The Emperor and his guard, for Star Wars Legion

And here is the master of the Sith himself, the Emperor... Palpatine!

The moment they announced these guys, I knew I had to have them.  I am not sure how well it shows in the photo, but I did make sure to give Palp the yellow eyes and reddish eye sockets that he has when he is shown at his scariest.

For the Royal Guard, I DID veer from canon a bit... Instead of doing the darker crimson underclothes, I went with just a solid red color for the entire outfit.  I think it turned out nice... I wanted them to be VERY uniform.  The only question... do I gloss their helmets?

All told, some cool figures (although the fit is a bit rough!)

Star Wars Legion Wookies, painted!

Hey all!

Okay, I've got a BUNCH of Star Wars Legion figures painted up over the last few weeks, so I've got to share them! 

I've really enjoyed doing the figures (well, not the Stormtroopers) and was looking forward to these wookies!

They are IMPOSING figures... just HUGE.  I wanted to keep them a bit individual... I feel like wookie fur should have patterns and differences.  So I went with a blonde wookie, an older wookie, a black haired wookie, and a brown wookie.

Overall very happy with how they turned out... they just LOOM over their enemies!

Coming up?  A rebel laser cannon, Han and Chewie, and Emperor Palpatine and his guard!

A GREAT find... a garbage can?!

Okay, how's THIS for a random story!?

So, for years a buddy of mine has always had the greatest garbage can in his war room... it's a garbage can that looks like it is a civil war rope tension drum!  It was always such a cool thing... small but noticeable, and essential to boot!  

The thing was... his father had bought it 40 something years ago at a reenactment at Gettysburg.  There were no markings on it, so there was no way to figure out who made it.  Trying to google "rope tension drum garbage" or some variation of that sequence got me nowhere, although there are some great whiskey barrel garbage cans out there, and lots of people sell 55 gallon drums!

So about a month ago my buddy moved to a new home and I went over to help him set up... I'll have more photos of Valhalla when it's finished, but for now here is a taste of it, half-way set up.

Anyway, as I helped him move all of his collections and stuff into the new building I again remarked about how much I loved that garbage can, but...

Fast forward about three weeks, and I'm in Connecticut visiting the family.  Now, they live in a town with a few antiques places.  I've stopped in them a few times over the last ten or fifteen years, although I've never really found anything worth noticing.

Until this time:)

We woke up one morning and suddenly I thought "I want to go check out this one antiques store."  No idea why.  I had once bought a LAW rocket tube there, but that was the only thing of interest.  

So down we go.  We walk in, walk up to the front counter looking, and then back down... and voila.  With some umbrellas in it is one of those rope tension drum garbage cans.

What is the chance?

Anyway... the room is SO full up that adding anything of value or interest is difficult at this point.  This, to me, is the ultimate little piece of detail awesomeness:)

BTW, the company that makes them is The Old Drum Shop in Granville, Mass.

I made it into Wargames Illustrated!

Hey all!

Well, how cool and unexpected is THIS?!

So, about a year ago, I posted on Wargames Illustrated's Facebook page, asking if they could some day run a series on great wargames rooms.  If you've read this blog for a while, you know how much I love that sort of thing, and for years I had been picking through the backgrounds of photos in magazines and books, trying to see every bit of John Stallard and the Perry's wargames rooms.  There was just always so much cool stuff packed away in there, and I was hoping some day that maybe we could have some articles that would highlight the antiques and the storage and all of the other things that I wanted to see!

Well, eventually they did it, doing a series called "Wargamers' Spaces," featuring some GREAT spaces.  And that's when I thought... why not write a little something up and send it along about my OWN room?  I've worked awfully hard on making it nice... maybe people would enjoy it?

Eventually I did this, and took some photos, and sent it along to Wayne Bollands and the WI crew, pretty sure they wouldn't want some article from some nobody, but at least I'd have the fun of writing it.

And lo and behold, I get an email from them saying they'd like to send me a copy of the December issue of WI, because I had contributed to it!  I had?  Oh, I HAD!  How great!

Anyway... it is really one of the great thrills of my wargaming life, and I hope people enjoy the article.  And if you have any other questions or want specific photos of specific things, please do let me know!

Now I just need a second copy so I can cut the pages out and frame them.... don't make fun, it's a big deal for me!:)

Star Wars Legion Commando Snipers

Hey all!

Well, another week, another group of Legion figures!

 This time, it is the sniper/spotter team from the Commandos boxed set.  I really do like these figures... both aliens, which is cool.  I also decided to do a little ghillie work with them, to mirror the Scout sniper I did earlier.  I DID keep them a bit more "modest" than that figure, however... they have half-cloaks of sorts to keep them hidden.

Their basic camo pattern is the same as the other rebels... what sets them apart is the ghillie cloaks.

Overall I'm pretty happy with them... got a few more figures to paint up.

FREE Wargames Illustrated online today!

Black Friday only... Check out the App store… Go to Wargames Illustrated app and they will let you download the December issue for free!  And when you do, check out that article from the series Wargamers’ Spaces...

A few shots of my Space Wolf terminators...

Hey all!

I had the camera and lights out, so thought I'd snap a few new shots of my Space Wolf terminators!

I love the lightning claw guy... one of my favorite minis.

And I do love how the basing and the wolf and the jewelers chain worked out!

More Stormtroopers for Legion...

Well, another unit of Stormtroopers, all painted up!

They are simple but annoying to paint.  White undercoat, black bits, and then lining with brown wash and some cleanup, and thats it.  But ugh, painting white sucks.  Like, for real.  

It reminds me of TIE fighters for Armada... you need a lot of them, and they suck to paint!

And here are the Stormtroopers with a bounty hunter!

Legion Scout Troopers painted...

Hey all!

Well, a bit more of my completed Legion forces!

I have a bunch of Rebels painted up, so I wanted to get some Imperials done... and you can't have a Stormtrooper legion without support!

So here are the Scout troopers, ready to advance quickly on the enemy!

I know I posted my Scout sniper before, with his ghillie suit, but here you can also see the saboteur and the rest of the crew.

Overall I'm happy with how they turned out... always loved Scout troopers!

Boba Fett for Legion!

Hi all!

Well, it's been quiet as HELL lately... work and life have been a bit overwhelming, and I've spent a lot of time on Red Dead Redemption lately, sooo...

But I have enjoyed painting up some Legion troops (well, not the Stormtroopers, but...) so I thought I would post!

Here is one of the few heroes I've painted... Boba Fett!  I didn't want to have him on that clear base, so I just matched up the height using rocks, and then pinned him to it.  I also left the flames off of the packback.

I did go a bit simple with his paintjob... I didn't go over the top on weathering or anything... because I think they look better when they are sharp.

Anyway... I'm happy with how he turned out... hopefully some more bounty hunters are on the way!  And in the meantime, I'll paint what I can:)