So I went ahead and starting researching the shore trooper armor for painting purposes and I'm kind of confounded.

Squad leaders wear the kama however the heavy trooper also has a kama. Seems weird to have two "squad leaders" in a unit.

Shoretrooper captains have no kama but more armor markings. But I'm assuming a captain would outrank a squad leader so it seems odd to paint one of the "non-unit leaders" as a captain. Maybe just paint up the mortar guy as a captain since he can essentially be the "unit leader" and "die last"??

How are other people looking to paint these guys?

While looking for it, here's what I found:

http://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:ST_captain

http://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:ST_shoretrooper

http://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:ST_squad_leader

I think there's no good reason to conclude that there wouldn't be captains who didn't hold on to their kama when jumping rank. It's a pretty practical thing to have in a tropical environment. Von Rundstedt still wore his colonel's uniform when he became a general because he felt the general's uniform was pretentious, for example. But I won't paint any captain schemes personally, as it seems odd that you'd need a captain to lead a squad. As for the heavy weapons trooper, it's an invention for the game, so there's nothing to tell you they don't also wear kama. I'll paint mine as a regular trooper who happens to wear one.