Friday, December 14, 2012

Nemesis Fleet

Zandris IV Miniatures makes some very nice ships in the style of the PC game Homeworld. He also made these ships which have a alien, crystalline look. I have never seen any painted versions of these ships, so I decided to try my hand at painting. This is a small squadron of 7 Yamas and 1 Azrael ships. Painting started with an undercoat of light grey with white highlites. The entire ship then received several layers of pearlescent white and then metallic/pearlescent paint was added to add some color/contrast. A closeup of the Yama is below:
The pearlescent white give a crystalline look to the ships which makes them feel that they were grown rather than welded. Here is the Azrael:
The grey/white undercoating give a nice contrast to the raised areas that is not too drastic. Some very nice ships which, unfortunately, no longer available.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Federation Constitution class cruiser

This was one of the first miniatures I painted. I got into miniatures through Amarillo Design Bureau's Star Fleet Battles. Some of the earliest miniatures I possessed were the Federation ships by Lou Zocchi. After seeing numerous painted samples of this ship online, I wanted to try my hand painting one. There aren't that many surface details on this ship, so I looked at a considerable number of pictures before deciding how to paint it. The coloring pattern is based of the painting guide from ADBs website. I added panel lines to the saucer section and some homemade decals for the registration. They are more easily seen in this shot:

Painting consisted of a white basecoat followed by panel lines in light grey. Several thin topcoats of white were added to reduce the contrast. Grey and red details were then added. The warp engines were painted red then orange lines were added to simulate active engines. Decals were then added. Aside from the decals, everything was hand painted.
I even added some details to the underside.
This miniature won one of the painting contests sponsored by ADB when they were starting to release new metal miniatures for their Starline 2400 series ships. I am rather fond of this mini and am very happy with how it turned out.


Sunday, December 9, 2012

Expanded Jem'Hadar Fleet

I have been busy clearing my workbench for the past 2 months, hence the lack of posts. One of my active projects was to flesh out and complete the Jem'Hadar fleet. I can now say that the fleet is almost complete. I need just a few more Attack ships, however, the capital ships are done and here is the results. The fleet consists of 1 Battleship, 2 U-type battlecruisers, 2 V-type battlecruisers, 6 Cruisers, 8 destroyers and 14 attack ships.

Here is a close up of some of the cruisers. It follows the lines of the battleship and functions primary as an fleet escort. A closeup of the destroyer is here.

It is based on a preliminary design from John Eaves for the JH Battlecruiser. I decided to turn it into a destroyer. Its is designed for independent patrol and support for the Attack ships (in case more firepower than a squadron of attack ships are required). In a fleet action, it functions in a similar role as the attack ships to kill off damaged ships and protect against small attackers. It took a long time to make and paint these ships, however, I think the effort was worth it. Definitely an imposing fleet with a consistent design aesthetic. Probably my favorite fleet.