X-Wing 2.0

Its been a while since my last post,  But behind the scenes I have been busy with the after school clubs latest Game…..FFG’s X-Wing 2.0.

I really wanted to buy into the 1st edition but somehow never got around to it, and then it got put on the back burner.  Out of the Blue during the summer the headmaster who co- runs the after school club with me suggested we buy a couple of 2.0 core sets with what was left of club funds, he mentioned that he had played it and that x-wing was something that might well be fun for the club…..I managed to find a couple of great deals online.

One main advantage for us is that just for once we didn’t have to spend the summer holiday painting for the club as all the models are prepainted!

The only downside is it is quite an expensive game to get into, so we may not be able to expand this game as much as we might like.  Also providing the children with their own model fighter is tricky but not impossible.

I wanted to make the game a little more special for the children playing the game by making them a personal “Pilot card” to help immerse them in the universe a little bit more! I found a website called Card Creator  which although not fully functioning yet (its a work in progress) had enough to make it easy for me! (Thank you so much Alexandre) I managed using M.S. Publisher and Card creator to bang out something we could use in the club.

The pictures below will give you some idea of what was produced.

It was impossible to resist the urge to get involved in the game myself, I managed to buy a Tie Defender in Red, Changed its peg to red, gave it a red base….and then made my own card for it…..well, there couldn’t really be anyone else piloting a red three winged ship could there?

Battle shots to follow in future posts, when the club returns after half term.

 

Club Painting 1

We’ve come a long way since we began our after school model club, we started with just an idea to do it, and £3 subs off of all those children attending. It was made easier by “Project Airfix”  who supplied not only kits but paint and brushes which we still use to this day.  Obviously we have expanded our stocks of paint and brushes, glue and basing products from a variety of sources.

Games Workshop, with their school alliance project  have also helped massively with regular boxes of essential products.

In addition to this we’ve raised funds through school fayres selling figures we have painted and models from our own collections, which have enabled us to buy into lots of other genres which would normally have been closed to us.

It also has to be said that we have been extremely lucky with donations of items down the years from so many model manufacturers, friends etc, all of which helps continue to make our club pretty special.

When we started the Headmaster Jeremy and myself would be pretty hands on with construction and painting duties, if time allowed we’d also then use all of the finished models in a tabletop game.  From September last year we have been very lucky to be joined by Karen, one of the school teaching assistants, who kindly stays after the working day to help us out.  She has taken over model/figure construction and painting duties in the club. It has meant that we can have slightly smaller groups, the advantage of this is we get a lot more done!

Of late our three groups are rotated through two different gaming tables, one is normally Games Workshop, the other has been Star wars Legion and a painting table…..in september the group painted some GW Spacemarines……and this years group have been busy painting Star Wars Legion Storm Troopers, here are the results of the first section to complete their figures.

Please remember these figures have been painted by children who’s age is between 8 and 9 and who have limited or no knowledge of this hobby before they joined our club.

I think they have done very well, fantastic work everyone.

 

W.I.P Luke’s Landspeeder a Kitbashing

Before Christmas I picked up a 3d Printed Landspeeder based upon Luke’s X34.  Have to say print quality was a bit below par (lots of lines/layers) and no attempt to make a canopy for the cockpit.  I decided that it would need a fair bit of work, so put it on the pile and got on with easier things!

A few weeks ago i noticed that Fantasy flight games were going to issue a X34 of their own for Legion, it is a bit beefed up and has extra crew….this gave me an idea.  Mounting a gun is one thing but that clear plexiglass canopy does nothing for protection..its really just a civillian transport with a laser cannon attached!   My thoughts turned to armour especially as i didn’t have a clear canopy……wouldn’t it just be easier to plate over the hole?

Kit Bashing is probably the thing I like most about this hobby, there is freedom to do just about anything in sci fi.  I set about going through my vast heaps of spares collected over the last 40+ years  and opted for some of my recent bits……I had some spare Meng world war toon Tiger parts left over from a sturmtiger conversion (which is still on going) the turret parts would make an effective cockpit area. some other tank spares this time 20mm scale and bits and bobs, plus a spare laser cannon from the Legion AT-RT model.

If the rebel engineers got hold of an X34 for combat, this is what I’d like to think they would do to it in the work shops! Lots of extra armour, more sensors and sights/vision blocks, concussion grenade launcher in nose…its an on going project so expect a few changes/additions!

I will add progress updates to this post as and when they are made, and also hope it provides some inspiration to other kitbashers out there.

A bit more added to front, and Primed.

I quite like the idea of this being Grey with lots of weathering, sadly that’s the colouring of most Imperial vehicles….so this has to be different eventually I settled on a three tone camouflage scheme, of which the base coat is………………………

Further painting is now on hold as i will be using spray cans in the garden….weather is terrible at the moment so it might be a couple of weeks yet (updated 14/03/19)

Update 4/12/19 got a 10cm Legion style base cut for it.

camo soon!

Bit more done!

More soon!

 

 

Two Lukes are better than wan ;)

To make life a bit easy we split the figure painting tasks.  Since we also play the game on two different tables we thought it was a good idea to buy another set of Vader and Skywalker for the school club, so that both tables could have them.

My Luke on left, headmaster’s on right

Rebel Troopers Squad 1

Have managed a bit more painting on my own Core set, the first of 2 Rebel Trooper Squads, this ones in a woodland/jungle type Camo to match my previously painted AT-RT.

 

Thundering Herd

Managed to get my hands on a Star wars Legion AT-ST  Pretty impressed by the kit. Detail is amazing. Here it is alongside the AT-AT and General Veers

Rebel AT-RT dwarfed

General Veers checking for a puncture

The Empire Strikes Back!

After school club has been running a few weeks now and i managed to find some time during combat to take some Photos! We started out slowly using just the figures from the core set and introduced more items like vehicles as the rule system became more familar. We were running two battles at same time, whilst another group paint up their Stormtroopers (pictures of those once they are finished).

The battles were taking place on Tatooine and Hoth since our Deepcut studios gaming mats represent both a desert environment as well as a Winter one .

On our third session The first 15 minutes or so was spent taking questions about all the ships and vehicles that had been introduced and where to buy them!! Again most of the group knew what the vehicles were, but were gobsmacked to see them on the table.

Combat on Hoth was interesting. The Rebels were firmly entrenched in their base and were not coming out, The attacking imperial stormtroopers spent more than half the battle hiding in the woods and refused to advance(!!!!!!) Their main mission was to take out the shield generator. (Corvus Games Terrain)

The main attacking units were the Speeder Bikes. Going to need to spend some time talking tactics with them on our next battle!

Things went a bit more smoothly on Tatooine…….

A Rebel AAT still in service after being captured during the Clone wars advances into battle past retreating Rebel Troopers on Tatooine.

Plodding on…….

Been very busy painting the Star Wars Legion Figures for club game, tried a few different painting techniques and really happy with the results.

Jungle Camo left, Winter/Urban on Right

Winter/Urban close up

Speeder Bikes Winter Version

Star Wars Legion

Decided to buy into Star wars Legion for after school club before I’d finished painting Dreadfleet!

Figures are a type of resin, and are extremely crisp in detail. May have to try and modify the rules a bit for the club.   So at present we have a titanic amount of painting to do, we have a basic core set for the club, and some stormtroopers that they can assemble paint and take home!!! We have also managed to get some scenery.   In the new year we plan to buy some gaming mats to play it on once we have some funds!!! All the children in the club knew what Star wars was, which for us is a first, other genres have not been as widely known.  They can’t wait to play it, and to be honest nor can we!

This is what we have so far and what I’ve managed to paint.