Republic Gunship 15mm

Its time to bite the bullet and tackle this metal toy. At first I was a little disappointed that they don't produce a printed gunship to accompany the figures. Then I realised that if they did, the cockpit would be resin, so you wouldn't be able to see inside. So the toy makes for a much more satisfying model with it's clear view port.

I decided to paint the yellow wings an off white colour to make the craft a lot more screen accurate.This was a bit of a faff as I had to paint three layers of the white before it became opaque.

The model is looking so much better now with the correct colours.

A shot of a gunship looking pretty grimmy with lots of carbon scoring and battle damage.

These illustrations were really useful getting the colour scheme right. 

I had to hunt around for details of these ball turrets.

 

Now comes the bit that gave me a bit of school boy joy, I managed to cut down some troopers and get them in the cockpit. 

I wasn't sure I needed to and the thought of wasting figures almost stopped me. However, now they're in, they look great. They also help to bring the gunship into 15mm scale that will match the infantry being dropped off. I think it was worth the gamble.

The LAAT pilots sit quite high up so you can definitely see them in the craft, luckily these figures match that looks exactly.

Painting the model completely did give me the opportunity to add some more details that had been left off the toy. These included little yellow warning signs dotted about the vehicle.

I like the fact that the pilots are looking in different directions out of the cockpit. Keep your head on a swivel!

"Matchstick requesting clearance to lift off"

Two cut down troopers are promoted to pilots. These were originally falling casualty figures. I filed off their helmet fins and gave them the yellow pilot markings.

All pilots to their ships...all pilots to their ships.

I used a fine red pen to draw on their helmet markings. Being so small I doubt anyone will see them but I thought it was worth doing.

Next came the scary bit of putting an oil wash over the model. I went with oil for the fact it can be removed with paint thinner in places giving you more control.

Heavy flak damage.

I dug out some black oil paint and thinned it right down with some paint thinner. I used the odourless one to please my wife.

I managed to match all the toy colours close enough. I also added quite a few different shades of  the colours to help with the panel work look. The gunships are very large and the panel work would be easy to see. I need to remember how long to leave it to dry...I think it's about three days for oil.

Here is the original toy a couple of weeks ago showing the yellow wings. I could have lived with this but when you're spending so long painting up models to be accurate, there's no point making so with something you're not happy with. Now the pilots are in, the whole scale thing is no longer an issue. Ironically, if the gunship was a bite smaller, I wouldn't have been able to put the figures in.

So, a morning well spent with a lovely surprise of getting those pilots in the cockpit. Now the infantry can be dropped off in style!

UPDATE: so I had to do it after painting up the first one. The plan is to have a few of these gunships to drop off platoons of infantry. I'm thinking the third one I could paint as a special commando variant... we'll have to see.

You can see here on the new one the amount of screw holes I had to fill in. I made some of them gashes and dents to help the battered look.

Seeing the empty cockpit reassures me that I made the right choice about adding figures to them.

I found that turning the stand around makes for a much sturdier mount. If this heavy Diecast model was to fall on any of the resin figures...there would be real casualties for sure. So this reversed mount is much better, it also makes the ship point downwards in flight which looks more accurate.

There he is, piloting his battered, battle worn Low altitude assault transport (infantry) LAAT (i).

I plan to paint each one slightly differently, the new craft will be mostly white to match the ones from the films.

"Good luck down there captain....happy hunting!"

Republic Commandos 15mm

Using some computer game footage to show those those tricky little details that are easily missed, I set about touching up the paint jobs. I wanted one squad of troopers to be that almost new white and so repainted them a little. Also, I dug around for more detail on their equipment. The results paid off I think and I'm a lot happier with them now.

I lightly washed some Army Painter soft tone on areas...not too much, I still want these guys to look squeaky clean.

The little energy reading on the pack was worth doing as it captures the eye. It was done by painting blue ink over white.

A lowered brow line works so much better than I had it before. They have so much more attitude now.

The back of the helmet was tricky and this is where Star Wars Battlefront came to the rescue.

 

Against the odds, Beta team holds out against a whole platoon of clankers.

Boss and Fixer surveyor the terrain.

Delta squad got a make over too after finding some detailed turnarounds on the internet.

Sev and Scorch prepare a nasty surprise...

" Just like the simulation!"

Sev is a sniper and a bit of a weapons guy, so I thought it best to portray him armed to the teeth.

Basing is under way...

Basing in a layer of Arid earth from Luke APS to start with. While the glue is still wet I dip it into some Mars red sand as well to give it an off world look. The two hues of sand work well together and create a unique look.

UPDATE: Another day of ideas for unit types to tie into my new rules I'm writing. I thought some sniper detachments would be good to have. I wrote up the stats for these, then set about creating some units of them. I imagine these Clone snipers to be in a small unit of two bases. The smaller gets less dice than a platoons worth of men but their accuracy is a lot better.

I added a tiny scope to this marksman but using a bit of brush bristle.

After a short wait, the missing leg pieces finally arrived and I could start on the second AT-TE walker. 

This time I tried to create more of a dynamic pose by bending the torso and alternating the large legs. 

It's a real tricky thing to put together, but once you get over the fear, the multiple parts mean you can get some good poses with it. You can get some nice lumbering character into the model.

I had a scary moment where I lost one of the feet. I knew it must be somewhere on the floor and finally found it in a shoe...bloody thing.

Stay calm and carry on.

Anyway, back to these guys...there are two units of snipers here. The first are regular advanced clones but the other squads are ARF troopers, (Advanced Recon Force), scouts if you like.

The green resin is a bit off putting but the print is sharper than the grey. UHU glue is definitely the way forward with these models, as it allows you to take your time posing the model as it drys.

ARF troopers, these guys are specialists in Recon and surveillance. Their armour is even camouflaged so they blend into their surroundings better. This camo upgrade was a late war design, so I'm tempted to keep mine white. We'll have to see, may white armour but a camo cloak.

An above shot shows the slight kink to the torso, I also lifted the back leg to get it a different look to the previous walker.

The rock is holding up the leg while the slow setting UHU drys, looking at it, it might be nice to leave the rock there, as if the walker has just stepped onto it. They are all terrain after all.

The Commandos are finished off with small static grass ( 2mm wheat) and tiny grass tufts.

They join a force of the 501st in their snazzy blue livery.

A Dwarf spider droid, a tough nut to crack with a dangerous vehicle grade weapon. This high powered nose canon could negate the Commandos tough armour, so they had better be careful. The spider droids can also self destruct when they are badly damaged, another reason to fear these robust clankers.