Hi all,

I'm in possession of a number of 1/2256 fighters (made by j_roncho on shapeways) and I need some modelling advice. The fighters are brilliant - lots of detail for the size, and (in my opinion) they look a lot better next to the big capital ships than the ludicrously oversized FFG fighters.

I've been gluing individual fighters to "stands" of music wire from Hobby Lobby - I think I used .033. That has worked out great. The ships have been surprisingly easy to attach to the wire and the wire has proven to be very sturdy.

But I'm not sure where to go next. Right now I have a bunch of tiny little fighters on wire stands sticking out of a big hunk of styrofoam. What I want to have is a bunch of tiny little fighters on wire stands sticking out of regulation size bases with at least some of the functionality of the "official" FFG fighter stands (i.e., the ability to track activations, damage, etc. Stats and special rules don't seem important to have on the base since there's a card for that).

So, anyone got any ideas? I'll try to post pics of the fighters in their current state when I get home tonight, which might help get your creative juices flowing.

Basically - I need to attach thin wires (with not necessarily perfectly flat ends, unfortunately, since I had to cut them all) to a small circular base, and find a way to make that base track activation and damage. Can it be done???

well, someone made fighter base replacements on shapeways. So that's an option. I'm still thinking about turning my fighter stands into "tokens" somehow. Sounds like it might be easier with the smaller fighters. That being done, it should be easier to move and measure on the table.

Damage can be easily tracked by placing small dice on the base, with little or no modification. For the 7-hull Falcon, you could simply start without a die and place it only when it first takes damage.

Have a look at Litko's flight bases and dice trays, you might be able to adapt them or at least use them for inspiration. Litko are also continuously adding new products when there's demand for a particular gaming system, so it might be worth to just drop them a line!

Yeah I've been looking at Litko, they do good stuff.

I might try to simply replace the cardboard token on FFG's base with an acrylic one from Litko or elsewhere, and use a pin vise to drill holes for the wire stands. Glue the fighters in, paint the wires and base black, and call it good! I'd need another pin or stopper to attach the top to the bottom and keep the standard FFG activation slider, though - that could get complicated.

I do like the idea of tracking damage with dice though, I had thought of that. Hmm.

Oh, I just want to chime in as a player to say that I think putting all that info on the card is a hassle to me, a an opponent. Having played all manner of table top minis games, I can say one big deal that I LOVE about x wing and Armada is the amount of info on the board. Make no mistake, info on the board is for your opponent, not for you. It's so they don't have to do mental gymnastics to see which fighter is almost dead or is a tough guy ace. When you centralize that info out of the play dorks, you are doing them a disservice that will, at best, show the game (by constant questions and references) and atworst disadvantage them (if they don't want to deal with asking the same questions a hundred times).

That's totally fair, but obviously these would only be used in casual games with friends. I wouldn't be able to use them in a competitive setting anyway.

One thing that I'm planning to do to make the aces a little more visible is paint them up differently - can't wait to do Fel with the blood stripes

Hi all,

I'm in possession of a number of 1/2256 fighters (made by j_roncho on shapeways) and I need some modelling advice. The fighters are brilliant - lots of detail for the size, and (in my opinion) they look a lot better next to the big capital ships than the ludicrously oversized FFG fighters.

I've been gluing individual fighters to "stands" of music wire from Hobby Lobby - I think I used .033. That has worked out great. The ships have been surprisingly easy to attach to the wire and the wire has proven to be very sturdy.

But I'm not sure where to go next. Right now I have a bunch of tiny little fighters on wire stands sticking out of a big hunk of styrofoam. What I want to have is a bunch of tiny little fighters on wire stands sticking out of regulation size bases with at least some of the functionality of the "official" FFG fighter stands (i.e., the ability to track activations, damage, etc. Stats and special rules don't seem important to have on the base since there's a card for that).

So, anyone got any ideas? I'll try to post pics of the fighters in their current state when I get home tonight, which might help get your creative juices flowing.

Basically - I need to attach thin wires (with not necessarily perfectly flat ends, unfortunately, since I had to cut them all) to a small circular base, and find a way to make that base track activation and damage. Can it be done???

Could you post a picture of those fighters please? I've been contemplating buying some myself, but on the shapeways preview the Tie-fighters & Interceptors showed very little detail which has held me back. I bought some from Studio Bergstrom and am eager to compare those to the shapeways ones.

As for basing options, perhaps putting them on sheets of plexiglas like this:

Put a few pics of the fighters in their current state on instagram. Hopefully that link works!

As you can see, they're REALLY small (and my iPhone camera sucks) - but I think the level of detail is incredible for the size and they just look a lot more appropriate next to the big cap ships.

Put a few pics of the fighters in their current state on instagram. Hopefully that link works!

As you can see, they're REALLY small (and my iPhone camera sucks) - but I think the level of detail is incredible for the size and they just look a lot more appropriate next to the big cap ships.

Wow, they look even smaller than the Bergstrom fighters! And with better proportions to boot! Thanks for posting those pics, definitely going to order some

Put a few pics of the fighters in their current state on instagram. Hopefully that link works!

As you can see, they're REALLY small (and my iPhone camera sucks) - but I think the level of detail is incredible for the size and they just look a lot more appropriate next to the big cap ships.

Wow, they look even smaller than the Bergstrom fighters! And with better proportions to boot! Thanks for posting those pics, definitely going to order some

I should note that I have more fighters than pictured - but I ran out of wire before I could base them all. I do really recommend the models - the X-Wings, TIEs, Y-Wings, and B-Wings come loose in a bag and you get about 15 per order. I think I got 19 or 20 TIEs. I didn't really know what I was doing at first but I still managed to break only one Y-Wing and one TIE. I broke a couple of B-Wings - some of them are a little flimsy, but once I started basing the flimsier ones standing up, with the wire supporting the long lower strut, I've had better results.

The other fighters come on sprues, 12 per order.