First Step Into a Larger World

I have a soft spot for dogfight games, going back to a copy of Wings of War: Dawn of WWII that I was given for my 11th birthday. Despite my continuing interest in that game, there are issues with it, especially for an eleven year-old. The plane cards lack the cool factor of miniatures, and made movement tricky, and the maneuver deck was also fiddly. Because of this (and the fact that WoW supplements are vastly more expensive than I remember), I had been interested in finding a replacement game for some time, and Fantasy Flight's X-Wing Miniatures Game fit the bill. In addition to great looking minis and a more streamlined gameplay than its predecessor, it tapped into another thing I enjoy, the X-Wing novels by Michael Stackpole and Aaron Allston. The idea of recreating the actions of Rogue and Wraith Squadrons on the tabletop had me hooked. So, as a test of the miniature quality, I purchased an E-Wing expansion pack.

The quality of the game tokens and cards is up to Fantasy Flight's usual high standards, the tokens are printed with a great deal of detail, and all the cards feature original artwork (I'd like to see credits for the artists as per Arkham Horror, though). The E-Wing first appeared in the comic series Dark Empire plagued with mechanical difficulties, although it later became something of a replacement for the X-Wing by the time of The Black Fleet Crisis and New Jedi Order era. Since the E-Wing is strictly an Expanded Universe ship, unrevisited as yet by the Disney takeover, all the pilots come from the novels and comics of 'Legends' canon. The two generic cards, from Knave and Blackmoon Squadrons, are from Dark Empire and The New Jedi Order novels respectively. Having Corran Horn, the protagonist of Stackpole's Rogue Squadron novels, makes for a great ace character, although Etahn Ah'Baht's addition is somewhat perplexing. A'Baht is the Dornean General in charge of the Fifth New Republic Fleet in the Black Fleet Crisis and the war against the Yuuzhan Vong, and never to my knowledge flies a snubfighter.

Still, it is an excellent pack. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the paint job too. Even I would feel comfortable fielding it in an unmodified state- perhaps the first prepainted miniature I've felt that way about. Still, as seen above, there was room for improvement! I opted for Blackmoon Squadron markings, which I do not believe have ever been illustrated, even unofficially, giving me room to invent my own.

I kept the shape of the original red markings as I liked the outlines and wanted to retain the good 'alliance grey' color on the body. All the repainting was done freehand, with no masking of any kind, as such there is some slight variance with the markings. I also wanted to relieve the resultant monochromatic look, so I added a stripe in medium tan/yellow down the body.

Last to be added were some slightly overscale squadron and pilot insignia, along with a row of kills below the cockpit. I actually could not find anyone who had added carbon scoring from laser cannon near-misses- these were drybrushed on before I applied an overall ink wash.

I opted for no markings along the underbelly of the E-Wing, making the tan arrows stand out in contrast with the plain grey.

I look forward to testing the ship's mettle and trying out the game in the near future!

Heir of Numenor

It's been a while since I've posted! Other responsibilities have taken precedence over the blog lately, and I really have not had a chance to paint since I posted Malakili a couple of months back. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I had some spare time yesterday, and decided to finish up one of my many unfinished projects, a GW Elendil.

While the Jackson films had many flaws, I really enjoyed the prologue attached to the Fellowship of the Ring. The costume design in particular was excellent, based mostly on Alan Lee designs, and Elendil was no exception. I grew up with Alan Lee's illustrations -my first copy of LotR had fifty watercolors by him- and he is still my favorite Tolkien artist.

Tolkien miniatures can be difficult for me to paint, as he never really gave us any guidance as to the clothes and armor worn. However, in the Silmarillion there are repeated references to Elven armor shining in the sun, so I tried to capture that look with plenty of bright silver highlights. The green stone on the helm is supposed to be the Elendilmir, mentioned in Unfinished Tales.The other colors are supposed to tie Elendil in with the later Gondorians and Dunedain, in addition to setting up a good contrast when placed by my Noldorian Elves...

...like this one. This is one of my favorite paint jobs that I've done. It is supposed to be one of the Elves of the house of Fingolfin, first High King of the Noldor, and is usable all the way from the flight from Valinor to the Last Alliance. The blue and white color scheme is actually mentioned in connection with Fingolfin's son Fingon at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.

I tried to capture the otherworldly sense of the Elves with clean lines and contrasts. Even when compared to Elendil, or other brighter miniatures like my Khazad Guard the Elf stands out.

Beast-Master

Here at Wolf Age Miniatures, with so many monsters and daemons running loose, there has long been a need for a Beast-Master to control and take care of all these creatures. It was a long time before I found a suitable candidate, but the position is filled at last!

Previously in the employ of the late Jabba the Hutt, the Corellian-born Malakili was the primary caregiver for the rancor Pateesa, until that beast's untimely demise at the hands of Luke Skywalker. After the death of his employer Malakili wandered the deserts, for a time he became a sort of nanny to another Hutt, later helping to found a restaurant in the thriving spaceport Mos Eisley. However, after a disagreement with his partner over the customer status of banthas, he began traveling the stars, eventually ending up at my door, in need of a job.

Needless to say, he found one. It's been a bit of an adjustment for him, he's not used to handling creatures with more supernatural abilities like the basilisk or hellhound, but he picks up quickly and I'm happy with his work.

Malakili is a West End Games model, produced in the 1990's by Grenadier for their Star Wars RPG.

Times without Number

I first encountered John Brunner in his short story In the Season of the Dressing of the Wells in the anthology After the King. After enjoying that tale, I picked up a few novels by him in my last used book store trip, including Times without Number.

The book is a collection of three stories originally published in three consecutive issues of the British magazine Science Fiction Adventures in 1962, collected into a novel the same year, revised by Brunner in 1969. The copy I read is the 1969 revision.

It's an alternate history book, set in a 1989 where the Spanish Armada conquered England, paving the way for an empire spanning the whole of the western hemisphere. While conventional technology is at a severely lower level than our timeline, there have been major advancements in one area- time travel, controlled by a government-supported Society of Time. All three stories (really sections) deal with a young junior officer in this order, Dom Miguel Navarro, and his gradual (although spotty) understanding of the workings of time.

While a very enjoyable read, especially the middle section, the chief interest for me was the ideas contained in it. Brunner is really good at writing historical background and making it very organic and accurate, it felt like something that could have happened, even the time travel, at least the idea. There is one slight issue: as is made clear in the end, there can only be one actual timeline- alternate worlds don't stretch to infinity in this book- however, in part 2 people pass through a time machine into this reality from an alternate one. This can be explained by the inexperience of Dom Miguel, he still hasn't learned the innermost secrets of the Society, but a bit of explanation from a higher-ranking member would have been welcome.

Still, I really enjoyed this book, and will definitely be reading more by the author.

Splinter of the Mind's Eye

Star Wars, even the originals,  may not be my favorite films, that title going to 2001: A Space Odyssey, but I have had a soft spot for much of its Expanded Universe for some time. So, when searching for copies of some Thrawn novels I found a 1978 Star Wars novel with a Ralph McQuarrie cover, I snatched it up!
Foster's name was familiar, although I can't remember actually reading anything by him, he's best known to me for his Star Trek and Alien novels- other adaptions and Fan Fiction-type books.

The Star Wars EU, although Disney has recently thrown a good bit of it out, is one of the most developed of any Sci-Fi universe- every throw-away line and background character has its story- and this, the first novel written, is where it starts. According to that supreme source Wikipedia (backed up by Star Wars Insider) Foster not only had access to many of the early drafts and story ideas, but this novel was to be a cheap sequel if the first film was a flop. This would have lead to a very different development of the series, as I'll expand on later.

The novel itself is a good light read, don't be expecting much in the way of prose style, but it does have something of a swords and sorcery feel to parts, especially towards the end, where Luke and Leia fight their way through a system of caves to reach an ancient temple dominated by a giant Cthulhu statue, wherein lies a gem with Force-controlling powers. This actually works pretty well with the space opera of the films.

The most interesting thing to me is to see how exactly this novel influenced and is different from what could be called 'mainstream' or at least more recent EU material. There are two major deviations from the norm:

Han is only mentioned in a throw-away line on the last page, taking his and Ben Kenobi's  place is Halla, a smart-alec witch woman. There are two Chewie-type strong arm aliens that ally themselves with Luke and co., reminding me of the later Gamorrean guards.

"No Luke, I am your father" and especially Luke and Leia's relationship was obviously as big a surprise to Foster as anyone else. Luke has some more than brotherly feelings towards Leia, which can make for some odd reading.

Some other differences include:

The casual mention of female Stormtroopers, not to mention some surprisingly intelligent (and talkative) guards,

The constant reference to the Lord Darth Vader,

Leia explaining she joined the Rebels due to their less degenerate art!

It also has some parallels with the later films. The setting alone is a lot like ESB's Dagobah with an Imperial presence, while the Coway are similar to troglodyte Ewoks, especially in their fighting style. The ending showdown between Luke and Lord Darth Vader also plays out in some ways like a reversed version of the Cloud City duel. It would be interesting to know how much Lucas (or Foster) actually borrowed from each other.

All in all, if you like the films and would like to see a different handling of them it's well worth a read, after you have gone through some of the more 'canon' works.

Small Hands

"Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world; small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."
-Elrond

 The first of the Fellowship to get painted- Merry and Pippin!

Ranger of Middle-Earth

In the Forests of the Ettinsmoors, a lone Dunadan hunts Orcs...