I've been mulling over this choice for the past several weeks...buying a ultra detailed Venator from shapeways.

However my worst fear is FFG releasing the ship in a following wave...leaving me with a mega expensive ship that'll be very hard to pass off.

I know it's not a sound investment...and either way I'll take a bath on it...it's a 90 dollar model that I would honestly go ape***t painting and it would see use every-single-time I played the empire.

...and I'd have to have it with a few squadrons of V-wings.

The question is boys, is it worth the risk...?

Sadly, this is part of the reason I haven't ordered many ships from Mel (that and expenses... can't justify minis when I'm looking for a job). Usually I pick ships that I'm reasonably sure that won't be depicted in the near future, like the Nebulon-B2.

Now if Mel had manufactured variants to popular craft that would be a case for me to go and get them. For instance, if he had produced TIE Defenders that were closer to the original model than the decipher variant, Those would be craft I'd go and buy because I like them a whole lot more than the spindle version.

It would be the same if Mel did these for Armada. Right now, if I get cash free for model buying, I think I'd pick up some of those Escort Shuttle fighter minis to swap out the Firesprays. Not only are the Mel ships bigger, but I kind of doubt we'll ever see Escort shuttles ever since contributions from TIE Fighter are downplayed outside of the TIE Defender. :\

Can't help you in the case of the Venator or V-Wings though. There is little precedent for doing clone-wars era craft though, the only exception being the H-6, but that's pre clone wars. If nothing else you can paint them in a different style than FFG probably will (imperial grey) so you have your own customized variant to swap out with the official model.

I wouldn't do it until wave 3 is announced. Which should be annnny time now. Right? RIGHT??

I wouldn't do it until wave 3 is announced. Which should be annnny time now. Right? RIGHT??

That sir is my greatest worry....wave 3 is holding me back on the assault frigate mk 1, venator, dreadnaught, z-95's...

Well, I think the safest bet is to buy it for the collector value, regardless of whether you play Armada or not with it. Then if FFG comes up with an official variant, you won't have wasted money because it won't have been your primary purchase.

However, if the collector value isn't enough for you, then you'd rather pass.

No reason to think it will be out any time soon. X-Wing hasn't done any clone wars era stuff, and there's still plenty left to explore for "civil war" and TFA era stuff for Armada. I suspect it'll be at least 2-3 years before we see a Venator. It's also one of my favorite ships in Star Wars, so I've gone through the same thought process!

I personally think that Mel's or Shapeway's stuff for Clone War Era stuff is probably A-OK if that era really strongly appeals to you. Consider tho just beyond buying some cool models, that the stats there have been developed by various people aren't necessarily fully debugged. Doesn't mean it wouldn't be fun it's just the pool of people you'll play with will be a tad smaller...

I just don't see TFAs being an inspiration for Armada until after the next movie. I think FFG needs more material to work with to release ships of that era. How you'd field 400 points without mixing eras seems ... hard.

With Rebels seeming to be pretty popular and represented in the next X-Wing wave, I wonder if FFG won't utilize it for Armada. Does it address the problem of mixing eras tho? I guess ...

I love the Venator too, but I'd still wait for at least until Wave 3 is announced if I were you. It can't be that far away now.

I could just buy it...I mean my wife asked me what I wanted for our anniversary.

If I ran it, if run it as an imp 1 with expanded hanger bays.

Kind of shocked how they shut down space rocks but not mel.

While his stuff is nice dont think i purchase any of it due to cost

My gut feeling is that you're probably safe with the Venator and V-wings. I mean, it's really more of a fan justification thing in adding the Venator to Civil War era Imperial fleets rather than something that's widely acknowledged. It's an iconic Prequel ship, not just 'roughly prequel era', so a lot of fans as well as Maus co. seem to want to compartmentalize.

Now, if you said the Interdictor, Imperial Light Cruiser (Arquitens refit), Peltas, or the Liberty then I'd say 'waiting is safer''. That's not to say those are certain of course, but that they seem like good potential sources to draw from in Wave 3.

At worst, here's a question: can you see yourself using 2? If it's 'yes' then it's only a problem if Big Orbit doesn't get extra stands and ship tokens in. And if the models are different, congrats, you now have the unproduced 'B' version as well.

Of course, the Mk.II came out of left field, and I remember plunking down $95 for a set of official models for 'that other game system' only for them to be redone for $20 within a fortnight, so anything is possible I suppose. And for every possibility there's a steady supply of anecdotes and justifications.

In the meantime, Tsalt's Z95's are surprisingly well priced in comparison.

Begun...the clone war has.

been watching the cartoon and I am on a clone war era high right now, it is so surprisingly good

Since the decision has already been made, it doesn't matter now, but, if you are a fan of constant 1/7000 and got that option, then even when/if an FFG Venator comes out, your new model will still be useful. FFG's will almost certainly not be visually compatible with a 1/7000 fleet.

Yeah I mulled over the idea on getting one for the past few days...and it honestly is my favorite ship in the Star Wars series...

and I juuuust got paid to.

I went in deep with one FUD Venator and a squadron of V-wings.

I'm going to proxy out an Imperial (Imperator damnit!) 1 that is a carrier build until DA gets around to releasing a new Imperial Venator...then I'll get one of those made.

The V-wings I'll replace my Interceptors with....

I literally walk around the office thinking "oh man, I can use this this and that to make it look that much better!"