The Bronze Legion - Ready for Battle!

    The Bronze Legion assembled - five squads totaling 24 points for Xenos Rampant

 

With the last squad of heavy infantry for the Bronze Legion finished, I can officially say this "detachment" (as Xenos Rampant calls a player's force) is ready for the tabletop. These last five figures should have been a breeze to paint up, but when they were about 3/4's of the way done, I got sick a couple weeks back. It sapped all my energy, so they sat there, partially painted, in the basement waiting for my recovery.

    Progress on the final squad of heavy infantry for the legion was delayed by two weeks of sickness

The heavy infantry for the Bronze Legion comes from the "Troopers" box of the Stargrave Miniatures plastic kit. I'm ashamed to say that it wasn't until gluing together this batch that I noticed the left and right arms had matching numbers. That certainly made positioning the arms of the figures bracing their weapon with their left hand easier! I'm still a bit of a novice still at this "assembling miniatures" stage of painting figures. I prefer metal miniatures, but realize that so many people like the kit-bashing aspect of plastic figures that they are here to stay.

    I think the Wiley Games 3-D printed and Stargrave plastic figures go together well for this force

I painted them up identically to the last batch. They were spray primed with Krylon acrylic matte black, which I always follow up brushing on a 50/50 mix of water and acrylic black paint. Next, I do a medium gray dry brush over the figures to bring out some highlights on the black. I remembered this time to NOT do a black wash over these areas at the end. Last time I did that and it erased my gray highlighting! It was on to the armor next, which I painted using a metallic craft paint called "Ancient Bronze." After some bright red detail on the belts and back armor plate, all that was left was the figures' weapons. I like how my method for painting Sci-Fi weapons has been working out. I start with a metallic gray craft paint base color, add some details in metallic brown, and finally highlights in silver. Weapons, faces, and the armor then receive a dark black vehicle wash from Vallejo. At that point they are ready for clearcoating, with one final step of painting gloss on their visors and the red dot on their backpacks.

    Wiley Games B3AST provides some heavy support for the legion, counting as a "Fighting Vehicle"

I'm sticking with my urban style flocking on the bases, using Woodland Scenics fine Mixed Gray Ballast. Before applying it, though, I glue a couple bricks to represent rubble, and then over bricks and ballast I do a black wash. One or two tufts and mixed green flocking and the figure is ready for the tabletop. It was fun to assemble the whole detachment and take some pictures. I am giving the Bronze Legion a fighting vehicle (in Xenos Rampant terms) to round out the force. This is the B3AST tracked Bot from Wiley Games. Its color scheme somewhat matches the Bronze Legion, so I figured it would be a good fit.

    Seeing how few figures it takes to field a force in Xenos Rampant, I ditched the 2-figs = 1 SP scale

I have also pointed out my detachment for Xenos Rampant, too. I have officially backed off of the two figures equals one strength point. I am going all in with a one-to-one ratio. As you can see with the legion, it really doesn't take that many figures to do a 24-point force. Here is how I plan to field the legion:

• 5 strength points Elite Infantry with Commander: (includes Back into the Fray, Firefight, Ranger), +2 points for Heavy Weapon = total 8 points.
• 5 strength points Elite Infantry: (includes Back into the Fray, Firefight, Ranger) = total 6 points.
• 5 strength points Heavy Infantry: (includes Go to Ground, Firefight), +1 point for Armor Piercing = total 3 points.
• 5 strength points Heavy Infantry: (includes Go to Ground, Firefight), +1 point for Armor Piercing = total 3 points.
• 5 strength points Fighting Vehicle: (includes All Terrain, Anti-tank, High-powered blades), -2 points for Light Armored Vehicle = total 4 points.

Total Detachment Points = 24

    I'm excited to play my first game of Xenos Rampaint, which could be very soon...!

What's up next? I have assembled another squad of five figures for Xenos Rampant. This will be another batch of Blue-skinned Troopers for Xenos Rampant. This will finish out that detachment, as well. When that squad is complete, I will have four detachments done.

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures purchased in 2024: 15
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 31