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!
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!
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.
In the course of working on my new and updated Green Angels X-Wing squadron, I've finally tried Tamiya paints. In this particular case, their Navy Blue spray paint.
I'm a huge fan!
Sprayed over a glossy black coat of paint.
The USS Midway's F4U Corsair & myself in 2011.
It might be a little hard to tell in the photo, but the color is absolutely perfect. It looks exactly like the F4U Corsair I've seen aboard the USS Midway in San Diego, California. I definitely made the right call in trying this spray paint out.
The paint was sprayed over a coat of Testors Glossy Black that had been lightly drybrushed with heavily thinned GW Eshin Grey (and a bit of Vallejo Gloss Varnish too). It needs detailing now, of course, but I think this is a great starting point.
This stuff is seriously fantastic!
I'm eager to try out some of Tamiya's other colors now! I'm impressed with the number of aircraft-specific paint they have, which has my creative mind working overtime.
My grandpa died of melanoma in September 2010 and I’ve been playing in his memory since I learned of the Campaign Against Cancer in 2016. Even though I’m not as avid of an X-Wing player as I used to be, this is the one event that I make sure to attend every year.
As with last year, the DC area event took place at Huzzah Hobbies in Asburn, VA. It's a bit of a trek from where I live, but it's always worth it as it's one of the best hobby shops in the area. But that's a post for another time! The event was to kick off at 11 am and run until about 9:30 pm with six rounds total in a pod format.
With the onset of X-Wing 2.0, my beloved TIE Swarms are viable again! So I chose to fly a six ship formation consisting of Howlrunner with Swarm Tactics and Hull Upgrade, Iden Versio with Swarm Tactics and Hulk Upgrade, Wampa, and three Academy Pilots without any upgrades. It’s a list that I’d used a few weeks before at a local mini-tournament and had pretty good success with (winning two out of three...that's never happened before). I knew going in, however, that it’d been a while since I’d flown a TIE Swarm and that that rustiness would likely play against me. But this is an event to raise money for an awesome cause and to have fun. So I was determined to have fun and do my best!
As is usual for these sorts of events, I got absorbed into the games and didn’t get a whole lot of pictures. It worse this year as my phone has been on its last legs for a while and I tried to conserve as much power as possible for the ride home (my phone serving as my GPS).
In fact, the only actual photo I got of game play was of this epic furball in Round 1. To make a long story short, I didn’t win that one. In fact, thanks to the new half points rule in 2.0, I narrowly lost all my games until Round 4. I had a Bye and took the opportunity to go back to my car to take a power nap as well as charge my phone.
These guys showed up during Round 5. This was the first year since I've been playing that we've had members of the 501st come out! I thought it really added a fun bit of flair to the event and I really hope they can come out again next week.
I narrowly won my Round 5 game, and decisively won in Round 6. I didn't finish dead last this time! I don't do this event to win, but it's nice to know that I can still win once in a while.And as per usual, I had a fun time and can't wait for next year's event!
JUNE 24, 2019 UPDATE
The final numbers have come in, and participants worldwide raised $47,389.01 total! Our location contributed $988.76 through entrance fees, challenge coin sales, and t-shirt sales. This is hands down our biggest year so far!
This year's Campaign Against Cancer took place on April 7 at a new location: Huzzah Hobbies in Ashburn, VA. This was just one of several locations throughout the world (the event's gone international this year!) to host an event dedicated to raise money for cancer research. This year's proceeds went to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in the United States and the Kids with Cancer Foundation in Australia.
It's an event near and dear to my heart as I lost my grandpa, Bob Abel, to cancer on September 15, 2010. He served in the US Navy from 1944 to 1976 and flew all manner of naval aircraft during his career. Grandpa was also an avid model builder and helped me paint my first toy soldiers. I've been playing the Campaign Against Cancer in his memory ever since I first learned of the event in 2016.
Although I was sick as a dog and not feeling well, I pushed myself. Following my disastrous performance at Han's Holiday Hangover in January, I hadn't played X-Wing at all prior to this. I hadn't even bothered to unpack my box afterwards. Although I was still flying the same list (Lt. Karsabi and two Rho Squadron pilots in Assault Gunboats with an emphasis on cannons), I had a much better time. Seasonal affective disorder is a real thing, folks.
Loaded up on cold meds, Zicam, and ibuprofen, I hit the tournament! I realize now that I only took two photos during the whole event. I blame the cold medicine and the overall fatigue that set in around Round 3.
Once the cold meds wore off, I started feeling pretty bad. I could barely stand at one point and played most of one game seated, which is something I never do. Thankfully in Round 6 I got a Bye, which meant I could leave 75 minutes early. It was an opportunity I took advantage of.
Although I probably should've stayed home, it was a fun time! Mindset is everything when it comes to games like this, and I think I was probably getting a little too competitive there for a bit. This event was a reminder to me to not take things (especially tabletop games) too seriously....the whole point is to have fun! I can't wait to take part in next year's event! APRIL 21, 2018 UPDATE It was just announced that globally we raised $37,058.78 total! That's significantly more than last year! Ashburn, VA contributed $777.01 of that final amount. READ MY 2017 CAMPAIGN AGAINST CANCER REPORT HERE. READ MY 2016 CAMPAIGN AGAINST CANCER REPORT HERE.
On January 7, Labryinth Games in Washington, DC hosted the Han's Holiday Hangover X-Wing Miniautres tournament. In attendance was much the same crowd as December's Holiday Starkillers Strike Back, and there were once again trophies and prizes to be won.
I decided to fly Lt. Karsabi and two Rho Squadron pilots in Assault Gunboats with cannons. But the day was a rough one: I had a pretty bad headache and the snowy weather wasn't helping to my mood (I really miss those sunny SoCal winters at times). But I made an effort anyway.
In terms of my playing, the day was a complete disaster as I lost handily in every single game. As per usual, I only got a few photos.
For my trouble, however, I got the Jawa Junker Award! Even though its the last place trophy, I still put this up on my desk and have it proudly displayed beside my 2015 Force Choker Award.
But still, I didn't have that good of a time overall (I want to make perfectly clear that this was through no fault of the event organizers...they were AWESOME). I just think I'm getting burned out on X-Wing. The current meta just isn't fun to play and I'm frankly tired of always losing. I try to practice as much as I can but life and work are starting to get in the way and I can't afford to stay competitive anymore. So I think I may take a break from the game for a bit and let the batteries recharge.
