Going Over to the Dark Side

I taught my nephew how to play Star Wars Armada.  Being a fan of all things Star Wars, it was a hit with him.  It was also his first experience with miniature wargaming.

I took a few pictures to show the painted TIEs in action and to get better shots of the glittered felt cloth I've been using as a mat.

I've been pretty busy lately, with not much time for painting.  I like the way the painted fighters look compared to the unpainted ones, so plan on continuing doing more.

Just before that Imperial Star Destroyer went bye-bye...

TIE-ing It All Together

Star Wars Armada has got some fairly nice pre-painted ships, but it's squadrons are bare plastic.

Silver TIE fighters?

These are pretty good sculpts and (even with some warping) are cast well.

Running away???

They are functional and easily identifiable, but next to the painted ships, they sort of stand out.

Not lookin' silver, here!

There's some variation in color of the fighters in the movies.  Sometimes they are grey, others a grey-blue.  I decided to try out a bluish grey.

Pew Pew Pew

I first tried out a Vallejo Black Gray base, with Citadel "The Fang" (formerly Shadow Gray).

Stay in formation

The contrast of colors is not strong enough, either on the wings or in the cockpit window.

I decided that (closeup photos not withstanding) it wasn't going to look good enough on the tabletop.

Much better.

I changed my base color to black and the results were quite positive.

The interior sides of the wings lack sculpted detail, so had to be painted on freehand

So much better

Yippee

Homemade Asteroids - A Failed Experiment

While perusing the local craft shop, I noticed the paint section had some natural sponges for painting with.  They look a lot like little asteroids.

I had a plan.  I took a clear plastic bin I had and put some paint in it.

I mixed it with hot water.

I put the sponges in the water.

And made sure they soaked up the paint.

I then left them out to dry.  When I checked on them a couple of days later, the color mostly ran out of them and it looks like they started growing some unwanted additions.

:-(

Sparkling Spacemats!

I've been getting into Star Wars Armada and Star Wars X-Wing games.  There is also the space combat aspect of Robotech to consider.

A necessary accessory to a space combat game is a space combat game mat.

There are plenty of wonderful mats out there with artists' renditions or even Hubble photographs.  These are quality productions with beautiful prints.  I had considered these but they are costly.

I decided to go cheap.

I visited the local fabric shop.  The store had a few space themed prints, but in the end I chose felt with glitter.  The felt will keep ship models from sliding around much, while the glitter produces an effective starfield that doesn't visually overwhelm.

Imperial Star Destroyer not included.

Total cost for two yards of cloth: $16.00.

In the future I will probably want a nebula-style setting.  I will have to keep my eye out for suitable cloth or just buy a wargaming mat.