Today I earned that getting a crap compressor really ruins your airbrushing experience (don't worry, a better one is already on order)

That victory look dope! I really think it shoulda been duel engine over triple due to the fact it's slower.

"Older, crappier engines, that's all." went through my thoughts when I read your post, and then I thought "What a great way to differentiate between the VSD I and VSD II! The II could be the 2 engine variant (newer, more powerful engines)!"

I wrote an article on my work on some Rebel ships, definitely a rush job but they came out pretty well I think. Just need to figure out what to do with my Imperials!

http://www.wwpd.net/2016/03/a-rebel-fleet-to-call-my-own.html

**** dude....the blue man group is running those boats eh?

Gottmituns: trying to get an effect that looks like they're flying toward a light source. And blue was inspired by a fleet in a 40k novel series I'd just completed. I'd love to try a yellow/green combo on other ships soon

Really striking fleet there eorltheyoung... And the same ships I'm running at the moment too!

Houndstooth - thanks dude, I appreciate it. They're great ships to paint, that's why I chose them. Still too new to power build!

Houndstooth - thanks dude, I appreciate it. They're great ships to paint, that's why I chose them. Still too new to power build!

Same here eorl! I love them for all their 'fishy' goodness! And 'cos the Mc30's are soooooo fast

It's a very good use of an airbrush Eorl the Young. It's very striking on the field, looks neat 'n tidy, and definiely the right colour balance. How long do you figure it took you? Just out of curiosity Yeah, I can see the Nightlords in it. As an aside, one of my friends did an airbrushed army with green, to yellow, to orange and it could certainly work (Eldar Jetbikes have basically the same profile as the MC series, when they're lacking riders).

Alright, my little bit then. After Mel said everything was fine, I'll loosen up on a few of my own reservations... I guess. I like fighters quite a bit, but I'm still not a Phantom fan in principle (model was great to work with, blue ties are something I haven't done a lot of. Now I know I can). I've been using the gunboats for a Rhymer stand-in recently, though usually they're firespray equivalents. I'm still betting FFG will release some of them in the near-ish future, and I'm excited to see their take on it. But I do wonder if they can handle the Defender as a model. It's a weird shape.

It's all just sort of stuff to fill my time between another commission and my long-delayed Armada stuff coming in (Mc30, VSD, and an Interdictor. So I have no doubt that FFG will be releasing one of those soon enough to spite me.)

The decent compressor has finally arrived and my imperial fleet is now primed for painting.

I like the TIE fighter game way too much. And now its movements make sense. Anyway, it's still not quite done, I'm still working on a name (Persistence, or the Gemini), got to maybe do one more layer of light shading, paint the bottom keyhole, might toy with the engines a touch more, line those blasted sensor/shield domes, then the insignia, and finally matting. But for the most part it's close enough to 'done' for a 2-ish day project.

Hey Vykes, can we get some more shots of that two-engine setup?

I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to cut up my poor VSDs yet, but I really like the two engine setup as well. Now let's see if anyone renders a VSD with the split wings from TIE Fighter as well.

I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to cut up my poor VSDs yet, but I really like the two engine setup as well. Now let's see if anyone renders a VSD with the split wings from TIE Fighter as well.

Already been done:

http://thirdfatecreations.blogspot.ca/2015/08/victory-star-destroyer-prepare-to.html

.... See, I find more than Rules Quotes, these days

That's brilliant! Though the hull paneling makes it really hard to see the details :\

Wait, those are landing bays? WHAT?!

Sure thing Norsehound. I did take a few pictures when it was a little bit better lighting, so apologies for another set of essentially the same thing. It does have a little bit better perspective.

And the 'WIP' image

I'm not quite sure what to make of the Victory's wings, because I think i recall them being for atmospheric flight, but I aso saw them as missile tubes. I don't think I recall them as hangars. That sid, I can never recall if that split-wing version was just in the 98 version, or the 95 Collector's edition that I played (thus sorta am most familiar with. I swear they were closed in that one).

It's a little hard to see into the engine bank... did you just split the VSD and gut the engines to re-arrange them? If I did anything like this I'd probably find a way to fit the secondaries between the primaries, like so.

As far as I can tell, the wings were open for the DOS and '98 textured versions. Later versions of the flight simulator (X-Wing alliance) replaced a number of the models with versions more faithful to screen, and the VSD's wings closed (I think the Interdictor became what we know as the Immobilizer 418 today as well). Those early DOS models were made when only a profile sketch was available from WEG, so the designers did what they could. I miss many of those old models, because they've been overridden (The original TIE Defender was a lot beefier than the Decipher version that eventually became "canonized")

Part of the reason I like the two-engine open-wing variant of the VSD is because it's rare. The typical VSD depiction is what Armada gave us, and I'd like a little change to make it stand out. It's the same deal with the Imperial-I.

There, updated the image some with a 'WIP' sort. That's about as close as you're going to get without me having to hang off the deck to get some decent non-flashlight light (camera loves to blot those pictures out). 'Course, if need be I can do that tomorrow -laughs-

But I'se tell ya a secret: it's made of the following top secret, super speshul bitz an' done in dis ancient mystic ritual -gestures and acts all covert- Pop the VSD in the freezer. It makes the glue brittle and you can often just pry it apart with the quick twist of a butter knife in the joints. I'm starting to wonder if the early issues I had with Armada ships before was from them sitting in an ice-cold warehouse or something. That said, you shouldn't need to break the joints at all, just be ready to wiggle out the engines as they're half inch solid pegs sunk into the back.

The components I used were: a GW lascannon power cable, a disused mortar tube, 2 fire. I cut the engine pegs short, let enough for me to pin, and that was essentially it.

The maneuvering thrusters are solid pieces molded into the back, so you'd have to cut them off (or replace them. The cheap superglue lids you get from the dollar store tend to be a pretty close shape if you can't quite get the original ones off intact). I'll admit, I looked at the art for the twin-engine VSD, saw the maneuvering thrusters and sorta cringed. They weren't in the game I recalled, so I left them out.

You know, I actually had to go back and look at my copies of TIE fighter to see how they actually portrayed the VSD wings, and you're quite right, they're open. Where did I remember the closed version from I wonder. Hmmm. Oh, and while it is true, the game left out the maneuvering thrusters on the VSD completely, they also did that to the ISD so now I'm looking at it all again. Quite right with the Defender, it had the Avenger's type of cockpit and a larger body with shorter wing pylons. I kinda like the new versions, admittedly (though the old ones make more sense with the elongated body, if you take into account the X-wing Alliance depictions of Tie Experimentals with hyperdrive units.. They all have that old TIE D shape).

Great, you're going to make me do a split winged version for the VSD coming in, aintcha? Still figuring out what to actually do for those surfaces though. -sighs- Still looking to find some parts for the exterior trench turrets of the ISD-I. The ones I had earmarked were too large. Is it too extreme to get a third ISD?

My pirate fleet "Queen Emeraldas"

That last shot is perfect Vykes, your other ones just had the area really dark and it was hard to see what was actually in there.

Yeah I read you on getting the secondaries out of the molded plastic. I'd either need to get precise with the snips, or find something suitable as a replacement to fit in there.

The closed versions are most likely from X-Wing alliance, which replaced the ISD/VSD/Interdictor models ingame with ones that were true-er to canon (along with a few others, like the Dreadnought and I think the Carrack too). XWA still had many of the older models though, like all the transports, and I think my favorite MC40a made it in there as well.

I just liked the beefier Defenders, because it's easy to think they had larger power units, shields, and stuffed a hyperdrive in there. The extra spindle doesn't suggest it that much... visually it makes the defender look really truncated when you look at it from the side. The original versions were longer for the wider body, which is why I like them. I'm also sad that almost nobody else likes that particular version. I say almost, because it seems that Fractalsponge does.

Your call if you want to do a split-wing VSD-I of course if I ever acquired a third Star Destroyer I toyed with the idea of back-engineering it into an ISD-I. Not sure where I'd get the turrets to do an equivalency, but the New Hope Devestator is another permutation I like of Imperial craft because it's so rare to see. Usually it's the ESB version of that model with the targeting sensor horizontal to make it look like a II.

I posted the Black ISD I won from the Store Championship. I won last week. I love the overall look but I wanted to make some slight changes to it and first up is adding windows! I liked the idea of some white windows with a red glow to go with the theme of the ship. 1,000 plus dots later she is all lighted up like a Christmas Tree! I still need to do some highlights to some edges and I'm going to cover over the silver/grey panels they did as I think they are way too different and don't add much to the ship. I'll probably cover over them with a darker grey/black to give a little contrast but not as much as it currently has. Overall I really like how the windows turned out as an all black ship is perfect to make them pop!

Before

After

Also inspired by Vykes's sigils on his ships I gave my shot at it for my first painted ISD. I tried to cut out a template but it was rather hard at this scale so I had to free hand most of it. I have settled on the name Scythe or Reaper or maybe both for my first ISD. Overall I would like it if the blade was a little smaller but I think it looks pretty good.

"Rooooooooooooxanne you don't have to put on the red light"

(Great looking IMP man.)

Vykes - sorry for the delayed response. The airbrushing didn't take long at all, maybe an hour. It's the brushwork after that's time-consuming

Naginata that Esmerelda fleet is phenomenal! The only way it might have been better is rocking out a scheme from her ship. But the red you're is striking and awesome and I'm a little jealous on how well that fleet is put together.

finally got some more time to do some painting!

heres my Isaribi

and a close up on the logo

and my latest work in progress the Schwartzesmarken

and the logo

this one just needs some weathering.

hopefully ill get to it this week some time.

My pirate fleet "Queen Emeraldas"

*snip*

I'm loving how these schemes says "my fleet" while still incorporating variety/ragtaggedry!