Sci-fi City Block WIP 5

Some alternate buttress toppers for when the eagles don’t fit the theme. Made from plasticard, foampvc and some spares for the old Palitoy Millennium Falcon that I got cheap. Magnetised as the eagles.

Sci-fi City Block WIP 4

 Block sign, magnetised and held reasonably well. Jobs a good one.

Sci-fi City Block WIP 3

Art Deco eagles for a Mega-City One flavour. The eagle heads are from a TTCombat building corner gargoyle set, which I can no longer find on their site now. Pimped them up with various precut MDF pieces from eBay for the body and wings.

Lord Summerisle was weekending on my desk.

 

Sci-fi City Block WIP 2

 So… yeah, bigger than planned, but I’m liking it. Feels right. Hope the paint job feels as right. Planning on setting specific magnetised signs and statues to keep it flexible.

Sci-fi urban tiles

A change of pace, some modular tiles intended for Judge Dredd primarily, but will be pretty generic. Utilising the Kill-Team friendly tiles from Fire Dragon Games. I have a set of four, but space means I can only really work on one at a time.

The tile texture is scribed into foam-pvc in 20mm squares. The big step was cutting the hole in the foam insert, but it’s worked so far. It theoretically will house inserts for an airlock, an industrial grinder, a sump pool and just blank tiles. The odd grey tile is from the Maelstrom’s Edge terrain sprue, which was happily a 20mm square.

 

Change, as good as a rest...

 Something a little different, and it really helped - I genuinely enjoyed painting these, first time in ages. Still not decided on basing and they need varnishing when the weather improves... so quick crappy photos...

Don’t play Legion, but bought these on clearance about three years ago and I guess it was time to shit or get off the pot... lovely models, brilliant in fact - save for the missile launcher guy who I had to paint with the arms separate so I could do the face ok and the left shoulder joint seems to sit too far out and I think there is a slight bend in the launcher as well. If I play, I doubt I’d ever field him as anything I do would probably be onscreen stuff only anyway.

EM4 ships and X-Wing

So, I’m picking up the occasional ship for X-Wing still when cheap, with 2nd edition now out it’s easier to get the cards than the models, so a bit of creative licence might be in the offing. So I picked up the spruce of plastic ships from EM4 Miniatures. I’m mainly trying to get a small Scum & Villainy selection, so a bit of a ragtag feel would not go amiss. As you can see, some could work for smaller stuff like the M3-A Interceptor (the pic below is the best comparison I could find online and puts the M3-A at about the length of the Y-Wing engine), or with a bit work a Kihraxz fighter. The more true to scale A-Wing is comparable, and the scaleable Snowspeeder from the Hoth ERTL kits suggest a possible source of Scum speeders for Ground Assault as well. The unpainted X-Wing from the same Hoth kits will eventually make some decent Z-95 Headhunters.

Giraffey paints something shocker...

SW Starship Miniature Battles A-Wings repainted (on account of the FFG ones being the wrong scale) - 3 for Green Squadron and 1 for the Prototype. By a happy coincidence, I noticed the that the green visible on the main hull goes 1, 2, 3 - so that helps with assigning callsigns.

And alongside the FFG X-Wing just to illustrate the scale.

Imperial Landing Craft

Still plodding away at otherstuff as and when the moods strike (even dug the Quarry out a couple of weeks ago), and been taking advantage of some good prices on eBay in order to get some more ships for my Star Wars fighter scale stuff...

The Titanium Imperial Landing Craft fits in just about at that rough fit scale I want - it is better with the Titanium Falcon, as it should be slightly longer than the Falcon, but my attempts at tarting that up haven't really led anywhere, and the D'Agostini was always the nicer model...

In the background is a play around with the Micro Machine TIE Bomber - I did find a forum somewhere that went into great detail about the TIE Shuttle briefly seen in Empire Strikes Back, and with a lot of convincing evidence about the flipped wings. Annoyingly, I didn't bookmark it. Anyhoo, I had two MM bombers, so used the cockpit module from each one (never understood why the shuttle wouldn't have a window for the passenger module) and flipped the wings. It looks ok, but may not get much further - I have the D'Agostini Imperial Shuttle which is a good scale match (although guns need repairing after the really heavy paintjob was stripped).

Star Wars Silent Death

ok, so as the fleet scale idea kind of fizzled away, discovering the rules for Star Wars Silent Death online was at least something and as great a game as X-wing looks, it also looks damned expensive for what you get, so this became X-wing on a budget... free rules was a good start...

(past the following into the address line)
http://replay.web.archive.org/20060913232852/http://www.wizards.com/starwars/downloads/SW_Silent_Death.pdf

of course, me being me, scale is still a problem... so going back to my rough equivalents:
the Falcon is a little under 3 X-wings long and a rebel transport is roughly 3 Falcon's long.
an X-wing is 3/4's the length of a Y-wing
an A-wing is 3/4's the length of an X-wing
not too fussed about the B-wing, it's longer than a Y, but will be in a different plane anyway, so is more easily fudged.

An obvious cheap source for fighters is Studio Bergstrom's 1 inch fighters, nice clean casts that fit together quite nicely, actually cheaper than the bendy Micro Machine stuff on eBay.

 

Deagostini Falcon, Bergstrom X-wings, Titanium Falcon

first problem, a 3 inch ish Falcon - so far the Titanium is perfect for length (ignore the absence of key components, had dismantled it to see about tarting it up), but is a fat one, and is in fact fatter than the larger Deagostini 3.5 inch Falcon, the raised corridor sections that lead to the lateral docking rings stand far too high and just look silly - so high in fact that there is a massive flat area on the end with no detail, that the docking rings themselves just can't hide. As it's diecast (both are), that's a pig to try and fix. The Deagostini Falcon on the other hand is a lovely little model, very trim and looks like it could outrun just about anything.... but is technically too large for the Bergstrom rebel fighters...
bizarrely, this has now taken me back to that picture of the Action Fleet Blockade Runner, pity they go for so much nowadays.

Deagostini Falcon, Bergstrom TIE, X-wing, Y-wing, A-wing and TIE bomber, Mircomachines TIE bomber, Micromachines plastic Falcon (2 inches).

now, in my mind the TIE's look great with the bigger Falcon. The Y-wing is too small for the X-wing, the A-wing works with the X-wing ok, but just looks  better with the much smaller MM Falcon. the MM TIE bomber is a good match for the Bergstrom TIES and that will become a TIE boarding craft I think.

now I think I can just about ignore the slightly undersized X-wings, I've seen online that the Starship Battles Y's are good against the Bergstrom X's. I'd kind of prefer a slightly larger A-wing against the Falcon (because lets face it, I'm using that one regardless - it's just such a nice model).

The transport is the ERTL/MPC Hoth base one, 9 inches long and again perfect for either of the two diecast Falcon's. The Hoth base Falcon is 5 inches and would probably work really with Micromachine fighters (as everything is roughly 2 inches long in that range, the X-wing would work really well). I'd already started tarting that up, but may end up eBaying it.

so, any one got a SSB A-wing that they put a length to?

Down the line, I'm going to need to acquire something for the Empire - Slave 1 is always a fun option, but also need some objectives - shuttles or cargo ships are a good one...

Star Wars fleet scales

ok, bit of a phantom post this one, this is just to give my next post a bit more context and to get the information posted... a while back I had a hankering for some fleet scale Star Wars action and started researching what was available. This lot is kind of a summary of those notes:

roughly, not exactly, but roughly...

so, an Imperial Shuttle is roughly the same length as Slave 1, both are roughly 4/5 the length of the Falcon
the Falcon could be roughly either a quarter or half the size of a Rebel Transport (depending on the website you read)
a Rebel Transport should be roughly half the size of a Blockade Runner
a Blockade Runner should be roughly half the size of the Nebulon B, and should be a tenth of the size of a Star Destroyer
a Nebulon B should be roughly a quarter the size of an MC80, roughly a fifth the size of a Star Destroyer and roughly half the size of an Interdictor
an MC80 should be slightly smaller than a Star Destroyer

I'm not concerned with fighters, because they'll be way out and I have an idea there anyway... nor is the Viscount Defender or SSD Executor viable on a table...

The overall goal being this - a (what I now believe to be a Titanium) Falcon with an Action Fleet Blockade Runner - different ranges, but work together:

 

I ended up with the following list of ships and scales:

Millenium Falcon Fine Molds  1/144
Slave 1 Anigrand  1/144
Millenium Falcon Anigrand 1/144
Imperial Shuttle Anigrand 1/144
Imperial Landing Craft Anigrand 1/144
Slave 1 Action Fleet 1/149
Imperial Shuttle Action Fleet 1/153
Millenium Falcon Action Fleet 1/199
Imperial Shuttle Hallmark Ornament 1/247
Slave 1 Tomy 1/327
Rebel Transport Micromachine Playset 1/338
Millenium Falcon Titanium 1/340 ish
Imperial Shuttle FToys 1/350
Slave 1 FToys 1/350
Rebel Transport Airfix/AMT diorama 1/375
Imperial Shuttle Titanium 1/381
Imperial Landing Craft Micromachine 1/386
Imperial Landing Craft Titanium 1/494
Imperial Shuttle Starship Battles 1/571
Imperial Shuttle Micromachine Playset 1/632
Imperial Shuttle Micromachine 1/634
Millenium Falcon Micromachine 1/717
Republic Cruiser/Corellian Gunship Action Fleet 1/747
Blockade Runner Action Fleet 1/833
Imperial Landing Craft Micromachine Playset 1/437
Millenium Falcon Tomy 1/470
Slave 1 Starship Battles 1/484
Slave 1 Micromachine 1/490
Imperial Landing Craft Titanium 1/494
Rebel Transport Titanium 1/938
Nebulon B Arvey Model Products 1/1000
Blockade Runner De Agostini 1/1402
Rebel Transport Micromachine 1/1475
Rebel Transport Starship Battles 1/1475
Blockade Runner Titanium 1/1500
Millenium Falcon Studio Bergstrom 1/2000 ish
Nebulon B Anigrand 1/2096
Blockade Runner Odyssey Slipways (Tantive IV) 1/2256
Rebel Cruiser/Corellian Gunship Odyssey Slipways 1/2256
Star Destroyer Anigrand (Avenger) 1/2256 as an Imperial class
MC80 (Liberty) Anigrand 1/2256
Blockade Runner Starship Battles 1/2361
Nebulon B Scale Solutions 1/2400
Blockade Runner Micromachine 1/2578
Nebulon B Titanium 1/2633
Blockade Runner Anigrand 1/2740
Star Destroyer MPC/AMT 1/4222 as an Imperial Class
Nebulon B Arvey Model Products 1/4222
Blockade Runner 1/4222
Nebulon B Starship Battles 1/4255
Nebulon B Micromachine 1/4650
Blockade Runner Hallmark Ornament 1/6508
Rebel Assualt Frigate Starship Battles 1/7865
MC80 (Home One) Starship Battles 1/9172
Rebel Assault Frigate A Odyssey Slipways 1/10000
Rebel Assault Frigate B Odyssey Slipways 1/10000
Carrack-class Cruiser Odyssey Slipways 1/10000
Blockade Runner Odyssey Slipways 1/10000
Carrier Corvette Odyssey Slipways 1/10000
Republic Cruiser/Corellian Gunship Odyssey Slipways 1/10000
CR20 Transport Odyssey Slipways 1/10000
Rebel Fleet Carrier Odyssey Slipways 1/10000
Imperial Escort Carrier Odyssey Slipways 1/10000
Interdictor Odyssey Slipways 1/10000
Lancer-class Frigate Odyssey Slipways 1/10000
Star Destroyer Odyssey Slipways (Enforcer) 1/10000 as a ?
MC80 Odyssey Slipways 1/10000
MC80a Odyssey Slipways 1/10000
MC80b Odyssey Slipways 1/10000
Nebulon B Odyssey Slipways 1/10000
Nebulon B2 Odyssey Slipways 1/10000
Star Destroyer Odyssey Slipways 1/10000 as a Victory Class
Dreadnaught Odyssey Slipways (Old Republic Hvy Cruiser) 1/10000
MC80 (Liberty)  Starship Battles 1/11199
Star Destroyer Hallmark Ornament 1/12121 as Imperial Class
Star Destroyer Starship Battles 1/14418 as Imperial Class
Star Destroyer Studio Bergstrom (Ascendancy) 1/14545 as Imperial Class
Star Destroyer De Agostini 1/14679 as Imperial Class
Star Destroyer FToys 1/15000 as Imperial Class
MC80 Home One Micromachine 1/16369
MC80 Liberty  Micromachine 1/17050
Interdictor Studio Bergstrom 1/17142
Carrack-class Cruiser Studio Bergstrom (Cunning) 1/19444
Dreadnaught Studio Bergstrom (Dread) 1/20000
Star Destroyer Studio Bergstrom (Inquisitor) 1/20000 as Imperial Class
Star Destroyer Studio Bergstrom (Vanguard) 1/20000 as Victory Class
MC80 Studio Bergstrom 1/23333
MC80a Studio Bergstrom (MC85) 1/23333
Star Destroyer Studio Bergstrom (Vanquisher) 1/25714 as Victory Class
Super Star Destroyer Odyssey Slipways 1/50000
Star Destroyer Odyssey Slipways 1/50000
Dreadnaught Odyssey Slipways 1/50000
Interdictor Odyssey Slipways 1/50000
Star Destroyer Micromachine 1/239294 as Imperial Class

and, for completeness sake, could still do with scales for:
Millenium Falcon Starship Battles
Republic Cruiser/Corellian Gunship Starship Battles
Slave 1 Titanium
Imperial Interdictor Starship Battles

Hope that's all of some use to someone out there...