I have been radio silent on the blog for a bit but I haven’t been idle. I’ve been working on a pair of WWII painting tutorials which I hope to finish soon^TM and I have been messing about with my new FDM printer. That said, I have been sidetracked in a major “galaxy far far away” way.

I am a huge Star Wars nerd. While I grew up during the releases of “Prequels” I love all of the eras and iterations of the Star Wars story and universe. My first real exposure to table top and role play gaming was the Star Wars RPG in high school. I have many fond memories of missions involving a line up of motley outcasts who used questionable tactics to achieve their probably unethical goals. Equally important to my nerd journey was Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic I and II on my Xbox. Being able to explore planets and the interact with the populations gave me an appreciation for the depth and breadth of the universe. I loved seeing the diverse locations and their very unique story telling potential.

The universe outside of the Skywalker saga was always so rich and almost intoxicating for me as a young man. While lightsabers and hokey religions were nifty I found myself enamored with life outside of the Jedi and Sith struggle. I have always been captivated by the life occurring below the spit shined upper class societies. I am talking seedy swoopbike gangs, mercenaries in cantinas, vibro-blade duels, and bounty hunters stalking their prey through the living sea of creatures and cultures. The poverty, desperation, fear, and hope on billions of planets are fertile ground for the beginning of an epic journey. The life of the common grunt on the frontlines of a galaxy spanning conflict drew me in as well. There are a ton of stories to tell about the men and women who were drawn into the Emperor’s callous grab for power. Most were pulled in by duty or by a sense of injustice. Coincidentally both are perfect back stories for gaming.

I have yearned for a way to bring Star Wars back into my gaming life for quite some time. I played the X-Wing miniatures game on and off since it came out but it ended up being too much of a meta chase for me to enjoy. I played Armada which scratched an itch for capital ships duking it out in low orbit. Alas the games, while enjoyable, were long and also far in-between. Star Wars Legion caught my eye and wallet as I ended up buying a rebel army to convert and a droid army to get up and running quickly. Well and the fact that the clankers gave me a healthy shot of nostalgia juice. But again, I was swayed by other projects where my friends were more invested. This ends the tale of Darth Plagueis the Wise, wait, no I mean my Star Wars gaming journey… or so I thought.

Once I embraced Chain of Command for a second time I quickly found someone had made a conversion to move the game into the Star Wars universe. While playing CoC: SW is still a goal of mine it required I bring at least one if not two larger forces online. This meant a hefty time investment and as I am a father of two padawans that becomes problematic.

One of my good hobby friends is Michael Charge of ChargeBlog fame. Michael is a bad influence. Very bad indeed. (Evan: I agree with Ben here.) When Too Fat Lardies released What a Cowboy (WAC) and Michael began to talk about “What a Nerf Herder” I knew I was done for. What a Nerf Herder is a fan developed (or at the time of this post developing) port of the What a Cowboy rules into the Star Wars universe. After enjoying the Western cinematic style of “The Mandalorian” seasons one and two I had a hard time keeping the thoughts of gaming Star Wars on the table top out of my head. The desert tumbleweed town and cantina really pushed my buttons.

What a Cowboy is a skirmish level game where each player controls a group of approximately half a dozen figures comprising of your characters and their posse. This could be law men or the outlaws terrifying the countryside that they are trying to round up. If it worked for the old west it could work for the Outer Rim.

Then like a sledgehammer to the head I had a moment of clarity. I finally understood why I had been collecting Star Wars STLs for the past three years. It was the time of Reckoning. With my new FDM printer and my trusty Elegoo Saturn resin printer standing by idly it was the perfect time to start a palette cleanser project.

I one of the STL sets I bought in 2020 was the Cochin District industrial terrain from Imperial Terrain. I was sold by the Kickstarter images. Just looking at them you can smell the burned O-zone and hear the screech of tortured metal found in a ship breaking facility.

Of course I had to buy the worker droids, the local boss man foreman, head of “security” and his muscle to act as security for the facility. For $9 USD I got a whole crew of characterful minis to populate my ship graveyard. That set can be found here. After printing one set I think I need to run off another set of the droids so I can have a full platoon of metallic laborers. These guys just scream shady underbelly of the empire which enamors me to no end.

So I fired up my Bambu Labs P1P and started printing industrial and star port terrain. The next step is to finish reading the PDF of the rules. I’ve been salivating at the thought of an Imperial Remnant detachment raiding an Outer Rim settlement for supplies. Or maybe they are reconnoitering out of commission Imperial starships for data on weapons caches lost to the sands of time. Either way I can’t imagine a rebel special forces group will let the Imperial activity go unpunished…