Hi folks,
If you are a fan of The Empire Strikes Back, you will remember the Storm IV Twin-pod Cloud Cars that patrol Bespin. They had a striking orange paint scheme and stung the Falcon with some blaster shots, as Han negotiated landing clearance. Obviously, there are no Cloud Car figures for the X-wing miniatures game (yet), but it did make me wonder what the paint scheme would look like on some other ships. In the hunt for upgrade cards, I ended up with a StarViper and two M3-A Interceptors. Having no particular love for the Scum faction, they soon found their way on to my paint table.
Bespin is a gas giant that includes a thin layer of habitable atmosphere. It is famous for its Tibanna gas mines, including Cloud City, which we see in The Empire Strikes Back. Bespin was a neutral world during the Galactic Civil War, but the Empire garrisoned the planet and seized Cloud City anyway. After the Empire's defeat at Endor, the gas giant and its prosperous mining colonies recovered their freedom. I imagine that, after the troubles they had been through, the various mining corporations would have established a government for the purposes of defence against off-world threats, possibly pooling their resources to buy a fleet of defence ships. I can imagine playing a few games against the First Order with such a fleet, particular if I can get hold of the new Cloud City playing mat!
The ships were given a light grey undercoat, then painted with Macharius Solar Orange. Some armour panels were painted a mixture of Lich Purple and Steel Legion Drab to match the original colour on the M3-A Interceptors. Small details were picked out with Warpstone Glow and Shadow Grey was used on the cockpit frames, again to match the original colour on the M3-A’s. I restored some detail with a generous Nuln Oil wash, before retouching with glazes of Macharius Orange. I finished the cockpit of the Viper off with a coat of gloss varnish.
I am not planning on playing the fleet very often, but I have knocked together a little list just for giggles:
StarViper: Guri, Calculation, Advanced Proton Torpedoes, Stealth Device
M3-A: Serissu: Wingman, Stealth Device, “Heavy Scyk” Interceptor, Heavy Laser Cannon
M3-A: Cartel Spacer, Stealth Device, “Heavy Scyk” Interceptor, Heavy Laser Cannon
…because orange counts as camouflage on a gas planet! SO STEALTHY!
Here are a few more pics:
StarViper
M3-A Interceptors
The Fleet
If you can come up with an interesting list using these ships, let me know in the comments!
See you across the table,
M4cr0
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