Saturday, January 28, 2017

Kablooey! Exploding 'Star Wars' Rebel Starships - 7th Submission to AHPC VII


Ever since seeing 'Rogue One' over the holiday break I've been having a wonderful renaissance delving into all things 'Star Wars'. I feel like I'm eleven all over again (if only my hair follicles would follow suit)!

This resurgent interest made me dig-up my copy of 'Star Wars: Armada' by Fantasy Flight Games. For those who are not familiar with the game, 'Armada' is a fleet-level miniatures game, where players get to control the huge starships and fighter squadrons that are so iconic in the films. Rebel Blockade Runners, Star Destroyers, Mon Calamari 'Pickle Ships', swarms of TIE fighters, you got it, they're all a part of the game. It's super fun.

Our group is just about to start a campaign using the new 'Corellian Conflict' expansion that came out a few weeks ago. The guys are busy creating their fleets and so I thought I'd add some colour to the tabletop with some bits and bobs. What we have here is a pair of critically damaged ships for set dressing. With these models, victorious admirals will have the satisfaction of seeing their crippled adversaries drift across the table instead of the original models simply being removed from play.

The Rebel frigate is hit amidships and begins to break apart.
These two ships are from the Rebel Alliance. One is the famous Rebel Blockade Runner, or CR90 Corvette, that was seen carrying Princess Leia in 'A New Hope', and the other is a Nebulon-B Escort Frigate which was first glimpsed in 'The Empire Strikes Back'.


Both of these models were downloaded from Thingiverse (thanks Danesgift!), tweaked/re-scaled, printed off on my 3D printer and mercilessly bashed-up for effect. The stands are prints as well.





Below are a couple raw prints, with all the supports still needing to be removed and sanded down. Yes, they are SUPER orange when they first come off the printer.


The explosions are 3D fractal models, designed by Aeron203. 


I re-scaled and sliced the fractal models to make varying sizes and textures of explosions. I added some blown-out debris from thin plasticard, and for the Nebulon-B I gave it a turbo laser hit (with a bit of painted steel rod) for a bit of drama.


The raw 3D models above provides you a hint of the upcoming Imperial ships which will be getting the same treatment - but that will be for another post.


16 comments:

  1. Armada does look brilliant, those effects are fantastic Curt!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a great game, Francis, I think you'd enjoy it.

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. Cheers James, I dorkily enjoyed working on them.

      Delete
  3. Sensational Curt! You really have got to grips with the 3D printer, outstanding Sir.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Michael. I'm starting to feel as if I may be using more fingers than thumbs now. :)

      Delete
  4. Wow, you didn't mention earlier that the designs were actually two mashed up into one! Very cool! (Though that blockade runner is totally not going to make it - hopefully the droids that "aren't carrying any intelligence" made it to the escape pods!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, actually I was very tempted to model a ejecting escape pod but I thought there might be too much going on. I might to it later...

      Delete
  5. great to see some of the 3D work in progress ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too! Every time I hit print I hope the machine doesn't revolt and create a big blob of goop. So far so good, though.

      Delete
  6. WOW! the painted rendering of the explosion is just brilliant control of light and colour. It's blockbuster movie-tastic. cheers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kiwi! I give credit to many, many hours of looking at comic book illustrations. I knew it would come in handy!

      Delete
  7. The ships are very nice, and the explosion effects, perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your comment! As long as you're not a spam droid I'll have it up on the blog soon. :)