Star Wars: Legion · squad painting
Painting Star Wars: Legion miniatures
Legion isn't one hero model. It's eight nearly-identical troopers that all have to look consistent and match a scheme half the table already knows by heart. Here's how to get the colors right and get through the squad without losing a weekend.
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Painting Star Wars: Legion miniatures is matching a faction's recognized colors — Stormtrooper white, Rebel Fleet Trooper orange, clone-legion markings — across squads of 6 to 8 nearly identical models, using a repeatable method instead of finishing each one from scratch.
The real problem isn't the colors. It's the squad.
A single Marvel or D&D miniature lives or dies on one paint job. Legion mostly doesn't work that way. Buy a Stormtrooper unit and you get seven identical sculpts that all need to look like they came out of the same armory — same white, same panel lines, same wear pattern. Paint them one at a time, start to finish, and trooper eight looks noticeably different from trooper one. That's the actual skill this game asks for: consistency at volume, not a single showpiece finish.
Get the signature colors right first
Legion is licensed. Reference art and the rulebook already tell you what a faction looks like, so this isn't a creative-freedom exercise — it's a target you either hit or visibly miss.
| Faction | Signature colors | What to get right |
|---|---|---|
| Empire | White armor, black undersuit | Panel shading so it reads as plates, not a flat white blob |
| Rebellion | Burnt orange, grey-tan webbing | Warm, slightly muted orange — not fluorescent |
| Republic | White armor, legion accent color | The helmet/shoulder accent — it's what tells legions apart |
A batch method for eight troopers at once
Work in passes across the whole squad, not model by model.
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Prime the whole squad together
One priming session, one batch, so every model starts from the same base and the same drying time.
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Basecoat in color groups
Paint the white armor across all eight models before switching to the black undersuit, rather than finishing one trooper completely before starting the next. Fewer color switches, more consistent coverage.
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One wash pass, whole squad
A single thinned wash into the recesses of all eight at once keeps the shading level identical across the unit — this is the step most likely to look mismatched if done model-by-model on different days.
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Drybrush or edge highlight last
The fastest way to bring out armor detail across a full squad — see PaintMini's Citadel Contrast guide if you'd rather cut the basecoat-and-wash steps down to one pass on a contrast-friendly scheme.
Upload a photo of one primed trooper and get a rendered scheme back before you commit paint to all eight. It's a lot cheaper to change your mind about the orange on trooper zero than on trooper six.
Who this is for, and who it isn't
This approach suits anyone building a Legion army from scratch or adding a new unit to an existing force. It's the wrong fit if you're painting one single hero character — see PaintMini's guide on licensed single-character painting instead, where the batch approach doesn't apply.
Questions Legion painters ask
How do I keep Stormtrooper white from looking flat?
Basecoat isn't the final step. A thinned grey or brown wash into the panel lines, followed by a lighter drybrush on the raised plates, is what makes white armor read as armor instead of a blank shape.
How do I keep 8 troopers looking consistent?
Paint in color passes across the whole squad rather than finishing one model at a time. Same batch of mixed paint, same wash session, same lighting when you check your work.
Can I use Contrast or Speedpaint on Legion troopers?
Yes — a one-coat paint is a real time-saver across a full squad. See PaintMini's Citadel Contrast guide for how the pooling effect behaves on detailed armor.
How long does one Legion squad actually take?
Working in batches rather than model-by-model, plan on roughly 20 minutes of hands-on time per trooper once you're past the first one — the first model in a squad always takes longer while you work out the scheme.
See the scheme before you paint trooper one
Upload a photo of a primed model, pick your faction colors, and get a rendered preview plus a step-by-step guide before you commit paint across the squad.
PaintMini generates a painted preview and guide — it doesn't paint the model for you.