Greetings all!
Some of you may know me from theminiaturespage and similar such dens of vice. But I've just joined Dakka Dakka to gather feedback, thoughts and ideas from a larger, more
40K-centric crowd, as I would like to hear what you think of a project I've got on the stove right now;
Stella Aquilae.
To give a little background; I recently backed Ganesha Games' Kickstarter
Star Eagles (link below) - a rather nice set of star fighter combat rules, with a big emphasis on creating and statting one's own fighters (although Ganesha are releasing their own very nice range of miniatures for the game).
While twiddling thumbs, waiting for the
KS to end, all the hype about
40K 8th ed. hit the interwebs, and in the dark spawning pit that is my imagination, the thought "What are star fighters like in the
40K universe?" began to fester and grow...
So, a few quick sketches later, I had some ideas; I vaguely recalled someone - possibly Andy Chambers - once describing fighters in Battlefleet Gothic as being the size of a Boeing 747, and inspired by the slab-sided Space Marine vehicles Jes Goodwin designed in the 90's, I came up with this:
Curves? The Imperium of Humanity needs no heretical curves!!
So, with a look established for the Imperial fighters, I set to sculpting this thing, and here's the result so far:
The idea is for the miniature to break down into modules that can be magnetised - front hull (with weapons); mid-hull (cockpit and engine pod attachment); and separate engine pods. Players can then 'mix and match' modules to create particular sub-types of each fighter.
For example, the Furia can be configured as:
Furia Velox Interceptor (Big, powerful engine pods)
Furia Oculus Recon Fighter (Radar / Sensorum domes)
Furia Agilis Dogfighter (Engine Pods with directional thrusters)
Furia Tempestas Strike Fighter (Engine Pods with multiple missiles in front!)
I'm already working on a Torpedo Bomber, and some fun, very Orky equivalents.
So, what do people (and non-people) think of this so far? There's still a lot to do of course; I plan to write a small sourcebook which will be available as a free PDF, with stats for the fighters and their weapons to play using
Star Eagles. The miniatures I will make available (if there's interest) via Shapeways, although I may cast them in resin, if there's demand. (Released as 'IMPs' and 'Sporks' or similar, no doubt...
Oh, and although the
KS for
Star Eagles is now finished, here's the link - there's a couple of gameplay videos for those who want to see the game in action:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/282429745/star-eagles/description
Thanks for looking!