A Tale of an Imperial Commander with Dallas Kemp

There’s something special about watching an army come together piece by piece. In today’s transmission, Creative Director Dallas Kemp shares how he brought his own STAR WARS: Legion Galactic Empire Starter Set to life, complete with custom touches, bold conversions, and a few nods to the iconic might of the Empire.

Dallas: Several years ago, I painted 3 AT-ST’s. When we started to work on the new hard plastic Stormtroopers, I immediately began to plan on what my Empire force would look like…starting with 3 AT-ST’s. 

Fast forward to now and the release of the new starter sets, and it was time for me to bring the Empire army I was planning to life. 

I had already built and painted the Stormtrooper Riot Control Squad in an alternate color scheme and decided that it would be the basis for the scheme and direction of my starter box. 

I began with the concept that all my Stormtroopers were connected to the Riot Control Squad and converted the 2 unit leaders to reflect this philosophy. I used a few shields and with some careful cutting was able to add these to the unit leaders. To make them stand out further, I gave the unit leaders some tank commander helmets from the Occupier Tank kit to delve into the concept that my force is a heavy armor detachment and ready to quash any uprising. 

One unit received backpacks to make the two units more identifiable on the table and I went ahead and did a bit of repose on the heavy wielding the T-21. 

The Scouts were left pretty stock. I built 1 unit and 1 Strike Team out of what was in the box as I was planning on the expansion of the army later. 

The idea of the army was coming together. A heavy armored Corp of troopers based around the idea of the Riot Squad. I went full on Imperial armor grey-inspired color scheme with red accents and a bone-colored left shoulder to add some pop. Painting the random red elements was a lot of fun for me. The idea was to make each trooper have a bit of personality.

Darth Vader was painted in a manner that I have painted all my other DarthVader miniatures. A blue hint in the armor, grey for the soft cloth, and a nice OSL on the side with the lightsaber. 

I also got really inspired while researching this army and digging around for inspiration. I decided to go deep and make a riot-inspired proxy for Vader when playing casual games. I made a fun conversion using the Stormtroopers, a riot shield, and a lightsaber. For the cape I dug up a cape from the custom Commander Empire set and a helmet from the Bad Batch expansion with the “99” filed away. This was painted white as I thought the flipped color palette of dark Stormtroopers led by a white armored leader would stand out very well on the tabletop.

Now, to rebase the previously mentioned AT-ST’s to match this new starter set of Imperial might and we can take it to the table!!!

Thanks, Dallas! There’s nothing quite like seeing an idea go from sketch to tabletop. Dallas’ Galactic Empire force shows how creativity and a bit of experimentation can make your army truly your own. Whether it’s custom conversions, fresh color choices, or bold theme ideas; it’s all part of the fun of building your story in STAR WARS: Legion.

Till next time, Atomic Mass Games signing off!