Sunday 9 June 2013

My forces for 5150: Fighter Command

Introduction

I've spent a large part of today cleaning out my garage, so this is just going to be a short post - sorry!

A long. long time ago, when it was first released, I tried the PC game "Wing Commander" and flew space fighters in dogfights against the cat-like Kilrathi enemy.  For a while, this was my favourite game and I enjoyed it so much that I also bought and played the first sequel.  I've experienced many computer games in my life, but few were as memorable as this.

Also many years ago, I became aware of the plastic spaceship models from EM-4 miniatures.  I thought these were really neat, but since I couldn't think of any game I'd play with them, I managed to resist such a purchase on many occasions.  Even if it had occurred to me to use the EM-4 fighters to revisit the world of Wing Commander, there were no suitable rules, I thought (although Silent Death always seems to have been very popular).

What finally cracked my resolve was the recent release of 5150: Fighter Command by 2HourWargames.  It took only a few days for my determination not to start a new project to crumble and so I ordered both the rules and some plastic spacecraft.  This, I believe, is in no way unusual - many others have done exactly the same thing.

I'm slowly painting my way through the craft I bought; here are the first groups.  I haven't yet come up with a lot of background fluff for these, so you'll have to make do with the pictures:

The Good Guys (Star Navy?)

Here's some interceptors - Blue Flight from the 34th Pursuit Squadron.

A flight of heavy fighters from the "Lucky 15th" Attack Squadron.

Torpedo bombers from the 218th Assault Squadron.  I've added the under-wing anti-ship missiles myself; these were made very simply from lengths of plastic rod with the tip sharpened into a point.

The Bad Guys (Kilrathi?  Hishen?)

"Fandango"-class interceptors.  These are very common and often seen in large wings, but individually not very capable.

A little-known type of single-seat heavy fighter, codename "Firewall".  Such craft are very new and there is no accurate data on their performance.

Conclusion

So far, so good.  However, I've many more fighters yet to paint up; these will make up at least 1 (maybe 2 or 3) other factions.  I'm also looking for inspiration: what to use for capital ships and how many different types of these I might need.  Finally, I'll need to go through all my gaming boxes to see if I have some large, black hex mats.  Fighter Command can be played free-form, but reading the rules suggests that hexes might make things easier.

I really didn't need this distraction from my other projects.  I've just not got enough willpower to resist all the shiny things!



21 comments:

  1. This EM4 is like a santas' sack, I always hear about something else that is uber cool and I've somehow missed it. I went to check it right away and remembered I saw those before, but didn't pay much attention to them.

    Just to make it clear - 2 pounds sth for 12 ships? If yes, how could you resist that? :D

    Well, cheers for heads up, now I know where I'll buy ships for my fleet once I will go into sci-fi and I'll need a fleet to drop some 15mm troopers down on unknown planets...ah, you are ruining me! :D

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    1. Well, by the time you add postage they'll be a bit more than £2.55 for 12 fighters, but yes - they really are cheap!

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    3. Yes, the postage! The impose tracking for parcels sent to my countries...I'll wait for another salute, lol

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  2. Looking forward to these in action, but will resist the temptation to start another project.

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    1. It might take me a little while yet before I'm ready - still need at least 1 capital ship and (probably) a hex mat. But I'm looking forward to trying this game too!

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  3. I've got a bunch of these fighters myself, but didn't find any rules ... but you reckon Fighter Command is the answer? I might just have to follow you down this "ooh-shiny!" path, especially seeing how great your fighters look ...

    Curse you Colgar!! ;)

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    1. I think that Fighter Command has potential. Note that I've read the rules and followed some of the sample action on the 2HW blog, but I've not yet played any games myself.

      If you can just hold your breath for a little longer then I'm sure something else shiny will come along and you won't feel the need to devote any resources to space fighters!

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  4. No wonder why you're a little slow with your ships, they are absolutely gorgeous, seriously cool!
    For capital ships I recommend you to visit Hobby Link Japan and buy there dirty cheap their range of Yamato anime serie star ships. If you haven't visited my blog please do it and see there some of these ships painted as well as many BATREPs of Fighter Commander: http://javieratwar.blogspot.com.es/search/label/5150%20Fighter%20Command
    @cmanash, while you wait for Colgar's review, here you can read another one: http://deltavector.blogspot.com.es/2013/05/5150-fighter-command-space-fighter.html
    Cheers,
    Javier

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    1. Thanks, though actually these fighters are really quick to paint. It's just taken me a long time to get round to it :-( .

      Also, thanks for the suggestion for capital ships. I'm looking at HobbyLink Japan even now and wondering how much the postage would sting :-) .

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  5. I think those are awesome - and now I want some

    And some of their figures too...

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    1. The EM-4 stuff is very cheap. And shiny :-) ...

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  6. Nice ships Hugh. Was looking at the eM4/Silent Death ships for Star Navy, might hold out instead and get them for Fighter Command instead once I get the rules.

    The Spaceship Yamoto ships (aka Star Blazers here in the US) would make a sweet choice for Capital Ships.

    Slightly off topic, what is the Mat you have previously shown shots of? I have been meaning to ask for a while now. Especially since I am looking at mats right now, just unsure if I want to try making one or buy one (if I buy one do I want a Hex or no Hex mat?).

    @Wargaming Addict- The eM4 minis are some great minis. I have some of them for my ATZ games as Survivors, Gangers & Military. If you follow Vampifans blog he uses two of them as part of Team Vampifan (Big Sil and Angie).

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    1. Thanks. I'm looking into the Spaceship Yamato range. They're certainly cheap in Japan, though I haven't yet calculated the postage to the UK. I'm not quite sure that I like the style; all those extended fins any pylons look like they'd be difficult to store without getting broken.

      My space mat is a felt one that I purchased from somewhere a while back. It's really bugging me, but I cannot remember where I bought it; this isn't the first time I've been asked. Sorry.

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    2. That's cool if you don't remember, just though I would ask. I will probably get a professionally printed mat eventually, though in the mean time I will probably get a large sheet of black vinyl and paint it up myself (alas no grid though).

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  7. The fighters look good. These are the same figures as the Nexus/Atlantic set which now seem to be out of stock. I'll probably end up getting them.

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    1. I think the same designs have been released by a number of manufacturers over the years, in both metal and plastic and in different sizes. However, EM-4 have sold their version for at least 10 years, if not considerably longer.

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  8. These are superb! Could I persuade you to share your photos with the Silent Death community over at the Metal Express Forum?

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    1. Sorry for not replying sooner, but I've been elsewhere. Please feel free to link this article (and any of my other blog posts about similar models) to the Metal Express forum.

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  9. It's I who gets to apologize for losing track of this thread! Indeed, I will add your blog posts to our links section on Metal Express! :)

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    1. Please do :-) . It's been a while - I must get back to this project...

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