This week I was rummaging through my Star Wars Legion spares box, filled with all those leftover and unused bits from past kits, to see if I could find enough pieces to kit-bash a couple of new models. I managed to come up with two, the first model was a Mandalorian riding a dinosaur. The model began with a child’s plastic dinosaur that I had picked up from a local discount shop. The rider uses the spare body of a seated Clone Trooper combined with an unused Mandalorian head and jet-pack. The figure fitted neatly on the dinosaur, and I sculpted a saddle and straps using Green Stuff epoxy putty, while the reins were made from thin wire.
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| A kit-bashed model for my Star Wars Legion collection. |
The hardest part of this model turned out to be painting the dinosaur. In my first attempt I used a grey base with a blue wash. It did not look right at all. So, after a bit of research into dinosaur colours and patterns, I tried again with a clay tone and yellow shading. This gave the creature a far more natural and interesting appearance, well suited to a desert environment.
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| The unpainted model with the plastic toy dinosaur. |
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| The dinosaur colour and. patterning took a while to get right. |
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| The Mandalorian rider will be able to serve with either Imperial or Rebel forces. |
The reason I decided to make the rider a Mandalorian, was so the model could serve with either Imperial or Rebel forces. The idea of using a dinosaur came from my existing Imperial Dewback Rider, and the scale of the model fits perfectly alongside it.
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| A comparison to the "Official" Dewback Rider. |
The second kit-bashed model I put together was a repair droid. Its body comes from the centre console of another model. I always paint in the windows so I can skip building the interiors. The head and tracks were taken from an unused variant of a different droid kit, while the spare arms came from a more humanoid-style of droid. With all these mismatched parts combined, the finished model definitely has a bit of a Frankenstein vibe to it.
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| The kit-bashed droid. |
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| he droid seems to be waving his arms around saying "Danger! Danger!" |
I plan to use the droid to undertake repairs to any damaged vehicles in my Star Wars games.
Great work Peter. What "scale/size" are the figures?
ReplyDeleteThe Star Wars Legion figures are about 32mm.
DeleteGreat work there Peter on both models and one of the joys of our hobby is the ability to kit bash stuff to suit our needs and whims:).
ReplyDeleteIt is great fun when the kit-bashing works and you end up with a unique model. Sometimes if it does not look right I end up starting again with a different approach.
DeleteYour models look great. Are the riders very effective in games? I’d have thought they were a fairly big potential target, likely to attract plenty of incoming enemy fire. Personally I’d be more tempted to use them very much in the role of dragoons (not that I know anything about Star Wars gaming).
ReplyDeleteOver the years I’ve collected a fair few robot & droid models. I’m going more for a Robot rebellion vs Judge Dredd type thing. Now I’m retired perhaps I might have time to complete some of these projects 😉
Cheers,
Geoff
Thanks. I agree the rider is somewhat exposed sitting hight up on the beast. One of the advantages of space opera type games you can get away wth that sort of thing. Good luck with your robot/droid project.
DeleteClever use of left over bits, Peter. I have often considered a few Dollar Shop dinosaurs for Pulp games, but have not actually bought any yet....one day, perhaps!
ReplyDeleteI think this is the first time I have tried out any miniatures from the discount store. I believe I have one more figure I could convert and will be looking for another dinosaur, maybe a flying one!
DeleteLovely bit of modelling Peter, the dinosaur looks like it was made for the job, well spotted for picking it up, and a lovely paint job on it, really nice. The droid is a fun piece and should add to the table.
ReplyDeleteThe dinosaur did work out well, better than I expected when I started the model. As for the little droid, it will appear on the tabletop, even if it is just treated as terrain.
DeleteGreat work on the dino and rider Peter.
ReplyDeleteI like the robot. With the large rear compartment it seems to be a courier droid 😁
Thanks. Maybe it contains spare parts so it can fix things.
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