The group has been doing a bit of light Star Wars Legion play the last month or so. This gave me the motivation to work on some of my pile of shame of unpainted figures and of course to buy even more figures to catch up on all the new releases! One of the newest releases for Legion are the TSMEU6 Wheel Bikes. I remembered these from the Revenge of the Sith movie and decided to buy a set, as I liked the way they looked. Unfortunately for me, Asmodee released a special army list where you can field these en masse… I hesitated at first, due to the price, but after looking at the assembling the first two, I overcame my trepidation (logic) and bought the others.
The models come with both the BX and Magna Droid crew options. I decided to go with the former, as I needed to break up all the silver! I went into production mode and assembled them all together doing each step. I found the flash was not an issue at all and there was very little clean up (save for the areas where I cut them off the sprue). Thinking ahead (a rare moment of clarity), I decided not to glue the two halves together. Looking at them, I figured it would be just too hard to paint them if everything was attached (getting into the center with a brush or spray would be almost impossible). So, I assembled both halves and the crew and kept them separate. This made putting the crewmen together a bit of a pain, as all the fiddly bits have to be aligned (it is much easier to do this if you glue the figure in from the beginning). I think if I was doing the magna guard version, I would glue them in.
Once everyone was all assembled and dried, I sprayed the models. I used some chain mail spray on the bikes, some gray primer on the BX droids and dark brown on the bases and base mounts. Once that dried, I hit the bikes and crew with a black wash.
I did not like the junk on the mounting base, so I hacked off the protruding bits. I then covered portions of the man made items and the lips on the edge with some dark brown filler putty. I let that set, as it takes a little while to dry.
For the bikes, I just dry brushed the up with some levels of silver. I then went back and hit some of the trim and weapons with contrast brass. To add more color, I hit the leg vents with some contrast copper. With all that done, I glued the two halves of the vehicles together.
Next, I worked on the crew. These were just hit with a London gray drybrush and then a lighter gray. Next I painted the eyes white and did the same for the faces of the command vehicle (did captain markings). I finished with some contrast chainmail on the control pads in their hands. I then glued the figures onto the bikes with some plastic glue. I had to shift a few legs and arms to align them, but got it close enough.
I needed to get back to the bases and do them to match the rest of my army. First, I painted tan on the areas that I wanted to represent as exposed rock. I did the same for the arc markings. I then hit the stone areas with a brown wash. After that all dried, I covered the bases (except for the tan areas) with GW Arulean Earth (I love the crackle). I let that dry and hit everything with a sand dry brush. Next I hit the bases sides with dark brown. This was followed by adding some tufts to each base.
I sprayed the assembled bikes with some satin spay to seal them and keep them shiny. I hit the bases with dull coat to keep them flat. I finished off the bikes by dry brushing the outside of the wheels with the same sand color as the base. With all that done, I finally glued the bikes to the bases with plastic glue.
With that, I finished the bikes (I am still working on the Grevious bike…). These are now ready for the tabletop and my display cases. They are a bit pricey, but they do look cool!
- Manteuffel