Reinforcements have arrived

Reinforcements have arrived

Yesterday one of my best friends, the mailman came to my house bearing gifts. (pics below)

I want Star Wars Legion to take off in my area but it doesn't seem to go anywhere. Of course the upcoming release of X-Wing 2.0 isn't helping but I have been driving about from gaming store to gaming store in my area and covered an total distance of 120km to see what stock stores where holding. It was pathetic! One shop didn't have the game at all and the owner didn't know about it, to be honest this store is more of a boardgame store but they do have X-Wing. Two stores only had the core set and 1 expansion unit on the shelf. Asking the store owner how Legion was doing they said they sold a couple and then that was about it. The owners didn't seem interested at all in the game and only advised me to go and play X-Wing as that would probably have a decent player base.

But there is hope... The store that is actually closest to me had almost all of the release sets on the shelf and a little Wave 1. I had a good talk with the store owner and I saw he was painting up an imperial force himself. He told me that he also sold a couple of boxes and a few games had been played. however the game wasn't thriving and we were asking ourselves why... This is Star Wars and should be flying off the shelves.

There have been a lot of Star Wars games been put out by fantasy flight and people might have enough by Imperial Assault as a miniature game. Then there is the much anticipated release of X-Wing 2.0 but most of all there isn't a lot of stuff available to buy in the shops and games so far have mostly been using the same units over and over worldwide.

This store has a decent selection of Legion expansions but it's not enough. No Wave 2 or 3 here and they have been ordered by the store owner, it's just not coming on the boat...Although the shop had some expansion sets on the shelf he didn't have the ones I wanted besides the core set. So I ended up buying some paint and will go back to play and buy there in the near future. I'll be back!

In the mean time my crave for new shiny models wasn't stilled. So I went online and ordered some boxes which came in. I still can't get the stuff I really want because that isn't available anywhere. Leia, Fleet troopers & Commandos can't be found anywhere and it took me a while to locate an AT-ST at a reasonable price. The stuff isn't selling because it isn't there. If Fantasy flight are anywhere serious about making this a successful miniature wargame they should realy get their finger out and make an effort.

I want to buy my stuff from my local gaming store to support te store and the game but when they have to wait for months to get the products it will be dead before we see Wave 4....

I support Mox Spellen

Rant out....

Oh, I am very happy with my new stuff. The models look great, neat, sharp and crisp and I'm looking forward painting them. This is what I got to bring my total up to:

2x core set
1x Rebel troopers
1x Han Solo
1x Air Speeder
1x General Veers
1x AT-ST

My Star Wars Legion Reinforcements

Jungle Terrain Tutorial

Star Wars Legion Jungle Tutorial
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When you're making a Jungle themed gaming table it's nice to have some actual jungle pieces. In this topic I'll cover how I make my jungle pieces. I hope to show you how I do it so you can copy this or you can change them to fit your jungle table. I like my jungle to be modular so I can have different set-ups with every time I set up the gaming table.

Cutting the bases from MDF Sheet

Step 1: Get a sheet of 4mm thick MDF and mark out some organic shapes with a marker. Before I drew the shapes I measured out area's of 3"x3", 6"x3", 9"x3" and 6"x6" and drew the shapes in there. You can see it on the picture. (ignore left side of the picture, those will become mountains and hills for a later tutorial).

Step 2: Cut out the shapes from the MDF Sheet with a jigsaw and cut the edges with a hobby knife. Then sand them down so you get smooth and curved edges.

Tree bark ready for the oven

Step 3: You might want to add some rocks to your jungle.You can get bags of tree bark from the garden store. They are pretty cheap and a large bag will last you a lifetime. Funnily enough the tree bark will look more realistic then using actual rocks and will keep it light in weight. The tree bark is still a bit moist when you take them out of the bag. You can leave them out of the bag for a couple of days to let them dry but I heated up the oven and then put the tree bark in the oven on a baking tray with the oven turned off. The heated oven will dry the tree bark in about half an hour.

Tree bark scrub down

Step 4: When the tree bark is dry I take a stiff toothbrush and start scrubbing the tree bark. Lots of dust and small bits will come of and the edges will get that realistic rock like appearance. This also prevents the rocks from chipping later on when you have painted them.

Hot glue gun is.....HOT!

Step 5: Take a hot glue gun and glue the pieces of tree bark down on the bases. Try to work as neat as possible and watch out, hot glue gun is...hot. I got some minor burns from the hot glue dripping from the gun. But if you want good looking scenery some second degree burns are a small price to pay.

Seal the tree bark

Step 6: This is a very important step which should not be skipped. Take some PVA glue and water it down with about 40% water. Now take a brush and coat all the bits of tree bark with a generous splash of the watered down PVA mix. The dry tree bark will soak up the mix and it will make it stronger, prevent it from chipping and makes it easier to paint later on because the tree bark will not soak up your paint. I water the PVA down because the tree bark will soak it up a bit easier but also because you will keep the most detail like this instead of with pure PVA glue.

Dipping it

Step 7: When the PVA mix on the tree bark is dry we can start to add sand to the bases. I coated the topside of the bases with pure PVA glue and then dumped them into a bucket of sand. Make sure the sand sticks to all the areas and no white parts are showing. Shake off the excess sand and leave them to dry. Also make sure no sand is glued to the underside.

Step 8: It's time to get the jungle bases painted up and plant the trees and plants. When you are making a complete jungle table I suggest using the same color for the jungle terrain pieces as you're using for the gaming table. This will make sure your scenery blends into the table seamlessly. When you do this it's a good idea to go to your local DYI shop and buy a can of cheap matte paint in the desired colour. I bought a can of a sort of light beige sandy colour. You can also do this for your rocks, hills and mountains just make sure you buy a water based paint because it will dry faster, smells less and will not melt any polystyrene you might use in your scenery pieces.

Paint the rocks first, easier that way

Step 9: Now paint up the rocks with your desired colour. Once dry also wash the rocks and drybrush with the original colour. Now with the rocks you want to create a bit more depth and contrast so use lighter colours and drybrush at least two more times. I used a grey'ish/ brown color and drybrushed it with Vallejo Brown Sand , then Vallejo Iraqui Sand and last Vallejo Ivory. 

Add some wash

Step 10: Make a wash of a brownish colour, for scenery pieces I just pick a colour I want to use and then add a load of water to it to thin it creating a cheap and easy wash. For scenery pieces like these it's not really rocket science. When the wash is dry I drybrush the pieces with the original colour to create a bit of depth.

Starting to look like Jungle

Step 11: Now the painting is done and dry it's time to get creative with some plastic (aquarium) plants and model trees and foliage. A cheap and good place to buy these is Ebay where you can get quite a variety. Start with the larger pieces and work to smaller pieces. Just place them in a irregular pattern. I use a hot glue gun and super glue for this.

Step 12: Some plastic plants might look a bit too much like toy trees. Ad some different colours of green and brown with an airbrush if you have one but you can also use a drybrush technique to create depth. I also removed most of the obvious moldlines and flash but this can be a bit of a tedious job... I finish this step by spraying some matte varnish over the plants and trees to take of the plastic/shiny look. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of this to show you the difference but if you compare the picture from the last step with the picture from the next step you will see I have painted the palm trees up, added some green variety to the plain green leaves and gave it a matte coat of varnish to take the shine off.

Painted and matte coated

Step 13: Now it's time to add the last bit to your jungle bases. I have added some small green flock here and there and for the fallen leaf effect I used a kitchen mix of Italian herbs. Very cheap and you can get a lot of different kinds. At first it is kind of smelly but that will go after about a week. I have also added some grass tufts. I have bought these from Gamers Grass, great service, good product and good variety of colors, shapes and sizes. I mix up the tufts and then I'm done. ready to use on your gaming table.

Scarif or Endor jungle terrain piece

You can make different kind of vegetation to represent different planets.

Scarif Jungle Terrain Tutorial

Like the Scarif table above or the unidentified planet below. For these I used different kind of large seeds from a floral shop and some 40K Tyranids bits.

Star Wars Alien Terrain

Large foam plants from the dollar store painted up

Don't get lost.....
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I now have enough of these terrain pieces to cover an entire 6x4 table. When you mix the different styles you get a good result. 

I hope you liked this tutorial. Leave me a comment and tell me what you think. Have you got some great ideas for a new tutorial or Star Wars terrain piece. I'd like to hear it.

Legion Conversions: Rebel Troopers

Star Wars Legion Rebel Troopers conversion
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I have a couple of squads of Rebel troopers and because they look very boring to me when you make them all the same I tried a few minor conversions. A good hobby friend and Star Wars fan J.P. gave me some of his spare WoTC models that I used for head swaps. The models are a slightly smaller scale but I think they work well with the models. 

The first from the left is a Bith head. He is the leader of the rebel band and also plays the flute, Than two Ithorians with heavy weappons. Not only a (hammer)head swap for them but also a brand new set of legs and a fair bit of green stuff to make it all work. The Gran's head looks a bit on the small side but I still like it. The Mon Calamari is my favourite and while you don't see it he also took a fair bit of green stuffing. Last WoTC models is the Ishi Tib. The one on the far right is just a regular head swap from the Duros that comes with the set. 

I'm not making a rebel squad but will just sprinkle these through my units so they all have a bit more variety. What do you think of the head swaps?please let me know.

Star Wars Alien races
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Here's some art that I put toghether to give you an idea of what they should look like. 

Legion Terrain: Barricades Painted

Star Wars Legion Terrain Barricades painted
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The Star Wars Legion core set comes with 8 Barricades which I painted up to go with my Space Port gaming mat from Deepcut Studio. Of course I can also use this on my desert gaming table. I painted them up to look old, used and weathered. When you throw them in with some other scatter terrain they blend in really nicely.

The Back of the Barricades
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There are two kinds included in this set but they look simular. I used a small selection of grey paints to get this effect and used oil paints and white spirit to make the streaks. When I get my second core set I will make a small painting tutorial for these where I will share all the colors and techniques I used. 

Star Wars Legion Terrain Barricades painted
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As sai I got these Barricades with the Star Wars Legion core set but you can also buy them separately. Here's the link to the barricades set.

Range Rulers Painted

SW Legion Range Rulers click to enlarge

When you've been out of the hobby for a while it's good to start with something small. I've not painted anything in the past year but I really want to have a go at Legion. I love the models and can't wait to paint them.

Because my painting skills are a bit rusty and I even had to go to the shops to get some good quality brushes again I thought it would be a good idea to practise on my range rulers. I like the way they turned out and they look unique now. I went with the Grey-Orange Snow Speeder theme.

Next up are the barricades and after that I hopefully feel confident enough to paint up the actual miniatures and do them justice.

Star Wars Legion: At first glance

SW Legion by Fantasy Flight Games

I love the smell of a new game. When you remove the shrink wrap and open a box for the very first time you get that lovely smell of "new". They should bottle that!

First you see the quick reference rulebook and sheet of markers which I put aside imediately to see the models. This is what this game is all about, it's a Star Wars miniature wargaming experience.

First off I'm surprised to find the models in bags not sprues like normally. The figures also seem slightly bigger than your normal 28mm. These are 32mm head to toe. The figures itself are beautiful and full of detail. You get 33 unpainted miniatures, some barricades and range measure tools. For the price the core set is going now (€70,-/$80,-) that is pretty decent. You get everything what you need for your first game. A bunch of special cards to keep track of your unit's stats and upgrades instead of going back and forth to the rulebook to look them up. The game also uses it's own kind of dice which are included although there aren't really enough of them in there so you'll want to buy some more. And then there is a cardboard sheet full of usefull tokens. they look fine but I think that over time if you play the game a lot these will get damaged so you'll want to replace them with acrylic tokens over time.

The ruleset is pretty basic. I've read through them once and got a pretty good understanding of the game. The ruleset included in the box howeever is not the full ruleset but you can get that for free from the Fantasy Flight Games site. Great service! if you want your copy look to the top right corner of this page for the link.

I'm very happy with this box. great models, clear rules and all you need to get a game is in the box.

Pro's:

• It's Star Wars so ofcourse it's great. I feel like a kid again holding these miniatures.
• The models look nice and crisp and will be fun to paint
• All I need to play is in the box
• The rules are clear and I can get all the rules for free in a nice looking PDF
• Looking forward to the expansions, no need to pick them all up.
• ...and it's Star Wars!

Con's:

• Models can only be assembled in one way. No extra bits. every unit looks the same.
• More models for the painting pile
• Expansions will be tempting to buy so more money needs to be invested
• I don't know a lot of people in my local area that play the game so I have to set that up
• I have a lot of terrain but not specific SW so I now have to make/buy that

All things considered I think this game has WIN all over it so I'm looking forward re-energising my hobby exploits with Star Wars goodness!

Star Wars Legion Cards and Tokens

Star Wars Legion: A New Hope

A long time ago in a galaxy very nearby.... I started in the miniature hobby about ten years ago. I have played mainly Warhammer 40K, Fantasy, Bolt Action and some modern wargaming like Spectre. Over the years the piles of unpainted miniatures grew larger and larger. Interest in games came and went. My Hobby time had been reduced to about 3 games a year and about one evening a month painting miniatures. I miss the hobby. And then, last year at the end of 2017 Fantasy Flight Games anounced that they would release Star Wars Legion. I was imedeately interested but my personal life was so bussy that I didn't pre-order straight away.

This gave me the opportunity to see if the game would live up to it's expectations. Now that the game is about 9 months out I can see that many players across the globe are playing and loving this game and now that I seem to have a little bit more time for myself that I can finally jump on the bandwagon.

I was on holiday when I walked into a game store that was selling SW Legion and I could no longer resist the Force. I  only bought the core set and an extra expansion set of rebel troopers to start slowly.
I also discovered that there is already are pretty large and helpful community online that is willing to help out beginners. On social media you can find a lot of information and like minded people. On youtube you can find a couple of really good painting tutorials and battle reports. In the first week I was either assembling the models which was pretty straight forward or I was reading up on the rules or watching batrep's to get a feel of the game.

I think it is still early enough to jump on because there aren't a lot of different units out yet. You can learn the game pretty fast and only have to adapt when FFG release another wave of models with new command cards and upgrade cards.

So far I have been enjoying this game a lot. I also started this blog as a personal journal for my Legion related hobby articles. I plan on doing painting and modelling, Battle reports and Strategic and general articles.

Come back soon to see what I'm up to.