Painting Challenge Submission #12 - Imperial Shoretroopers for Star Wars Legion

Shoretrooper Squads for Star Wars "Legion" - figures from Fantasy Flight Games.

More painting from the "Star Wars" setting, and more figures for Star Wars "Legion" - here we have a detachment of Shoretroopers. They're like Stormtroopers, but they are, you know, for service near the shore - the specialist tropical climate infantry (I suppose) of the Galactic Empire. 

One of the Shoretrooper squads.

Everyone recalls the Shoretroopers in the movie "Rogue One". I loved them, and I can hardly be the only one, as these things seem to be popular! They are a very cool alternate infantry for the Galactic Empire. Given that you first see them as part of the garrison on Scarif, I suppose it might be inferred that they are a cut above the (highly theoretical) fighting quality of the average Stormtrooper. I'm not sure their actual combat performance bears that out - either as observed on Scarif, or at the remnant Imperial refinery base seen in the second season of "The Mandalorian". 

Some view of the rear detail.

In "Andor" (another amazing Star Wars series) we see them shaking down and rounding up randos as part of a general Imperial crackdown - so I suppose the Shoretrooper is just a basic trooper with tropical kit. That said, they sure look cool - I like the lines of their helmets and the colours on the armour. 

Squad leader on the left, and I used the sculpt on the right as a second-in-command for each squad.

Not only to Shoretroopers have different coloured armour, but they seem to sport a marking scheme. Almost all of them seem to have a stripe on their left shoulder pads, and then varying combinations of red, blue and even yellow lines and pauldrons to denote various ranks and specialties. For my part, I have opted to be much more limited with the markings - while I did put a red armour section on the right arms of each Shoretrooper, I decided against the "everyone gets a stripe day" look - leaving those only for the squad leaders and assistant squad leaders, and only the NCO squad leader got any blue markings. 

Trooper rocking a T-21B blaster on the left, regular grunt on the right.

Fantasy Flight Games did a great job on these sculpts, I love them. And it is kind of nuts, each box comes with a mortar and a gunner. Like - how many mortars do you need? I decided I would only paint up one for now. 

I love the poses on these sculpts - well done by FFG.

Painting these was a bit tricky, as it brought me further into the realization that GW has utterly f*cked up its "Agrax Earthshade" wash. They issued a new formulation for this beloved and endlessly useful product last year. Given GW's compulsion to "fix" things that are not broken and make changes for no good reason in a way that makes things worse, news of the "new" formulation filled me with dread. Having tried the new formulation and given it a fair shot, I can confirm that my worst fears have been realized - the new formulation of "Agrax Earthshade" sucks sh!t 

Why? Well, for starters, it dries glossy as f*ck (even though there is still a separate "glossy" version - can only surmise that one finishes so glossy you can see it from space). It has also lost its tinting properties, and while it is supposedly "thinner", it does not flow well into recesses for highlighting. You might as well drop your figure in some vaguely brown water...it would need less cleaning up...

DF-90 mortar and its one-person crew.

Using the "new formulation", the usually straightforward process of achieving some highlights on the armour via recess wash became a distended exercise in frustration, leading to a lot of re-painting. I ultimately had to try and some new "Contrast" paints from GW instead - in this case, "Skeleton Horde". On balance, this was too light, but it did flow much better, so I'm going to step up the experimenting with the new "Contrast" paint range, as I will need some kind of replacement for "Agrax Earthshade".

Another view of the mortar and gunner.

Whatever the tribulations, my Imperial forces are now considerably expanded with the addition of two squads of Shoretroopers, supported by a mortar (or, I guess, a "space mortar"). I am scouring the 3D printing sites to get some more specialists kitted out in Shoretrooper armour, as I much prefer the look of these fellows to the basic Stormtroopers. Depending on shipping time, they may appear in this edition of the Challenge...

Stay tuned for more - and I hope you have a chance to escape winter and enjoy a beach somewhere...just like these fellows do!