X-Wing - HWK-290 'Focus Factory!'

'I've got my eye on you, Katarn...'

Of the four ships released as part of X-Wing Wave 3, Kyle Katarn's ship of choice, the HWK-290, would appear to have been met with the least enthusiasm.

But like many things about this release, you need to look beyond what you currently know about the X-Wing game and open your mind to new opportunities. And if you do, you'll be rewarded with potentially devastating tactical options.

Today we're going to look at one particular HWK-290 build that plays to the strengths (and addresses the weaknesses!) of the ship and capitalises on Kyle Katarn's awesome focus giving card text ability...

Kyle Katarn provides some serious focus to the boyz and girlz of Dagger Squadron...

Looking at the dial, it's clear that most if not all Imperial ships will leave this thing looking like a bride after her hen night and the reality is, your gonna present a slow moving target. But hopefully, you'll also present less of a threat to the unwary general who'll be far too busy thinking about taking down your Wedge's and your Luke's... Mwahahaha!

The dial of the bride...

But as we'll see in a minute, the fact that the HWK-290 is a bit of a slow coach doesn't really matter, because we ain't going anywhere in a hurry... It's also got four green maneuvers for readily available stress removal and a couple of nice, firing arc dodging, right angle 2 turns. Anyways, enough of the dial, let's take a look at the build!

First up, we have Kyle Katarn and the ability that sits at the core of this build - 'At the start of the Combat phase, you may assign one of your focus tokens to another friendly ship at Range 1-3.'

At first glance, this may look a little run o' the mill. But as any good X-Wing pilot knows, the 'focused - target lock' is the key to smashing seven bells of out of your opponent and ensuring that when you pull the trigger, he's gonna have to try and dodge a whole bunch of hits and crits.

So, whilst your dedicated fighter aces such as Wedge Antilles and Ten Numb are using their valuable action to assign target locks, they are doing so safe in the knowledge that Kyle Katarn is gifting them a regular supply of tasty focus tokens. Cheers Kyle!

The 'Moldy Crow' named ship card is an obvious complimentary choice in this build, allowing Kyle to generate an initial reserve of focus tokens by not having to discard unused focus token during the End phase. Finally, to really start taking the sith, let's also take the 'Recon Specialist' - So that every time we perform a focus action, we assign 1 additional focus token to our ship...  Let's take a look at what this all means:

The diagram above shows the beginning of the game at Set-Up phase, with the Rebel player positioning Kyle Katarn on his table edge as far away from the opposing enemy ships as possible. For the first three or four Planning and Activation phases, Katarn wants to be moving steadily forward using a straight one maneuver, selecting and subsequently banking two focus tokens each per game round. The range ruler gives you an idea of the sort of distance the ship will be moving...

By the time the enemy begins to close on his position, Katarn should have banked a minimum of between six and eight focus tokens, ready to either hand these off to his squad mates or utilise himself. Once the enemy is in range, the last action Kyle needs to perform before the shooting match kicks off, is a target lock. And thanks to 'Push The Limit', this is exactly what he's going to do!

Push The Limit may initially seem like an odd addition to this build, but it helps to ensure that it's not just Katarn's squad mates that get to have all the focused - target lock fun. And it's here that the HWK-290's much derided movement dial comes into it's eloquent own - providing a ready supply of four green maneuvers to shake off that stress token ;)

To round off the focus 'tapping' fun, the 360o 'Blaster Turret'* turns what was once a measly one red die primary weapon ship, into a snarling three red die crit machine. This thing may be slow, but it packs a nasty punch if you get too close...

*Note: Based on your playing style / opponent's choice of ships, you may want to consider swapping the Blaster Turret out for an Ion Cannon... 

With the HWK-290 firing on all cylinders, the only thing left to address is the somewhat unreliable agility value of two. The 'Stealth Device' upgrade brings that up to a more respectable three and coupled with the availability of those focus tokens, provides better odds at negating hits and ensures the upgrade stays around a little longer...

Kyle Katarn plays chicken with Colonel Jendon...

Granted, at 37pts this build isn't cheap. But aside from being a great wing-man and no slouch in a fight, the HWK-290 'Focus Factory' highlights the fantastic new synergies that can be unlocked within the Wave 3 release. It's also great fun to play and leaves an amusing look on your opponents face...

Like all good builds in this game, it starts with a seed of a card text ability and ends up with you creating a monster!

Cheers ;)

X-Wing - Kath Scarlet Firespray Re-Paint

Kath Scarlet - Rogue, red headed vixen and ruthless bounty hunter. When a girl's this hot she needs a ride to match and Scarlet's custom Firespray-31 doesn't disappoint...

Fresh from painting the Green Squadron A-Wing, I kept up the pace and moved straight onto Scarlet. This would be a more challenging prospect, both due to the size of the ship and also due to it's somewhat unique paint scheme - The red patterning itself may initially look a little random, but there's a clear symmetry to it's design. A design that is intentionally threatening and also acts as a clear warning to anyone daft enough to get too close! ... A bit like our venom spiked friend, the lionfish...

To help provide an initial guide for the paint job, I needed to source some good reference pictures and in this regard, it's great to see so many other hobby dudes have felt inspired to re-paint their Slave 1's... My main reference however soon became this image...

First up, the model needed a new white undercoat, provided by an even spray of matt car primer. Then it was on to blocking in the red patterning... This took some time to complete... o_O

With the red pattern nailed, it was time for the even more thrilling task of inking in the black lines between the armour plates... At this stage, I grabbed an ice cold beer... :)

Next up, the ship's underbelly and stabilising fins needed some attention, receiving a base coat of GW's Codex Grey and the engine ports given a base coat of Khemri Brown. With all the base colours applied, it was time to move onto shading, starting with a few thinned down coats of Badab Black... covering the entire model.

It's worth noting two tips here - Firstly, take your time, apply one even wash and allow it to thoroughly dry. Take a moment to review how well the wash has settled and if required, apply a further wash to help darken down the tone. Secondly, if your using GW paints, try to use the older Badab Black ink over their newer Nuln Oil. I find the new ink has a slight 'milky' consistency and whilst it works well on metallics, it doesn't get on all that well with flat matt finishes, particularly of the white variety ;)

With the shading complete, it was onto the highlighting. This time, going around all the white plate edges with pure white and around all the red plates with a little Mechrite Red blended up with a little white. The grey areas received successive highlights, finishing off with a very light highlight of pure white on key features and edges. Finally the cockpit canopy was given a clean coat of black and several smooth coats of Ard' Coat varnish.

With Scarlet's ship ready to bring merry bounty hunter hell to the table-top, let's close the post off with a few pics of the lady in action...

Kath Scarlet pursues the crew of the 'Albion Star' as they attempt to smuggle 'her' bounty off world...

... The torrent of fire from Scarlet's twin-linked range rulers :)  proves too much for the crew
 of the 'Albion Star', who quickly pull over and give the nice lady what she's looking for...

... With the Rebel Drall informant safely on-board her ship, Scarlet sets course for the Inner Rim
 and a rendezvous with the Imperial Security Bureau Corvette 'Silent Vigil'...

... And after a successful docking, Scarlet begins negotiating her bounty terms with the ship's Security Officer...
And if the ship's Captain has his way, she'll be staying for a bottle of vintage Jawa juice and a romantic dinner for two...

Cheers! ;)

X-Wing - Green Squadron A-Wing Re-Paint

Hey! Long time no blog! I've been mighty busy in recent weeks what with work and the family - My three lads like to keep me on my toes o_O

So, let's remedy any recent hobby inactivity by looking at a recent re-paint of an A-Wing in the flight colours of those famous rebel fly boys, Green Squadron...

During that Battle of Yavin, Green Squadron's main goal had been to support Blue Squadron in an attack run on the Death Star’s superlaser. Hopefully this would also distract the Empire from the main target of the Rebel’s attack... the exhaust port…

The Battle of Hoth saw Green Squadron escort Rebel transports in their desperate attempt to escape the Imperial blockade of the beleaguered ice world. But it was during the Battle of Endor that Green Squadron really earned their spurs, as Green Leader Arvel Crynyd famously helped destroy the personal flag ship of Lord Darth Vader, the Super Star Destroyer ‘Executor’…

The re-paint was fairy straightforward - Using a steady hand, I applied GW's Gnarloc Green over the existing red areas of the ship... Getting into the nooks and crannies around the engine ports is probably the most tricky part. Then, a quick change of the laser barrel tips from red to green and the addition of the yellow circle squad markings on the ship's hood, this time using Iyanden Darksun. Finally, the ship was given a few highlights here and there and it was job done :)

'Oooh! Check you in your funky green ride!'

Next, I'm going to take a crack at painting up an A-Wing in the livery of Blue Squadron. I've also been working on a Firespray re-paint to represent everyone's favourite red head bounty hunter, Kath Scarlet...watch this space!

Until next time ;)