The light cruisers are my focus at the moment, as a way to refine the techniques needed before I attempt the heavy cruisers. The fusion armed Mongol is currently the sculpt nearest completion.
The engines and engine pylons still need to be sculpted and small details like phaser bumps added. However, it is sufficiently complete to give an impression of the style I am try to achieve. Adam Turner's beautifully rendered Hydran Ships from the covers of various Federation Commander products are a major inspiration.
The fusion beams and deflector array are a simplification of the style used by Turner. I wanted something that would be less likely to cause complications when 3D printed, but still be recognizable.
The launch tube scale to represent a tube to about 2.5m high and 3.25m wide. I have never worked out the purpose of the small domes Turner places either side of the launch tubes. They can't be navigation systems for automated landing, since the tubes are launch only. Observation domes for the launch officers? Repulser beam emitters to rapidly accelerate the fighters away from the ship? What I do like about the domes is they bookend the launch tubes and make one of the defining features of Hydran warships more prominent. I placed the shuttle bay doors beneath the launch tubes, presumably opening up into a hanger that is immediately below the deck with the launch tubes and connected to them with a pair of small elevators to raise the fighters to the tubes.
I primarily based the geometry of the hull on the three section view from the old painting guide for the hydran light cruiser miniature. In a few areas, like the rear of the ship, this does differ from Turner's model. The two small triangles above the impulse engines are the emitters for the tractor beams.
Among the panel sections I choose to make prominent was this section which represents the twelve meter hull extension that was added when the Horseman class plans were redesigned for the Mongol class. This detail, and a few other consistent difference in the sculpts, are intended to make it easy to visually identify on the table top if a particular light cruiser is Horseman based variant or a Mongol based variant.
Speaking of the panel sections that are raised for prominence, I initially made a model with all the panels raised. Hopefully this should allow me to keep the panel details consistent between variants of the hull. The panels are inspired by the pattern Turner created, but greatly simplified. In the same way existing command cruiser variants of the SL2500 heavy cruisers are differentiated by having a large number of raised panels, I will probably make an Apache class light command cruiser with most of the panels raised.When I make the hellbore armed Tartar the panels on the front of the wedge will be redesigned. The change to the panels adjacent to the hellbores should help prevent misidentification on the table top.
I am considering making the spine for the Hydran NCA a piece that can be printed separately and added to any applicable Mongol/Tartar variant. The spine would have recesses that correspond to the appropriate raised panels on the light cruiser to ensure the spine is properly located on the miniature.
A quick test of the uncompleted sculpt through the software for the STL machine is showing the file is fine to print, so it doesn't look like I have made any major errors yet. For those interested in the technical side of things, the printer I have access to is a Formlabs Form 1+. With the grey resin I intend to use it is capable of a layer height as small as 25 microns (pretty much 0.0001 inches for those more familiar with imperial measurements), however I suspect 50 microns will be detailed enough for my purposes and much quicker to print. The beam spread for the laser used to cure the resin is 160 microns.
