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Painting Star Wars Legion

This week, per my goals set with the Ovelist, I have been dedicated to painting Star Wars Legion. It’s been a bit scattershot, which is going to be the subject of a future blog (the basic gist of which is that I want to paint a lot of INTERESTING things, and in painting Star Wars Legion to actually create a force, you end up painting a LOT of a single kind of miniature.)

Oh, let’s just get into it now.

When setting about painting Star Wars Legion I allocated my hobby budget, which had been earmarked for creating two opposing forces, I was sad to discover that unless I wanted to paint new and interesting things, and I didn’t want to paint four boxes of Stormtroopers, and I didn’t want to paint four boxes of Rebel Troopers. But I wanted to be true to the game, and so I didn’t want to cross the lines of the different settings. Basically, when I went in to paint Star Wars Legion I wanted to create Hoth but was sad to see that my only options were, on the Imperial side, Snowtroopers  (which I painted for Hobby Streak last week) and an AT-ST, and on the Rebel side, Rebel Veterans, a laser, some Tauntauns and the Snow Speeder. Yes, I could spice it up with some special characters like Han and Leia and Luke, but none of them were wearing their Hoth clothes. So it seemed dumb.

Similarly, when I went to paint Tatooine, there were some run-of-the-mill Stormtroopers and a Stormtrooper on a Dewback. On the Rebel side there were, well, essentially nothing other than generic rebel models and this land speeder. I painted the downed AT-ST as being on Tatooine, but that was purely aesthetics. It could have easily been on Hoth or Endor–and it wouldn’t matter because it’s just a chunk of terrain.

Admittedly, when painting Star Wars Legion, the downed AT-ST is the best looking terrain of the bunch, and it’s very rewarding to paint. You get a lot of texture and detail with just a few hours work, and I’m very proud of how it turned out.

But this leads to the problem with Star Wars legion, is that they offer you so many intriguing possibilities (like Emperor Palpatine and the Emperor’s red-robed guard) but that’s not really enough to create a battle. There was only Luke and Vader in that room aside from the Emperor, and three characters isn’t even a skirmish game–it’s hardly a roleplaying game.

Ultimately I don’t know what Star Wars Legion is trying to be–except for an excuse to paint Star Wars Legion models. And, admittedly, that’s a lot of fun. This Stormtrooper on a Dewback is one of my favorite models I have painted in a long time. But that’s just collecting, it’s not playing.

Maybe collecting Star Wars Legion is enough for some people. Honestly, it’s all that I’m doing with it, because I love painting Star Wars Legion, but, honestly, when am I going to have the chance to use Shoretroopers (from Rogue One) in a battle? I’m not. I’m not going to have a chance to use Director Krennic in a battle. Or Lando Calrissian–when was Lando in a ground battle aside from Jabba’s barges. (It would totally be cool to recreate the barges and Sarlacc, but there doesn’t seem to be any options to.)

This wasn’t meant to be a review of Star Wars Legion (I have reviewed Star Wars Legion here) but more a frustration that I DON’T get to paint a Rancor, and I DON’T get to paint a Wampa and I DON’T even get to paint Ewoks (despite the fact that plenty of other Endor options are available).

Anyway, I will still collect and paint Star War Legion models because I really love the sculpts and because they’re fun to play with with my son. But I’m having a hard time getting into the spirit of the game.