Staff Hobby Challenge – We reveal our STAR WARS: Legion – Spec Ops Crashed Vehicles

With the inclusion of a crashed vehicle scenario in Star Wars™: Legion – Spec Ops, our team decided to create our own narratively inspired crashed vehicles. Today, we’re ready to share the finished projects with you – with an assist from our amazing photographers at AMG.

Dallas Kemp – Grand Army of the Republic – LAAT inspired by a downed helicopter.

Were there any final changes you made or last touches? Did everything come together exactly as planned?

Dallas: I pretty much stayed the course throughout the process. I made sure I had a solid concept and went with it. The painting was a bit improvised, as I did not really think about where the black elements would be on the LAAT, so there was some adjusting there.

What is your favorite part of the piece?

Dallas: The Gonk droid. I really got into the story of the Lucky 13’s needing to liberate some plans from a Separatist installation and using a “rescued” Gonk droid to store the information in. I named the Gonk Gra-Ve7, or Gravel. He is a grumpy and obstinate little droid who is not appreciative of the Lucky 13’s actions.

What did you learn from completing this challenge that you’ll take forward into your next project?

Dallas: Always add a droid.

What’s it like to see your finished vehicle and spec ops crew through the lens of our on terrain photography team?

Dallas: Photography always captures that story and really brings the piece together. Having a collection of terrain is so vital to taking narrative photographs and sells the story you are trying to tell. So yeah, its awesome!

Anne Richmond – Rebel Alliance – Crashed A-A5 Truck that’s been covered in Sabine Wren’s graffiti.

Were there any final changes you made or last touches? Did everything come together exactly as planned?

I had to add some additional wire branches because I realized that my original branches would have looked too bulky on their own. I added stone made of green stuff in the middle of the pool of water to help balance the stand for the truck at the right angle. I also broke my windshield while trying to add cracks. Gluing it together causing the plastic to fog over, so I ended up using the clear parts and imagining the rest had shattered inward. I ended up liking it more that way.

What is your favorite part of the piece?

My favorite part is honestly all of the free handed art I did for Sabine’s truck. I was rewatching Star Wars: Rebels while I worked on this project over the last few months and I got to Sabine’s Darksaber arc right as I started working on freehanding on the truck. It might be corny but watching that while I painted really helped me connect with the character and decide what would be important to include in this homage to her artistry. I took screencaps throughout the show to ensure that all of the art came directly from the source material. I never thought I could pull off this freehand, but sketching it out lighting in the mid tone color of the truck followed by a light colored ink allowed me to get the basics in before I began adding brighter and stronger colors. The scariest thing was once it was all painted, I had to sponge over it to create wear and tear – but honestly, all of that really enhanced that quintessential Star Wars sense of environment and place.

What did you learn from completing this challenge that you’ll take forward into your next project?

I finally based miniatures and the crash site in a way that was thoughtful and avoided my tendency to do “too much” when it comes to adding flowers/rocks/scatter. Everything had it’s place and I really thought about how the crash would have caused the petals to fall across the truck. My R2 unit (T1-NY) really is one of the better Star Wars miniatures I’ve ever painted. I’ll be using these as a benchmark to beat on the next one!

What’s it like to see your finished vehicle and spec ops crew through the lens of our on terrain photography team?

Another type of gal might do it for “the ‘gram,” but this girl does it for the AMG photography team. Every painter has things about their piece that they hate or didn’t come out totally as they wanted, but what means the most is to see your work through someone else’s lens literally! Seeing these images really helped me celebrate what I DID do for a moment rather than what I didn’t do. I learned so much on this project and between the freehanding and tree building that I’d never done before, I really got to see those things sing in the photos.

Kevin Kirkus – Grand Army of the Republic – Immobilized TX-130.

Were there any final changes you made or last touches? Did everything come together exactly as planned?

For the most part I think this came together as I expected.

What is your favorite part of the piece?

My favorite part to pull off were the blaster hits that are still hot. I think it sells the idea that the saber was ambushed and the droids started blasting it after it was stalled out.

What did you learn from completing this challenge that you’ll take forward into your next project?

I should’ve leaned maybe 10% harder into the wrecked aspect of it. I didn’t do much treatment to the undercarriage since it’s not visible from any “gaming angles” but as a display it would’ve been served to show how the impact scuffed the bed of the hull.

What’s it like to see your finished vehicle and spec ops crew through the lens of our on terrain photography team?

Matt makes my tank and the squad look fantastic, as per usual from the whole photography team. The group shot really sells the narrative of the ARCs deploying just in time to defend the crew, while waiting on more reinforcements.

Justus Morschauser – Separatists – Crash a playable AAT

Were there any final changes you made or last touches? Did everything come together exactly as planned?

Final touches included some silvery flecks to show the metal under the paint job, a dark muck wash, and eerily bloody looking rust to make the tank look a bit more menacing. Overall I like how this turned out, and it came together how I envisioned it. It’s seen many battles and will see many more.

What is your favorite part of the piece?

I’m very satisfied with the hatch that opens to show off the AAT driver battle droid calling for help. My spec ops team is painted like the enemy units found in Star Wars: Republic Commando, but the driver is painted in the standard green AAT driver indicator. My personal story is that the tank is an outsider on the team. They loathe the pilot that’s constantly getting the AAT stuck and into trouble. The tactical droid leader is always running computations, hoping to strategically determine that the AAT isn’t worth saving. The tank is a valuable asset though, and the pilot reliably manages to save the team in the end!

What did you learn from completing this challenge that you’ll take forward into your next project?

Makeup brushes are effective stand-ins for painter brushes. I wanted to do a pass of dry brushing, but I didn’t have any rounded brushes that suited the job. My fiancé had some old makeup brushes that worked perfectly!

What’s it like to see your finished vehicle and spec ops crew through the lens of our on terrain photography team?

It really transcends these models from being paint and plastic into true characters. Our photography team here is phenomenal and I love seeing what they did with my work.

 

Thank you for following along with our progress on this Atomic Mass Games Staff Hobby Challenge. We hope it has inspired you to challenge yourself to look at miniatures in new narratively focused ways. In the meantime, we’re hard at work planning the next challenge and we can’t wait to share it with you!