Star Wars Legion: First Squads

I really love these sculpts!

Since Fantasy Flight Games' announcement last August, I had eagerly awaited the release of their new system set in my favorite fandom: Star Wars Legion.

Technically speaking, my first introduction to the world of miniatures painting and gaming was the old West End Games Star Wars figures from the mid 1990s. I used to eagerly pick up a pack from Disneyland on my yearly trip there (the only place I knew how to find them), and paint them up as best a 10 year old could using Testor's enamels and plastic modelling brushes. (They were made of real lead, too as I recall).

For comparison to the new figures. Painted by Adult Ben, in the style that Kid Ben aspired to.

It was during a period of renewed interest that the announcement for Legion dropped. I had just completed some repaints and new figures from the WEG line for the Lead Painter's League. (Two of these figures had been from my original set back in 1991, and the remainder were acquired through thrift shop finds of the old Monopoly games that used these figures as tokens but I digress).

Though I will always love the original models, I was immediately in love with the new sculpts. Waiting unitl the following April reminded me of the weeks leading up to Christmas as a kid, and I hung on every announcement hoping to hear they were finally releasing the game. (In anticipation fo the game I built the Bandai offering for the AT-ST in a very close scale. Look for a post on this in the near future!) Despite the interminable wait, I found myself a bit undecided when I actually had them in-hand, especially when it came to basing scheme and what the Rebels would wear. (It was never up for debate that I'd do my Imperials in their screen uniforms).

At time of posting it is still before Labor Day, so this paint scheme is OK. Also note that while painting white is difficult, photographing it is much more challenging!

I will probably go into more detail on the basing tests, but I had originally aimed for a Scarif set. However, I was unhappy with my test bases, and found myself adopting a similar base to the one I tried on some Warhammer 40K Tau . (Tutorial here) In Star Wars context, it plays out to be the temple ruins on Yavin IV. (Since head canon does matter to me, it makes sense to set my games here since we know from Ep V's opening scrawl that at some point the rebels were forced out of this base)

For the Rebel troops, I wanted to something based on the Original Trilogy or Rogue One. The first squad takes its inspiration from the Battle of Endor, but from the cutting room floor. There had been some rebel troopers acting as crew aboard the Millennium Falcon, that did not make it to the final cut of the film. They were basically in the same uniforms as the strike team that went down to take out the shield generator, but without the sprayed camouflage. I feel the uniforms here get the general look of the rebels, while remaining a little more flexible as to their theatre of operation. Of course I'll probably do a squad in the Endor greens.

Thanks for reading; I will have more updates to share soon, including some tutorials and terrain building.