Creating Ark Troopers 15mm

Ark pilot for their gunship.

captain Fordo and the Muunilist ten. This special team of highly trained Ark 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 Ark 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 Ark 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 troopers, they will be mounted two to a base like the 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 Ark 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 Ark 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 surpressers gets a view finder too.

Here we can see the older and the newer version of the view 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 'Arks', something I didn't have before. 

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

This Ark 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.

Creating Clone Medics 15mm

I thought it would be a good idea to create a bit of medical backup for the infantry platoons. A sheet of medic clone decals has arrived and it spurred me on to create some big backpacks to put them on.

 These might seem slightly oversized but they should look good when the decals go on. Not all of these will be medics, some may be carrying extra ammo and supplies.  I'll sprinkle this guy's in amongst the rank and file of the platoons.

This arrived to day, some pin up girls for the gunships. Hopefully I can get them on without too much trouble.

UPDATE: Today I spent a bit of time in the early morning putting a bit more detail on these gunships. It was a simple mod but one that is quite noticeable. I added some doors to the inside of the craft. After doing a bit of research I found that the pressure doors had lines across them, this was an easy make, as I had segmented roof plasticard. This worked wonders and saved me messing around with pens etc.

I added a little door control panel too and I'll put a light on this when the black wash is dry.

It's a little touch but I think it will make a lot of difference in the close ups. These LAATs are combat aircraft, so the insides are very used and grimey.

This latest craft still needs it's holes filling. This is a better time to do all the messy gluing before the paint goes on.

Clone Decals 15mm

I had a thought this morning after using decals on the gunship yesterday. I knew some of the decals on the sheet were small, but I wondered if they could be used on the tiny miniatures.

Well I'm glad to say, yes they can. I had originally painted circles on their packs but these tiny symbols look a lot better.

Gunship landing and dropping off a platoon.

Company command disembarks to take control of the situation.

The little decals look good, they're so small they are hard to make out.

If the decal breaks slightly it's still good as these symbols wear off the equipment.

Once I had discovered these little decals were usable on the figures, I started to look around to see what else I could use them on.
 

It wasn't long before I had found another item to add decals too, the equipment crates in the gunship. This was even more satisfying because I could use a slightly bigger decal. This crate is now definitely a Republic one and even carries a fleet symbol too.

These medic crates get a big decal too.

They are a small detail but it really adds to the figure I think. I may need to invest in some medic ones as these would be great on packs and crates.

Also today while the figures were out, I decided to catch up on some basing. Omega squad gets finished off and can join the Grand army of the republic.

They look much better now with some grit and grass on the base.

One shot...one kill.

The Company headquarters base also got some love and is based and finished.

The little home made pack looks good now, I was glad I could get a decal on it.

Omega squad really stand out amongst the sea of white armour.

I used a red permanent marker to do the red lights on the rear of the helmets. I find myself using fine markers more and more on these tiny 15mm figures. I think they give you a lot more control on the little details.