Republic Gunship 15mm

Finally, the gunship is finished and is in the war! I added a pin-up girl decal and weathered the paint work with chalks. This was all sealed with some spray matte lacquer.

The next step was to start thinking of a way to cover up the black base.

Before and after.

Inbound!

My answer to the glossy black base was to cover it in bark. I used a glue gun to stick the bark in place, then PVA to stick down a layer of grit. I will spray this and then dry brush it to match the figures bases.

I also used some earth tone chalk to weather the bottom of the craft, out of everything, this worked the best I thought.

Rocky out crops.

Lady luck.

Three bases for three gunships.

This is the bit I'm most pleased with as it really matches the reference.

This picture was taken from a computer game mod and it proved very useful. Being able to watch the craft move around and see all the details was very handy indeed.

The cork bark is crude but I think it really works as rocks. Hopefully, when painted and finished with tufts, it should look the part.

I wonder if I could go over her with blue ink to change her skin colour? This might make her look a little more star wars. I'll give it a try.

No I bottled out after painting a foot, I'll leave her pink. If I do another one...I'll try it on that.

 I really enjoyed working on this model. It reminded me of a model aeroplane build with it's weathering and decals. Also I love the fact it has clear view pots and the pilots can be clearly seen. A real lucky stroke of luck with the tiny 15mm pilots being able to be put inside.

A bit of time has passed and I've managed to complete the flying stands. These were sprayed a dark brown then dry brushed in the same colour as the infantry bases.

Once all the dry brushing was done, I glued down a patchy layer of red Mars sand. This again matches the figure bases and gives it an off worldly look.

The bark is great for creating rocky terrain.

I noticed on looking at the earlier pictures, that this decal had torn, probably because of the lacquer. This made an excellent excuse to turn it into battle damage. No paint work would stay intact for long in this conflict.

Finished flying stands. The edges were given a light brushing of grey to bring them out more.

Creating ARC Troopers 15mm

ARC pilot for their gunship.

Captain Fordo and the Muunilist ten. This special team of highly trained ARC troopers took on the top missions of the Republic. A modified LAAT gunship acted as their vehicle of choice and created a startling look to the team. I managed to find this craft as a toy and it prompted me to create Fordo and his troopers. Hopefully it will get to me okay, it's coming from across the pond.

 

Captain Fordo was the main event on this build, so he had to look good. I started off with a Captain Rex figure, but the helmet was wrong. So with a little care I trimmed down a troopers head and swopped them. The next step was to give him his silencers on his pistols. These aren't finished yet as they need some sights.  However, I'm happy with the pose.

I realised later that the specialist troopers don't have shoulder pauldrons and so technically aren't ARC troopers. The odd one has luckily, so I used these as reference to create some out of green stuff.

This made me quite happy as I was creating ARC troopers, another troop type for the game. These will be classed as Elites and will have more hit points than the Commandos because there are more of them in a team.

As Elite Advanced Recon Commandos, they will be mounted two to a base like the standard  clone Commandos. This will mark them out from the other units. They will still have five bases to a unit though, just less troopers on them.

A last minute idea was to create so ammo pouches from plasticard. These look good and add to the Specialist look. A tiny glob of super glue makes the flap at the top. 

At this tiny scale it should be enough when painted. Luckily, the putty was still wet, so I could push the ammo into the sculpt, making it blend in better. I will also give them helmet sights once everything is dry, this should complete their ARC troopers look.

A heavy weapons is a must for Fordo's team, giving some well needed fire support.

Another unit of Elites with hopefully their own gunship, this unit will be fun to play.

UPDATE: Now the green stuff is dry, I thought I'd have a stab at making some little view finders for the helmets. It's one of the most characteristic things about the ARC troopers is their view finders, so it had to be done.

These were very easy to done using thin brush bristles again. I used a pair of pliers to bend over the end and flatten it, this was enough for it to look like a view finders, job done. These were then super glued onto the resin figures.

This sniper has his down in the aiming position, this was cool to do as it makes it different from the others.

Captain Fordo with his silencers gets a view finder too.

Here we can see the older and the newer version of the range finders used by the clone army. It's nice to see both in the same unit.

Again I'm pleased as these little details mark the troopers out as being 'ARCs', something I didn't have before. 

I had thought the specialists were meant to be ARC troopers, but they are clearly not when examined.

This ARC sniper has a couple of extra ammo packs too, this is the great thing about working at this scale, you can get away with murder when it comes to detail.

Captain Fordo lives.

I had another go at modelling Fordo's blasters, I'm a lot happier with this version. I know it is a cartoonish look but at least the silencers are bigger than the pistol now. As everything is oversized anyway I think this works better with the style than it did before.

I gave him his big holsters too, tomorrow, I will file down some of the detail on them.

UPDATE: Right, now little guys are looking more like ARC troopers.

Now the ARC troopers training is almost done, I thought I'd treat them to their first flight in a LAAT. 

They loved it!

Soon, with any luck, they will have a gunship of their own with it's distinctive tiger shark pattern. Hopefully, they will be ready for it when it arrives.

UPDATE: The final thing in this build was to give them extra ammo and grenades on their belts. This really finishes the ARC trooper look for me.

Tiny flash grenades were made from cut up brush bristles.

On some of the packs I stuck tiny plastic flaps to make them look like pouches.

The clones may have small, highly trained units like these ARC troopers, but the CIS have endless waves of deadly battle droids. In a war of numbers, the poor clones are hopelessly outnumbered.

Some of the larger hip packs look like blaster pistol holsters, perfect for these die hards.

I think the build is completed on these guys now, tomorrow I'll base them up and give them a coat of white spray paint.

UPDATE: Right the ARC troopers are paired up and based.

I placed a sight on this blaster by using a brush bristle again. It just shows that these guys are elite and have bespoke equipment.