Federation Commander

Been busy with small tasks as of late.

No pictures right now, but I scratchbuilt a miniature for my mother for Christmas (long story that I'll tell when I get some pictures posted).

I had to pull apart my FASA Constitution Refit since the epoxy never fully hardened (even after three days!). The cap on this has been broken for a while and the contents spilled into the plastic tray I had for it--maybe it's time for a new tube?

This caused no end of headaches since the plastic nacelle pylons didn't really stay the same shape, and I screwed them up while trying to get them to fit back onto the hull. So I had to make new ones.

This however did allow me to correct an error I found that I didn't see before. The connection for the pylons on the rear hull aren't actually at the same level vertically (at least on the ones that I have). They're close, but just not quite right. So I filled the old hole and drilled a new ditch for the pylon at the same height as the other. Pics to follow once I get the second nacelle glued and puttied in place.

I've got two other projects on my bench right now, but I want to get further along with those before I talk much about them (to avoid having to scrap them and having egg on my face, since one is going to be rather difficult (for me at least)).

Ouch. I'm feeling for you. Nothing sucks worse than rework.

I'll be looking forward to those new pics, when you have them.

Here’s the custom miniature I’ve been working on.

It’s meant to go with a boardgame called X From Outer Space. It’s not SFU, but I’m proud of it, and want to show it off.

Completed:



Painted:




And here’s the master I was working from:


This was made in MANY steps. I was up late each night for about two weeks before Christmas working on this. The center surfboard hull (green) was made with a plastic core stepped up like a pyramid that was covered with epoxy putty and sanded to shape. The lower square hull (off white in color) was made form Sculpey modeling clay, cut and sanded to shape, then had styrene sheets fixed to the front and bottom, and the side augmented with plastic tubing. The engines were obviously made from plastic tubing and epoxy putty. The figure comes from a Reaper miniature that I cut the head and legs off, cut and repositioned the left arm, and then added a new head I sculpted out of putty and pins.

He kinda turned out like Kermit the Frog, and that’s mostly to do with the paint scheme. I can’t believe in all my paints, I don’t have a single purple! I could have mixed something up, or brushed some blue ink over something else, but I was on a deadline.

Here’s the story behind it:

Back when I was 6 or so, my mother bought this educational game to help me learn multiplication tables. I won’t go into details (you can find them at BoardGame Geek if you really want to know), but the game is just a race from outside the solar system to the sun. There’s one path you can take (with two small shortcuts along the way). The entire pace of the game is random chance—rolling dice. There are some pitfalls and helping hands along the way, but they’re the same for everybody.

Well, playing the game has become a tradition (both my sister and I learned our multiplication tables many years ago). It’s something that we pull out at Christmas and play, and it’s the game that we play right before someone goes off to school. My mother even brought it to Arizona when we drove my sister there a few years ago.

The part that makes this really funny is that my mother has the uncanny ability to lose each and every time. And I mean EACH AND EVERY time. She never wins. It’s become a joke among the family.

So, I made this miniature in the style of the pawns (or meeples – strange word) that come with the game. That way, even if my mother loses, she at least gets a nice playing piece on the board.

And, what do you know—it gave her some great luck! The first time she used it, she won. And not just won, she trounced the rest of us—left us behind in the (space) dust!

More photos can be found at my NEW photobucket account:

http://s919.photobucket.com/albums/ad40 ... r%20Space/

(not all my old photos are up there yet, but I'm slowly getting them over there)

Very cool Paul. Always nice to see a family gaming together - I'm sure you're mother loved having "her own special playing-piece". Nicely done!

A few new things over the past week or so:

First, I finished up my FASA Refit Constitution. It's ready to be primed and painted.



The nacelles might be a tiny bit too low, and the pictures seem to show them leaning back (despite them being level in real life) but I'm satisfied with them.



And the second is a Federation Fast Cruiser. I hadn't planned on having one of these, but I ended up getting Border Box #2, and there it was. Since I already had a fast destroyer, and I didn't think I needed a second one, I decide to make this one.

Obviously the nacelles are custom, and rather long. Originally, I wanted them to be about 20% larger (18 boxes versus the standard 15), but I guess I miscalculated because they came out 25% larger (50mm versus 40mm). I'll use my standard handwavium and say that there is a nonlinear correlation between nacelle length and warp engine output (at least beyond the standard output), and that settles it. Call it more cooling or more space for power transfer conduits or whatnot.

These are made from two concentric styrene tubes to get that nice intercooler ditch. And like the art on Booster #4 and Border Box #2, they have three flux tuners and some horizontal ones too, just like on my fast destroyer.



I always intended to file down the saucer and make it round on the rear, like the artwork has, but I'm really happy that I did since those nacelles are so large. This way there's more of a gab between the saucer and the bussard collectors. Doing this wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, primarily because you can still see the outline of where the saucer was built up to make it square on the back. What was hard was making sure both sides were even--you'll notice the putty I had to add back onto the mini, and making sure I didn't file off the impulse engine (which is even with the rear of the saucer).



And those black lines I drew in sharpie are to help line up the nacelles so they are even horizontally.

More photos of both can be found on my photobucket account (the NEW Miniatures page in my sig).

Kinda quiet around here…maybe this will get some people talking…maybe…

Not sure if anyone cares, but here’s something that I’ve been working on off and on:

Updating my Kzinti Fast Battlecruiser.

After making the new nacelles for my Federation Fast Cruiser (above), I decided to revisit the Kzinti counterpart. Something about it just said that it needed new nacelles. Compared to a regular Battlecruiser, it just didn’t have that “fast� look to it. So I went about making some “overclocked� engines. The design was inspired my some of Adam Turner’s artwork on the heavier Kzinti ships as well as what I thought I could accomplish in this scale.

A simple idea using three layers of styrene to get that nice fin gave me these:



The before shot is on the previous page

Here are a few shots of it now:






and compared to a BC:


The ship doesn’t match the art as much anymore, but I think this looks better. I was toying with putting them closer to the hull (and still might), since the fluff mentions that the stress generated by the increased warp engine output was too much for the standard arms, and one could rationalize the same design necessities for the engines themselves (though I’m sure someone could find a justification for the other way too ).

It’s not done yet, I still have to attach the engines to the hull permanently (they’re just sitting in the holes I drilled), and I wanted to see what people thought about it.

Lots more on my minis page including steps for the nacelle fabrication (below in the sig).

Very cool. I'd been toying with doing something with the engines on the BC I'll be doing a similar CF conversion on. You've given me food for thought.

BTW - Airbrush "re-found" last night.

Nice work! Those are some manly engines. Almost makes up for the gipy D-racks the thing is saddled with (but you made them look very cool).

Excellent CF and DDF! Love the CA refit/"CX" as well.

One of the big projects I was working on finally got finished.

A Lyran Manx Police Cutter.

I made this from a standard Lyran frigate mini. Since the police cutter has 10 boxes in the sides compared to the 12 boxes of the frigate, I cut the catamaran hull down and added putty to fill the gap I left behind. I also added the center section that contains the disruptor from pins to support it and putty for shape. The sides came out about 17% shorter than the FF mini (18 mm vs. 21.5 mm), which is what they should be.

Here’s the final product:



And with a frigate for comparison:


And, I got my order of Klingon F5Ws, and what’s the first thing I do? Cut one apart. Will did some awesome fabrication on this mini, and I hated to do it, but I just had to. That expanded rear hull was just perfect for a Klingon F5X frigate (the fluff for the Romulan version says the Klingon version’s rear hull got expanded, even though the SSD only has 1 more box), and it saved me a ton of work. Adding those hull mounted disruptors back was a bit of a challenge since they needed pins for a framework so they wouldn’t shear off when I was filing them. And adding the extra phasers under the boom wasn’t much fun since the surface is curved right where they need to be—ugh.



Here it is with a standard F5 and an F5W for comparison:



And here are leftover F5W boom and F5 rear hull put together:

I think I’m going to use this for a Romulan K5X frigate, even though the front hat doesn’t match the artwork.

Lots more on my minis page including fabrication (below in the sig).

I guess it's all come full-circle. Removing the wing disruptors cleanly was one of the more difficult parts of mastering the F5W. Kind of wild to see how much work you had to put in to add them back

All your recent projects are really looking great. I like the new Lyran in particular. You should check and see if ADB would want to add it to the line. You've certainly built it in a way that could stand up to mold-making.

I finally got some time to work on minis...

A Gorn Heavy Command Cruiser. This one just kinda hit me when I was reading the story "Combat Rescue" in CL26, since there is one in it.





Cutting the front bubble was fun...yeah. I have to remember to cut from the bottom next time (if there is a next time), since I scratched up the top when the saw slipped and had to come back and smooth it out again--that would be easier to hide if it was on the bottom.

Here it is compared to a regular BC:



More images, including more of the innards of the new front bubble are on the NEW miniatures page (link below in the sig).

And something I had done a while ago, but just got out of the box when I reorganized and re-cataloged all of my miniatures; a custom-built Commercial platform.



And for size comparisons, with a Fed CC (modified to be a GSC):



This one is made from...you guessed it...a PLASTIC TUG POD! I have way too many of those things, I'm always looking for ways to use them...in miniatures.

I wish I had in progress pics of this one, but alas, I don't. It was rather fun to make. Drilling all the holes through to make the supports for the "wings". They go all the way through (well, several of them do)--it was easier that way and it provides more support since both wings are attached to the same tubes.

Great stuff Paul.

I saw the in-progress pics of the Gorn and it turned out great. Nice scribing work on the new bubble extension. Can't tell you had slip with the saw, so your cover-up work must work.

Great minds think alike on the CC/GSC conversion (I've got one built pretty much the same way).

Lots of things coming and going on my bench, but little time for pictures.

Here's one, and Orion Medium Raider.

I took a standard CR, cut the front off, lengthened it (just like the Gorn CCH, I'm having fun with the razor saw) and made the engines wider.

(sorry this one's fuzzy)


Here it is with the CR:


And then, here's the rear of the engines and the underside, with an enlarged cutout for extra weapons.

Sweet work Paul.

Also, an excellent idea.

I had that extra CR I just put the wing back onto that I wasn't sure what to do with. Now I know (it meets Mr. razor saw tonight... muhahahaha).