"We'll Have To Destroy Them Ship-To-Ship!"

Well, JY and I have done it. We bought into Star Wars: X-Wing: The Miniatures Game, each getting a starter set and  a couple of expansion packs. I have decided to field Darth Vader's own TIE fighter squadron, Black Squadron, led by the Sith Lord himself in his Advanced X-1. JY has a fair few more options, what with his A-wings, X-wings, Hawk AWACs type thing and, of course, the Millenium Falcon itself.

Still, the models are really very nice. Pre-painted has never particularly taken my fancy before, but they are very high quality models that really look the part. The game itself is quick, intuitive, and demands a lot of thought I think (having only played a quick few turns against myself so far).

Here's my force so far. L-R: Black 1 (Darth Vader), Black 2 ('Mauler' Mithel), Black 4 ('Dark Curse' Phenirr), Black 5 and Black 6. I have another TIE fighter on order to make up Black 3 ('Backstabber'). That gives me half of Black Squadron, which at the time of the Battle of Yavin, consisted of 11 TIE fighters and Vader's TIE-X1 Advanced.

JY and I are going to have a game or two on Tuesday. Batreps should be interesting!

I also received a nice parcel courtesy of eBay:

Hydras! These are cool little resin aftermarket turrets from an eBay provider, but the vehicles themselves were made up and bought as is. The driver's hatch is too far back and can't open (the turret overhangs it) so that needs to be moved forwards, and I'm probably going to take the track guards off too.  These will eventually be Hydras B1 and B3 from the Skye's World I Light Infantry Regimental HQ. I'm going to paint them something like this, I think:

Which is South Korean 'tiger' pattern camo from 1952.

Speaking of painting, I've not done any for a while. Soon!