Republic Gunship Decals

I struck gold today with a chance but from eBay. It's really hard to get an actual scale on some decals, but this gunship one is very useable.

I scratched off the WWII one I had used and replaced it with this actual gunship one.

I love the Republic symbol on there too, very nice. I have enough to do my other two LAATs too.

 

This is the guys card who makes them. I think they may be for Lego craft but the scale is perfect for my ships too.

Really pleased with this, I can't believe I managed to find an actual gunship decal. It's an improvement on my old one for sure. I had to touch up the paint work a bit but totally worth it.

Clone Wars Test Game

Today I grabbed some simple scenery and put a small test game together. My idea for a scenario was a downed Republic shuttle carrying a few Jedi masters. A veteran clone platoon was also on the shuttle and a couple of E-Web repeating blasters.

The game played very well and so I was quite relieved. My little lad got a bit bored and said it wasn't as much fun as a computer game...but I think he enjoyed it a bit.

 The crashed shuttle with it's make shift defenses prepares for the droid assault. The E-Web guns open up and rip through an advancing AAT tank.

Droidekas roll into range but are met by the Jedi. They were soon forced to fall back and regroup.

    

A droid battalion clambers through the foliage to surround the crash site.

The Jedi ignore the tank and jump into the flank of a battalion of B1 battle droids. They were cut to pieces and fell back.

The Jedi then turned their attention to the AAT.

Finally after what must have seemed an age to the clones, the first LAAT turned up. It's heavy blasters desamated the advancing droids from behind.

Once the gunship had landed, Omega squad disembarked to add their firepower to the battle.

The veteran clones now pushed forward to harass the shaken enemy. It wasn't long before all droid units were destroyed. This just left the badly damaged AAT, which limped away back into the jungle.

I thought the rules played well. It was a simple scenario to see if he could hold out until the gunships arrived. The droids had the numbers but not the quality. Jedi knights and veterans in cover backed by E-Web guns was quite a force. The droids did have a tank though, but this held its fire to allow the infantry units to close in. The game was over when the first gunship turned up and shredded what was left of a droid battalion. Well, he did it, he lasted out until help arrived. The gunships arrived on a roll of a 12 then an 11 and so on as the turns went on.

As with the actual lore, the CIS's major strength was its numbers of droids, overwhelming the enemy in endless waves.

I think the flavour of the combatants and the theatre of war was well represented, so all in all, I'm pleased with this little test game.

 It's allowed me to make some tweaks to the rules for melee too.

The tactical dice worked well, the three dice rolled at the start of each player turn that award extra bonuses. Although the medic bonus was never rolled, it would of been nice to have seen that in action.

ARC Troopers15mm

so here are Captain Fordo and his fellow ARC troopers.

I am pleased with the cyan colour, it was tricky to find but I got there in the end. Fordo's red was must easier to source.

Captain Fordo with his modified blaster pistols. I included his long holsters too to complete the character.

Being a kind of blue, they do look very similar to the 501st members. The ARC equipment was worth doing as it really makes them stand out from other trooper platoons.

These backpacks with get some Republic decals. I painted the stun grenades silver so they stand out.

I tried to colour match this model.

Republic Gunship 15mm

Finally, the gunship is finished and is in the war! I added a pin-up girl decal and weathered the paint work with chalks. This was all sealed with some spray matte lacquer.

The next step was to start thinking of a way to cover up the black base.

Before and after.

Inbound!

My answer to the glossy black base was to cover it in bark. I used a glue gun to stick the bark in place, then PVA to stick down a layer of grit. I will spray this and then dry brush it to match the figures bases.

I also used some earth tone chalk to weather the bottom of the craft, out of everything, this worked the best I thought.

Rocky out crops.

Lady luck.

Three bases for three gunships.

This is the bit I'm most pleased with as it really matches the reference.

This picture was taken from a computer game mod and it proved very useful. Being able to watch the craft move around and see all the details was very handy indeed.

The cork bark is crude but I think it really works as rocks. Hopefully, when painted and finished with tufts, it should look the part.

I wonder if I could go over her with blue ink to change her skin colour? This might make her look a little more star wars. I'll give it a try.

No I bottled out after painting a foot, I'll leave her pink. If I do another one...I'll try it on that.

 I really enjoyed working on this model. It reminded me of a model aeroplane build with it's weathering and decals. Also I love the fact it has clear view pots and the pilots can be clearly seen. A real lucky stroke of luck with the tiny 15mm pilots being able to be put inside.

A bit of time has passed and I've managed to complete the flying stands. These were sprayed a dark brown then dry brushed in the same colour as the infantry bases.

Once all the dry brushing was done, I glued down a patchy layer of red Mars sand. This again matches the figure bases and gives it an off worldly look.

The bark is great for creating rocky terrain.

I noticed on looking at the earlier pictures, that this decal had torn, probably because of the lacquer. This made an excellent excuse to turn it into battle damage. No paint work would stay intact for long in this conflict.

Finished flying stands. The edges were given a light brushing of grey to bring them out more.