On 10/6/2019 at 2:36 PM, ArcticJedi said:

Your Mini's are AMAZING! I agree with your favorite faction and your fascination of clones.... I am waiting to hop into legion till I can get the Clone Wars Set... and get some money....

Thanks! If you like my Clones, you'll hopefully love these.

Newest Clone unit, reporting in: ARC Trooper Squad

Finished these guys up this weekend. I've had my eye on them for a while, but had to wait for them to come back in-stock. They're 3D prints from Dark Fire Designs on Etsy, and they are, by far, the best 3D prints I've ever seen. These guys are amazingly detailed, and really capture the original 2002/2003 look of the ARCs. If you guys have any interest in Phase I ARCs, I'd highly recommend these minis. Dark Fire Designs also makes a Fordo mini that I'm just dying to pick up. I'd love to proxy him in as Rex, and run these guys alongside using Scouting Party. Thematic, and oh so wonderful.

Technically, they're not complete, however. You may notice the heavy washing/chipping on the base colorings, and that's because the color is temporary. My goal is actually to split these guys up, and combine them with a regular, FFG made, Phase I trooper squad to form my own Muunlilinst Ten pair of squads. Waiting on the official release for that, so "stay tuned!"

That looks AMAZING! I especially like the hologram on the leader and the crashed Laat/i in the background! Nice work!

@Alpha17 What do you think about making Delta Squad and the Nulls? I'm a big fan of the Republic Commandos Book series(and wish I could get the Republic Commando Video Game).

3 minutes ago, ArcticJedi said:

@Alpha17 What do you think about making Delta Squad and the Nulls? I'm a big fan of the Republic Commandos Book series(and wish I could get the Republic Commando Video Game).

Republic Commando Video Game is on steam. Shouldn't take much to run it either.

1 minute ago, Draycos said:

Republic Commando Video Game is on steam. Shouldn't take much to run it either.

Eh... I'm broke when it comes to my games budget... plus I gotta save up for a Clone Wars Core Set

8 minutes ago, ArcticJedi said:

@Alpha17 What do you think about making Delta Squad and the Nulls? I'm a big fan of the Republic Commandos Book series(and wish I could get the Republic Commando Video Game).

I've thought about doing a Clone Commando team up as Delta or Omega squad, but I'm not a huge fan of the Nulls. To me, they came off as Karen Traviss saying "I'm gonna make my own ARCs, and they're going to be cooler than yours!" similar to how Commandos were limited to her books for a long time. Overall, I enjoyed the series, but Traviss' anti-Jedi opinions got a bit insufferable by the end.

2 minutes ago, Alpha17 said:

I've thought about doing a Clone Commando team up as Delta or Omega squad, but I'm not a huge fan of the Nulls. To me, they came off as Karen Traviss saying "I'm gonna make my own ARCs, and they're going to be cooler than yours!" similar to how Commandos were limited to her books for a long time. Overall, I enjoyed the series, but Traviss' anti-Jedi opinions got a bit insufferable by the end.

I like the idea of Delta and Omega squad for legion, because it would be freaking amazing to see them on the table. Especially if you paint them. I agree with a few of her Anti-Jedi stuff, but I think the Jedi were definitely redeemable. The Very Old(old republic era jedi) and the New Jedi(Luke's post Galactic Civil War order) were the Ideals for the jedi.

3 minutes ago, ArcticJedi said:

I like the idea of Delta and Omega squad for legion, because it would be freaking amazing to see them on the table. Especially if you paint them. I agree with a few of her Anti-Jedi stuff, but I think the Jedi were definitely redeemable. The Very Old(old republic era jedi) and the New Jedi(Luke's post Galactic Civil War order) were the Ideals for the jedi.

I didn't mind it at first, but it started getting seriously irritating by the time of True Colors and her work in the LotF series. I don't mind a few critiques on the CW-era Jedi, but most tend to go too far, or forget what the Jedi knew/believed vs what the audience knows. Beyond that, the problem is that even Luke's Jedi tend to get the short end in Traviss' books. Something as simple as Jaina going to Boba for Jedi-fighting training is a bit silly, since Luke has far more experience and success with that than Boba ever did, but gotta talk up the Mandos over the Jedi somehow!

That, yes, I haven't read those books, only the Republic Commandos. But yeah, sometimes she went a bit too far. Though personally, I do like Mandalorians better, but they are definitely NOT better fighters on average. Their best fighters are on Par with Jedi, and some might even be better than your common Jedi, but Jedi have an undeniable advantage over Mandalorians, and most of the time Mandalorians win by the plate of their Beskar. Unless your Jango. Then you break all the rules.

Edit: Spelling Mistakes

On 8/9/2019 at 6:34 AM, Alpha17 said:

Finished up the two squads, onto the BARC speeder today.

What color blue did you use for the clones highlight?

17 hours ago, TheHoosh said:

What color blue did you use for the clones highlight?

Army Painter Crystal Blue.

@Alpha17 You are correct about the detail of the arc troopers. They are amazing and your work makes all the difference. Looking forward to more posts.

Since you are considering Clone Commandos have you seen the minis done by Skull Forge Studios. He has a set based on the LucasArts video game and book series. I am dying to pick up a set but hesitate to see if FFG has one in the works. I am waiting on the Phase 2 troopers to come out and if they arent announced by FFG by then I will them up.

20 hours ago, C3POFETT said:

@Alpha17 You are correct about the detail of the arc troopers. They are amazing and your work makes all the difference. Looking forward to more posts.

Since you are considering Clone Commandos have you seen the minis done by Skull Forge Studios. He has a set based on the LucasArts video game and book series. I am dying to pick up a set but hesitate to see if FFG has one in the works. I am waiting on the Phase 2 troopers to come out and if they arent announced by FFG by then I will them up.

Thanks. I actually have a squad of Skull Forge's Clone Commandos, they're probably a page or two back. They're not bad minis, and one of these days I'd love to compare them to Dark Fire Design's offering, and a future FFG design.

Finally had the time to knock out some of my new Clones, and just as importantly, get some pictures of them.

First up, some plain vanilla Episode II Clones, complete with the obligatory Geonosis basing.

Next, an artsy project I've been wanting to do for a while, some Clones based on the Hawkbat Battlion, seen briefly in the 2003 Clone Wars cartoon.

And the second squad following this theme:

Sorry for the lower quality pictures. Hopefully I can get some good ones eventually.

Fantastic work! Always liked the Hawkbat Battalion. Looking forward to seeing your work with the new Phase I expansion

You’re Hawkbat Battalion minis are epic! How did you do the ponchos? I could definitely see myself doing a squad of these!

6 hours ago, Blackreach said:

You’re Hawkbat Battalion minis are epic! How did you do the ponchos? I could definitely see myself doing a squad of these!

Thanks! I used baby wipes. I let one dry out, cut it into the right size and shape, with a little slit for the Clones helmet. Dipped it into watered down Elmer's glue, and put it on. After that it was just a simple matter of priming and painting.

These are wonderful works of art. Where did you get the airborne trooper helmets? Are they from skullforge? I'm wondering because I'd also like to get a set for myself. It's my favorite trooper design.

5 hours ago, Alpha17 said:

Thanks! I used baby wipes. I let one dry out, cut it into the right size and shape, with a little slit for the Clones helmet. Dipped it into watered down Elmer's glue, and put it on. After that it was just a simple matter of priming and painting.

That simple huh? Nice! I’m wondering if they’d look good if the clones were in 212th colors? Dad’s mainly playing them for Legion cause the starter set came with Obi Wan. I’ll show him these and see what he’d think about me doing a squad of these for him.

22 hours ago, BrickDaniels said:

These are wonderful works of art. Where did you get the airborne trooper helmets? Are they from skullforge? I'm wondering because I'd also like to get a set for myself. It's my favorite trooper design.

I got my helmets from Bucket Head Bits, as he's got a variety of alternative helmet options. Skullforge wasn't offering the helmets at the time, and Bucket Head worked for me.

18 hours ago, Blackreach said:

That simple huh? Nice! I’m wondering if they’d look good if the clones were in 212th colors? Dad’s mainly playing them for Legion cause the starter set came with Obi Wan. I’ll show him these and see what he’d think about me doing a squad of these for him.

I think the poncho idea would work well with pretty much any marking scheme, possible exception of one that is brown, as they would kinda blend in rather than stand out at that point.

About a week ago, Skull Forge put up a few new sculpts, and since my favorite prequel Jedi was in the mix, Aayla Secura, I jumped on the chance to get her, and grabbed Anakin as well.

Anakin was quite easy to paint, but Aayla took some mixing to get the skin tones and clothing colors right. I also had to do some kit bashing on them, because neither one of them came with a blade for their lightsabers. Ended up using spare parts from Grievous to give them both sabers.

what are you doing to make the arid wasteland cracked earth base? Is that the citadel basing paint? (they keep changing the name)

49 minutes ago, buckero0 said:

what are you doing to make the arid wasteland cracked earth base? Is that the citadel basing paint? (they keep changing the name)

Yep. Its current name, to the best of my knowledge, is "Agrellan Earth," formerly part of their textured line, now a technical paint.

There's another Citadel crackle paint that does coarser cracks, I think it might be Agrellan Badlands? I like all of their basing paints, combing them makes for interesting textures.

18 hours ago, Achinadav said:

There's another Citadel crackle paint that does coarser cracks, I think it might be Agrellan Badlands? I like all of their basing paints, combing them makes for interesting textures.

Agrellan Badlands is more of a dried mud consistency. It will crack, but not nearly to the same extent. See the pictures below for the comparison.

And if you've not seen them on Facebook or Discord, I finished up a Rex and a conversion, where I turned Rex into Bly.

(Bly's basing is a mix of Agrellan Earth and Badlands, and you can see the dramatic shift in cracking)

Also do Rex's Phase II helmet:

Likely not tournament legal, but it's nice (at least for my lore-centric brain) to have the correct pairings of Jedi General and their commanders:

I really hadn't decided on who I wanted to paint my upcoming Phase II Clones as, but after working on Bly, I may have settled on the 327th. We'll see. I just wish I knew whether or not FFG would release a generic Jedi, so I could have "officially" include Aayla into my lists.