SW Armada: 5 Conversion Ideas

Some quick ideas to spice up your Armada Fleets.

As with most pre-painted miniatures game Star Wars: Armada does not have a huge hobby aspect. Many players just buy the miniatures, play the game and have done with it. Others take the small step of painting the unpainted squadrons, but leave the ships alone. But miniature games  have a long tradition of having a hobby aspect, and many players do want to change up their ships and models. The internet is full of great alternate paint jobs and full out conversions of ships large and small for Armada. I’ve plumbed the depths of Star Wars lore and came up with 5 quick and easy ideas to convert your fleet and make it unique.

The Crimson Command

The Crimson Command was a fleet or red hulled Victory Star Destroyers under the command of Admiral Teradoc. This large fleet of VSDs had a lengthy career after the death of the Emperor and struck terror into many a New Republic world. The fleet served many Imperial warlords but finally fell apart after a failed attack on the Jedi Academy at Yavin 4. This is very easy conversion, simply give your VSD a nice red paint job. A simply wash should do it not only will they look slick and stand out, but they will get a cool new back story to as well.

Destroyers of the New Republic

Another pretty simple conversion idea is to convert your Imperial Fleet in a force fighting for the New Republic. Simply paint or stencil on some New Republic symbols on the sides of your shops. The picture of the Lusankya up there gives a good idea how that could look. The lore is pretty solid there to. Large numbers of Imperial ships were captured by the New Republic and converted to serve in the Republic fleet. Just rename all the unique characters and pretend their are New Republic officers and you’ve got a cool looking fleet.

Modified CR90s

The venerable CR90 has been popular enough that a number of variation has been put into production. From faster, to up gunned ships, to pocket carriers the ship can fit any task. Now this is a more intense conversion project then the above paint jobs, but rewarding as well.

As you can see while these variations are all different they are built off of the standard CR90 body. With a little bit of creative additions you could end up with some really cool, and unique looking models that would not require you to scratch build anything. While the conversations won’t have any in game effect, you could use them to represent different upgrades, Engine Techs, Enhanced Armaments or something like that.

Wingless Liberty

The MC80a Star Cruiser or Wingless liberty is one of the few capital ships from the Original Trilogy not to have an Armada model yet. In the Battle of Endor you can see both this version of the ship and the same model with wings added on, the classic Liberty. How cool would it be to convert a Liberty back into the ship it originally was. Admittedly, this would take some work. You’d have to shave down the wings and then green stuff the sides together and add some blisters, then paint it all up. Still the project would not be the hardest, and would give you a unique looking ship that already has rules.

A Yuuzhan Vong Fleet

 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.