Since May 2020, I've been part of a D&D-style Star Wars RPG group playing a game called Star Wars: Edge of the Empire. This particular campaign has been running for 3 years over 50 sessions, and follows the crew of a ship called the Infinium. Last night was our final session.
This was the first time I've ever participated in an RPG campaign, and it's been some of the best fun I've ever had! A lot of care went into the crafting of our "episodes," which even got an opening crawl a day or so before we met up. The stories and plots crafted by our DM were amazing and felt very much like an extension of the Star Wars universe. Mad props, Josh!
In-game, I was constantly amazed at the twists, turns, and predicaments the crew got themselves in to....and out of as well. The banter was great fun too. I'm really going to miss these sessions, but I'm very glad to have been a part of this group and make such good friends.
The crew of the Infinium.
My next RPG is going has a very, very tough act to follow. Joshua, Alex, Josh, Kyle, and Jacob....thanks for all the fun memories, guys!
"Several fighters have broken off from the main group. Come with me."
Hey everyone, it's been a while! Hope everyone is doing well.
Just realized that on this day in 2015, my friend Ben introduced me to the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game! I flew two TIE Interceptors and did fairly well as I recollect. The rest, as they say, is history.
There's also a comic by Dave Direman that I also think about fairly frequently.
Unfortunately the 2020 Campaign Against Cancer X-Wing Miniatures Event has been cancelled. Given everything that’s been going on in the world, I support the organizers’ decision full heartedly. Better to safe than sorry. Way better.
I would be lying, though, if I said I wasn’t a bit disappointed. This is such a special event – and not just to me either. But there’s always next year. I suppose we’ll just have to raise double the amount in 2021!
It’s not surprising that the Campaign Against Cancer didn’t happen on May 2. This of course was due to COVID-19. It has, however, been rescheduled to July 18 (depending on how things are looking of course). No idea if things will be normal enough by then, though, but I’m cautiously optimistic.
This year is significant to me in several ways: September 15th marks the 10th anniversary of Grandpa’s passing, this will be my 5th time participating in CAC, and now my little cat bro Jimmy has been diagnosed with cancer. It was a highly emotional year even before the pandemic and all its stresses hit. When the event does eventually happen I’ll be happy to take part.
I had an extra Baby Yoda figure from Gadzooks Gaming and a spare Star Wars: Legion base and thought there was no better to celebrate Star Wars Day than to paint him up.
As anticipation builds for this year's Campaign Against Cancer X-Wing event, this video from last year's Star Wars Celebration was shared on the group's Facebook page. Founder Chad Hoefle talks with SciFiction's Owen C. Cotter about what Twin Suns Charities, Inc. does and how it seeks to help others.
Meanwhile, my excitement for this year's event is growing stronger by the day.
The initial list of locations has been released, minus a few who are still working out some last minute issues. There are 34 locations across six countries this year! However, it might be a trek: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is currently the closest location to me. Unless a DC/Virginia/Maryland location is one of the ones working out some issues I think I'll be taking a road trip in May.
Hot on the heels of the new Green Angels are the Black Sheep! In fact, both squadrons were finished on the same evening but I didn't want to do two posts on the same day. As previously mentioned in another post, I based these guys on the "meat heads" from the 1970s Baa Baa Black Sheep TV show.
These ships were also magnetized like the Green Angels, but given red flight stands as befitting their USMC origins. "Pappy" is designated by the white arrow on the starboard wing.
With that, another project is finished! This time it only took me about a week from start to finish; I think it helped that I've been off work on a staycation since December 16. But the Black Sheep and the Green Angels have got me wanting to do more X-Wings based on F4U Corsairs. I'm really thinking of making up one or two for the upcoming Campaign Against Cancer as prize support.
After more than a month of on-again/off-again work, the Green Angels are finally finished! They're based off my Grandpa's old F4U Corsair squadron and the color scheme is inspired by the planes flown out of NAS Los Alamitos in the 1950s.
You can read about my process on these guys in previous posts (here, here, here, and here). After finishing with the decals, the X-Wings were weathered with a stipling of silver and streaks of Games Workshop Agrax Earthshade and Nuln Oil. I wanted to capture the "beat up" look of the F4U Corsair pictured above. I have a coworker who's a former USMC aviation mechanic and when I showed him this photo he seemed surprised at how rough this plane looked.
I opted to magnetize the ships, which is something I've been meaning to try out for some time now. I ordered the wrong size disc magnets and didn't discover that until about a week ago. Thankfully, though, K&J Magnetics ships their orders out super quick and I got the new magnets about two days later.
This was the first time I've repainted X-Wing miniatures since 2016 when I created the first iteration of the Green Angels. I'm honestly surprised and happy to see just how much I've improved in three years. I also got the numbers and the insignia facing the right way on the wings this time!
It's also nice to actually finish a project! Unfortunately I tend to drift in and out of projects and, as a result, have five or six that I've started over the last few years but haven't finished. The fact that it took me just over a month to finish these guys is a huge personal triumph for me.
The Green Angels, past and present.
Thus concludes a highly personal project for me. I fully intend to fly these guys at the 2020 Campaign Against Cancer event, which is slated for May 2, 2020. I need to brush off my X-Wing templates and take them out to Curio Cavern for their weekly mini-tournament; I'd like to finish at something other than last place for a change.
I may also create a custom pilot card to give out at tournaments. I love seeing what people come up with and it's one of the things I really love about the X-Wing community. If I end up doing it, it'll of course be Grandpa as Green Angel Leader. His call sign/nickname? "Quiet Giant" just as it was when he was in the Navy.
Work progresses on my other projects, but as is pretty typical I get new ideas in the middle of working on them. In this case, I was inspired while working on the Green Angels to start on Black Sheep Squadron!
This time, however, instead of going with a historically accurate paint job I opted to paint the X-Wings up as the "meat heads" from the 1970s TV show Baa Baa Black Sheep (also known as Black Sheep SquadronI after syndication). I spent many, many hours watching this show on the History Channel while I was growing up; it's also perhaps unsurprising that Grandpa was a fan of the show as well.
The show presents a very fictionalized version of VMF-214. The real squadron was formed in late 1943 by USMC Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington with aviators who were unattached to any other squadrons in the South Pacific. They flew the iconic F4U Corsair and did quite well for themselves: in 84 days the Black Sheep destroyed or damaged 203 Japanese aircraft and became the stuff of legend. Major Boyington himself would end the war with 28 kills (but not before he was shot down and captured). "Pappy" was awarded the Medal of Honor and eventually released at war's end.
The ships are pretty much done barring a few more details. "Pappy" is represented with an arrow on his starboard wing, which was appropriated from a 40k Space Marine decal sheet. The rest of the squadron only bear the US insignia. To differentiate the Black Sheep from the Green Angels, I placed the hull insignia back a little bit more. The nose cap was also painted with Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue and given a dark grey wash. I feel it breaks up the paint job a bit and can also be seen on some of the aircraft used in the show.
Another really awesome aspect of Baa Baa Black Sheep was the fact that they used actual Corsairs in the show! Nowadays it would probably all be CGI, wouldn't it?
The rest of the painting pretty much follows what I did for the Green Angels: gloss black primer, coat of Tamiya Navy Blue spray paint, gloss coat, dark grey wash, then decal application. Then that's followed with another gloss coat, weathering, then a matte varnish.
I again used Mark I 1/144 scale decals for the insignia. This time, however, it was the version used by US aircraft between 1943-1947. They again went on extremely well (for the most part).
As what of the good old Green Angels? They're 98% done! They would've been done a few nights ago, however, until I realized that the disc magnets I got for the bases don't fit. I'll put up a post once they're completely finished though. Shouldn't be much longer now!
Not really related to miniatures, but my wife and I just got back from seeing Episode IX. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I found myself smiling and cheering all throughout the film (especially when Lando and Wedge showed up). It felt like a really nice way to wrap up the Skywalker Saga.
Just a quick update on the Green Angels for you all!
I started applying decals today, which is something I've been dreading. Today I confirmed something that I've long suspected: I really don't like applying decals. Yes they make the model pop, but I've found that my patience really wasn't up to it today. But I chugged along anyway as best I could.
I didn't help that I was having issues with some of the decals. I think my Navy decals are too old or something, because they kept splitting in two. After three tries I decided to go on without them. Unless I can find replacements (it took me forever to find the sheet that I ended up getting) I think they might go without. But I think it might be okay.
I do have to say that the decals look really nice! I picked up a few sets of 1/144 scale MARK 1 brand USAAF insignia and number decals for this project. So far I just have these two X-Wings done and I'll get to the other two later this evening.
Made some progress on the Green Angels today! As I’ve said in previous posts, they’re based off of a photo of an F4U Corsair from NAS Los Alamitos in Southern California.
I opted to paint the engine intakes orange because I thought it’d look a tad cleaner. They were then given an orange wash, while the rest of the ship was given a light grey wash. I’d intended to panel line the model but realized that it might be a bit much at that scale.
Then I realized that I hadn’t applied the decals. I’d been intending to apply them before washing or weathering the ship, but I think I can still make it work. I’m going to apply some gloss varnish before applying them and call it good.
The decals themselves are a mixture of 1/144 and 1/350 scale sets. They’re going to be the next step of this project.
The new Green Angels squadron is progressing nicely. Just sprayed them with a gloss varnish and I think they look even better than before. Once everything’s dry it’ll be time to move on to decals and weathering. Because of my busy schedule it’s taking me a lot longer to finish these than I’d like, but I feel like I’m making steady progress overall.
You might recall that I flew a squadron of T-65 X-Wings painted up as 1950s F4U Corsairs for the 2017 Campaign Against Cancer. I'd actually painted them up the 2016 event, but had misplaced some of the pilot tiles so I couldn't bring them out. I just realized, though, that I never highlighted them in them own blog post.
My grandpa, Bob Abel, enlisted in the Navy in 1944 while World War II was still raging. He eventually became a naval aviator in 1948 and retired in 1976 as a captain in the Naval Reserve. In his lengthy career, he flew many different types of planes but really only talked about one: the F4U Corsair. My grandparents' house was decorated with photos and models of it, and whenever anyone in my family sees one we instantly think of Grandpa. I can remember talking with him once and even though he was incredibly sick, his face lit up when started talking and thinking about that plane. Even more than 50 years after he'd last flown one, Grandpa could still close his eyes and remember where every single switch and button was in the cockpit and what it did. It was incredible to see.
So when I learned about the Campaign Against Cancer in late 2015, I knew that I wanted to paint some X-Wings up as Corsairs. I opted for a very simple design: blue hull with a yellow nose and appropriate decals. If I remember correctly, the ships were basecoated with some old GW Mordian Blue, given a bath of GW Nuln Oil, and drybrushed (a bit too heavily I recognize now) in GW Regal Blue. Not only were these my very first X-Wing repaints, but it was also the my heaviest use of decals at the time. I've traditionally avoided these like the plague and I viewed them to be too finicky and not worth the trouble. It was very much a learned experience and while my decal work isn't the greatest on these ships, I think they turned out alright.
After several nights of work spread out over a month, the squadron was finished! I opted to call them the Green Angels. Grandpa told me that his squadron called themselves that in contrast to the Navy's elite Blue Angels flight demonstration team.
At this point, these ships are nearly 4 years old and I think I can do a better job now. As I'm typing this, I have 4 T-65 X-Wings drying downstairs. They got a nice coat of Testors Glossy Black (I'm taking advantage of the season's low humidity and spraying paint like a madman) and should be ready for the next stage soon.
This Corsair was from Naval Air Station Los Alamitos in Los Alamitos, CA I was lucky enough to find this photo this morning and it will be the inspiration behind my new Green Angels squadron. Why? NAS Los Alamitos was where Grandpa was based out of during his Naval Reserve career That photo of him from earlier in the post was very likely taken there in the early 1950s.
