After converting my Commander Luke and deciding that Wedge will pilot my T-47, I knew I wanted more Rogues in my Legion force. The Katarn Commandos have always had Rogue Squadron’s back, after all, and there’s no way the Rogues aren’t going to return the favor.

This is a Rebel Fleet Trooper conversion, and a pretty minor one at that. Once again, these models are the old plastic and a nightmare to work with, so I knew I wouldn’t be doing anything crazy like removing the vests. I’d always dug the cover of the X-wing: Rogue Squadron Handbook from Dark Horse Comics, though, which provides the perfect scene — this is, in fact, most likely the whole reason I thought “pilots” when I saw the Fleet Trooper models to begin with.

So, vests and jackets it is. With helmeted heads purchased from Skullforge Studios and printed by a buddy, the squad was mostly set. I didn’t want to get as involved on each of these figures as I did with Luke, so for sculpting I stuck to mostly just ejection harness straps. As before, the paint will have to sell it.

The helmet design is what’s really going to differentiate the pilots. In researching Rogue helmet designs, it was immediately clear that the comics would provide nearly all of the available graphic information. Works for me! 4-5 ABY Rogues it is.

The two models whose shoulders matched up with the torso the best got jackets (including Feylis Ardele, who’s the one actually wearing a jacket on the Handbook cover) and the rest are wearing vests. Tycho Celchu will lead this unit, and Wes Janson — of course — gets the heavy weapon.

Our heroes each got a tiny New Republic patch on their right shoulders, and a Rogue Squadron patch on the left. Those whose flightsuit sleeves are visible also got a series of battle tabs down the left arm, indicating major battles they have taken part it. There’s quite a bit of creative license here, of course, in conjunction with some damn-this-thing-is-small-and-I’m-not-repainting-it-again hobby limitation and eventual loss of patience.

To round out the unit with a Specialist upgrade, I thought it’d be fun to go with Mynock, Wedge’s R5 from the early novel series that eventually gets memory wiped to become Gate (R5-G8). I used the tan color to distinguish him from the usual R5-D4 while also paying a bit of tribute to his original name.