Adventures on the Wargames Table

Most of my sci-fi terrain is sand themed so I decided to do something a bit different, hence the urban / concrete theme of these pieces. The building is from Blotz (highly recommended!), from their Middle Eastern range, with one of their space doors. The dish laser is from GF9. The crates etc are a mix of Legion Priority Supplies and TTcombat resin. The building was given a rough coat of masonry paint before painting. Recipe is Dark Grey (B&Q Lousville emulsion, similar to VMC German Grey), then successively lighter highlights of VMC Neutral Grey, Foundry Slate light, Foundry Austrian White light and pure white. NB: for figure bases, the recipe will be VMC Grey Green, Neutral Grey, White Grey. Here's a couple more Blotz buildings I have on the go. To add interest I've used some of the more interesting shapes left over from the MDF "sprue".

With plenty of Galactic Empire completed it was time to turn my attention to the Rebels. Here are my test models. As with most new collections of troops, I tend to start by painting only a few so as to quickly get a handle on what paints, techniques, etc to use. Recipe is: Grey primer Skin - Foundry Flesh mid (or Foundry Night Sky mid for the Duros) Helmet - VMC Stone Grey Jacket & Gaiters - VMC Russian Green Shirt - Foundry Buff Leather mid Trousers - Foundry Rawhide mid Backpack - either VMC Stone Grey or Foundry Spearshaft shade Boots & straps etc - either Black or Foundry Bay Brown shade Helmet ‘band’ - Foundry Conker Brown shade Weapons - black Wash with thinned GW Agrax then highlights of base colour followed by lighter Foundry triad shade(s) or simply the base mixed with a little Foundry Boneyard light. The red band on the helmet is the unit identifier, so for other units I’ll use dark green or blue, etc. May the force be with you!

Another Sunday night at the club and this time Dave and his Shadow Collective, led by the fearsome Darth Maul, take on my Empire, led by the implacable General Veers. An 800 point game, the mission was to capture and hold the objective markers scattered across the middle of the table. Here's the table just after we'd started. I had a very vague plan to spend a couple of turns shooting before making a dash. With this mind I made the best use of Veers' ability to buff the shooting of nearby units and pounded away at the enemy line. I have to be fair here and say that the troops had clearly been practicing on the range, plus Dave's armour save rolls were not kind to him at all. However, I managed to repeat the little blunder of leaving Veers slightly exposed when he used his Maximum Firepower command card. The Pyke disruptor rifle wounded the General who had to scramble for cover. On my left flank it was going very well indeed and the first two turns saw many Black Sun, Py...

More fun in a galaxy far, far away! Sunday night is club night, so Simon and I set to. He had his splendid rebels and I the glorious might of the Empire. The mission cards were resolved as “Battle Lines” for deployment (very convenient), “Clear Conditions” (Phew! See later) and “Recover the supplies” as the objective. I was especially pleased to get clear conditions as my leader is General Veers and he has a fantastic command card, “Maximum Firepower”, that you really need to play in the first couple of turns due to the long minimum range involved. Here’s a couple of pics of Simon’s lovely figures. I especially like Chewbacca and the squad of Wookies! The early part of the game saw a lot of forward movement as each side sought to capture one of the five vital supply tokens. However, I’d been a bit more cautious and so was able to put a lot more shooting on to the Rebels. This seemed like a good idea, at least to begin with… Veers’ Maximum Firepower card had damaged the AT-RT, though it...

Normal posting to resume shortly, all being well. In the meantime…

This marvellous kit has been in the painting queue for a little while. To be honest I was procrastinating slightly as it’s a big kit (and not exactly inexpensive!) and seemed a little daunting.  I started off by following Sorastro’s YouTube video but it went a bit awry so I had to sort of rescue it with a range of greys: GW Standard Mechanicus as a base followed by Foundry Slate Grey B then C, then GW Celestra Grey. To help with this selection I painted up a test card, initially sprayed with GW Mechanicus Grey then painted in the “same” colour from a pot (quite a difference as you can see, spray showing on leftmost side). Colours painted over the pot version of Mechanicus Grey are L-R, top to bottom: Foundry Stone triad, VMC Neutral Grey, AP Warpaints Uniform Grey, Foundry Slate triad, GW Celestra Grey. The vision ports are painted in using VMC German Grey and the weapons were washed with diluted black. I do find large flat areas or panels a little tricky, although I have tried to ...

Before tackling the AT-ST I felt I really ought to polish off the rest of the Stormtroopers. So, here’s another squad with an extra trooper plus a DLT-19 upgrade And here’s a Captain and a T-21 Stormtrooper. However, after basing them and putting them back in the storage box I realised that were still a few more to do 🫣 I’m not sure I’ll need all those HH-12 rocket launchers but an extra DLT-19 trooper, a RT-97C trooper and comms specialist would be handy.

I ordered these ages ago as they’re rarely in stock for long. Anyway they arrived the other day, much to my delight. All from the GF9 Battlefield in a Box range. Here’s a couple of closer pics. They really are ready to go on the battlefield straight from the box, although I may add a little more weathering etc. I intend to leave them un-based so that they’ll look fine on any type of battlefield from the lush woodlands of the forest moon of Endor, or the ice fields of Hoth to the arid deserts of Tatooine.

Here he is! Probably the most iconic movie bad guy ever. No Galactic Empire collection is complete without him. An easy paint scheme but I felt that the big man deserved his own post. Black primer followed by the Foundry Charcoal palette. Some dots of colour for chest and belt. Light sabre in a range of GW reds through to orange. A few other little details in GW Leadbelcher. Some of his armour was given a couple of coats of AP gloss varnish. Along with the recently completed 74-Z speeder bikes, this brings me to approximately the “standard” 800 points, depending upon equipment options. However, my AT-ST is primed and ready to paint. So, when complete, I’ll have a few support options to build around the core of Storm Troopers. Really excited by this model!

Here are the moisture vaporators, computer terminals and crates from the Priority Supplies boxed set The vaporators and crates were primed in grey then given a heavy dry brush of VMC Stone Grey followed by a wash of GW Agrax. When completely dry, highlight with VMC Stone Grey then pick out the edges using any light, pale grey such as Foundry Austrian White shade. A few dabs of GW Typhus Corrosion completes the weather worn look. The terminals and the larger crate were even easier! Black spray followed by the Foundry Charcoal palette. The buttons are simply dots of very light grey followed by red, green, yellow, etc. In games these items can be used as objective markers (there are several mission cards that require such features) or just as suitably atmospheric scenery.

Two units of 74-Z speeder bikes to give my Galactic Empire forces some fast attack options. I’ve also re-done the basing scheme to use only white flowers and red tufts, both from gamers grass. All of my other troops had the first lot of tufts and foliage removed and replaced with this. Gives a much more coherent appearance. These chaps should prove handy on the table. Move 3, surge to hit and to block, plus that blaster cannon packs a punch especially with the Impact 1 rule which will allow these guys to potentially tackle enemy armour. The white defence dice make them a bit fragile, but at least they generally get a cover save thanks to Cover 1. Next on the list for the troops is either Vader or maybe an AT-ST. Although I might divert briefly to paint the Priority Supplies boxed set. Nothing says Star Wars (and specifically Tatooine) like a few moisture vaporators! Happy gaming 😎

The Bristol Biguns Star Wars Legion campaign is up and running! Organised by David Clark (thank you), there are a group of us who keen to get gaming in the Star Wars universe. I’m a relative newcomer to this game and Rob even more so, hence the title. The first game is a 500 point skirmish. I have Galactic Empire led by General Veers whilst Rob has Rebels led by Luke Skywalker. The view from my side, Stormtroopers, Death Troopers and some Scouts. Thanks to Paul for valuable assistance with getting the list together. Rob has pushed one rebel squad far forward in the centre supported by an AT-RT with Luke not far behind. During the first turn I concentrated the bulk of my shooting on the rebel walker and very nearly destroyed it, before blasting it to pieces at the start of turn two. Luke suffered a similar fate during turns two and three … it’s tough to deflect HH-12 shells with a light sabre. To be fair, Rob’s dice rolling, especially with the white D6 armour dice, was terrible! The mi...

My initial force for Star Wars Legion, 500 points of Galactic Empire, is ready to rock! Figures painted using a slightly simplified version of the methods described by the excellent YouTuber Sorastro. Next up will be either a similar sized Rebel force, or perhaps some additions to this force such as Vader, a squad of 74-Z speeder bikes, a scout sniper team or an AT-ST? All primed and ready to go.

These buildings are ready to use straight from the box. However I do intend to jazz them up a bit with some weathering, foliage and so on. But they’ll do for now whilst I focus on getting figures painted. They’re from the “Battlefield in a Box” range, more specifically Galactic Warzones, and are often available from bigger retailers like Firestorm Games or Goblin Gaming, etc. There’s also a huge range of stuff available via Etsy but some can be very expensive. I got these buildings at a bargain price.

This interestingly shaped piece of cardboard packaging was lurking in my recycling so, along with a few bits of leftover tank kits, I made it in to a sort of power generator ‘thingy’.  The structure is Americana Honey Brown, then Tan followed by Bleached Sand. The base is Americana Honey Brown, VMC Tan Yellow, VMC Dark Sand, Foundry Boneyard light. Then a selection of tufts and clump foliage from Gamers Grass, Warlord and Woodland Scenics. Next are a few resin items from TT Combat. The recipe here was simply VMC Stone Grey and Foundry Conker Brown washed with GW Agrax Earthshade. Then highlights of the base colours followed by GW Mephiston Red. I have a few more resin items on the go including some buildings that are rather “Mos Eisley” in style.