From BenF: A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away... (242 points)

Now that Christmas and New Years is sorted, I've finally managed to crack on with a bit more painting. The weather here has been rather extreme, with temperatures regularly above 35C - and consequently I've been spending rather less time than I'd like painting and more time at the beach cooling.

With the release of the exceptional Rogue One (I saw it for the third time on Sunday afternoon!), I've gotten back into playing Star Wars Armada. While the capital ships come pre-painted, the smaller squadrons come in a rather unappealing grey or tan plastic. So, my submission for the past fortnight is a whole shedload of Rebel Alliance and Imperial ships, along with a brace of Imperial Assault 28mm Stormtroopers for which I have nascent plans to get some games in with 7TV.

We'll start with the Imperial Stormtroopers. These are 28mm from Fantasy Flight Games, and despite the plastic being dreadful to clean up, they have come out rather well. I've got a bunch more Imperial Assault figures which I plan on using during the challenge to break up the monotony of painting units. Darth Vader and Boba Fett are next on my 'in case of painting fatigue, paint these' list.

Now, on to the Armada ships. These are I *think around the 1/600 mark, however really have no  idea. Below is a pic of a TIE Fighter and an X-Wing next to a 28mm Perry AWI figure for scale. Suffice it to say they are flipping tiny!

Ok, so the Imperials first. For your consideration, a swarm of twenty-one TIE Fighters. I painted some in the grey as per A New Hope, and some with the blueish tinge as seen in Empire Strikes Back. The fighters with the red stripes are 'aces' in the game.

Next, here are six each of TIE Bombers, TIE Inteceptors, TIE/D 'Defenders' and TIE Phantoms. All in the blueish grey as seen in Return of the Jedi. The Defenders and Phantoms are from the expanded universe and the Defender looks set to debut in this season's Star Wars Rebels TV Series. For the Defenders I tried to paint an engine glow.

Here are a few of the larger ships which act alone rather than in squadrons - two VT-49 'Decimator' attack ships, and two Lambda Class Shuttles. Again I tried out some engine glow techniques on these.

Here are four more large ships, this time the ships of the bounty hunters seen in Empire Strikes Back. From left to right is robotic hoodlum IG-88's 'IG-2000', everyones favourite Boba Fett's 'Slave I', Reptilian hireling Bossk's 'Houndstooth', and brining up the last Dengar's 'Punishing One'.

Finishing off the Imperials is Darth Vader himself with his escort of Black Squadron TIE Fighters, all ready to clear the Death Star trench of pesky Gold and Red Squadron rebels.

By my count, the Imperials have a total of 60 small painted ships, and god knows how many tiny black panels.. Phew! Now, on to the rebels

Starting off, we have the iconic ship of the Rebel Alliance, the X-Wing. Now I took a lot of extra time on these, replacing the bendy telegraph pole looking wing weapons with clipped drawing pins. They are painted up as Red Squadron, with individual markings for Red Leader thru to Red 12. While it seems crazy, I actually enjoyed the lack of uniformity with these guys, particularly after the TIE fighters. I copied the method (or madness?) was copied from Ica over at Rule 37 blog.

Next up, the support ships for the Rebels. Six each of A-Wings, Y-Wings, and my personal favourite, the ungainly looking B-Wing. I kinda went to town with the markings on the ace B-Wing squadron, but am happy with how they turned out.

Finally for the Rebels, it's a their larger ships, in this case representing a bunch of rogues. From left to right we have the 'Outrider', piloted by smuggler Dash Rendar, the Moldy Crow piloted by Jan Ors (this one should be familiar to anyone who has played the Star Wars: Dark Forces II video game), Han Solo's iconic 'Millenium Falcon', and a Scurrg H-6 Bomber 'Havoc' piloted by Nym. Apart from the Falcon, all are from the expanded universe.

A group shot, and the total for this pitiful little band is 34 ships, which brings the overall total of tiny ships to 94.

Tomorrow evening they will be travelling to my friendly LGS to do battle for the galaxy in the refreshing cool of an air-conditioned shop! (tomorrow is supposed to be the 42C peak of another heat wave!)

I have absolutely NO idea what kind of points this lot translates into for the challenge, but hopefully I'm on the way to reaching if not surpassing my initial goal of 400 points.

Coming up next on the painting desk, I'm currently well underway with the first of my American Revolutionary War forces for Sharp Practice 2, so my next post will be back to historicals.

Till then, may the force be with you!

Alan and Paul: Like you, I've been inspired by the wonderful Rogue One to get my Armada ships out on the table. Your Stormtroopers look great, but as for your teeny tine ships: wow. They really are exceptional, and the effort you have gone to with the colour schemes of the Rebel ships, and even converting them (!!) is incredible. In recogniton of the intricate paint job you have managed, I've scored your Imperial ships as 6mm vehicles and the Rebels as 10mm.