Star Wars Legion: Speeder Bikes and Pathfinders

Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during the pandemic. One benefit of being on lockdown is that I've actually managed to get a little painting in. 

First up are a couple of Imperial Speer Bikes. 

Even with the instruction sheet, it took a little bit of work to figure out how to assemble the undercarriage bits, but overall they weren't bad builds.  I would definitely recommend painting the bikes and troopers separately before completing the assemblies.  The part that was the most trouble for me was trying to get the footrests properly positioned before I glued the figures down. I had a slight gap in the end, but luckily the soft plastic allowed me to flex the footrests and get them up against the feet and glued in place.  If I had to do it again, I'd glue the figures first and add the footrests at the end.

I wrapped the clear poles in masking tape during the painting and gluing, so was able to keep them from being damaged or turning cloudy during the build.  I also did my best to hide the poles in the middle of some grass tufts to make them less visible. For the uniforms, I opted to use  a colder, light grey undertone for the armor elements, and a warmer, cream undertone for the cloth parts. I'm not sure if it ended up being noticeable after I added grime using Secret Weapon concrete wash, but I think it's worth trying to differentiate material differences.

From a height perspective, the bikes hover around infantry trooper head level, so a little high than what was seen in the movies. But I don't think it looks bad.

Next up are the Rebel Pathfinders from the Rogue One movie. These were a lot of fun to paint and luckily there are a lot of reference photos available on the internet.  Other than Pao and Bistan, I didn't try to do an exact match to specific troopers. However, I think the colorschemes are within the ballpark for the variety of uniforms and equipment seen. 

Thanks for looking!

More Star Wars Buildings

I'm back with two more buildings from TT Combat's Sandstorm line: Hovel A and the Cantina.

Hovel A is rather small and I was disappointed to discover that no greebles come with the kit (including the vent over the door), so I was forced to use bits from the other buildings I bought. Assembly was fairly straightforward like the previous build, though I did use some masking tape over the corners to help cover the gaps before adding the texture gel. It's also worth noting that the door size varies for each kit, so if you want to add additional card spines to the door, you'll need a custom template for each building.

The big building of the set is the cantina, being about three times the size of the Hovel A building. The building is not designed to have a lift off roof (at least from what I can tell from the instructions), but I was able to get the walls sturdy enough to allow me to make it removable.  I have yet to build an interior,  but may do so in the future. 

The building has two entryways and large sections of flat roof that would allow you to add figures on it. There are also a ton a greebles available, and I saved quite a few for addition to other buildings.

The instructions that came with the kit seem outdated, as they have items listed on the instructions that were not present, and others that were in the kit and not on the instruction sheet. But after some initial confusion, I was able to figure out the assembly without too much hassle.

Being the cantina for the settlement, I thought the entryways should have a bit more pop that the usual brown, and opted to introduce a bit of orange (though my youngest son isn't a particular fan of the choice).

Overall I'm happy with the final settlement, small though it is, and think it will provide a decent amount of cover and character for the table.