COLLECTION DIARY: CHRISTMAS 2013

Christmas was strong this year. I spent time with my best friends, had a nice backed ham dinner, with all of the holiday treats, drank plenty of eggnog, and listened to some good music while I played with my new toys.
You know, it is the little things that make life good.

This month all of my new models arrived in the first half of the month. This was a happy surprise because my Garmillas models shipped from Japan and they had been listed as an "After Christmas Delivery" item by the seller.

My Ebay purchases were delivered in week one. I got several rare and wonderful (Ha, Ha!) Galaxy Voyagers Micro Machines to use for my Pirate Faction, and some tanks and robots to use for Pirate and Alliance Ground Forces. Most of these models will be converted to look like they fit more snugly in the Star Wars Universe.

In week two the first glorious Yamato 2199 kits arrived all the wayyy from New York and Japan! I love these models! I am going to make Astro Fighter and Bomber swarms, so that I have that cool element of play in battles. I had planed to get these craft sculpted and printed if need be, but now that I have seen the 1/1000 scale planes that come with these kits, I know I can use the official models. I am very happy about that.

I hope everyone had a great holiday.

Happy Boss out!

NEW CAPITOL SHIPS INFORMATION!

As many of us know, The STAR WARS X-WING Rebel Transport and Tantive IV Expansion packs are coming in the next three or four months. There has been a lot of happy speculative chat on the forums about how these new ships will change The Star Wars Universe.

Thanks to the recent Game Trade Article we get a further peek at some of the forthcoming rules for the premiere Capitol Ships and the new EPIC Games Alternative Rules, and I for one, am very happy that FFG is making this a reality.

Boss out!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

May Everyone Have A Happy Holiday This Year!

 

The Joy Of The Season Is In Giving, Not Receiving!

Happy Boss Out!

STAR BLAZERS GAME CARDS PREVIEW: TEST CARD ONE

I recently started working on making STAR BLAZERS into a game using The X-WING Rules. Over the last two weeks I have hunted up about 300 images, and done some serious thinking and a bit of writing too.
I started doing test graphics this weekend. What follows is an early look, to give my buddies here an idea of what my Game Materials are going to look like.

The X-Wing Cards will be entirely redone, with (Ha, Ha!) STAR BLAZERS Art! I am keeping the very nice X-WING layout however, as you can see in the first cute little work in progress sample above.

I had to include the best moments of the big battles from YAMATO 2199 in my game cards, that is why I have happily spent two weeks Goggling my butt off, and taking screen captured scenes from HD video. I think I am about half way there now, but I will need a bit more art to complete my card sets.

I am going to make this game play EXACTLY like The STAR BLAZERS series that we know and love...well as good as it can be with miniatures. The way that I can make this happen is with the game cards. The X-WING Rules are fine for any fighter game I think, but the abilities and stats make up the flavor of the setting. I am diligently reviewing series one, two, and the redone series one. As I watch these great series I am taking notes to be sure that I include the important abilities of the ships as depicted on screen. I am making the game materials look like the new YAMATO 2199 art, because in my very well informed view it is now the best version of the glorious STAR BLAZERS Universe.

YAMATO 2199 CONSOLES WILL BE USED TO MAKE THE FINAL CARDS.

More to come...

Boss out!

EARTH IS SAVED BY THE STAR BLAZERS ON THIS DAY IN 2199!

The brave crew of The Yamato, Our Star Blazers, return home on this day in the year 2199. They bring with them the hard won Cosmo DNA which restores life to our all but dead Mother Earth.

 On December 8 2199 Mankind is saved by The Star Force!

"Miracles Don't Just Happen...We Need To Make Them Happen!"

Thank You Star Force!

Boss out!

NEW ALLIANCE CAPITOL SHIPS AVAILIABLE FOR PREORDER!

The New Capitol Ships are expected in 1Q 2014 between January and April from FFG! Miniatures Market and Cool Stuff are taking preorders for both sets now!
Miniatures Market seems to be more on the ball about these, and has good stock. I personally do not expect to see either of these wonderful ships until April, but it is cool to know that we will have them in the reasonably near future...

Star Wars: X-Wing - Rebel Transport Expansion Pack (Preorder)

Star Wars: X-Wing - Tantive IV Expansion Pack (Preorder)

Boss out!

OUR STAR BLAZERS

As a child STAR BLAZERS was the second big life altering universe I discovered, which came to me just a few years after STAR WARS. I have fond memories of running home from the bus stop after school to get my little afternoon drinks and snakes set up in front of that huge RCA Console, just in time to watch this wonderful series! Star Blazers Series One originally aired in America in 1979. I was to young then to truly understand it all, but I watched the entire series and loved it! Years later in reruns during the early eighties, Star Blazers became a permanent part of my hipster nerd life.

Classic 70's Art.

The following videos are the American and Japanese openings to Star Blazers Series One: The Quest For Iscandar.

The Yamato 2199 series is fine art that an adult, who fortunately retained their inner child, can thoroughly appreciate and enjoy. This remake is faithful to the original story, but it manages to improve on just about everything in the telling. This is a triumph of realistic heroes, over the top villains, and believable science. You will laugh and you will cry... it IS that damn good!

The New Yamato, And She Never Looked Better!

This is the New Series One remake opening, appropriately renamed as Space Battleship Yamato 2199. For my friends who have never seen Yamato 2199 I am including the three cool Alternate Openings, which are down and dirty rocking, and full of extra character moments and serious action! How could you not love this Epic Space Opera?

 

The new remake of series one is the best Star Blazers production by far, and I absolutely love everything about it. The adult themes and believable drama which are well played out, make the series worthy of an award for best animated drama. Some of the desperate situations the crew of the Yamato get into, and their reasons for continuing their missions despite the great dangers really elevates this story. Character development is well above typical action driven entertainment in my opinion, yet the battles are the best that I have seen for this type of updated classic animation. This is the good stuff my friends!

GAMING YAMATO 2199.

The New 1/1000 Scale Yamato Is 12 Inches Long, Just The Right Size To Look Great And Maneuver In Games!

I recently rediscovered Star Blazers as Space Battleship Yamato 2199, while researching some information about models on Google. I of course found the entire series within minutes, and have watched it all this week, and loved every minute of it!

Needless to say...I have decided to start collecting ALL of The New Bandai 1/1000 Scale Space Battleship Yamato 2199  Models.

I am going to apply the awesome FFG STAR WARS X-WING approach to gaming Star Blazers battles. It should be easy enough to use these fine core rules and to write my own where necessary. This is going to be hell of a lot of fun!

I am rather happy about not knowing of all the new Star Blazers Yamato 2199 products until a few weeks ago, because during the last year during my ignorance, there has been an entire range of excellent models released to build complete Astro Fleets!

Black Six Red Seven will now focus on Dogfights and Epic Battles in both The Star Wars and Star Blazers universes. There is nothing like doubling your fun...

I'm off to (a different part of) outer space!

Boss out!

COLLECTION DIARY: NOVEMBER 2013

This month I have pulled back on the FFG Models purchases because I have from one to three of each ship. Until FFG gets their issues with distribution under control, or the Wave One ships are all eventually available again at my favorite online shops, I am settling back into a relaxed waiting stance. I am buying more models from other companies to build some special factions however because IMO two factions is simply not enough to keep me excited about this or any game. I need to have more to do with my hobby.

I have rediscovered The Star Blazers series this month, and I have decided to buy the models for that wonderful universe. I will detail this topic in my next article. In furtherance of expanding my space battles hobby, FFG X-Wing spending will be trimmed back in general. Variety is the spice of life after all.

I have started getting the models I need for my new Mandalorian Faction. The three Micro Machines Imperial Shuttles are going towards this force as specially converted heavy fighter-bombers.
I have also chosen to build a small group of character/pilots for the Jedi and Sith. The F-Toys Delta-7 and AMT/Ertl Sith Infiltrator models are going to serve as the medium ships for these force empowered warriors. I already had a set of F-Toys ETA-2 models to represent a lone Jedi and Sith among my fleets. As I have decided to upgrade both the light and dark sides, this month I purchased all of the remaining models which I felt I needed to have some reasonable diversity, as you will see in the following images.

Readers of B6*R7 know that I am building a collection of models for a 3-D Backdrop. This month I added some cute planets with nice strong magnets to hold them up onto the background banners I am going to have done in early 2014
I finally got my first FFG Y-Wing model this month...now I have at least one of every FFG X-Wing ship!
I finished off week one with a very nice set of Tea Lights for my large models interior illumination, and a few Wiz Kid figures for my Stat Layout. On a whim picked up a few tiny trooper models from Mech Warrior, to compare them with the 1/300 scale troopers I am sculpting...just for fun. My models are much smaller.

In week two the first new pair of F-Toys ETA-2 models arrived adding combat options for my Jedi and Sith characters who now each have access to up to three small fighter ships and one medium support ship. As you will see in week three I got three more pair of the ETA-2 ships, giving me a total of 10 models. I plan to use these as is and for conversions, to be decided upon as I build my Alternate Factions.
My Stat Layout was reinforced with even more cool Wiz Kid figures. From HobbyLink I got some new primer, a smaller set of magnets, and plenty of glue to work on my Capitol Ships and other projects.

In weeks three and four I placed a second Hobby Link order for some more Plastic and Brass rod, and made a happy buy on my last three boxes of ETA-2 ships that are now discontinued by this seller. The last of this months Ebay wins came in as well. The second trio of Imperial Shuttles for my Mandalorian Heavy Ships affords me the means to build a nice set of six of this special fighter type.
The first pair of wonderful Galaxy Voyagers ships came in for my secrete (Ha!) Pirate Faction fleet project. I also got a silly little Cylon craft for this faction, which is of course going to be fully converted into a very nice large ship...Hot Damn! (Ha!) I like to sneak these in where I can.
Last but not least I rounded off my Escape Pods with a second pair of the cool Micro Machines models giving me four in total. I will be using these to good effect on my Alliance Space Stations and on their own in Rescue Missions.

As I stated above, I have most of what I want for Star Wars X-Wing...until I can get the requisite fleet of X-Wings and Tie Fighters at a sane price, and the new Wave Four and Capitol Ship models are released...I am happily and patiently waiting on you FFG.

By way of a laugh, some of my online buddies asked me about the Death Star large model I have talked about getting. Well friends this month was full of new discoveries, as I stumbled upon the all new Yamato Series, and the Galaxy Voyagers models for my Pirates, which I have wanted to build since day one of collecting Star Wars models. I put off getting the Death Star in favor of getting some OOP Rare models. The Death Star is an in production model, and will be there when I want it...later.

Next month I am going to focus on my Pirate Fleet Project,  Alliance and Pirate Ground Forces, and the start of my Yamato 2199 1/1000 scale models collection.

Boss out!

SIMPLE ALTERNATIVES TO LARGE MODEL LIGHTING.

Cool lighting can be a fun additional element of large models, or it can be a real drag.

These days I feel that I can get a nice lighting effect without all of the extra parts and effort. Another problem that can ruin a lighted model is if the buried components fail. Now you suddenly have an unlighted model that will be very difficult if not impossible to restore to illumined glory.
There are tiny hard core Fiber Optics and LED that will probably last for years sure, but I am not going that way.

I found some easy to use Tea Light options for my large models that will look awesome when I am done. With these easily replaceable lights you only have to set up a very accessible magnet male to female plug system that you can simply make with plastic telescoping tube.

Now if a lighted model fails me for what ever reason, I can just switch out a Tea Light that cost all of $2 (at most) and in about a minute I have full lighting again...1-2-3-simple and affordable. If you want to go this route, I recommend that you do spend the tiny bit of extra cash and get Submersible Tea Lights because they are water proof, which means that they are split paint and running glue proof too. Ha!

There are all sorts of LED Tea Lights available, try a quick search at Amazon, and find a set you like. Have fun with your projects and remember the K.I.S.S. approach my friends.

Boss out.

SWTOR STARFIGHTER DOMINATION TRAILER

A fun new trailer was posted this week for SWTOR Galactic Starfighter Domination. This looks very cool. I am more into the miniatures, but I might have to play this one a few times...

Boss out.

IMPERIAL ACES DELAYED UNTIL 2014...

FFG Forumes are buzzing with discontent, as FFG moves back the release date for the highly appreciated and much anticipated IMPERIAL ACES Expansion to first quater 2014.

 
Some experienced retailers are speculating that this means the new Aces game supplement may not be in stores until April 2014.

Boo-Hiss-Boo!

Boss out.

THE FFG CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND 2013 X-WING VIDEO!

The X-WING 2013 Championship Games Video has been posted this week!

This is a fine video for X-Wing players regardless of your skill level, you will learn something from watching these games.

Boss out.

CELESTIAL PHENOMENON DECK BY RODENT MASTERMIND

One of my favorite members of The Fantasy Flight Games X-Wing Forum has gone above and beyond the call of community service to produce a complete deck of CELESTIAL PHENOMENON CARDS to expand The X-WING GAME.

I think Rodent Mastermind deserves some appreciation for this one...

The Original Topic at The FFG Forum.

The PDF by Rodent Mastermind.

The CPApp by Rodent Mastermind.

Rodent Rocks!!!

Boss out!

COLLECTION DIARY: OCTOBER 2013

I stated last month that I had "gone a little crazy" ...well, I am still being crazy! Ha,Ha!

I think I almost have enough models and supplies in my third month of collecting, to build some fun squads and special models to really get a versatile series of thematic games set up to play with the wonderful FFG X-Wing Rules.

In the first week many of the special parts for my Boss Builds came in; including the turn table for the main body of The Alliance Strategic Command Post, and a Millennium Falcon radar dish for the sensory arrays tower that will be an interesting detail of the stations command bridge. The Revell Star Destroyer will be used for the main body of my Striker Assault Frigate and also for some of  the cool detail components of The Alliance Mark III Assault Frigate. The Millennium Falcon has proven useful here again, as the quad cannon will make for some very nice heavy lasers for the Mark III. The first batch of Micro Machines models are Escape Pods for The Command Post and some new additions to my little collection of Backdrop models.

In the second week my first Wave Three ships order came in! I got three Tie Bombers, One Tie Interceptor, and finally got my first Firespray-31 for The Empire, and my Pirate Fleet. For The Alliance I got three B-Wings, and one HWK-290.

Last month I started collecting models for future Planet-side Battles, with the purchases of four Micro Machines AT-AT and six F-Toys AT-ST for my Imperials. To compliment these wonderful models, this month I purchased twelve F-Toys T-47 Air Speeders. Now I  have some reasonably impressive ground forces for Planet-side Battles with the option of bringing in star fighters for aerial support. Of course I still need to get a game mat to represent the planet, and I may end up making some other ground models, to go all out with some crazy Hoth-style-combats.

In week three a friend surprised me with a gift certificate from Cool Stuff. I picked up a Lambda Shuttle to complete my initial purchases of Wave Three ships, and now have at least one of every new ship. As a fun aside, yes my shuttle's wings do work fine!

This months final Ebay purchases are all Backdrop Models. To go with the Micro Machines I got in week one, I found both the New Hope and ROTJ Death Stars! These little models are going to be very cool in my 3D Backdrop Environments. I want (will have) a Nebbie at full size within the next year, until then I found a lovely Nebulon-B Frigate by DeAgostini for less than $20, that in and of it's self is worthy of a happy chuckle.

I may return to sanity next month...unless of course the FFG X-Wings and Tie Fighters become available at my favorite online shops.

Boss out!

BOSS SHOP: ALLIANCE MARK III ASSAULT FRIGATE PROJECT PREVIEW

I have most of the materials gathered now to build The Mark III.

Components for this HUGE Ship are varied, as they should be. The Mark III will be made just as the original ships from the Original Trilogy.

I am ordering one more batch of supplies next week, mainly plastic rod and a lot of glue. When these raw construction materials are in hand I can get serious about building this mighty ship...

This is going to be a lot of very fun work!

PART ONE

Boss out.
 

FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES GRADE A+ CUSTOMER SERVICE!

I purchased one HWK  along with a few of the other Wave three ships this month, and sure enough, I had a few issues with The Moldy Old Crow (Ha, Ha; because I only purchased one...?).

These faults are a bit annoying, enough so to file a report with FFG. I intend to purchase three Hawks eventually. If I had purchased the three models now, and one had these problems I would of been fine with that because I am going to convert one Hawk to have different guns on the wing pods. However I am not trying to build that squad of Hawks now, I just want to play the one named model in my games, and it needs to be in top shape.

Fantasy Flight Games responded to my filed request in Warp Speed fashion. They updated the status at every point and emailed me directly twice. In less than five days I had my perfect new replacement HWK-290 model with a nice thank you note!

This company has my full support now. I liked what I have seen in videos, and read on forumes about them, but now having dealt with them directly over a small issue... I realley like these people.

Cheers FFG!

Boss out!

BOSS SHOP: IMPERIAL STRIKER ASSAULT FRIGATE PROJECT PREVIEW

I managed to get the wonderful Alliance Star Destroyer model this month at a reasonable price. Now I can cut it up and totally ruin it...Ha, Ha!

I do not have to much else to show my like-minded friends here in terms of other raw components for this model build because most of the new sections will all be cut from Plasticard.

Customs Frigates according to my research, typically do not carry fighters in their docks because these ships are not large enough for that sort of operation. They do however often carry assault troopers for boarding actions.
I decided it would be cool to have a few ships anyway, but carried in an under carriage system that I will build with Plastic rod. In my Epic Games I am going to have ships like my Striker attacking bases and chasing down medium and large targets. In these special operations it is entirely appropriate to have a few Tie Interceptors and a couple of Tie Bombers involved.

This model will not be as hard to build as my current  Alliance Projects, but it is going to be just as much fun, and it will make a great centerpiece for many thematic games!

Imperial Boss out.

BOSS SHOP: ALLIANCE STRATEGIC COMMAND POST PROJECT PREVIEW

I have collected most of the components to start the actual model work on this project. This post is a preview of the base materials some of which have been dry fitted, so that my friends here can see what a large modeling project like this entails from start to finish.

This is going to be a very challenging and fun model to build...

Boss out.

BOSS SHOP: ALLIANCE STRATEGIC COMMAND POST AND 1/300 SCALE FIGURES PROJECT OVERVIEW

I am going to build an even half dozen Space Stations and Satellites for my X-WING Terrain. I have decided to start with one of the large station models, this will allow me to quickly incorporate a nice objective into my story centric battles,  as my fleets grow.

I would love to build a large space station to scale, but that would take up my entire storage area, i can however build a very nice station that will be large enough to look good on the table.

My approach to making these large stations is to build the important components then arrange them to taste, based on game scenarios.

1: Command Center & Sensory Array
2: Ship Bays & Crew Barracks
3: Supply Depot & Tankers

To compliment my Space Stations I am going to make some Alliance and Imperial Pilots and Zero-G Troopers. With these models I can take my Epic Battles and Scenario Games to a whole new level of strategic diversity.

The models are going to be very close to true scale with the FFG Ships, which means that I
am going to have to really work at making them look good, but it will be cool to have these in my collection, and worth the effort I think.

I am basing the Zero-G sculptures on Rebel Commandos and and a newer version of the Zero-G Stormtroopers.

Boss out.

BOSS SHOP: ALLIANCE MARK III ASSAULT FRIGATE PROJECT OVERVIEW

I have been wanting to make several large models for X-WING. I have spent the last two months thinking about it and I have chosen my first trio of large scale projects. One Capitol Ship for The Alliance, and The Empire and the first of many Space Stations and Satellites, an Alliance Space Station.

I wanted to build a Nebulon B Frigate, of course, for my first Alliance ship, but I do not trust our friends at Fantasy Flight Games. They are in love with X-WING, just like we are. Due to FFG's enthusiasm and their recent Fleet Preview, I am about 90% positive that an official Neb B model will be previewed or released at some point in 2014. They made the Blockade Runner after all and a NebBie is not that much larger, so they are very likely going to make it too. With that stated, I feel equally certain that FFG will NOT make an Alliance Assault Frigate, which is a huge Capital Ship.

I am allowing myself almost complete freedom with these special large projects. I have a good storage system set up now and I mean to make the most of it, this is all in fun after all. Right? RIGHT!

I love the look of The Mark II. My build of this excellent design will not be exact, but rather an inspired design that I am calling a MARK III Assault Frigate. I will not be making this model to scale for obvious reasons, but I can make it large enough to look awesome on my 4x6' table.

Cheers to BullDogUK who posted his work at the FFG X-WING Forum, and in part has inspired me to get my modeling tools and plasticard hot again.

ALLIANCE ASSAULT FRIGATE images via Google.

In my next related article, I will layout the major components, and general plans for this project. I have some cool model parts and specific modeling materials on order now from several online merchants, all of which should be delivered to me in the next two weeks...

PART ONE

Boss out!

BOSS SHOP: IMPERIAL STRIKER ASSAULT FRIGATE PROJECT OVERVIEW

Some form of an Imperial Customs Frigate is in all probability coming from our friends at FFG in 2014,  to counter and compliment their Blockade Runner. It is awesome that this excellent company has committed to producing these large ships to expand our already cool game!
With that stated, no matter what FFG makes, it will not cover everything that I want to see on the table, so I am going to make an Imperial Customs Frigate hybrid so to speak.

The three images above are of my favorite variations on the Classic Star Destroyer.  I am going to incorporate the cool detail elements from each of these designs into my own large frigate, that I am calling an Imperial Striker Assault Frigate. I have already planned a medium freighter (Falcon) sized small frigate too, but I want to make the large model first to battle with my Mark III Assault Frigate...Ha, Ha!

CUSTOMS FRIGATES images via Google.

IMPERIAL NAVY overview at Wookieepedia.

In my next related article, I will layout the major components, and general plans for this project. I have some cool model parts and specific modeling materials on order now from several online merchants, all of which should be delivered to me in the next two weeks...

Imperial Boss out.

COLLECTION DIARY: SEPTEMBER 2013

This month I went a little crazy...Ha,Ha!

In the first week, I received four Micro Machines Imperial Probe Droids, one Imperial Shuttle, and four AT-ATs. Four F-Toys AT-STs, and three FFG Tie Interceptors, for the glory of The Empire!
For the Rebels I received three A-Wings, two F-Toys Jedi fighters and one Speeder.

Finally, the first bulk order or Wiz Kidz Star Wars miniatures arrived, which I will be using to represent character pilots, just because I like the idea of seeing Han and Chewwie among the Falcon cards, and Luke with R2-D2 with that Red Five X-Wing and so forth...Ha,Ha!

In the second week I received the first of my larger ship models to use for Boss Builds of medium ships for the Rebels, Empire, and my Pirates.

In the last two weeks my final EBay wins came in including two more F-Toys AT-STs, and a beautiful Star Destroyer for my little collection of Backdrop ships. The last two ships are from the wacky Burger King collections, these rascals are going to be used as a base for two of my Pirate Freighters ship builds.

Next month WAVE THREE Ships will be in, and more!

Boss out.