NR-N99 Persuader-Class Droid Enforcer Model Kit Review (AMG)

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Love it or hate it, the Separatist Alliance Persuader-Class Tank is a versatile all terrain troop carrier and heavy support vehicle with a range of deadly weapon options. While it may not pack quite the same punch as a straight up battle tank, the NR-N99 or Snail tank should not be underestimated! As seen in Revenge of the Sith leading the invasion of Kashyyyk, this massive semi-aquatic tracked vehicle can roll over pretty much any type of terrain. But how does the model kit measure up? Red on to find out...  

Look and feel (5 / 5)

The screen time for this vehicle in the Star Wars movies was minimal at best and despite a lot of people hating the goofy looking eyes, I absolutely love this vehicle! If you were making a Droid army, why wouldn't you apply the same level of artificial intelligence to the vehicles?!

Personally I love the design - that monstrous central track section bracketed by those secondary tracked sleds and it's obscenely large laser cannons offset the slightly comedic eyes, maintaining a feeling of menace.

Yet again, the miniature is a meticulous reproduction of the onscreen vehicle - the level of accuracy achieved for the Droid range really is quite brilliant!

One of the things I really love about the vehicles in the Legion range is that they have some larger flat panels for you to really go to town on as a painter. This miniature is even more of a treat as it contains a ton of internal details and intricate slices in the panel work so that you can see into the inner working of the Droid!

For this reason, I'd highly recommend painting this kit in several sub assemblies before completing the full build so you get the benefit of that beautifully painted interior detail.

 

Functionality, Cost & Quality (5 /5)

Although this is one of the more expensive kits, given the sheer number of components, level of detail in the design and the overall high quality of the components, I'd say that this is definitely worth the price for what you get.

In addition to the main tank, you also get two B1 Battle Droids which can be built as passengers to ride on the tracked pontoons of the NR-N99 - this is a fantastic nod to the scene where these tanks are seen emerging from the sea carrying a swathe of Battle Droids into the heart of the Republic forces.

Once assembled, the model is very solid and the heavy base gives you something substantial to move the miniature around with so that you don't need to handle it more than necessary. The aerials, gun barrels and the support rail around the hull are a little fragile, but as long as you;re careful, there's not much danger of them being snapped off while gaming.

Construction (5 / 5)

As I've already mentioned, this miniature needs to be built in sub-assemblies in order to paint all of the internal details. I would recommend spraying all of the components with a silver base coat while still on the sprues to save yo some time.

You could go ahead and assemble it with just bare silver components on the internals and it would look just fine. Otherwise, some light washes to pick out the details are all that's really necessary before sealing up the hull sections and attaching the tracks. This approach will save you a lot of time and still let you appreciate all of those otherwise hidden details!

The construction itself is straightforward but may be challenging for new model makers. This is nothing like the assembly of most Droid kits and is a lot more complex than the AAT battle tank which I would recommend as an easier starter vehicle.

Having said all of that, if you;re willing to work through the build methodically and put in the effort, the results are absolutely worth it! The assembly instructions are pretty straightforward and easy to follow, with the only area of concern being the seams of the weapon barrels which will need to be cleaned up after assembly - this isn't really a negative, just a note for anyone that hasn't assembled long two-part barrels before. Some plastic glue, masking tape to keep the components in place while they dry, a light sanding and some patience are all that's really required for a great result.

Kit posing and options (5 / 5)

As this kit is a tank, posing isn't really a particularly relevant point. The fact that the main laser batteries have multiple points of articulation is great, but beyond that, you shouldn't really expect anything else out of the core model in terms of posing.

Where you do get a nice little accessory is in the two B1 Droid riders which come as part of the kit. It's no more difficult to build these than any other B1 Droid and they look great surfing along on the smaller track platforms! I'd recommend painting the B1 Droids before gluing them to the hull for ease. Just note that as one of the Droids is modelled to be placing a hand on the gun, that may limit the positions it can be constructed in if you want to use the passengers (which are totally optional).

I loved the look of the Droid passengers so much that I even cut apart and re-posed four more B1's to ride the hull. I think my favourite is the Droid cradling his missile launcher at the front of the vehicle!

Final Score & Comments (5 / 5)

What can I say, but that you should buy this kit! Maybe try a few simpler ones first if you're a beginner but as intricate centrepiece models go, this is an absolutely fantastic, must have kit!

If you have some spare B1 Droids that you don't need, why not add them to this miniature to increase its already substantial presence on the battlefield?!

I've genuinely spent double on model kits of a lower quality and part counts than this one. While a higher number of parts is sometimes just unnecessary, they all make sense in this set and at some point in the future, I may even treat myself to another!

STAP Riders Model Kit Review (AMG)

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Yet another iconic Droid kit comes screaming in on it's jet turbines! the Separatist Alliance STAP Riders kit is one of the most striking units from the Prequel movies and the Star Wars Legion kit doesn't disappoint!

Look and feel (5 / 5)

Straight out of the gate, this kit captures the feel of the STAP speeder - the proportions and fine details in this kit are absolutely flawless.

Given that the STAP riders tend to have quite a static pose, it's no surprise that the model kit follows suit. I'd argue that if you attempted to make the Droids look too dynamic, you'd actually move further away from what makes these guys great.

I love how these fast gun platforms look, with absolutely minimal attention given over to safety or armour, with the fully exposed B1 Droids flying casually into the heart of the enemy without an apparent care in the world!

This visual austerity just reinforces how little the trade federation values individual Droids; unlike the hero Droids such as R2D2, we're encouraged to laugh at and disregard the destruction of these machines like a disposable coffee cup!

All in all, I think the kit brilliantly represents everything I love about Droid STAP riders and anyone creating a Droid army should definitely pick up some of these characterful little flyers! 

Functionality, Cost & Quality (5 /5)

As with their other kits, AMG have produced another high quality product with crisply moulded components and rather attractive packaging. I haven't actually mentioned it before, but I genuinely do think their box art is second to none. I adore beautifully painted action scenes on a box cover and this one in particular has such a great vibe to it!

In terms of the contents vs cost, I actually think these guys are about right for what you get, which is two STAP riders per box. Considering this is a full unit, I think it's a no brainer from the Separatist range of boxed sets.

In terms of functionality, these guys are great - as always, the heavier AMG bases keep these miniatures solidly on the tabletop although I must admit that I mounted all four of my STAPs on the smaller of the flying bases as I'm always paranoid about snapping clear acrylic stems as they're almost impossible to fix cleanly!

Construction (4 / 5)

Construction is the only area of this kit where I have some slight misgivings. Although the majority of the kit goes together relatively easily, I do feel that the instructions for this kit could have been a lot better.

The images from the construction guide really aren't very clear when it comes to the foot pedal positions on the platform wings. I assembled the first one incorrectly because of this. The connection point for this part is also very fiddly and thin so isn't very forgiving if you do make a mistake!

My only other grumble is that sticking the clear acrylic bases to the STAPs is a rather rage inducing experience. You have two options - glue them on first and risk getting paint on the stems or paint the STAPs and glue them on afterwards risking your paintwork. I'll also note that as they're acrylic, you must use super glue and that can mist the clear stems.

It would have been far better if the intended socket for the stem was deeper allowing a proper friction fit where the ball joint could pop in and out of the hole allowing you to remove the bases or reposition the STAPs on them. This may sound picky, but for someone who has had to fix broken acrylic stands more times that I can count, this is a big bugbear.

Kit posing and options (5 / 5)

The posing options for these miniatures is ok insofar as there are two bodies each with a single pose. This gives you a little variety even with a couple of packs, but as they're mass produced Droids, you wouldn't expect much variation anyway.

Where poseability comes in is with the STAP platforms themselves as you can get some pretty wild angles from them if you so choose - all you need to do is reposition the head and you can have a wicked-cool Droid Tokyo Drifting his STAP round a tight corner!

As far as options go, there is one alternative and and aerial to turn a single B1 into a commander, but as there is no option for this in the unit entry, it really is just an aesthetic choice. It's nice to have the option of a Droid angrily shaking his little fist at a pesky Jedi!

Final Score & Comments (4 / 5)

I think four stars might be a bit harsh as I do really love these little guys, but they are the only kit I think back to being genuinely enraged by when the base stem refused to stick or the pilot wouldn't sit right because the instructions weren't clear enough on how his feet should connect to his speeder.

Overall, I'd recommend the kit although I would also highly recommend dry fitting all the components before applying glue and have some super glue and activator spray ready in advance to get the best out of posing these miniatures on their bases! 

DSD1 Dwarf Spider Droid Model Kit Review (AMG)

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This is my Star Wars Legion review for the Separatist Alliance's kooky little artillery walker, the DSD1 Dwarf Spider Droid.

Look and feel (5 / 5)

Even though the Dwarf Spider Droid only had a blink and you'll miss it appearance in Attack of the Clones, this unique little Droid has such a unique look that it's not surprising they continued to pop up in the Clone Wars animated series.

Despite only having four multi-jointed legs, the bulbous body and spindly limbs actually present quite a spidery profile.

Although comparatively slow compared to some other droid types, the fact that these little clankers can traverse pretty much any obstacle makes them extremely useful for outflanking Republic forces, arriving from unexpected directions.

The fact that these Droids can be equipped with extremely powerful weaponry makes them quite a potent threat; the ability to crawl up from the depths of a lake and deliver heavy blaster fire should not be underestimated!

The Star Wars Legion model kit for the DSD1 seamlessly translates this sassy little mech to the tabletop. The thing I love about the Separatist Droid forces is that each unit has a very unique look. Even the B1 and B2 Droids which have a shared design lineage are unmistakable in silhouette and the Dwarf Spider Droid goes even further.

I love how the Dwarf Spider Droid is scaled; it's fairly squat but is still more substantial than the rest of the ground units in the army. Surprisingly it only just fits onto it's large base!

There is no other unit in the game that looks quite like these little guys and I absolutely love them!

Functionality, Cost & Quality (4 /5)

The boxed set contains a single Dwarf Spider Droid. It feels a little expensive for a single miniature, but is slightly offset by the three weapon options. I feel like this set would have been better if the sprues were designed to build two Spider Droids from three available weapons in order to reduce the cost per unit overall even if the boxed set was more expensive overall (in the same way as the Crab Droid boxed set).

I'd love to get a second Spider Droid at some point but have held off for the time being in order to add other new units. If the cost were lower off the bat, I would definitely have bought two by now.

The quality of the kit is excellent, with nice crisp details which go together beautifully with no gapping. The mould lines on the legs can be a pain to clean up due to where the flash lines are located.

I believe the intention of the kit was to allow you to hot-swap the three weapon options as the head assembly comes apart for a plug and play change. I decided not to use this option due to the very thin aerial which would undoubtedly snap off with over handling. Of the mini. This is the reason I feel sharing three weapon options between two miniatures in a single box would have been more sensible.

Construction (4 / 5)

This kit was very easy to assemble and the AMG instructions from the website were perfectly adequate.

I appreciated the substantial pegs which attached the legs to the domed body as they created a strong fit, avoiding any chance that the legs might come loose or snap off with handling during game play.

In spite of my own reluctance to keep the weapons changeable, it is still an option if you wish to use it.

My only niggle with the construction is with the foot overlap on the base. This is annoying for a gaming model kit which may end up getting caught on other miniatures or scenery and although it's not a deal-breaker, this sort of oversight is irksome for anyone that intends to play regular games with their miniatures. 

Kit posing and options (3 / 5)

I've already mentioned the weapon options in this kit - it comes with three choices, the laser cannon, flame thrower and ion cannon. Each of the three options have been specifically modelled for this miniature so look great regardless of which one you choose. Mine is equipped with the ion cannon, but the flamethrower especially is a great modelling option as it comes with canisters and hoses for the fuel.

The options I haven't mentioned yet at the legs. Now I am normally fine with leg options, but these were just odd. The kit comes with two sets of four legs. One set makes a squatting pose and the other set is a lot more upright.

The trouble is that both poses are quite static in their own way and the upright legs just look a little odd. Quadrupeds normally have a walking rhythm which means their legs alternate in position in order to move their weight distribution between limbs allowing them to lift one or two legs off the ground, moving them then repeating the cycle in order to move their central mass forwards. The upright legs in particular just don't look very naturally posed.

The kit isn't a write-off as you can change the leg rotation a little and even swap the legs between the two sets. I opted for straight legs at the front and squatting legs at the back to make my Droid look like it's angled upwards in a sort of mid-aim pose. The trouble with swapping the legs around is that they no longer sit flush on the base so you either need to hit the join with base kibble or live with the gapping.

In conclusions, I think the way in which the legs and poses were designed was flawed and is my main gripe with this kit.

Final Score & Comments (4 / 5)

Overall I do like this kit, but the niggles with cost and posing have made me hesitant to buy another at this point.

I feel that AMG missed an opportunity to update this set when they moved to the new edition. Just tweaking the leg poses and sprue layout to make a dual kit could have made this an outstanding product, but as it currently stands it's good but not great.

Considering the improvements made to the B1 Battledroids, if feel that this wouldn't have been outside the realms of possibility - I guess the kit just wasn't a big enough priority in amongst some of the other older kits.

B2 Super Battle Droid Model Kit Review (AMG)

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This review will cover the new iteration of the B2 Super Battle Droid miniatures for Star Wars Legion by Atomic Mass Games.

B2 droids are available as a standalone box or as part of the excellent Separatist Alliance starter set. Mine came from the starter set, but the miniatures are exactly the same as those in the standalone boxed set.

Look and feel (5 / 5)

These big metal bruisers look absolutely amazing. They have that lovely chunky upper body and skinnier looking limbs that give B2's their iconic silhouette. Their proportions and out of the box poses are fantastic, with their sleek, sharper Cylon-esque armour plates marking them as a clear upgrade on the standard B1 Droids while maintaining some of their visual cues in foot shape and circular joints.  

These miniatures translate every part of the B2 Droids from the screen to the gaming table, not compromising on the design in any way. If you like the prequel movies and Clone Wars aesthetic, look no further than these heavy hitters!

Functionality, Cost & Quality (5 /5)

These miniatures are super high quality, with very clean lines and crisp details. In terms of cost, I feel that they are a little overpriced, but if  you are picking them up as part of the Separatist starter set, then they work out a lot more reasonable. Having said that, with the currently high oil prices pushing up the cost of plastics and logistics for all products, Star Wars Legion still remains a lot more accessible in terms of cost than other game systems such as Warhammer.

In term of functionality, these guys also hit the mark quite nicely, with the standing figure fitting their base footprint almost perfectly to avoid those annoying storage bumps and knocks. Interspersing this with kneeling figures helps to give the unit some height variation in the unit, again helping with storage and fitting miniatures in close proximity on the battlefield.

My only concern with these miniatures was their top heavy design and comparatively small foot connection to their bases. Happily, these concerns apply a lot less to these guys than it does to the B1 Droids as they a comparatively more flat footed in their poses giving great base contact for glue.

All in all, this is a polished, excellent product which is available at a respectable price point.

Construction (5 / 5)

This kit was an absolute breeze to assemble. Much like the glow up on the B1 Droids, the plastic quality and sprue layout made these exceptionally easy and very enjoyable to put together. They require minimal cleanup although you will want to keep an eye out for some mould lines running down the centre of some armour plates. Anyone who has assembled plastic miniatures will be anticipating this and I'm happy to say it's less of an issue than with some other miniature ranges.

With all of the Droid kits, I found that it was best to fully assemble the miniatures, tacking them to their bases with a tiny spot of super glue, prime them en-mass then remove and texture the bases separately. With most miniatures it isn't an issue, but with such small feet, I didn't want to risk burying their little trotters with texture. This actually made the basing process very quick as I textured, painted and added tufts to around 80 bases in a couple of days! The fact that the B2 Droids are mostly silver made painting them from a silver basecoat spray super easy! The 56 B1s on the other hand... **shudder**

Kit posing and options (4 / 5)

I won't labour over this point, as I covered it in the B1 review - the options in this kit are good, but with a couple of extra weapons to give your unit variety in the game, but again AMG didn't include standard versions for all Droid in the box. I know this is probably me a me problem, but with the cost of the kit and the unit upgrade limitations, I still feel this was a bit of a blunder that could have been avoided with a couple of extra arms on the sprue.

As mentioned above, the out of the box posing of the Droids is excellent and given that they are mass produced units which benefit from a unified look, re-using poses isn't much of an issue here, especially if you the swap arms and bodies from a second box if you don't want exact duplicates.

Final Score & Comments (5 / 5)

Overall I think this kit is worth of a five out of five. It does exactly what it set out to do, avoiding almost all pitfalls of a miniature kit at this price point. My only grumbles weren't enough to drag the score down to a 4 as for the most part I loved building painting and just looking at these miniatures. Of all the Separatist units, I'd happily paint more of these guys in a heartbeat and I cannot recommend them highly enough for anyone starting a Separatist army!

B1 Battle Droid Model Kit Review (AMG)

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This review will cover the basic B1 Battle Droid miniatures for Star Wars Legion (not the specialist add-on which I'll review on their own if / when Atomic Mass Games decide to re-release them).

Firstly, the B1 droids are available as a standalone box or as part of the exceptionally good value Separatist Alliance starter set. To remain fair and objective I will base this review on the standalone box as I also want to do a little comparison between the older retired Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) versions and the newer Atomic Mass Games (AMG) version.

Look and feel (5 / 5)

First up, these droid miniatures look absolutely brilliant. The proportions are perfect and the details such as panel lining are spot on when compared to the film and TV characters.

The iconic standard E-5 blasters from the movies are perfectly recreated in this set. In addition, two troopers are also armed with iconic special weapons from the Clone Wars animated series; the E-5C heavy blaster rifle and E-60R rocket launcher. Again, both weapons are faithfully translated from the original designs.

My only very minor issue was with the squad leaders who, beyond a pair of binoculars and rank colour markings, don't stand out from the squad too well. I don't really think this is an issue with the kit itself though as the mass-produced droids are supposed to look the same in terms of lore - it's just that translating them into miniatures as characters comes with that little niggle which people might find annoying during games (not an uncommon issue and certainly not only for this IP!).

If like me you've always wanted to recreate the massed rows of mechanical troopers from the movies, look no further than this boxed set!

Functionality, Cost & Quality (5 /5)

The new AMG kit generally wins out against the earlier (now discontinued) FFG version of the humble B1 Battle Droid.

Although the newer version of this kit is undoubtedly more expensive than the previous version, you do get marginally more for this comparative rise in cost.

You now get 15 B1 droids (including 2 special weapon troopers and 1 squad sergeant with binoculars) in this boxed set whereas you received only 9 with the same options in the previous set.

The rise in price doesn't just cover the additional figures, but also a massive production uplift using higher quality, more durable plastic and a complete redesign of the sprues. Uniquely, this kit had a complete overhaul with the advent of the new edition under AMG whereas the majority of other kits, while benefiting from better plastic and packaging were effectively the same design.

While QC is generally excellent for the contents of each box, a couple of things niggle at me - the decision to no longer include assembly instructions in the box, instead making them all available online as a PDF download. While it's not a big issue, it baffles me why they still opted to include a large flier with a QR code in the box pointing to their site which could easily have had instructions instead!

The second niggle is the inclusion of gaming cards in every language. I get that they did it to make shipping logistics easier for non-English speaking countries such as Germany (so they are produced in a single batch rather than for each country individually), but it just feels incredibly wasteful that you throw away the majority of the laminated cardstock that came with your minis. The saving grace here is that the reduced supply chain links probably reduce the carbon footprint of the business far more than the environmental cost of the additional cards.

Even though I feel like this kit isn't massively overpriced compared to the older version, I do feel that it should have been slightly cheaper given the availability of B1 droids in the far more cost effective starter set.

Construction (5 / 5)

Firstly, the redesign of the kit means that the individual droids are so much quicker and easier to assemble than the previous version for a number of reasons!

New AMG Sprue

The new sprue layout is much more compact, making better use of the space - the part identification numbers are very easy to see and the parts themselves are laid out in logical groupings. I.e. both arms for droid A are situated next to each other in the correct numerical sequence. It's intuitive and means you can pretty much build the miniatures without instructions.

The other tooling update is the inclusion of sprue stacking locators. The little male plugs and female sockets in the corners mean that the sprues can actually be pressed together into a kind of protective frame around the miniatures and are just immensely satisfying if you're a design nerd like me! In practice it stops them being crushed in their packaging and they can be stacked handily as you work through the build.

Old FFG Sprue

As you can see, the old sprues had so much wasted space within the frame that they could only fit two or three droids into almost twice the space of the new versions. Although the quality of plastic was not terrible, the fidelity of the miniatures is a little better in the new version, with things like panel lining being slightly deeper and sharper. This makes it easier to pick out details with less effort.

The next main point is the actual miniature design from a build perspective. Aesthetically you would probably struggle to see the difference between the two types once painted unless you knew what to look for. In practice, the build process is radically different.

New AMG Sprue - leg construction 

The leg construction on the new droids is actually very clever. By splitting the thigh in half, using a recess and tab, the leg assembly is now a breeze. Likewise the head now comes attached to the neck with a locator block which fits into the body.

Old FFG Sprue - leg construction

On the original sprues, the legs came with a very small hip joint and semi-circular tab on the pelvis. When dry fitting the parts, they go together ok, but as soon as you apply liquid poly, those tight tolerances melt the tabs into an oval and cause the legs to move about while the glue is setting. Because of the shape, this can also cause air to become trapped behind the peg making the hip tab pop back out a little. You can work around this by allowing the air to escape with a small cut, but this should probably have been incorporated into the design.

The other insanely frustrating thing in the old kit was the decision to make the head in two very small parts which then attach to a tiny neck connection point which can re-split the head at the joint when applying more liquid poly.

I was so glad to see these issues addressed with intelligent design in the new kit and I can't heap enough praise on the designers for these changes.

Kit posing and options (4 / 5)

Having picked holes in the old design, I now want to make a slight u-turn to point out that while extremely frustrating to build, the natural connection points for the head and legs meant that the older kit was far easier to re-position for poses outside of those originally intended by the kit designer.

For most casual model makers this is absolutely no issue at all, but for anyone who wants to add new poses to a squad, you will need a bit more experience in kit-bashing to make minor posing changes. This particularly applies when re-posing additional droids to stand on the hull of an NR-N99 Persuader class Droid Enforcer.

Persuader droid tank with extra passengers

Another small gripe is the fact that you are limited to a few poses within the kit although swapping the arms and heads for a little variation is easy enough. Generally speaking, this will only ever be an issue if you make say... 56 B1 Battle Droids, but who would be silly enough for that right? Right?

My main issue with this kit (which is a common thread for these expansions) is that whilst they do contain 2 special weapons and a squad leader, they don't contain regular blaster rifles for these troopers, so you can't just add 15 regular droids to your force to bulk out squads. Even more annoying is the fact that the game limits your squad to one of each special weapon choice, so one of your clankers is always getting left at home! I feel that this was a bit of a miss which could have been avoided during the redesign.

I also believe that the missing options from the old B1 specialist sprue such as the sniper variant and radiation gun should have been added here for extra appeal as a standalone kit and additional value for money.

All things considered, I think for the average model maker, the new kit is a massive upgrade and only those who specifically want to heavily convert droids with new poses should look to the discontinued versions.

Final Score & Comments (4 / 5)

Even though I've only scored this kit as a four out of five, I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who loves Star Wars Droid miniatures. The only caveat (and the reason it ended up as a 4 / 5) is that if you're going to buy some basic B1's it's a lot more cost effective to get them as part of the Separatist starter set!