Friday, May 29, 2015

COLLECTION DIARY: MAY 2015

This month I purchased a lot of cool models and toys to bring my X-Wing EPIC collection up to extra-badassery level. Because it is cool... My Wonderful Star Babies!


Now I can build one Large-huge and/or one Small-huge EPIC ship for my SCUM Main-force divided among all Sub-factions; Black Sun, Hutt Cartel, Rim Wraiths, and Mandalorians. That is going to be enough Huge Ships for me to be able to play all kinds of fun EPIC battles... and if FFG makes more then so much the better.


I do not want to go to crazy building new Huge alternate Ship types because Fantasy Flight might actually keep putting out one or two of these big babies each year. I do not think they will... but they might.


The good ole SWAG and Storage-case Factions got a nice extra large Iris case for my new Huge Ships and some good colors of paint for them too. I can probably store three EPIC ships in this case. That will do just fine... for now.

Now that I have a million bits and special parts and a nice storage case, I am going to get back to work on some older projects and these new babies.

EPIC SCUM Boss out!

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

FFG POST THE SECOND RAIDER PREVIEW!

Fantasy Flight Games posted the second preview of the Imperial Raider Expansion in their The Grand Design article today!


I was wondering if Fantasy Flight would include the Emperor in this set... and sure enough! I am going to admit it my Star Brothers...

"I have a bad feeling about this."


It is a bit of a surprise I think, to see so many of the key personages in this expansion. This is probably going to be the only Large-Huge Imperial ship that we see from FFG, with the exception of the Small-Huge Gozanti Cruiser ,for some time to come. If FFG had bigger, better plans then they would of certainly held the Emperor back and included him in that next badass Imperial EPIC Expansion.

Then again the Emperor is going to be a hell of a lot of fun to play.


If people actually buy the Raider and start to have fun playing Real Epic games, then this best version of X-WING can enjoy a fresh new level of interest and things could just get crazy...


 ... dunno yet, The Imperial Raider Expansion may have the ultimate power to get EPIC going... finally!

Happy Boss out!

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

FFG "NO CARD LEFT BEHIND" SERIES... KINDA FUN!

Fantasy Flight Games has some of the best games around, but with so much content somethings can get looked over and forgotten about. With the recent No Card Left Behind: PART I & PART II series we get a lot of fun reminders and some new options to consider.




I love every ship in the game. They are all viable. I do agree however that some of them need a little help to be more effective. This series of articles are helpful to rookies and still interesting reading for veterans too IMO.



The meta-gang do not care, but I like that FFG continues to keep the fun in the game.

Boss out!

Saturday, May 16, 2015

BOSS SHOP: HUTT CARTEL & RIM WRAITH PROJECTS OVERVIEW

I am getting ready to go back to the modeling desk! With warming weather inbound I can prime & spray paint again, hurray! The X-WING Wave Seven announcement has convinced me that there is going to be enough verity in the SCUM Faction for me to be able to build a HUTT Cartel and get my Rim Wraiths going too.


To get some of my ideas clear in my head I decided to spend my free time last recently painting this battle scene. I have most of the raw materials in hand to make all of the special ships present here, which are not part of the FFG product range. I want them in my collection however, so I have some more fun projects to work on. I figure by the time I get these models done FFG will have Wave 7 (AKA: SCUM Wave II) available. 

The majority of ships in this digital painting are actual photos of FFG X-Wing Models, some are my photos and others come from the FFG product images. I spent about thirty hours painting and editing these little ships, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I had a lot of fun making this battle scene and I will have even more fun when I can actually play out this battle on the tabletop... in about six months, prolly.

HUTT CARTEL CONCEPTS


The Hutts are a cool and important race and their organizations effect the Star Wars Universe in fun ways. I need them in my X-Wing and EPIC games. Most of the Huge-ships I am going to go all out on are Corvettes. The term Corvette is actually a ship type which classifies fast and nimble craft. The next larger heavier class is Frigate.
These are the only two good Huge-ship fighter classes which can be made to fit into X-Wing EPIC Play. I like both terms and it is all good in my book. Transports can also fit into the game scale of course, but that is more of a generic term which can apply to almost any type of crazy ship, none of which are all that impressive as fighting craft.


I love the look of these HUTT Warships, which is why I am basing my Patrol Corvette on the same styling.These ships are a more advanced designs which look cool and badass, rather than being wacky like the older classic sail-barg'ish ships, which I do not like very much. It is fine to have sails in a hot atmosphere on a desert planet, but it is just silly looking in space IMO.


RIM WRAITH CONCEPTS


My Nebula Haunting Pirates are lead by Fallen Jedi. Their approach to combat befittingly emulates the mysterious ways of lost warrior rouges. I wanted to represent that eeriness without making a crazy-zombie-pirate type of faction. It is fun to think about, but kinda to damn crazy... ghost-paint-jobs shall suffice; along with a number of fun new faction specific upgrades and such.


The Dark Phoenix shall rise... RISE!


I started thinking about making the Rim Wraiths Faction way back in 2013 as a little mercenary add on. I am now going to make them a complete sub-faction in SCUM, right along with The Black Sun and The Jo'Boss'Kah Hutt Cartel.
The cool fighters in the first green image had me in love, and I was thinking about trying to build them out of wacky Micro Machines. Now that I have had more time to do some deeper research these models could be better used for making some wild looking Mandalorian fighters. I might do something like that later... dunno yet.
Now that the glorious Kihraxz is coming I am going to use that awesome ship for the primary Wraith-fighters. I have some very fun upgrades designed for this faction which will stand them firmly apart from other S&V Factions. It is going to be a lot of fun making all of this craziness a reality!

PROJECT PREVIEW

SCUM Boss out!

Thursday, May 14, 2015

FFG STAR WARS ARMADA RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT POSTED TODAY!

Fantasy Flight Games officially announced the release of The STAR WARS ARMADA Wave 1 Expansions today in their The Fleet Has Arrived article.




I am going to wait to get into ARMADA, but I am very happy to see the product range being developed. Keep up the great work Fantasy Flight!

Fleet Boss out!

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

A CLOSER LOOK AT SCUM & VILLIANY: WAVE 2

SCUM Wave 2 brings us the YV-666 Freighter and the Kihraxz Fighter. Like all ships in Scum & Villainy, the YV-666 and Kihraxz may be used in any sub-faction.


SCUM Wave 2 brings us the third most popular Bounty Hunter Bossk with his Hound's Tooth YV-666. How cool is that? VERY Cool!


With three Large Ships in the SCUM Faction, we Outer Rim types are going to be able to build some very solid list. I love that there are going to be strong choices such as these to lead Small Ships into battle. You almost do not need S&V Huge Ships, but we want them regardless, I think I need at least one Huge Ship for each sub-faction.


For me Bossk is actually the second best Bounty Hunter, right behind Boba. Fantasy Flight Games decided to bring him into the game third, but that is fine, just as long as we got him, and his cool ship. I am very happy!


The Kihraxz Fighter is my favorite Scum & Villainy Small-ship thus far. It looks like the SCUM X-Wing to me... I absolutely love it!

I started a topic about this ship at the FFG X-WING Forum a couple of weeks ago. The Star Brothers there basically love or hate this ship... which is to be expected. The majority are positive however, but think that comparing this fighter to an X-Wing is not entirely a good thing. There are some players who think the X-Wing is lackluster compared to the newer ships.


I agree that the basic X-Wings needs some new goodies, but the ship is still good and negative opinions from ultra-meta-minded players do not concern me. I am very happy about the new SCUM ships. I feel these two new X-WING Expansions bring the Scum & Villainy Faction up to the same level as Rebels and Empire.

Fantasy Flight Games is doing great work... keep it going Star Brothers! Now we need the rest of the Bounty Hunters.

SCUM Boss out

Monday, May 4, 2015

FFG PREVIEWS THE NEW TIE ADVANCED!

On STAR WARS DAY no less FFG gives us a cool preview of the forthcoming TIE Advanced featured in the X-WING Raider Expansion! Check out the new Imperial Glory in today's The Academy's Finest article!


That is a pretty monster right there...



This is going to make a lot of Star Brothers very happy... count me in. Great work Fantasy Flight!


Dance your wonderful Sith-self right on into Boss' Parlor Big Daddy Vader... dinner is almost done. Now let me pour you a good strong drink!


Happy Boss out!

STAR WARS DAY: MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU!

HAPPY STAR WARS DAY!

 





"FEEL THE FORCE AROUND YOU!"




Happy Boss out!

Sunday, May 3, 2015

STAR WARS X-WING WAVES 7 TO 9: UPDATE TWO - X-WING WAVE SEVEN!

What a great weekend we had during The STAR WARS CELEBRATION, which happily produced some absolutely wonderful previews of new STAR WARS goodies. The best parts for me of course: The FORCE AWAKENS Trailer, and STAR WARS X-WING WAVE SEVEN!


Fantasy Flight Games previewed X-WING WAVE 7 on Friday at their Celebrations Panel. I am very pleased with The New Wave Seven Ships!

As I stated in previous 7 to 9 articles the Alliance and Imperial ships can be almost anything at this point, including all new ships and re-designated and/or modified ships by FFG.


I am a little surprised, and pleased to see the K-Wing. I would of liked to have seen a Skipray Blastboat for the Empire however.


The Scum & Villainy ships are a little more predictable I think because of the well known and popular Black Sun and Hutt Cartel forces which should all be candidates for future releases.

I am looking forward to seeing new previews, but Wave Seven (SCUM Wave II) has me excited for Autumn's new toys!

More to come my fine Star Brothers... at some point late in the year, I should think.

UPDATE ONE!

Boss out!