From GregB: Director Krennic and Death Trooper Bodyguards (49 points)

Director Krennic and his Death Trooper body guards - figures from Fantasy Flight Games

For my last submission today (sorry Stuart!) we have the antagonist from the film "Rogue One" - Director Krennic, accompanied by his bodyguard squad of sinister Imperial Death Troopers. These are all figures from Fantasy Flight Games range for Star Wars "Legion". 

One of the many things that made "Rogue One" so awesome was the non-supernatural nature of the protagonists and antagonists. Clearly, it was a sci-fi setting of course, with all that can entail, but Ben Mendelsohn's portrayal of Director Krennic, leader of the Death Star development program, was so well done. Thankfully, the Death Star or the Galactic Empire do not exist in the real world (at least, not yet), but Director Krennic types are everywhere in our increasingly futile-o-crat bound society. Krennic is a pencil pusher, a super bureaucrat, adept at navigating and climbing in the bureaucracy of the Galactic Empire. Never mind The Force, he has a Program with a Budget. Never mind Order 66, Krennic could have simply buried the Jedi order with TPS report audits. 

Director Krennic, prepared to sort out a few bureaucratic SNAFUs personally...

Sure, he is working on a genocide-level terror weapon, but for him it's all about getting the credit - even after Vader nearly strangles him! Will the Emperor be told I did a good job? Switch out "Death Star" and replace it with "Winnipeg Regional Health Authority" or "Competition Bureau of Canada" and his movie dialogue is depressingly close to real-life. Death Stars and Sith Lords are products of our imagination, but there are Director Krennics all over the place, right now, in our world, accumulating a defined benefit pension obligation that your taxes will have to somehow fund.

So look, he makes an awesome character for a Star Wars game! And Fantasy Flight did a great job on the miniature, although having his pistol drawn is a touch aspirational - I would have preferred him to be holding a stylus or a file folder. But the sculptor captured Krennic's near-constant annoyance with his subordinates, and for that, deserves praise!

The Imperial Death Troopers, on the other hand, are thankfully NOT a common feature of our real world. I believe the idea for these Troopers came from one of the Star Wars FPS video games from the 90s? I'm not certain on that, but they sure looked cool in "Rogue One".

No need to panic! The Death Trooper are here!

Not only is their armour black, sleek and sinister, but they are festooned with all sorts of different blasters - which they carry with them everywhere! The "Rogue One" film handled them brilliantly - I mean, sure, a small child DID manage to out-whit them (they didn't seem too intent on burning up calories to search for young Jyn Erso, did they?), but notice how the Death Troopers never have any silly Stormtrooper-esque dialogue (i.e. "they're over there!" or "get them" or whatever). Rather, when they are present you catch the faint audio snippets of some kind of closed-channel radio chatter, and that's it. They are communicating with each other, but the only message they'll send to you will come from the barrel of a blaster. I find it makes them more sinister.

I love these poses - Curt described them as having a real "special forces" look, and I think that description is perfect.

Finally, when they are sent to combat, they actually hit pretty hard, exacting a heavy toll on the brave Rebel's making the raid on Scarif.

A handy DLT-19D blaster on the left, while the fellow on the right prepares a grenade...they are going to clear that room...

Great firing poses - they might actually hit something!

Once more, I have to hand it to the sculptors employed by Fantasy Flight Games - they really nailed these models. The blasters, the grenades, the grenade launchers, the harnesses, the cool helmets, it's all there.

Now painting these all-black sinister SOBs was a bit of a head scratcher....how to capture the look? Maybe this called for some grisaille? Hah! Hell no. In the end, I did my best with grey highlights and a lot of black washes. Thankfully GW's new "Nuln Oil" is not as f*cked over as its new "Agrax Earthshade", and so still has applications on subject like this. I also added some red for the eye lenses and scopes, and touch of green on the helmets. I considered attempting some kind of gloss varnish, but decided against it in the end. 

The garrison deploys...

So, these seven 40mm figures should be good for another 49 points - and should also bring today's journey through the Star Wars setting to an end. Thanks for reading - if work travel allows, I should have something next week, but if not, well, we'll catch up on another Saturday after that. Keep up the great work everyone!

If only the world rewarded/punished all of its bureaucrats based on their actual performance, maybe the world would be a better place. Sadly this is not the case and we probably aren't that far off having our first Sith Lords (minus the magic powers) running the place.

These figures make a nice icing on your Imperial cake, hopefully they serve you well on the tabletop and the Emperor will be pleased.