Voidfighter.

[Commander Roj]

My main concern in what to use for gunshots and corvettes. I have a couple of X-Wing ships which may do, but for something more generic, I am at a bit of a loss, except scratchhbuiling.

[anevilgiraffe]

what ship types are there?

[warwell]

3 categories, in increasing size, are any fighters, gunships, and corvettes

[anevilgiraffe]

so you couldn't differentiate between an X-wing and a TIE? No bombers or anything like that?

[Rick]

so you couldn't differentiate between an X-wing and a TIE? No bombers or anything like that?

That's the part where 'upgrades' come in - most ships can have 2-3 and these add flavour and detail to the ships, anything from agile, fast, targeting computer, torpedoes, and several others - some can be taken by any ship, some only by fighters and gunboats, some by corvettes. There are also some leader traits and fleet traits - the former can have an impact on the pilots whilst the latter is more of a doctrine for your whole flight or squadron.
As to X-wing ships, these are going to be of a slightly larger scale than many other fighter miniatures so you may need to look at compressing the scale somewhat; a VT-49 might be an Imperial corvette, Alpha class Starwings would be gunboats (even though they're not much bigger than many other models). Rebels have the Ghost, Falcon and the Outrider, which could be used as Corvettes whilst the HWK, Wookiee gunship, K-wing, ARC-170, U-Wing could be used as gunships. Even the B-wing could be classed as a light, agile (for a gunship) gunship, given its firepower.
Just take a step back, squint a little and think outside the box for a bit, unless you're going to tell me you don't have any of those models at all! 

[anevilgiraffe]

I've X-, Y-, A- & B-wings, TIE fighters, advanceds, bombers & interceptors, a YT freighter, a Rebel Transport, a star courier and a blockade runner. plus snowspeeders, ATATs, ATSTs and imperial troop transporters for ground actions.

[Rick]

I've X-, Y-, A- & B-wings, TIE fighters, advanceds, bombers & interceptors, a YT freighter, a Rebel Transport, a star courier and a blockade runner. plus snowspeeders, ATATs, ATSTs and imperial troop transporters for ground actions.

There are a couple of ground-attack scenarios in the book where your ground forces can be used very effectively but these would be scenario-driven models, not in general use for your squadron.
Your squadron is built up with your ships, snubfighters costing up to 14 pts, gunboats up to 20 and corvettes 30 (without pilots - pilots cost extra); up to 50% of your points must be used for snubfighters, the rest being used for more fighters or gunboats and corvettes. Each ship size has a base size associated with it but there is no reason why you shouldn't use the small, medium or large bases from x-wing - just sort out with your opponent how you both want things to work in your game.

[Easy E]

I plan on trying this with my old Aeronautica Imperialis forces and other assorted bric-a-brac.

I went to my FLGS to get them to order me a copy now that it is officially out.

[Rick]

I plan on trying this with my old Aeronautica Imperialis forces and other assorted bric-a-brac.

I went to my FLGS to get them to order me a copy now that it is officially out.

Ah, that's what you meant by 'retail' - you meant 'bricks-and-mortar' retail! 
Aeronautica Imperialis could be a good option, not sure what bases they come with, though. You'll need between 4 and 15 or 16 ships for a squadron, points values vary between 75 and 150 points a side, and you will be making compromises on points for your ships and squadron along the way. And, of course, there is the age-old quandary of quantity or quality, do you take a horde of cheap attrition fighters or a smaller number of space-superiority fighters? It'll be interesting to see what happens when we've all been playing for a while - usually this question comes up in the fairly decent rules and I've a feeling it'll come up with these as well.

[Easy E]

All part of my efforts to get more Osprey Games into people's faces at the FLGS.

[Commander Roj]

My main concern in what to use for gunshots and corvettes. I have a couple of X-Wing ships which may do, but for something more generic, I am at a bit of a loss, except scratchhbuiling.

Apologies, I wasn't clear. I have enough models for Star Wars, although not too many larger ones: Lambda, Landed Class and a B wing and Falcon. But if I want to use the Silent Death ships I've painted for something more generic and less Star Wars, what are my options for gunshots and corvettes short of using the highly recognisable ships mentioned above. Where can we find some generic larger vessels to match my generic fighters? Any suggestions?

[Rick]

Apologies, I wasn't clear. I have enough models for Star Wars, although not too many larger ones: Lambda, Landed Class and a B wing and Falcon. But if I want to use the Silent Death ships I've painted for something more generic and less Star Wars, what are my options for gunshots and corvettes short of using the highly recognisable ships mentioned above. Where can we find some generic larger vessels to match my generic fighters? Any suggestions?

Ah got it now!
Well I'm using some of the 'Red Alert' ships as Corvettes and Gunboats but nicely sized starship models from manufacturers such as GZG, Kallistra or Brigade miniatures would do as well, you could also look for some 3d printed starships online or stl files if you know a printer. Toy ships could work but it's all a matter of what size ship you want (maybe a bit bigger than a fighter or twice the size) that looks right for you.

[Rick]

The thing is, Commander Roj, you don't need Corvettes or Gunships in the game - it works very well with just snubfighters. Given what I've mentioned about the size of the squadron and the way they're worked out, it should be obvious that, at most, you'll only need about 3, maybe 4 (if they're cheap) gunships, less if 1 or 2 are corvettes. I'm a sucker for punishment so I'm going to convert a couple of different ones for my Red Star squadrons, a couple more to use with a potential squadron and then I'm likely to have to model and cast a gunship and corvette for the Night Brood bioship squadron (only because I couldn't find any good ones hunting around).
Actually, I'm an idiot; I should, of course, have mentioned the range of Silent Death ships available from the silent-death.mx website (good if you're in the US) and sometimes available on Ebay. The gunships and small escorts are a good size and fit in well with the plastic ships (they should, they're designed to, after all) - I just found a couple of the larger ships which will save me the bother of making gunships for the Night Brood squadron.

[The_Beast]

All part of my efforts to get more Osprey Games into people's faces at the FLGS.

As a co-owner of such, I appreciate the effort, though our experience trying to carry Osprey has on occasion been... challenging.

However, reminds me to call our office manager in the morning to order a couple.

Doug

[HerbertTarkel]

Sad that FLGS have problems getting these: Amazon.ca delivers them in 2 days.