I painted up my Legion B2 Droids early in my entry in to the game system. I knew I wanted these mini, as soon as I saw them, as they are very iconic to me. Well, I painted them up and was generally happy with how they came out.
I noticed after a while that the silver I originally painted them with was showing through the basing. I guess the GW earth had reactivated the brown I painted over the base that was sprayed silver with the rest of the figures (I no longer spray the bases with the figures). This was bothering me, when I saw it on the tabletop and know I would have to fix this at some point.
Another thing that was causing some issues with the models, was in game play. The short range heavy weapons on the models were a bit hard to spot during play. In addition, there were no markings on the command droid to identify it on the tabletop. I tried to have each use a pointing arm, but this was not clear enough when players were using the units.
So, I started back on my Legion painting and decided I needed to fix these. So, I pulled them out of the cabinet and went to work. I started by hitting the bases with a brown wash to fill in all the cracks that the silver was poking through. I had to go back and hit a couple of spots again, but got enough coverage to be happy. I then had to re-drybrush all the bases with Vallejo Iraqi Sand to pick up the detail and lighten them up to match the other figures again.
I then decided to add a little blue on the key figures to mark out the command and weapons. I decided on this color, as it was the same thing I did on my Persuader tank and matched with the CIS color scheme. So, I went back and hit the heavy weapon housings with some contrast blue trim. Since all the other CIS commanders have some type of head coloration, I decided to follow that example and hit the domes on each head of the commander with blue contrast. I then hit the main areas of each with some Magic Blue.
With that, they should be ready for the next game. Hopefully, no more confusion on what model is what!
- Manteuffel