The clone wars are coming! And along with them a big decision. What legion/group/company am I going to paint my clones to belong to? There's so many options! The 501st, the 212th, the wolf pack, green company, corusant clone troopers, normal clone troopers, the list of variants goes on and on. I personally think I'm going to go for a mix of 212th and 501st. What are you guys going to paint your clones as, if anything?

Phase I clones will be painted in the Episode II style rank system. I hate the legion markings on Phase I.

Phase II will get a legion marking. It'll depend on what I feel like, but there's a good chance that they'll be 501st, 327th, or Shocktroopers/Coruscant Guard.

A personal variant with minor embellishments whenever the mood strikes me. I'll probably only do "personalizations" for unit Leaders and Heavy Weapons. The ablative wounds rest of the squad will probably just be whatever colour scheme I settle on.

I'll be going for a plausible late CW battalion, but nothing official. Mixing Vallejo Game Color Squid Pink and Hexed Lichen 1:1 should get me the color I want. Squad marks on left pauldron. Rank marks on right pauldron. Role marks on helmet. Shared pattern across other plates.

The more I've thought about it, the more I'm leaning towards abandoning my tendency to reflect something in SW canon, and really put my own stamp on them. I love the Clone Wars era, so I have a greater attachment to what the troops look like.

That said, I'm rolling around in my head giving my clones a look that would reflect the 99th Infantry Division in World War II. My grandfather served in the division, and I've always used some form of his name or the division when I started gaming online lol

Their insignia was a blue/white checkerboard.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/99th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)

1 hour ago, manoftomorrow010 said:

The more I've thought about it, the more I'm leaning towards abandoning my tendency to reflect something in SW canon, and really put my own stamp on them. I love the Clone Wars era, so I have a greater attachment to what the troops look like.

That said, I'm rolling around in my head giving my clones a look that would reflect the 99th Infantry Division in World War II. My grandfather served in the division, and I've always used some form of his name or the division when I started gaming online lol

Their insignia was a blue/white checkerboard.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/99th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)

That sounds like a great idea! Lots of stuff in Star Wars is homage or reference to WW2 (in part because there was still a fair bit of surplus floating around for cheap props).

17 minutes ago, Caimheul1313 said:

That sounds like a great idea! Lots of stuff in Star Wars is homage or reference to WW2 (in part because there was still a fair bit of surplus floating around for cheap props).

Yeah the big challenge will be how to reflect the checkerboard, without necessarily trying to paint the whole insignia on extremely tiny haha

13 minutes ago, manoftomorrow010 said:

Yeah the big challenge will be how to reflect the checkerboard, without necessarily trying to paint the whole insignia on extremely tiny haha

Just paint one of the pauldrons with the checkerboard pattern. Plenty of tutorials on YouTube on how to do it.

1 hour ago, manoftomorrow010 said:

Yeah the big challenge will be how to reflect the checkerboard, without necessarily trying to paint the whole insignia on extremely tiny haha

40k Harlequins often have diamond patterns included in their paint scheme, often on just a single leg, which is similar to a checkerboard. You could also quadrant the armour white and blue, like 40k Nova Marines (link to photo).

You could quadrant just the pauldron, lots of options to reflect the checkerboard, without necessarily resorting to painting the whole insignia. (If you do want to include the insignia, I recommend getting decals instead of freehanding, I can find some in 1/35 which are likely too big for easy use on clones). You can either make your own, or there are some places that offer custom decals.

1 hour ago, NeonWolf said:

Just paint one of the pauldrons with the checkerboard pattern. Plenty of tutorials on YouTube on how to do it.

12 minutes ago, Caimheul1313 said:

40k Harlequins often have diamond patterns included in their paint scheme, often on just a single leg, which is similar to a checkerboard. You could also quadrant the armour white and blue, like 40k Nova Marines (link to photo).

You could quadrant just the pauldron, lots of options to reflect the checkerboard, without necessarily resorting to painting the whole insignia. (If you do want to include the insignia, I recommend getting decals instead of freehanding, I can find some in 1/35 which are likely too big for easy use on clones). You can either make your own, or there are some places that offer custom decals.

Good ideas!

I could possibly paint one pauldron on each clone with a green outline, then checker it on the inside.

My two favorites so far.

I love the yellow of Aayla's Clones, but that Bronze and black are pretty cool too.

Then again...there is a reason for Phase 1 and Phase II troopers...Maybe the Phase I in the yellow and Phase II in the Bronze and Black....

Not sure yet, but I do know at least one will have to be Captain Fordo

He should be a character

Think I'm gonna go Wolfe Pack!

I may wait to see what tanks (if any) are released for the period as i fancy making an armored division. Maybe with the troops having yellow hazard stripes or possibly silver armour sections. Though i'm not sure if any cannon legions already have these paint schemes.

I am struggling with this decision quite a bit. I don't want them to match what everyone else is putting on the table, but I want the lore to make sense. With Rex announced, I am leaning towards painting my clones like 501st. The 501st scheme would also makes sense when we (inevitably?) get Anakin and Ahsoka. Obi-wan however, would leads his group in Commander Cody's colors.

Another thing I'm not sure about is what to do with the Phase I troopers. Running them side by side with Phase II doesn't make a ton of lore sense. I might put Phase II helmets on them and use an all white paint job to designate phase I units from the Phase II units (who will have color). Another option is to just label the base with what unit they represent.

I was going to convert a phase 1 squad or two into ARF troopers so my dad could use them along with phase 2 clones. There are no ARF heads right now, but there’s will be in the future, of that I have no doubt. You could try that?

If they make Mace Windu, I’ll do a squad of his 187th in purple.

I’m most likely going to do 501st for Phase II.

Phase one I’m going to stick with shinys aside from the Captains/Squad Leaders for each squad.

I might do a personal “Guard” Squad for each General or Operative.

9 hours ago, Omegaclone said:

If they make Mace Windu, I’ll do a squad of his 187th in purple.

Sounds great! You could add shoulder pads with green stuff to replicate the old Hasbro figures.

Finished up with my proof of concept clones, as well as Obi. Not perfect, but I can live with 'em. Now to paint a bunch of troopers in plain armor.

10 hours ago, player4026253 said:

Sounds great! You could add shoulder pads with green stuff to replicate the old Hasbro figures.

For sure! May do this with the Phase II before I do a 501st squad. There were a few purple troopers for Mace. I think they did an Airborne and Galactic Marine.

7 hours ago, Omegaclone said:

I think they did an Airborne and Galactic Marine.

They did i have both the airborne and the regular trooper, though i'm not sure about the galactic do you have a pic?

Also when you make a 501st you squad one of them has to be jessse. Although the republic marking may be tricky to replicate.

On 8/8/2019 at 5:08 AM, player4026253 said:

They did i have both the airborne and the regular trooper, though i'm not sure about the galactic do you have a pic?

Also when you make a 501st you squad one of them has to be jessse. Although the republic marking may be tricky to replicate.

http://www.rebelscum.com/photo.asp?image=/TAC/tacOrder662marineFR.jpg

There’s a link for the Galactic Trooper. I have one or two somewhere.

41st Ranger Platoon

I already did my Phase 1 Coone as the 501st, so for Phase II I'll be doing the 212th and the Corusfant Guard. Here's my test 212th so far!