And the repaints begin... I guess Eldar are next...

Starting to repaint some of my X-Wing minis...  The first is my Star Viper and a pair of Z-95's...  Going for a more WWII feel on the Z-95's, so an OD Green base coat, not sure what next but probably nose a different color, etc...  Thinking they'll look like old P-47's or 51's...  Nose will go red and I'll likely go with the "Flying Tiger" shark mouth for them...

This is NOT mine, but what I'm working toward... Initial ship on the left of course...

Got the Star Viper base coated, more or less, and it does look a LOT better than that bad photo of mine would seem...  I've only flown it a few times, it is interesting, but not even a little OP I think.  Turrets hate them with the Autothrusters and agility, but they do not have a lot of HP nor do they do all that much damage...  About on par with an X-Wing really...  A bit more survivable and more in line with a correct points cost I think...  Plus they are interesting to fly...  The S-Loop is its only Red maneuver and takes some getting used to, but can easily get you places you need to be to line up a shot or avoid incoming fire...  A bit on the expensive side though really for competitive play.  I would be surprised to see many out on the tables even locally, though I suspect in some of my builds I will fly them...  Well, the one I have :-)...

Really liking the Y-Wings, Firesprays and B-wings I have been flying recently...  Not sure what I'll bring to my next events, but they are a while off I think...  Aggressor loaded out with a pair of Y-Wing or a Y-Wing and 2 Z-95's seems like a good build for me.  Or stick with Firesprays, maybe Boba Fett's...  :-)  Dunno, but looking forward to next event(s).

STAW is coming back a bit locally, that is great!  I won one of the Romulan D-Dedrix/Borg ships ("Avatar of Tomed"), and looking very much forward to flying that against the Dominion next Month.  Able to regenerate when it cloaks...  Pretty darn good.  Still a fun game locally, but unfortunately the glaring design flaws still exist outside of our "house rules" environment...  We play mostly Faction or at least Ship pure, so the "Borg All Stars" lists are just not seen here.  Not a lot that can be done against those things really.  Looking over the guy who won the latest big STAW event (Worlds?) list...  Big surprise, a Borg ship with CPT Picard (at a bloody discount, not even paying the cross faction penalty...) supported by an Admiral and Fighters...  So, the collection of the most broken and under costed things wins again.  Meh...  I can see why the game is dying all over the place if those builds are allowed to linger.  Contrast with X-Wing where the annoyingly OP "Phantom" builds just got neutered or at least "adjusted" a bit.  Nothing in X-Wing is completely over the top dominant in the way the things in STAW are.  Just doesn't happen, and when it starts to go that way, i gets adjusted.  Wishing Wizkids would get their act together on STAW.  Oddly, D&D Attack Wing (DnDAW) IS really well balanced and a lot of fun to play...  I am currently running a pair of Good Dragons with Dragon Riders as my force...  Not hugely effective against everything, but nothing that I cannot at least compete against.

On to Eldar hitting this weekend...  Some folks have the book now so "rumors" are not really rumors as such...  Well, crap.  My hope that they would be reined in like every other force thus far seems to be in vain.  Do they lose things?  Yes, the Wave Serpent loses the Shield shot every damn turn they get at the moment...  Assault, 2d6 shots, ONE USE...  So, the days of them driving up and using the WS to shoot armies off the table are gone at least.  But they gained a LOT more.  Jet Bikes now can mount Scatter Lasers in place of the Shuriken Catapult.  ALL OF THEM!!!!  So, a unit of up to 10 of the bastards brings out 40 Str 6 shots at 48" range on a platform that has a jink, 3+ Armor save and can move shoot move?  Well, fuck.  Oh, they are Troops too?  So, GW has decided that this game too must die.  Kind of annoying looking over at my Wood Elves army, knowing that I can re-shelf them without bothering to strip and repaint them.  Maybe Mantic's "Kings of War" game will take off locally..  I happen to have "a few" Fantasy type armies I could play...

Meh, X-wing is going REALLY strong locally, and glad a few others are ramping up a bit...