Our community-driven series of articles covering the basics of Star Wars™: Legion continues with today's entry from Kevin Valliere. Here, Kevin demystifies what can be one of the largest barriers of entry for new players: assembling, constructing, and painting your miniatures. Whether you strive for movie-accurate versions of iconic units or are creating a unique look for your army, join him as he breaks down the steps you can take to bring your armies to life!

In the last article, we talked about why Star Wars: Legion is such an exciting hobby to start.

But what if you’ve never assembled or painted a miniature before? It can seem quite intimidating to learn and purchase everything you need at first, but it’s really quite a simple process to go from spare parts to a table-ready miniature. In this article, we’ll take a look at exactly what that process looks like!

Step 1: Assemble and Prime

To begin, we’ll need to assemble our miniatures.

For the Republic forces (just like for the Empire and Rebellion), all we need to do is dry fit the various parts together to make sure they fit (using the instructions provided in every Core Set and expansion), then use any old super glue to secure them to the main body. Easy is as easy does.

The Separatist forces, however, introduced a new, harder plastic for Star Wars: Legion minis that, while it allows the creation of miniatures with long thin pieces, like B1 Battle Droids, does require a bit more careful assembly. These miniatures come on sprues, or plastic sheets used in the molding process. Assembling them takes a bit longer, as you’ll need some clippers to cut them out of the plastic mold, and then you’ll want to use a plastic glue to fuse the plastic together. Both methods are easy to do with just a little bit of practice.

Once all of your miniatures are assembled, go to a well-ventilated area and prime them. Generally speaking, a white or grey primer works really well for these specific miniatures. While it’s possible to paint up to nice white armor from a black prime, you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble if you just start with a lighter primer. You can either go ahead and glue your miniatures to their bases before priming, or secure them with a sticky putty and glue them on later.

To prime well, hold the can about a foot away from the miniature, then do a gentle sweeping motion in one direction, only briefly holding down the nozzle. This will give you a light, even coat over the whole model (and help prevent you from losing any cool details).

Let everything dry, then move on to step two.