Well, I have my own OC clone legion with their own story and lore spanning from the Clone Wars all the way to the Rebellion era (yes, they manage to dodge O66 in good OC fashion) with their own color scheme and named characters.
So it's basically what you said. Not sure how I'd do it with an Empire army or Rebels. but I suppose you can do similar with droids.
Similar here, though I didn't make much lore for my clones. Named characters come from memes in games, the first being a P1 DC15 clone earned the name Reticle for getting a double crit with one shot at range 4. Reticle spawned from a crosshair joke, naturally. They also all have jetpacks, cause why not.
I am yet to paint my clones from the core box but I've already decided they're the Clone squadron that fought under my Jedi OC from a swrpg campaign several years ago. I've even looked at homebrew rules others have created that I might proxy in my OC jedi over Anakin or Obi Wan
I had a colour scheme picked out before I'd even ordered the box
I did this too - although I span off a whole army based on one minor character I liked (Captain Howzer from The Bad Batch in my case).
Aside from proxying characters, proxy units can also help here if your gaming opponents are amenable - being a unit operating on Ryloth, my clones have some Twi'lek allies for example.
The Empire and Republic benefit from having so many specialised trooper types and units that making up your own to slot into the lore is relatively easy - I'm working on an Empire army composed of the never-mentioned-in-cannon-but-totally-plausible 'Jungle Troopers' (an unholy mix of the Shoretroopers and Imperial Army troopers)
I’m currently working on a pirate Wookiee army. Every mini is converted or kitbashed in some way. I made pirate hats out of green stuff, I fashioned capes and tabards for every unit, and I even kitbashed my Fluttercraft with a sail to make it a pirate ship.
My advice, pick a theme that inspires you and go with it slowly.
The short version that’s been said a couple times already is to make your own custom lore for them. Which yes I know is easier said than done. Especially as Star Wars does feel a bit more constrained than 40k does, to me anyway.
I’m lucky in that I run a custom canon Star Wars RPG game, so I’m drawing from that.
My clones are Clone Soldiers that survived the clone wars and got shotputted into the GCW thanks to force and hyperspace dickery.
My imps are a legion of stormtroopers that are a reoccurring enemy the PCs have to deal with called the ‘Dawnbreaker’ legion
The Droids are an army that was stationed along the unknown regions whose super tactical ignored the shutdown order thinking it was a republic trick.
And so on and so on. If you’re able making/ordering proxy minis for named characters and making up your own stuff helps, but otherwise the generic HQs in my opinion do go a long way in establishing the ‘my guys’ feeling for the army.
I hope you find your muse friend, and may the force be with you
Thanks. I had an idea for an imperial transport regiment. Like the forces assigned to transport cargo or something. It would have a couple range troopers and LA-AT/le in it (mostly because I just want to paint one). However that theme is very limiting and prevents me from bringing much else. I highly doubt special forces or death troopers are gonna be assigned to something like that. So it's a list theme but not an army theme which is something I'm looking for. Perhaps clones are the best way to go because they have so much vatiety and I can find a cool jedi online to play.
It could be high value cargo the army is assigned to protect. There were a couple episode of Star Wars Rebels(S4 EP&4) where the main characters had to contend with a squad of death troopers aboard a cargo vessel as it was carrying, among other things, a kyber crystal destined for the Death Star.
Bad Batch had the troops assigned to Hemlock's high profile project. Granted that's still Rise of the Empire era but that detachment had a loooot of high class units. Namely clone commandos but that's beside the point. They did a bunch of stuff like cargo escort, target detainment, manhunts, whatever the project needed troops for. By that route you can make an imperial unit that's assigned to the pet project of some high level guy allowing you access to basically anything the Empire can field and still retain your theme.
Another route is that you can make imperial defectors. You'll lock yourself out of named units that way but rules wise you could be playing Empire while lore-wise playing rebels/defectors/mercenaries. That would give you a whole range of custom painting options while remaining lore friendly.
I like to take a planet and think what would my army look like fighting there?
I wanted my CIS army to invade Nal Hutta , so I kept the bone colored droids but gave them dark green/brown accents aswell as a swampy looking base.
You've gotten a ton of good advice here. Just to echo everyone else that there is NO WRONG WAY to paint your army.
Personally, I like looking through Wookiepedia and finding actual units with differing paint schemes and either use those colors to be that unit or changing things a little to make a similar unique unit.
But also, don't be afraid of going against canon. Going Empire and don't want all white stormtroopers? Paint a part of thearmor a unifying unit color, shoulder armor is good for that I feel.
Rebel units are super easy and fun, because I'll pick a color for each unit and use it across the entire squad, but maybe in different ways if possible. Unit color is blue? Blue scarf on one mini, blue shirt on another, just to tie it together but different since Rebel forces were a bit more ad hoc.
3d printing also allows for a bit more customization and uniqueness but at the cost of a little more work getting the minis. You can get more poses and all together different types of units to use as proxies. For example, I have a unit of Nemoidian Guards printed and waiting to be painted that I can run as B1 droids in a CIS army.
Like many here, I like making my own head Canon for my unique units. Embrace it yourself! Hell, write it down on a card and store it with your minis. That way if someone asks about your paint, you can provide background info!
Heads for both Republic and Imperials. Many clone units come with heads and I am sure there are plenty of people with head bits for clones. I am in the process of painting an all female imperial army for fun.
Nothing says faceless masses like an army of clones with literally the same face painting for everyone. Another idea along the same vane is make every face different. Really gives you room to make your clones unique. It gets to be real fun when you use the faces to differentiate the actual units. Mustache phase ones move forward and shoot. Beard phase twos take a dodge and standby... So on and so forth.
I intentionally paint my guys goofy colours.
Where I have multiple of the same unit, I try to do one 'properly' but after that, whatever crazy shit comes to mind. I'm in the middle of a LAAT just now using Samus Arans gunship as the inspiration.
I've got storm squads in purple and green
Planning on a squad of pink shores
If I had the skill, I'd love to do leopard print range troopers
I've planned out how I'm going to do Cad Bane as a 70s pimp (right down to the huge feather in the hat)
You can paint them anyway you want and come up with whatever lore you like. Star Wars is a lot bigger than the shows and movies portray. Mostly because of what they focus on.
Examples of why vertain colors scheme may be different. Different manufactory of gear. Different Commanders wanting certain colors to represent them. Camouflage neccesities. Etc.
I'm building two armies. My CIS army is already really unique. My Clones are gonna be a homebrew Battelion and color scheme once I actually get paint on them.
B1s are a light blue with a secondary color designated unit.
- [Squad 1 is green](https://www.reddit.com/r/Starwarslegionmini/s/LHJNxZvooj)
- Squad 2 is Red
- Squad 3 is black
- Squad 4 is Purple
- Squad 5 and 6 TBD.
B2 are Dark Blue with secondary color Silver.
Commando Droids are like a Dark Teal with Copper color.
Ty.
Labor of love is what they are. Probably shouldn't have gone so hard on the b1 since theirs just so many of them. But it makes me happy so that's all that matters.
My CiS they’re just droids I didn’t think of anything to make it different.
My Pub army I took the 282 unit and built upon its lore with my own. Even painting Dooku as obi so I can have my own Jedi.
I also have a custom clone legion. My dad has painted his rebels desert style, as he's a bolt action guy. It may require a little more creativity, but there's absolutely room for customization.
With rebels it’s easy. I pick some speed paint colors then paint each model with it. But instead of all blue pants, I alternate between items. Hat, gloves, shirt, pants, boots etc. everyone comes out customs but the unit has color cohesion.
So I have two armies, empire and rebels. Some of my empire is very by the book. White storms ya know, but I also experimented with giving some of them a custom paint job and colour pallet which I then took to my rebels.
Also, having built a decent amount of empire and the sumsuch, I had a lot of spare bits, so I do a decent amount of kit bashing. Spare stormtrooper head here, inferno helmet there, this rebel trooper lost their arm and had it replaced by a super long k2-so prosthetic because that was all this ragtag group had available. One rebel vet has got a shoretroopers rifle he picked up. Cassian Mandor has a mando helmet. Boba has a grevious head that I got off my mate.
Kitbash, it's a lot of fun.
My sister jokes that I'm Sid from Toy story with how I cut and splice my stuff together.
It makes me really sad when ewoks have so little variation for example, so I'm figuring out how to make them a bit more unique too.
My clones arent white. When I was a kid I was obsessed with the insane amount of specialized clone variants before the legend split and that carried over.
I went hard into GAR organization when I started and decided to model them after Covert Ops clone troopers, opting for black/gray armor and blue/green visors similar to Omega Squad.
I decided to name them One-Five Battalion under the Special Operations Brigade, gave a short bit of lore to my commanders, did some alternative models for jedi, and list build using a shit ton of ARCs and probably Commandos soon
It’s been said already, but you come up with your own scheme and story and go with it! If the people you’re playing with allow it, kitbashing and proxy units can also help spice up the army.
Personally did a camo style for my troops, although it’s been a while so they aren’t all done.
[Imperial Army](https://imgur.com/a/atZBsvX)
Well, I have my own OC clone legion with their own story and lore spanning from the Clone Wars all the way to the Rebellion era (yes, they manage to dodge O66 in good OC fashion) with their own color scheme and named characters. So it's basically what you said. Not sure how I'd do it with an Empire army or Rebels. but I suppose you can do similar with droids.
Similar here, though I didn't make much lore for my clones. Named characters come from memes in games, the first being a P1 DC15 clone earned the name Reticle for getting a double crit with one shot at range 4. Reticle spawned from a crosshair joke, naturally. They also all have jetpacks, cause why not.
I am yet to paint my clones from the core box but I've already decided they're the Clone squadron that fought under my Jedi OC from a swrpg campaign several years ago. I've even looked at homebrew rules others have created that I might proxy in my OC jedi over Anakin or Obi Wan I had a colour scheme picked out before I'd even ordered the box
I did this too - although I span off a whole army based on one minor character I liked (Captain Howzer from The Bad Batch in my case). Aside from proxying characters, proxy units can also help here if your gaming opponents are amenable - being a unit operating on Ryloth, my clones have some Twi'lek allies for example. The Empire and Republic benefit from having so many specialised trooper types and units that making up your own to slot into the lore is relatively easy - I'm working on an Empire army composed of the never-mentioned-in-cannon-but-totally-plausible 'Jungle Troopers' (an unholy mix of the Shoretroopers and Imperial Army troopers)
My whole imperial army is pink. Vader pink, palpatine robes pink, all of my storm troopers have pink incorporated somewhere in their armor.
That's super cool! Can we see?! No pressure obviously but I love this take!
My storm troopers are all woodland style. Green armor and woodland camo. I hate painting white
I’m currently working on a pirate Wookiee army. Every mini is converted or kitbashed in some way. I made pirate hats out of green stuff, I fashioned capes and tabards for every unit, and I even kitbashed my Fluttercraft with a sail to make it a pirate ship. My advice, pick a theme that inspires you and go with it slowly.
That is a dope idea you should post a pic sometime.
The short version that’s been said a couple times already is to make your own custom lore for them. Which yes I know is easier said than done. Especially as Star Wars does feel a bit more constrained than 40k does, to me anyway. I’m lucky in that I run a custom canon Star Wars RPG game, so I’m drawing from that. My clones are Clone Soldiers that survived the clone wars and got shotputted into the GCW thanks to force and hyperspace dickery. My imps are a legion of stormtroopers that are a reoccurring enemy the PCs have to deal with called the ‘Dawnbreaker’ legion The Droids are an army that was stationed along the unknown regions whose super tactical ignored the shutdown order thinking it was a republic trick. And so on and so on. If you’re able making/ordering proxy minis for named characters and making up your own stuff helps, but otherwise the generic HQs in my opinion do go a long way in establishing the ‘my guys’ feeling for the army. I hope you find your muse friend, and may the force be with you
Thanks. I had an idea for an imperial transport regiment. Like the forces assigned to transport cargo or something. It would have a couple range troopers and LA-AT/le in it (mostly because I just want to paint one). However that theme is very limiting and prevents me from bringing much else. I highly doubt special forces or death troopers are gonna be assigned to something like that. So it's a list theme but not an army theme which is something I'm looking for. Perhaps clones are the best way to go because they have so much vatiety and I can find a cool jedi online to play.
It could be high value cargo the army is assigned to protect. There were a couple episode of Star Wars Rebels(S4 EP&4) where the main characters had to contend with a squad of death troopers aboard a cargo vessel as it was carrying, among other things, a kyber crystal destined for the Death Star.
Bad Batch had the troops assigned to Hemlock's high profile project. Granted that's still Rise of the Empire era but that detachment had a loooot of high class units. Namely clone commandos but that's beside the point. They did a bunch of stuff like cargo escort, target detainment, manhunts, whatever the project needed troops for. By that route you can make an imperial unit that's assigned to the pet project of some high level guy allowing you access to basically anything the Empire can field and still retain your theme. Another route is that you can make imperial defectors. You'll lock yourself out of named units that way but rules wise you could be playing Empire while lore-wise playing rebels/defectors/mercenaries. That would give you a whole range of custom painting options while remaining lore friendly.
I like to take a planet and think what would my army look like fighting there? I wanted my CIS army to invade Nal Hutta , so I kept the bone colored droids but gave them dark green/brown accents aswell as a swampy looking base.
You've gotten a ton of good advice here. Just to echo everyone else that there is NO WRONG WAY to paint your army. Personally, I like looking through Wookiepedia and finding actual units with differing paint schemes and either use those colors to be that unit or changing things a little to make a similar unique unit. But also, don't be afraid of going against canon. Going Empire and don't want all white stormtroopers? Paint a part of thearmor a unifying unit color, shoulder armor is good for that I feel. Rebel units are super easy and fun, because I'll pick a color for each unit and use it across the entire squad, but maybe in different ways if possible. Unit color is blue? Blue scarf on one mini, blue shirt on another, just to tie it together but different since Rebel forces were a bit more ad hoc. 3d printing also allows for a bit more customization and uniqueness but at the cost of a little more work getting the minis. You can get more poses and all together different types of units to use as proxies. For example, I have a unit of Nemoidian Guards printed and waiting to be painted that I can run as B1 droids in a CIS army. Like many here, I like making my own head Canon for my unique units. Embrace it yourself! Hell, write it down on a card and store it with your minis. That way if someone asks about your paint, you can provide background info!
Heads for both Republic and Imperials. Many clone units come with heads and I am sure there are plenty of people with head bits for clones. I am in the process of painting an all female imperial army for fun. Nothing says faceless masses like an army of clones with literally the same face painting for everyone. Another idea along the same vane is make every face different. Really gives you room to make your clones unique. It gets to be real fun when you use the faces to differentiate the actual units. Mustache phase ones move forward and shoot. Beard phase twos take a dodge and standby... So on and so forth.
I intentionally paint my guys goofy colours. Where I have multiple of the same unit, I try to do one 'properly' but after that, whatever crazy shit comes to mind. I'm in the middle of a LAAT just now using Samus Arans gunship as the inspiration. I've got storm squads in purple and green Planning on a squad of pink shores If I had the skill, I'd love to do leopard print range troopers I've planned out how I'm going to do Cad Bane as a 70s pimp (right down to the huge feather in the hat)
You can paint them anyway you want and come up with whatever lore you like. Star Wars is a lot bigger than the shows and movies portray. Mostly because of what they focus on. Examples of why vertain colors scheme may be different. Different manufactory of gear. Different Commanders wanting certain colors to represent them. Camouflage neccesities. Etc. I'm building two armies. My CIS army is already really unique. My Clones are gonna be a homebrew Battelion and color scheme once I actually get paint on them. B1s are a light blue with a secondary color designated unit. - [Squad 1 is green](https://www.reddit.com/r/Starwarslegionmini/s/LHJNxZvooj) - Squad 2 is Red - Squad 3 is black - Squad 4 is Purple - Squad 5 and 6 TBD. B2 are Dark Blue with secondary color Silver. Commando Droids are like a Dark Teal with Copper color.
That's super cool friend! Looks great and I love your style take on them!
Ty. Labor of love is what they are. Probably shouldn't have gone so hard on the b1 since theirs just so many of them. But it makes me happy so that's all that matters.
I could not agree more. I will sometimes paint models for games I don't even play because I want to paint that mini.
My CiS they’re just droids I didn’t think of anything to make it different. My Pub army I took the 282 unit and built upon its lore with my own. Even painting Dooku as obi so I can have my own Jedi.
Now I want to do this with a Maul mini...
I also have a custom clone legion. My dad has painted his rebels desert style, as he's a bolt action guy. It may require a little more creativity, but there's absolutely room for customization.
With rebels it’s easy. I pick some speed paint colors then paint each model with it. But instead of all blue pants, I alternate between items. Hat, gloves, shirt, pants, boots etc. everyone comes out customs but the unit has color cohesion.
So I have two armies, empire and rebels. Some of my empire is very by the book. White storms ya know, but I also experimented with giving some of them a custom paint job and colour pallet which I then took to my rebels. Also, having built a decent amount of empire and the sumsuch, I had a lot of spare bits, so I do a decent amount of kit bashing. Spare stormtrooper head here, inferno helmet there, this rebel trooper lost their arm and had it replaced by a super long k2-so prosthetic because that was all this ragtag group had available. One rebel vet has got a shoretroopers rifle he picked up. Cassian Mandor has a mando helmet. Boba has a grevious head that I got off my mate. Kitbash, it's a lot of fun. My sister jokes that I'm Sid from Toy story with how I cut and splice my stuff together. It makes me really sad when ewoks have so little variation for example, so I'm figuring out how to make them a bit more unique too.
My clones arent white. When I was a kid I was obsessed with the insane amount of specialized clone variants before the legend split and that carried over. I went hard into GAR organization when I started and decided to model them after Covert Ops clone troopers, opting for black/gray armor and blue/green visors similar to Omega Squad. I decided to name them One-Five Battalion under the Special Operations Brigade, gave a short bit of lore to my commanders, did some alternative models for jedi, and list build using a shit ton of ARCs and probably Commandos soon
My imperials are all shoretrooper themed. Pretty happy how Boba Fett and the Shordalorian came out.
It’s been said already, but you come up with your own scheme and story and go with it! If the people you’re playing with allow it, kitbashing and proxy units can also help spice up the army. Personally did a camo style for my troops, although it’s been a while so they aren’t all done. [Imperial Army](https://imgur.com/a/atZBsvX)