Stargrave – A Star Wars Story Pt 2

As mentioned in the first article, I bought the first models online on Etsy and printed the later ones at home, so let us see, what you get for your money online.

If you're not a patreon but buying the files individually (especially if you joined later) the question for make or buy was - especially without a printer - not that big of a decision. At 5,20 USD for STLs versus 10,99 EUR printed and shipped it is a close call (in low numbers).

• Bill Burr / Migs Mayfeld - Wiseguy Crackshot
• Giancarlo Esposito / Moff Gideon - Authority Viscount
• Din Djarin & Grogu - Cradle Baby & The Huntsman
• Fennec Shand - Widowmaker Sniper
• Cara Dune - Veteran Mercenary
• Twi'Lek - Insurgent Leader
• Luke Skywalker - The Dire Rescue

The resin used for the printed miniatures I ordered from Wargames3D is a bit more flexibel compared to the regular Anycubic resin (a slightly more rubbery feel to it as well), and on some cases the print steps where visible depending on the angle. They were properly cured, no resin leaking or something. I just had a torn spot on the vest of the Twi'lek Insurgent Leader, but that's fixable quite easily. And Wargames3D adds FDM printed SWL bases to them as well. No broken pieces, proper packaging and for international shipping (inside the EU) they arrived quite fast - especially if you count in, that they were sent by economy mail.

For comparison, the regular Star Wars Legion miniatures - mostly not all - come snipped of the sprue in individual bags with the pieces  you need to assemble the miniature. They are some kind of softer plastic. The newer releases are on a sprue and made from polystyrene. The fit is quite solid, the miniature for the size comparison is just pushed together, without any glue. As you can see, the size  of the Skull Forge models is a proper fit and I think Jordan Cuffie catched the style in a convincing way to make them fit in with the remaining range.

How large are these miniatures? Star Wars Legion miniatures are 35mm scale (eye-level) and translate pretty close to 1:48 scale (this is important if you want to add model kit to cover vehicles for example). Just keep in mind, that similar to Warhammer, often larger kits like vehicles have a sliding scale and are not properly in scale with the infantry, but scaled down to 75-85%. They are still present and towering over other things on the table, but not unnecessary filling up space. Anyhow, there are model kits for example by Revell or Bandai from the Star Wars universe in 1:48, which are cheaper than the regular Star Wars Legion kits, so depending on what you need, they can be an alternative. Especially for me as I only have limited possibility to print those myself, due to the measurements of my Mono 4K.

To give you a better idea of what 35mm means in this circumstances, here's a comparison with a first born Space Marine on the left and a Imperial Assault miniature from the Fantasy Flight Boardgame, which are about the size of the WizKids Star Wars miniatures.

About the bases. I am unsure which to choose here. First of all, using 35mm scale miniatures doesn't make a difference for this game (I could add 20% to all ranges to translate the 28mm scale kept in mind while this ruleset was written, but that would just cause unncessary work without providing any benefit). And it is very similar for bases. The rules just note, that most bases for miniatures used in this game are round and about 25 to 32mm in diameter, and as we have very little template weaponry, this really doesn't matter that much.

For me it was the choice between flat bases (like the ones made by Renedra) and the bevelled edge bases as you know them by many many manufacturers, like Star Wars Legion from stock or Citadel. Beyond that I am uncertain if I should go for a fixed diameter of 25 or 32mm, or try to use the smallest base possible, which should create along with the flat bases the highest level of immersion.

So what do you think, would be the best option?

• Option A - 32mm flat round base
• Option B - 25mm flat round base (or smallest possible for each miniature)
• Option C - 25-32mm bevelled edge bases

Let me know!