Silent Death And Voidfighter

One side of the sprue….

….and the other. All the models have holes to secure a flying base to although they do not come with them. I have a fair selection of flying bases in stock so may not need to acquire more. I shall take a look later and see what the state of my supply looks like!

Much of what I am about to write in this post is uncertain and so should any readers know otherwise then please let me know!

Back in the 1980s I used to play a boardgame called Silent Death, produced by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE). The game was a ship to ship star fighter combat game using game specific models. As I recall, the original edition came with twelve metal models of the fighters used in the game - one of each type - which were also available separately. An ‘unleaded’ version was produced, presumably to save costs, which included counters rather than the models. Eventually, a set of plastic versions of the original twelve fighters was produced and, to cut a long story short, these were eventually acquired by EM4 Miniatures, who continue to produce them to this day.

Silent Death spawned a plethora of expansions introducing new ships and alien races, along with campaign settings etc. I played the initial release quite a few times ‘back in the day’ but in my opinion, rather like the original Star Fleet Battles, it became too unwieldy for my taste and with a perceived need that one had to acquire everything produced to stay up to speed with it. Eventually I gave up on it which in retrospect was a shame as it was a cracking game and provided many exciting deep space tussles.

I was recently introduced to Voidfighter - the Osprey game of star fighter combat - and enjoyed this so much that decided that raising a couple of forces to use with it would be fun. I did not want to spend a fortune on models and sadly do not have the time to scratch build any - which I have done in the past - due to other commitments.

With what can only be described as a stunning example of synchronicity, I came across an EM4 advert in which they were having a bit of a sale. Sure enough, the plastic Silent Death models were still available and on offer - five sprues, each of twelve models for £22. A couple of clicks later and they were duly ordered! 

They arrived this morning and I am really pleased with them. Considering the age of the moulds they are still pretty crisp and sufficiently detailed for a nice paint job although a couple of the models have the odd ‘sink hole’ - nothing that a small spot of filler could not put right though. Having five of each type means that there is a degree of redundancy in the set as I routinely use flights of two or four. Perhaps some kitbashing may be in order to make some unique models.

In respect of representing larger ships - the rules allow for ships up to corvette size - I have a fair amount of starships from the Command and Colours game Red Alert that have been lurking in a box for sometime. These are of a larger scale - fleet level battles - but could telescope down readily enough. In the Red Alert range there is a nice logistics pack of transports that could serve as targets so there is plenty of potential.

As cheeky little side projects go, this one is definitely doable with minimal effort.

Even for me…. ;-)