needing filling were across the shoulders of his tabard. I also set aside for use the head option with a more neutral expression.  

I black primed with Chaos Black, and airbrushed the lightsaber with Vallejo white, fluorescent orange, and red. I laid in zenithal highlights on the head with Vallejo Dead White. After affixing the head, I underpainted Anakin's face and left hand in Vallejo acrylics, with details and blending in artists' oils. I gave him greying hair, and made the sculpted facial scar fresh using Alizarin Crimson. 

I painted the tabard, right glove, and boots with Vallejo Grey Black. Light highlighting and details were added for his clothing and gear using artists' oils.

This is a similar project to my last year's submission of a young(er) Count Dooku, modeled when Jedi Master Dooku had just left the Order to defend his home planet. In Star Wars: Legion, the Anakin Skywalker character is part of the Grand Army of the Republic faction. I plan to use this version of Anakin/Vader as part of the Empire faction, using the rules for Vader’s Operative form.

Scoring: 7 points for a 40mm figure, plus 20 bonus points for Istvaan V: Betrayal; Heretical/Heretics or Loyalty/Loyalists. In either his canonical or this AU guise, Anakin betrayed his master and murdered countless innocents. Total = 27 points.