How do you army build?

[CloneCommando99]

I’m curious as to how everyone army builds differently.

Do you separate your units? Do you separate factions? Do you form different divisions? Do you have a preference in formations? Do you use different formations for differently sized units? Do you incorporate vehicles into the display? Do you army build one faction exclusively? What size and colour of baseplate do you use if any? Is there a specific trooper type you army build? Do you even army build at all?

Here’s a small example of how I do it:

And finally: if Lego could make 3 sets that you’d like solely for the purpose of improving your LSW army, what would they be?

 

I’d love to hear how you guys do it. It’ll be interesting to see how everyone differentiates from each other and whether there are some constants.

Edited January 5 by CloneCommando99

[Darth_Bane13]

4 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

I’m curious as to how everyone army builds differently.

Do you separate your units? Do you separate factions? Do you form different divisions? Do you have a preference in formations? Do you use different formations for differently sized units? Do you prefer specific Do you incorporate vehicles into the display? Do you army build one faction exclusively? What size and colour of baseplate do you use if any? Is there a specific trooper type you army build? Do you even army build at all?

And finally: if Lego could make 3 sets that you’d like solely for the purpose of improving your LSW army, what would they be?

 

I’d love to hear how you guys do it. It’ll be interesting to see how everyone differentiates from each other and whether there are some constants.

I don't really set out to army build any factions or troopers. I have accumulated a decent amount of troopers/droids from each faction over the years through buying sets and 1-2 of a battle pack when released. The only time I might make it a point to army build is when building a MOC (which I don't do often), the exception to this is the 2020 501st battle pack which I bought 5 of. I don't display any figures on a baseplate, but I will keep some factions vehicles grouped together on a shelf. 

 

3 sets:

1. Rebel Battle pack similar to the R1 Battle pack where you can buy a couple and switch parts around. I think rebels are underrated for army building.

2. Droid specialist battle pack, tactical droid, 2 Magna guards, commando droid. Would add some nice variety to the droid army we haven't seen in years.

3. B-wing. We need more rebel starfighters.

 

Good idea for a topic.

[CF Mitch]

Nice topic idea!

Whenever a new trooper type comes out that I like, I try to get at least 4 of them (and maybe a commander type, if applicable), and 8 at the most and display them in rows of 2.

For Phase II Clone Troopers I divide them by batallion/regiment (so, basically by color) with their commander and/or Jedi General.

When it comes to Phase I Clone Troopers, though, I tried to recreate a scene taking place during the Battle of Geonosis; a landing Republic Gunship with troopers disembarking, and plenty of troopers already arrived and standing in formation with a commanding trooper (the colored ones) and Mace Windu. 

I actually have about nine or twelve Imperial Stormtroopers standing in formation, including a commander.
My Snowtroopers are displayed to be battling Hoth Rebel Troopers.

When it comes to droid forces, I have so many of them, most placed in a somewhat disorderly fashion.

And that's about it, I suppose

When it comes to sets that I'd like to improve my army, we're supposedly getting them already, this year:

- 327th Corps Battlepack
- UT-AT with Galactic Marines

Regards,
Mitch

[Mandalorianknight]

21 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

I’m curious as to how everyone army builds differently.

Do you separate your units? Do you separate factions? Do you form different divisions? Do you have a preference in formations? Do you use different formations for differently sized units? Do you incorporate vehicles into the display? Do you army build one faction exclusively? What size and colour of baseplate do you use if any? Is there a specific trooper type you army build? Do you even army build at all?

Here’s a small example of how I do it:

And finally: if Lego could make 3 sets that you’d like solely for the purpose of improving your LSW army, what would they be?

I’d love to hear how you guys do it. It’ll be interesting to see how everyone differentiates from each other and whether there are some constants.

That's a great starter army for a few different factions there.

I wish I'd seen this yesterday, I've just started living in another location so I won't be able to take photos of my collection for a few months, but I have 5 factions with an "army" built up. I've had legos pretty much since I was 4, but started collecting more seriously in 2015 after the force awakens, so this is a decade's worth of army building in some cases:

Imperials: My stormtroopers are lined up on the right side of the classic 48x48 grey baseplate (I think at this point I'm close to 40!), with snow/sand/shore/shock/death/scout (units I have 3-8 of) etc in the middle and specialized units I only have 1-2 of (purist custom Purge, ISB, Mortar, etc). At the back of the baseplate and behind it are an AT-ST, Dewback, and some imperial crates, speeder bikes, etc, with a TX-225 and Trexlar Marauder to the right of the troopers. It's not in the same area, but I have a small diorama elsewhere in my collection with Palpatine, Vader, a few inquisitors, and some royal guards.

Rebels: I have a 16x32 baseplate set up with all my Fleet Troopers, led by a Captain Antilles figure. I then have 5-8 smaller baseplates with dioramas for the environment for Endor commandos, uniformless rebels, and two purist custom groups (Mountaineers, made from unprinted dark tan endor helmets and the grey rogue one torsos, and Desert Troops, with the same helmets and resistance trooper torsos). Intersperced with those are some rebel ground vehicle sets (really just the rebel scout speeders), as well as some mocs (T2-B, MLC-3, a LBG snowspeeder, etc). There's also a small plate with rebel command (Leia, Dodanna, Ackbar, and purist customs of Madine and some other rebel generals)

Republic: My largest faction, somehow. White baseplate with Anakin, Ahsoka, Rex, Fives, R2, and a couple of commanders made with the Vaughn body with 501st helmets, alongside a large number of 501st troopers and shinies. I have some smaller plates around it with factions I have 2-6 members of (41st, 212th, coruscant guard, etc), as well as a modded 2013 gunship, 2022 AT-TE, 3 2020 BARCs, and 3 2023 artillery cannons, as well as 3 AT-RT mocs that are sized a little closer to minifigure scale.

Separatists: I have a ton of B1s but it's a small display overall. B1s on a DBG plate, B2s on another, and a 2x12 plate with a purist custom Dooku, the white Grievous figure, and a b1 commander. The 2007 vulture droid, which I assumably got off an ebay lot but have no memory of obtaining, sits behind them alongside 2 2020 AATs.

Mandalorians: I have a 16x32 baseplate with a ton of mandalorian "tribes' (of similarly colored armors), mostly purist custom. At the front of it are my named mandalorians like Din, The Armorer, Paz, a Boba, and purist customs of Sabine, Bo, Jango, etc. Behind them I've got the 2021 gauntlet fighter, another Ebay purchase (I think I ended up essentially gaining money from that one- it was part of a lot that I sold off the figures from on bricklink).

I have a few first order stormtroopers, praetorians, tuskens, etc, but they're just loose in a tray somewhere.

21 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

And finally: if Lego could make 3 sets that you’d like solely for the purpose of improving your LSW army, what would they be?

This is a tough one- I'm at a point where most of my armies are pretty "complete" so to speak. If you asked me in 2019 it would be two clone legions and a rebel fleet trooper pack, but nowadays it'd be:

Mandalorian battle pack #1 ($20): four mandalorians in some rarer colors. Male Red (Black jetpack), Male Purple (Reddish Brown slim cape), Female White (slim white cape), Female Yellow (Flat Silver Jetpack). Build is a Balutar speeder and a turret, as is the norm.

Mandalorian battle pack #2 ($20): four more mandalorians. Male Yellow (Light Bluish Grey jetpack), Male Black (Black ragged cape), Female Pink (slim dark red cape), Female Red (dark red jetpack). Build is a small base with a weapon rack and basic forge.

The Final Clone Battle Pack For At Least Two Years ($20): 212th trooper, wolfpack trooper, 41st trooper, and 91st trooper. Comes with a size-accurate AT-RT and a small barricade.

[Max_Lego]

I don't really build armies, my primary interest are ANH characters - I still dream of recreating this movie in stop-motion (the initial, 1977 version, with some minor changes - lack of bloopers, altered dialogue order at Ben Kenobi's hut, inclusion of scene at Rebel hangar, where Garven Dreis says that as a kid he met Luke's father). I already have 6 Rebel troopers (plan to increase this number), 12 'perfect', accurate Purist Stormtroopers (11 pictured; I plan to increase the number up to 20 and beyond), 7 screen-accurate Sandtroopers with a Dewback (enough for the 1977 cut), 2 TIE pilots and some Death Star staff. Since many officers are currently not available as official minifigures, I ordered custom torsos (I currently plan to replace Praji with the new official figure).

Aside from that, I have:

- 1 Scout Trooper 

- 1 Thrawn Death Trooper (my fanon version of Enoch)

- 1 Patrol Trooper with sticker arm decor

- 1 Military engineer (from ROTJ)

- 1 Space Trooper

- 1 Airplane pilot (fanon)

- 2 Imperial Mandalorians (white Boba Fett concept)

- 2 Shadow troopers from TFU

- 2 Snowtroopers with a commander (perhaps, my most heavily customised figures)

- 4 Emperor's guards with custom capes

- 4 Dark Troopers from The Mandalorian

The 9 Stormtroopers from Rebels don't count.

The CIS have 1 B1 commander (without yellow spot on head), 4 B1 with backpacks, 6 B1 without backpacks, 1 B2, 1 Commando commander and 2 commando droids.

The only worthy Clone trooper I have is the ARC trooper from TCW with white hips.

I also have the "Traitor!!!" FO Stormtrooper and some other figures 

I didn't list officers and other named characters for obvious reasons. 

My (all MOCs, all preserved) vehicles are:

- AT-ST (Hoth long legs) and TX-225

- Aratech 74-Z and CP-H speeder bikes

- a Waveskimmer hydroplane 

- TIE Interceptor and red TIE Defender

- Lambda shuttle

- Early production RZ-1 A-wing

- BTL-A4 Y-wing bomber

- T-65 X-wing fighter

23 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

And finally: if Lego could make 3 sets that you’d like solely for the purpose of improving your LSW army, what would they be?

1) Death Star Conference Room

2) Death Star corridors (with armorless Stormtroopers in off-duty uniforms!!!)

3) Rebel victory celebration (with Honour Guards, technicians and Generals)

P. S. : I forgot to mention that my ANH characters are displayed on a grey 48x48 plate. I don't know if I shall replace it with transparent minifigure boxes...

Edited January 5 by Max_Lego

[CloneCommando99]

Thank you for your replies so far guys. They’ve been really interesting.

 

20 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

but I will keep some factions vehicles grouped together on a shelf.

Same here. My entire 501st contingent is grouped with a few light vehicles on my shelf. 

20 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

3 sets:

1. Rebel Battle pack similar to the R1 Battle pack where you can buy a couple and switch parts around. I think rebels are underrated for army building.

2. Droid specialist battle pack, tactical droid, 2 Magna guards, commando droid. Would add some nice variety to the droid army we haven't seen in years.

3. B-wing. We need more rebel starfighters.

 

Good idea for a topic.

Fair enough. The last non X-wing rebel starfighter was in 2019. (I do not count the E-Wing since that’s a New Republic vehicle) and the separatists need something to counter the Clones’ ridiculously sized arsenal compared to other factions.

6 hours ago, CF Mitch said:

When it comes to droid forces, I have so many of them, most placed in a somewhat disorderly fashion.

Relatable. I kinda take away the droids’ blasters and give them to the troopers who came from 2014-2020 battlepacks.

6 hours ago, CF Mitch said:

- 327th Corps Battlepack
- UT-AT with Galactic Marines

Wow. That’s really convenient for you.

I hope they turn out well.

6 hours ago, CF Mitch said:

When it comes to Phase I Clone Troopers, though, I tried to recreate a scene taking place during the Battle of Geonosis; a landing Republic Gunship with troopers disembarking, and plenty of troopers already arrived and standing in formation with a commanding trooper (the colored ones) and Mace Windu. 

I actually have about nine or twelve Imperial Stormtroopers standing in formation, including a commander.
My Snowtroopers are displayed to be battling Hoth Rebel Troopers.

 

Lot’s of variety in display. I respect it.

3 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

That's a great starter army for a few different factions there.

Thanks. Though these are just some of my grunts. It doesn’t include starfighter corps, navy, specialised units and special forces personnel.

3 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I Imperials: My stormtroopers are lined up on the right side of the classic 48x48 grey baseplate (I think at this point I'm close to 40!), with snow/sand/shore/shock/death/scout (units I have 3-8 of) etc in the middle and specialized units I only have 1-2 of (purist custom Purge, ISB, Mortar, etc). At the back of the baseplate and behind it are an AT-ST, Dewback, and some imperial crates, speeder bikes, etc, with a TX-225 and Trexlar Marauder to the right of the troopers. It's not in the same area, but I have a small diorama elsewhere in my collection with Palpatine, Vader, a few inquisitors, and some royal guards.

Rebels: I have a 16x32 baseplate set up with all my Fleet Troopers, led by a Captain Antilles figure. I then have 5-8 smaller baseplates with dioramas for the environment for Endor commandos, uniformless rebels, and two purist custom groups (Mountaineers, made from unprinted dark tan endor helmets and the grey rogue one torsos, and Desert Troops, with the same helmets and resistance trooper torsos). Intersperced with those are some rebel ground vehicle sets (really just the rebel scout speeders), as well as some mocs (T2-B, MLC-3, a LBG snowspeeder, etc). There's also a small plate with rebel command (Leia, Dodanna, Ackbar, and purist customs of Madine and some other rebel generals)

Republic: My largest faction, somehow. White baseplate with Anakin, Ahsoka, Rex, Fives, R2, and a couple of commanders made with the Vaughn body with 501st helmets, alongside a large number of 501st troopers and shinies. I have some smaller plates around it with factions I have 2-6 members of (41st, 212th, coruscant guard, etc), as well as a modded 2013 gunship, 2022 AT-TE, 3 2020 BARCs, and 3 2023 artillery cannons, as well as 3 AT-RT mocs that are sized a little closer to minifigure scale.

Separatists: I have a ton of B1s but it's a small display overall. B1s on a DBG plate, B2s on another, and a 2x12 plate with a purist custom Dooku, the white Grievous figure, and a b1 commander. The 2007 vulture droid, which I assumably got off an ebay lot but have no memory of obtaining, sits behind them alongside 2 2020 AATs.

Mandalorians: I have a 16x32 baseplate with a ton of mandalorian "tribes' (of similarly colored armors), mostly purist custom. At the front of it are my named mandalorians like Din, The Armorer, Paz, a Boba, and purist customs of Sabine, Bo, Jango, etc. Behind them I've got the 2021 gauntlet fighter, another Ebay purchase (I think I ended up essentially gaining money from that one- it was part of a lot that I sold off the figures from on bricklink).

Impressive. Most impressive.

I like how you make sure that you have a clear leadership for each faction instead of just using un-named officers or just stacking troops, it adds some personality.

3 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Mandalorian battle pack #1 ($20): four mandalorians in some rarer colors. Male Red (Black jetpack), Male Purple (Reddish Brown slim cape), Female White (slim white cape), Female Yellow (Flat Silver Jetpack). Build is a Balutar speeder and a turret, as is the norm.

Mandalorian battle pack #2 ($20): four more mandalorians. Male Yellow (Light Bluish Grey jetpack), Male Black (Black ragged cape), Female Pink (slim dark red cape), Female Red (dark red jetpack). Build is a small base with a weapon rack and basic forge.

This is the way.

(But honestly I’d prefer to get one BP with Maul’s Mandos so their could be an antagonistic faction to the good rainbow mandos)

2 hours ago, Max_Lego said:

I don't really build armies, my primary interest are ANH characters - I still dream of recreating this movie in stop-motion (the initial, 1977 version, with some minor changes - lack of bloopers, altered dialogue order at Ben Kenobi's hut, inclusion of scene at Rebel hangar, where Garven Dreis says that as a kid he met Luke's father). I already have 6 Rebel troopers (plan to increase this number), 12 'perfect', accurate Purist Stormtroopers (11 pictured; I plan to increase the number up to 20 and beyond), 7 screen-accurate Sandtroopers with a Dewback (enough for the 1977 cut), 2 TIE pilots and some Death Star staff. Since many officers are currently not available as official minifigures, I ordered custom torsos (I currently plan to replace Praji with the new official figure).

I admire the ambition. Let me know when you release it. I’d love to see how it turns out.

2 hours ago, Max_Lego said:

*military manifest*

A truly mighty military you’ve accumulated, even if unintentional. I love your customs. They show that you’ve really put the effort into making the full on cast for your intended production.

2 hours ago, Max_Lego said:

2) Death Star corridors

I too would like this. Especially if it had a modular function as it’d really help me build an imperial base.

20 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

Good idea for a topic.

6 hours ago, CF Mitch said:

Nice topic idea!

Thanks! I figured that it was a massive pillar of the LSW community about which the specifics weren’t brought up much on the forum.

 

Does anyone else use a command structure between factions? (I use this when I engage in my ‘tabletop Lego wars’ with friends.

In charge of my navy I have Admiral Raddus as IC (In Command) and Vice-Admiral Sloane as 2IC (2nd In Command) 

In charge of my army I have General Hux as IC and General Veers as 2IC. Below them I have Cody, Rex and Fox as division commanders. (The high command are the most incompetent out of my divisions (most damage is done by Hux as Veers isn’t actually that bad) but are supplemented by good field commanders)

In charge of my starfighter corps I have General Merrick as IC and Commander Oddball as the incoming 2IC (yet to get new ARC-170)

In charge of my intelligence unit I have Agent Kallus (soon to be replaced as IC by Dedra Meero)

In overall command I have Tarkin. By the alone fact that he’s the highest ranking non-force sensitive I own.

Un-named officers fulfil various duties within the different divisions.

 

 

 

Edited January 5 by CloneCommando99

[Darth_Bane13]

2 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

Fair enough. The last non X-wing rebel starfighter was in 2019. (I do not count the E-Wing since that’s a New Republic vehicle) and the separatists need something to counter the Clones’ ridiculously sized arsenal compared to other factions.

 

 

 

 

Technically the last non X-wing play scale rebel star fighter was in 2017 (Y-wing/A-wing) if we don't count the resistance sets. I'm biased towards the B-wing though as it's the only rebel starfighter I'm missing in my collection, and the 2014 set has gotten a bit pricey nowadays. I think Imperial and republic representation has been strong in recent years which is why I'm championing their counterparts so there's more of a balance in the factions.

 

[Mandalorianknight]

5 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

Impressive. Most impressive.

I like how you make sure that you have a clear leadership for each faction instead of just using un-named officers or just stacking troops, it adds some personality.

This is the way.

(But honestly I’d prefer to get one BP with Maul’s Mandos so their could be an antagonistic faction to the good rainbow mandos)

Does anyone else use a command structure between factions? (I use this when I engage in my ‘tabletop Lego wars’ with friends.

Thanks!

Yeah, and even then I've left off some of mine (I have the main "hero" casts by their respective ships, Thrawn/Tarkin/Officers between an ISD and Lambda, and my GAR Jedi (duplicate Anakin but no Ahsoka) in front of a delta.

This is the way. (Honestly I would prefer non-maulized red mandos for the lore reason of they're a pretty small part of the mando timeline whereas generic ones can be used anywhere from TOR to the sequel era, and the very logical and fact-based reason of "red is my favorite color and I want red mandos who can be good guys")

2 hours ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

Technically the last non X-wing play scale rebel star fighter was in 2017 (Y-wing/A-wing) if we don't count the resistance sets. I'm biased towards the B-wing though as it's the only rebel starfighter I'm missing in my collection, and the 2014 set has gotten a bit pricey nowadays. I think Imperial and republic representation has been strong in recent years which is why I'm championing their counterparts so there's more of a balance in the factions.

Yeah I agree. I think new A and Y wings are long overdue- it's about time even if we count the resistance entries. I may be biased towards the Y-wing as the one in my collection looks kind of terrible (modded 2006), whereas I did full MOCs for my A and B wings instead of trying to mod old models and I think they turned out a lot better.

[Lordhelmet]

I would live to build empire army.  Has anyone done the research to see if we have the figures to build out the ranks?  Officers, NCOs etc, troops.  Is it possible to accurately build a Battalion or division for empire?

 

edit: briefly looking a stormtrooper squad is ten storm troopers (9 troopers 1 SGT), a platoon is 5 squads but I am not sure what platoon leadership is needed, would praji be a company commander?  Hard to figure out.  I think a company would have four platoons so a stormtrooper company would have 200 storm troopers (20 of which would need a Pauldron thinking orange?) then additionally there would need to be 5 platoon commanders (not sure if that is officers like praji or pauldroned storm troopers - thinking it is uniformed officers LTs with all black?) then one company commander - assuming captain).  Unless someone is doing a battalion (four companies) or bigger there is probably not a need to do specialized detachments like scouts, cold weather, etc.

 

i also think blizzard force is the easiest as they do not wear any unique pauldrons, so you could have 50 snow troopers with a snow trooper commander and veers to capture the unit well.

Edited January 6 by Lordhelmet

[CloneCommando99]

12 hours ago, Lordhelmet said:

I would live to build empire army.  Has anyone done the research to see if we have the figures to build out the ranks?  Officers, NCOs etc, troops.  Is it possible to accurately build a Battalion or division for empire?

You have to use pauldrons to distinguish field officers/ NCOs 

(The following is according to wookiepedia)

Black = corporal or just a normal sand trooper / magma trooper (personally I use these to distinguish special security)

White = sergeant 

Red = squad leaders (I think this means lieutenants)

Orange = Captain

All the colours have been made. But only for sand troopers, death troopers and FO stormtroopers.

 

I’m hoping that Lego uses the new plastic cape material to make pauldrons in the near future,

12 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

 

This is the way. (Honestly I would prefer non-maulized red mandos for the lore reason of they're a pretty small part of the mando timeline whereas generic ones can be used anywhere from TOR to the sequel era, and the very logical and fact-based reason of "red is my favorite color and I want red mandos who can be good guys")

Fair enough.

12 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Yeah I agree. I think new A and Y wings are long overdue- it's about time even if we count the resistance entries. I may be biased towards the Y-wing as the one in my collection looks kind of terrible (modded 2006), whereas I did full MOCs for my A and B wings instead of trying to mod old models and I think they turned out a lot better.

New republic A-Wing with Carson Teeva, Zeb, NR trooper and/ or a NR navy officer would be the dream (could triple as a New Republic, Rebel and Resistance set)

Edited January 6 by CloneCommando99

[Max_Lego]

31 minutes ago, CloneCommando99 said:

You have to use pauldrons to distinguish field officers/ NCOs 

(The following is according to wookiepedia)

Black = corporal or just a normal sand trooper / magma trooper (personally I use these to distinguish special security)

White = sergeant 

Red = squad leaders (I think this means lieutenants)

Orange = Captain

I disagree with the official Canon. In the OT, we saw only Sandtroopers wearing pauldrons. I personally think they are worn to protect the shoulder from a powerful weapon's (like the T-21 blaster) recoil (I am not quite sure about that). I imagine the colour indicating the Sandtrooper's specialisation, not rank (black/no pauldron for regular trooper, white for mounties, orange for commanders). I don't think Stormtrooper commanders wear pauldrons - in fact, they didn't even wear armour in ROTJ. They may wear a helmet and chestplate like Veers.

Black uniforms distinguish lieutenants and lower ranks, not Stormtrooper officers (I am strongly against the idea that Stormtroopers are an elite unit - they act like ordinary foot soldiers in the OT)

It's all just my headcanon, though based on multiple long observations.

Sorry for being off-topic...

[Lordhelmet]

10 minutes ago, CloneCommando99 said:

You have to use pauldrons to distinguish field officers/ NCOs 

(The following is according to wookiepedia)

Black = corporal or just a normal sand trooper / magma trooper (personally I use these to distinguish special security)

White = sergeant 

Red = squad leaders (I think this means lieutenants)

Orange = Captain

All the colours have been made. But only for sand troopers, death troopers and FO stormtroopers.

 

I’m hoping that Lego uses the new plastic cape material to make pauldrons in the near future,

Great call.  I saw that breakdown by pauldron type.  I am a little confused by it though as it does not really line up to in movie (or any real world) types of rank structure.  I would think the squad leader would be a sergeant - and there is some evidence of this in characters in the movie.  I see in that wookiepedia article that orange could be a squad leader, red is a squad leader, White seems to be just for sergeants, but sergeants would theoretically be squad leaders (LTs would theoretically be Platoon leaders).  Orange in the article also includes Sergeants, Captains, Commanders, and squad leaders.  

 

In Movie/Show - I think a lot of the orange pauldrons were squad leaders (thinking sand troopers, then in Rebels some of the orange pauldron) but I think the officers all wore the black uniform with the blue rank like Dain Jir (StormTrooper Captain? - so company?) , then Praji was a stormtrooper commander (BN Commander?).  I do not recall a red pauldron in movies/shows for Empire.  All this to say rank in the Empire makes no sense - considering it changes from movie to movie, and ROTJ they admittedly just messed up the rank insignia.

 

Would love if they used the new plastic cape material for pualdrons, we need more of them for sure.

 

Personally I think I will have the squad leaders use orange, maybe one or two in each squad have a white pauldron (probably won't use black - unless I do a sand trooper squad).  The problem for me is how to do the Platoon and Company leaders.  I think for a Platoon we could use an orange pualdron on a stormtrooper, because Lego has not produced a Stormtrooper LT. (although there are customs out there).  Then for a company it would be the Imperial Non Commissioned Officer SW0774 - the rank insignia should be stormtrooper CPT and that could be the company commander.

 

So I would build a stormtrooper platoon with the following - One commander (Probably Praji or NCO until Lego makes a Stormtrooper LT), Five orange pualdron storm troopers, ten white pauldrons, and 35 regular storm troopers.

Snowtrooper - Easiest one, I think this would be 50 snow troopers, with one snow trooper commander in the front.

Sandtrooper - Probably similar to the stormtrooper platoon, but I would have 35 black pauldrons for the standard troopers.

Scout troopers - no idea, assuming smaller detachments, less pauldrons (maybe one for the commander?  They might work as 4-10 next to the platoon or 20-30 next to a company.

 

 

[Lordhelmet]

27 minutes ago, Max_Lego said:

I disagree with the official Canon. In the OT, we saw only Sandtroopers wearing pauldrons. I personally think they are worn to protect the shoulder from a powerful weapon's (like the T-21 blaster) recoil (I am not quite sure about that). I imagine the colour indicating the Sandtrooper's specialisation, not rank (black/no pauldron for regular trooper, white for mounties, orange for commanders). I don't think Stormtrooper commanders wear pauldrons - in fact, they didn't even wear armour in ROTJ. They may wear a helmet and chestplate like Veers.

Black uniforms distinguish lieutenants and lower ranks, not Stormtrooper officers (I am strongly against the idea that Stormtroopers are an elite unit - they act like ordinary foot soldiers in the OT)

I can agree to the first part, Pualdrons were only on sand troopers, but some do show up in Rebels.  Maybe they are optional - who would want to wear a marker showing who is in charge?  Snowtrooper Commanders did wear armor, I do not believe we ever saw a potential storm trooper commander wearing a chest plate like veers in any movie though.

I think the black uniforms denotes a few things but I think stormtrooper officers is one of them. - Evidence for this is from episode IV/VI.  We see the leadership of the stormtroopers (Dain Jir, Praji) who are directing the search of Tantive IV wearing the black uniforms.  Other black uniformed officers seem to be in charge of storm troopers although they were likely in security roles on the Death Star and do not have a direct link like the first two mentioned have.  

We also see the black uniforms on Endor (when the rebels are being captured).  There is a combination of black uniforms Among the storm troopers, with a few grey uniforms.  The rank insignia in that movie was all messsed up so it is hard to tell what ranks everyone is.  This would indicate that the officers don't always wear the chest plates (they are in a known combat situation and don't have them on) and there is some connection to the black uniform and the storm troopers.  We don't know if these black uniforms are NCOs not wearing armor (seems unlikely given the situation) or officers for the storm troopers, as we know the grey uniforms are most likely more senior Navy from the context.  

Besides it is the current cannon.

[Max_Lego]

Here's how my Star Wars MOCs are displayed:

ANH characters with Lambda Shuttle in the background - it didn't fit into the cabinet. An Imperial cruiser (NOT Star Destroyer!) from ANH WIP can be seen:

Aside from ANH, my main focus is on Thrawn's war on the New Republic - though it goes 'slightly' different, than how Zahn described it.

The Imperial Army is lead by Field Marshal Cody and his aide Major Enric Pryde (on the left). Major General Veers is, sadly, still absent:

The Imperial Starfleet is, of course, led by Thrawn, pictured here with his bodyguards Tag and Bink, captain Enoch, Pellaeon and Moden Canady (far left) - captain of the Super Dreadnought Ravager, the Flagship of Gallius Rax:

Sadly, I don't have many New Republic commanders - General Madine's minifigure is very hard to acquire. The two on the right are an Army officer and a soldier - I am planning to increase their numbers, especially for my New Republic troopers:

I hope I am not too off-topic...

9 minutes ago, Lordhelmet said:

Besides it is the current cannon.

I just disagree with the Canon in general. The only things I consider Canon is the OT, the rest is for borrowing headcanon ideas. 

A Starfighter commander also wore a black uniform in ANH

9 minutes ago, Lordhelmet said:

The rank insignia in that movie was all messsed up so it is hard to tell what ranks everyone is

I succeeded in solving the rank plaque mystery... By ignoring canonical ranks of characters. My idea was that the plaques seen in ANH are definitive for the Early Empire's Military, and were replaced with more simple ones later (when Vader became Supreme Commander); Taggi is a Starfleet commander, NOT a general. The result is this table:

The funny thing is that Yularen is still a colonel, while Romodi is still a general... Which is good somehow 

Edited January 6 by Max_Lego

[saibot]

I used to be a baseplate collector and would have groups of 4-5 of each type of clone legions/rebesl/imperials.

Now i try to re-create scene's with different legions, so I try to gather around 8-9 of each. I then try to add in a corresponding Jedi , I've also started to use CAC helemts in some cases to make a clone a "commander" of the group.

My 187th with Mace Windu trying to stop Grevious kidnap the emperor

Commander Fox and the Courusant Guard

My 187th Commander, waiting on purple arms to arrive and will swap them.

Edited January 6 by saibot
.

[CloneCommando99]

6 hours ago, Lordhelmet said:

Great call.  I saw that breakdown by pauldron type.  I am a little confused by it though as it does not really line up to in movie (or any real world) types of rank structure.  I would think the squad leader would be a sergeant - and there is some evidence of this in characters in the movie.  I see in that wookiepedia article that orange could be a squad leader, red is a squad leader, White seems to be just for sergeants, but sergeants would theoretically be squad leaders (LTs would theoretically be Platoon leaders).  Orange in the article also includes Sergeants, Captains, Commanders, and squad leaders.  

I love that the one thing constant in all divisions of the empire is that lucasfilm refuses to realease a definitive rank guide.

6 hours ago, Lordhelmet said:

Scout troopers - no idea, assuming smaller detachments, less pauldrons (maybe one for the commander?  They might work as 4-10 next to the platoon or 20-30 next to a company.

Scout Troopers are part of what I, and the British Army, would call a combat support unit. They’d be their own separate platoon working alongside the company.

Usually there’s 1 Platoon, 2 Platoon, 3 Platoon and the combat support platoon in a company.

A Company, B Company, C Company and Support Company in a battalion.

 

@Max_Lego: Love the custom builds and minifigures. That Defender is absolutely gorgeous.

Nice rank compilation. I prefer the ABY rank insignias, much easier to remember. 
 

4 hours ago, saibot said:

I used to be a baseplate collector and would have groups of 4-5 of each type of clone legions/rebesl/imperials.

Now i try to re-create scene's with different legions, so I try to gather around 8-9 of each. I then try to add in a corresponding Jedi , I've also started to use CAC helemts in some cases to make a clone a "commander" of the group.

My 187th with Mace Windu trying to stop Grevious kidnap the emperor

Commander Fox and the Courusant Guard

I really like those. Large group of troops close together whilst creating an action packed scene. Shame they’re all going to die.

Edited January 6 by CloneCommando99

[Max_Lego]

2 minutes ago, CloneCommando99 said:

@Max_Lego: Love the custom builds and minifigures. That Defender is absolutely gorgeous.

Nice rank compilation. I prefer the ABY rank insignias, much easier to remember. 

Why, thanks!

Yes, that's the idea - I believe Vader had trouble with distinguishing BBY ranks, that's why he called every officer a 'commander' in ANH, so the simplified ABY system was developed 

[Lordhelmet]

5 hours ago, Max_Lego said:

 

ANH characters with Lambda Shuttle in the background - it didn't fit into the cabinet. An Imperial cruiser (NOT Star Destroyer!) from ANH WIP can be seen:

Aside from ANH, my main focus is on Thrawn's war on the New Republic - though it goes 'slightly' different, than how Zahn described it.

I just disagree with the Canon in general. The only things I consider Canon is the OT, the rest is for borrowing headcanon ideas. 

A Starfighter commander also wore a black uniform in ANH

I succeeded in solving the rank plaque mystery... By ignoring canonical ranks of characters. My idea was that the plaques seen in ANH are definitive for the Early Empire's Military, and were replaced with more simple ones later (when Vader became Supreme Commander); Taggi is a Starfleet commander, NOT a general. The result is this table:

Trying to answer in order.

Love the pictures it looks like there are some customs, are those official lego parts or custom parts?  Specifically looking at the droid three back on the left. I am not familiar with that droid head piece but it looks cool.  Who is the bald officer?  - Also love the focus.  My primary collection goal for SW is one of every ship/vehicle that shows up in the OT, and one variation of each character - so one pilot Luke, one Hoth Luke, one Zuckuss, etc.  - some of these are way to expensive so its a long term goal.  (specific to A new hope I am missing the Death Star a sand crawler and 15 mini figures -more for the other movies)

I love that you created your own ranks.  I am going to try to stick to the movies/cannon ranks - but admittedly it is tricky as the movies are not consistent (especially ROTJ), and Lego has not released enough imperial officer minifigures to help with the ranks for army building Empire.  - Probably why they are so expensive and there are lots of custom options out there.

I am sticking with storm trooper officers wear black uniforms (as do star fighter pilots, and security forces).  

 My biggest take away from this thread is that building a true Empire Army is difficult mostly because of the gaps in ranks from a figure standpoint.  We don't have minifigures with certain key ranks (or at least accessible for someone who would want to army build without significant resources). 

Edited January 6 by Lordhelmet

[Max_Lego]

20 minutes ago, Lordhelmet said:

Love the pictures it looks like there are some customs, are those official lego parts or custom parts?  Specifically looking at the droid three back on the left. I am not familiar with that droid head piece but it looks cool.  Who is the bald officer?  - Also love the focus.  

Thanks!

The only characters using custom-printed parts are the Imperial officers, whom TLG didn't produce. Vader has custom cloth parts, Ceremony Leia has a paper cape, the droid you mentioned, R4-M9, has stickers on its cone, Ben Kenobi with a hood on his head had the hood erased from the back of his torso. The rest are purist.

The bald officer is General Hurst Romodi.

Thanks!

20 minutes ago, Lordhelmet said:

movies are not consistent (especially ROTJ)

You mean Piett wearing the Captain insignia plaque? - my explanation is that he was demoted... For not being able to cope with the responsibility of being an Admiral, hence why he's not afraid of Vader anymore in ROTJ. As far as I remember, he was never addressed to as Admiral in the movie. The credits calling him an Admiral are wrong 

20 minutes ago, Lordhelmet said:

We don't have minifigures with certain key ranks (or at least accessible for someone who would want to army build without significant resources). 

Totally agreed. That's why I would've liked TLG to realise a Death Star Conference Room, and more affordable ABY Lieutenant and Admiral minifigures 

Edited January 6 by Max_Lego

[Darth_Bane13]

19 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Yeah I agree. I think new A and Y wings are long overdue- it's about time even if we count the resistance entries. I may be biased towards the Y-wing as the one in my collection looks kind of terrible (modded 2006), whereas I did full MOCs for my A and B wings instead of trying to mod old models and I think they turned out a lot better.

I'm kind of in the same boat with the Y-wing, I have the 2012 one and played with it a ton as a kid so it's seen better days, stickers peeling, lots of dust, etc. Did you build your own MOCS for the A and B wing? I might look into getting a B-wing MOC.

 

 

[Mandalorianknight]

2 minutes ago, Darth_Bane13 said:

I'm kind of in the same boat with the Y-wing, I have the 2012 one and played with it a ton as a kid so it's seen better days, stickers peeling, lots of dust, etc. Did you build your own MOCS for the A and B wing? I might look into getting a B-wing MOC

I did, here they are:

Unfortunately the main wing of the B-wing isn't strong enough and it flops a bit in real life, but I can send you the part file if you want to try and stretch the skeleton through the wing.

 

It's really cool to see everyone's armies, the dioramas for the clone legions are very cool.

[Darth_Bane13]

1 hour ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I did, here they are:

Unfortunately the main wing of the B-wing isn't strong enough and it flops a bit in real life, but I can send you the part file if you want to try and stretch the skeleton through the wing.

 

It's really cool to see everyone's armies, the dioramas for the clone legions are very cool.

Wow, they look really good! I think if I tried to build a MOC of them they'd look closer to the original 2000 sets (if that lmao). Agreed on the second part I really enjoy seeing everyone's creativity on display, it's given me some inspiration.

[saibot]

12 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

 

I really like those. Large group of troops close together whilst creating an action packed scene. Shame they’re all going to die.

 

Thanks, hopefully the clone's with with Ki-mundi might fare out better  on geonosis. His squad trying to ambush droids and their new color swaped AAT (75283) 

 

 

and just to even things out with the start of my Scarif setup, rebels assulting shore troopers at the entrance.

 

Re-enforements from the Imperials -  storm troopers, deathtroopers, backed by AT-ACT and other tanks.

 

 

[CloneCommando99]

22 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I did, here they are:

Unfortunately the main wing of the B-wing isn't strong enough and it flops a bit in real life, but I can send you the part file if you want to try and stretch the skeleton through the wing.

 

Very nice.

22 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

It's really cool to see everyone's armies, the dioramas for the clone legions are very cool.

22 hours ago, Max_Lego said:

and more affordable ABY Lieutenant and Admiral minifigures 

Agreed. On both fronts.

10 hours ago, saibot said:

and just to even things out with the start of my Scarif setup, rebels assulting shore troopers at the entrance.

Re-enforements from the Imperials -  storm troopers, deathtroopers, backed by AT-ACT and other tanks.

 

Awesome! Those rebel scum are about to get wiped!

I’m beginning to see a theme with the type of battles you are choosing for these dioramas. The more moral side always dies. And it’s in no way close at that.

[Calanon]

RE Imperial rank insignia in the R1 visual dictionary it says different sectors used different rank schema, so we can put inconsistencies down to that (although there's weird things like Pellaeon in ToE wearing an army captain insignia).

I have my own personal headcanon for rank structure etc. I really should get onto learning how to do custom torsos so I can make minifigs of them. I keep putting it off.

I like structuring my troopers into squads or teams - so for stormtroopers nine of them, one sergeant with a white pauldron two with black pauldrons (corporal and specialist) and the rest without. I did some reading up of different US Army structures to give myself more variety, examples:

Stormtrooper Scout Platoon (based on USMC scout sniper platoon)
Platoon leader - 1st lt or capt
Platoon sergeant - staff sergeant
3x squads, of each
1x sergeant
1x corporal
4x specialists

Imperial Army ITT Platoon

Platoon HQ
1x Platoon leader, Second Lt or First Lt
1x Platoon sgt, staff sgt
1x combat medic, specialist (optional)

Section A
1x ITT
1x platoon leader
1x driver
1x gunner
2x rifle squads

Section B
1x ITT
1x platoon sergeant
1x driver
1x gunner
2x rifle squads

As for pauldrons I decided as orange seems to be 'commanders' but a commonly seen one I'd have them for 1st lts, with red for captains. Undecided on the rest of my headcanon pauldron colours (staff sgt = light grey, 1st sgt = med grey, sgt maj = dark grey, major = light blue, lt col = med blue, col = bright blue, brig gen = bright green, maj gen = dk green).

With the combat drivers I decided the AT-ST drivers in light grey jumpsuits or AT-DP drivers in dk grey armour light grey jumpsuits are cavalry scouts - makes sense with them being in scout walkers and speeder bikes, so light cavalry, armored cavalry and light armor. Can also fly LAAT/les for the army. Armor crewmen either in white armour like the tank drivers or the jumpsuits like AT-AT drivers. Medium armor and heavy armor. The black jumpsuit drivers as seen in Rebels are infantry drivers and drive ITTs and trexler marauders.

In R1 we see infantrymen with red armbands and combat medics with white, following that I made up an armband colour guide for different corps of the Imp Army:

Infantry Corps - red. armor corps - yellow & red, artillery corps - red & blue, stormtrooper corps - white, air corps - blue & orange, military police - black, engineering corps - green, medical corps - white & red, logistic corps - blue, JAG corps - blue & yellow