Friday, 19 June 2026

"He's The Freedom Fighter."

"A symbol of the Wookiee resistance, striking at the Empire from the Shadowlands."

This 32mm scale hard plastic miniature of a Wookie Leader used to be produced by “Fantasy Flight Games” and can be found inside the company's old four-figure strong "Wookie Warriors" Expansion Box for "Star Wars: Legion". Fortunately, I was lucky enough to pick this one up second-hand and pre-assembled from the Retrocave Gaming Café in Poole, having previously pigmented the exact same sculpt some seven years ago.

As with my first painted miniature, the figure was undercoated with "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, and shaded with "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. However, as I wanted this Wookie to somewhat stand out from my other squad I only dry-brushed him with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna (to make his fur appear a bit darker), and then applied some rarely-used Beasty Brown on all of his numerous ammunition pouches. All of these areas were then shaded with "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade.

"Every great leader needs their own Wookiee."

I next simply applied some "Citadel" Abaddon Black to the Wookie's bandoleer, and later patiently 'picked out' its ammunition clips, as well as the Rebel's Ryyk Blade and Kashyyyk Pistol with "Vallejo" Gunmetal. These parts were subsequently all washed with plenty of "Citadel" Nuln Oil. Furthermore, I dabbed the Warrior's nose and eye sockets with a smidgeon (more) of "Citadel" Abaddon Black, before dabbing the odd gun-holster strap using a combination of "Vallejo" Beasty Brown and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade.

Alongside the last of my Wookies I have based and primed a trio of Spooks and Ghosts produced by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" as part of my third monthly randomly-selected drawer-based challenge. To be honest I initially thought that all of these monsters were 'inspired' by the Warner Brothers Entertainment franchise "Scooby Doo". However, having done some basic 'Google-Fu' it would seem that the likes of the Headless Ghost didn't surprisingly appear within the "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" television episodes as I had thought.

"Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" WIPs - Sheet Ghost, Undead Astronaut and Prospector Ghost

In addition, the sculptor Andrew May has added so much more detail to the figures than was ever shown on the animated cartoon show. From a wargamer's perspective this certainly makes the likes of The Undead Astronaut and Prospector Ghost far more interesting to look at. But from a painter's point of view my plan to quickly rattle out a trio of straightforward paint-jobs, which largely just needed a basic undercoat, wash and dry-brush, has been significantly torpedoed in its tracks.

I'm also not terribly sure just how many of these ghouls I can get tabletop ready over the next few weeks, as having searched through my backlog I actually found I own quite a few of these evil-doers. I did initially think that I might make good use of some of them with "The Silver Bayonet" by "Osprey Games". Albeit I'm now more inclined to simply pigment the Lincolnshire-based company's Meddling Kids set too, and devise a homebrew version of "The Silver Bayonet" which better utilises the flavour of the classic 1969-1970 cartoon series instead...

10 comments:

  1. Excellent group of Wookies Simon, never got any of the Fantasy Flight version, but do have the Atomic Mass version due to them being in the starter set, and actually went through the parts left over and found I can make another five, just by sculpting legs and torsos, so you may see some more on mine before too long.
    The ghosts should be interesting to paint up, if I was going to do these I'd probably start with a base layer of the ghost green GW do, then put in simple glazes of the color I wanted for each area, to give a ghost feel to them, but would take some time, you could do a light drybrush of white over the green, before the glaze colors.

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    1. By the way, your blog has been hit by the delay that seems to be going around, and is not showing up in feeds !

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    2. Thanks Dave. I might actually have a third Fantasy Flight Wookie Squad in the loft. But I'd need to go a huntin' for it first. LOL!! I look forward to seeing yours appear on your blog as that was my main motivation for buying this quartet in the first place.

      I'm actually planning on painting all the CD Ghosts as if they were the Scooby Doo villains. So there's not much opportunity for spectral themes - as they're all just baddies wearing costumes. LOL!!

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    3. Oh yes. I did read some people complaining about their blogs not showing up in people's feeds for some reason. I just thought everyone was thinking this was one of my other Wookie-lead postings - which I know some have done in the past. LOL!!

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  2. I do love the Wookie sculpts and wish I had painted mine more like you have done here. Really looking forward to seeing what you do with those Crooked Dice ghosts as have some spectral soldiers that need painting.

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    1. Cheers Michael. The Wookies were lot of fun to paint. I've done one of the Scooby-Doo ghosts as a spectral entity as I couldn't find it on the TV show's roster so just went with a classic colour scheme. He should be posted up early next week.

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  3. Wookiees look great! Hope they'll perform savagely on the tabletop when you find time to play mate.

    Was never a ScoobyDoo fan, but the assorted villains did put up some interesting designs for sure. I think you'll have more fun painting these up than you are anticipating. :)

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    1. Thanks Dai. Not sure I'll be using them for Star Wars: Legion, as that game seems to swap and change its rules all the time. But might sub them in for a homebrew game of The Silver Bayonet or Kill Team. LOL!!

      I've got a few of the Scooby-Doo villains close to completion already, so certainly having some fun with them.

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  4. Sorry for the late reply mate, I did think it was one of your previous "Wookie posts" as you put it, but even so I should have checked. Another excellent Wookie hero mate, are Wookie like tree's (you can never have to many?)
    Love the Scooby villains, especially the Astronaut, they had some pretty cool monsters in Scooby Doo as I recall, then it all went wrong when the added Scappy Doo!!!
    Cheers Roger.

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    1. No problems, Roger. I think a few people thought something similar for my last Wookie post too. I like to mix postings up where I can but sometimes I just have to lead with what I've painted. LOL!!

      Should have some of the Scooby Doo villains posted soon. Got six of them on the go - all at different stages.

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