I have been adding to my Star Wars Legion CIS army, pretty much as the miniatures have been coming out (and I just bought the latest release!). I decided that a little basing break was needed again, so I needed to do something for my long stagnant Republic forces.
I because intrigued with doing some clone commandos. Specifically, Omega Squad. the only reason was that they have black armor and I wanted something different that all the white of my current and still to be painted troopers! So, I dug out the squad I already had in my “waiting to be painted” Republic box. Disaster! I had already primed the models white! I did not want to spray them again, so I decided to order another set, as I wanted multiple commando units anyway. Disaster! That set has been out of stock for quite a long time from Asmodee. I searched the web, with the help of ChatGPT and came up with bubcus…. So, I turned to looking for 3d print options. I came across a nine figure set on Ebay (Etsy had the same one) and ordered it. I would be able to kill two birds with one stone, as I also want to do Delta Squad, and the Legion models are not quite right for those guys (even though they have the unit card). The set had those poses too, so I would be able to do all three units I wanted, including the models I already had. I ordered them and they arrived in good order.
The models were very nice and even gave shoulder pad options (not sure why…). The molding was very nice and they match up well with the official models. Some minor cleanup was required to remove a few left over supports, but that was it. I glued the together with super glue and they were ready for painting.
I decided to go with a gray Krylon Primer as the base to work up from, so I hit all the models with that and sprayed some bases I had with dark brown. The models sat for about a week, as I was still working on some other basing stuff…
I got back to them and glued the models to the bases and then hit them all with some Speed Paint Black from Army Painter. Once that dried, I dryburshed the highlights with some London Gray. Unfortunately for me, I chose too light a shade of gray and the models looked way to gray… So, I went over the troopers again (not the guns) with a splash of Nuln Oil to darken them up (so much for a quick two step process…). I let that set for a few days.
Now came the lit visors. These show up as multiple shades of blue in the online artwork, so I got out a small brush and painted in a medium blue. I then hit the upper areas with a light blue. I finished off with a little white at the very top. This looked a bit stark, so I went over all of that with a blue blaze to better blend and tone things down. I liked that effect and moved onto the bases.
These were done like all my other bases. I use the dark brown as the base and overpaint with the GW Agrelian Earth (cracke). Let that dry and drybrush over with some Iraqi Sand. For some reason, the crackle was extremely pronounced (never had that before). It was a bit heavier than I wanted. However, I still needed to add the spiky green tufts, so I just strategically placed them over the heavers areas to camouflage that (a little heavy peaking out is fine). I then painted the edges of the base with dark brown and sealed everyone up with a Tamiya mat varnish spray.
Omega Squad is ready for duty! Now I just need to paint the others that damned white!
- Mantueffel