Magnetizing UCM Frigates

Section on magnetizing the UCM Frigates has been added to the Building section of the blog.

New Sections

If you haven't noticed, there are now two new sections in the tabs above. After I received my Dropfleet Commander ships, I wanted to document my experiences in both assembling and painting the various factions. The information that is out there for painting these ships is somewhat disjointed and tends to focus only on one faction. Information on magnetizing is more readily available, however, they mostly focus on cruisers and there are no instructions on how to magnetize the Shaltari. I wanted to create a section that documents my experience in magnetizing, building, and painting these ships so they can serve as a reference for both myself and others. Currently posted are experiences in magnetizing and painting the Shaltari, PHR, and Scourge frigates. Entries on the UCM and larger ships are forthcoming.

Andromedans (Studio Bergstrom)

I've always liked the ships from Studio Bergstrom. The have a unified design aesthetic and are reasonably detailed. I've had these ships for a while, however, never had a chance to paint them until recently. They started out with a grey base coat followed by Yellow Ochre. A wash of Barn Red was applied followed by drybrushing with yellow ochre to bring out the details.  Engine glow was painted using a combination of blue and light blue.

The greebles were painted with gunmetal with yellow ochre drybrush, red, and copper. Overall, this was a straightforward fleet to paint with some nice details.

I had fun painting this fleet. I'll need to try out some of the other ships from Studio Bergrstom in the future. Additional pictures are in the gallery section.

I recently received some ships from Dropfleet Commander. Given the level of detail and extreme customization than can be performed with these ships, I decided to document my experience with magnetizing and painting these ships. The first entry is now up (Shaltari frigates). Again, any comments or criticism is appreciated.

Cold Navy Mauridians

It's been a while since my last post. I did manage to paint and photograph several fleets during my absence, however, real life and other interests took over last year so I wasn't as motivated to post. Recently, I got the itch to paint and photograph again and decided to update with a new entry.

Here is the Mauridian fleet from Ravenstar Studios Cold Navy line. I decided to go with a green dazzle pattern that was based on the original drawings of the Marudian fleet. A close up of one of their battleships his here.

The ships themselves are well cast and easy to assemble. The ships look sleek and aggressive and were fun to paint. The main difficulty was painting the white stripe of the dazzle pattern (my eyes and hands are not as sharp and steady as they once were).

According to the fluff, the Mauridians emphasize small ships over large, and that is reflected in the sheer variety of frigates and destroyers that this faction has. The numbers and dazzle pattern makes for an impressive looking fleet. Additional pictures can be found in the gallery section. Again, any comments or criticism is appreciated.

Cardassians

Reinforcements have arrived for the Cardiassian Order. Previously, for 1:7000 scale, you only had the Galor and Kheldon from Studio Bergstrom and the Hideki that I produce (the Hideki that Studio Bergstrom are nice, however, I personally feel they are way too large for 1:7000 scale). The ships are (from left to right, front to back) the Sartan and Damar frigates, Kheldon (Studio Bergstrom), Legate and Vasad destroyers, and in back the Bralek DN, Rasilak BC, and Galor (Studio Bergstrom). A better picture to compare sizes is shown below:

Again, in front from left to right are the Hideki, Sartan, Damar, Legate, Vasad. In the back from left to right are the Galor (Bergstrom), Kheldon (Bergstrom), Rasilak, and Bralek. The additonal ships fill out the fleet rather nicely. I'm debating whether to make a Hutet, however, there are enough ship classes to create a reasonable fleet. Please see the gallery for more photos. Ships are available for purchase.

Klingons

Some new ships arrived on my painting table. The Klingons now have some reinforcements to expand their fleet. In Star Trek Canon, the only official ships were the Negh'Var, Vor'cha, K't'inga, and B'rel (I'm ignoring the K'Vort as this is a scaled B'rel). This gives the Klingons a small frigate, an ancient destroyer, a cruiser, and a dreadnought/battleship. Since some of these designs have been in use since the TMP era, I wanted to modernize the Klingon fleet and include ships that could have been built during the TNG era. The results are what you see above. A top view shows the relative size of the ships:

The ships from left to right, front to back are: Kel'Var destroyer, Qa'cheng frigate, B'rel escort (Romando), Riskadh heavy destroyer, Goralis cruiser, Bortas battlecruiser, Negh'Var Battleship, and Keth Ke Se Battlecruiser. I view the ships as 2 generations, the B'rel, K't'inga, Riskadh, Goralis, and Keth Ke Se in the generation just preceding the TNG era and the Qa'cheng, Kel'var, and Bortas are the contemporaries of the Vor'cha and the Negh'Var. All ships (except for the B'rel) are listed on the "Ships for Sale" page. Additional views can be seen in the gallery page.

More Romulans

Managed to get additional Romulans built and painted. Here they are next to the original Romulans painted in a TNG color scheme. The new Romulans are painted to mimic the painting scheme for Star Fleet Battles Romulan miniatures. Here is a close up of the T'Korex heavy cruiser.

The SFB pained T'Korex has been upgraded to a heavy command cruiser variant. You can see the addition of upper engine pods. the underside has a bridge which is not visible on this view. Here is a picture of the underside:

The bridge is more visible on this view. All the other Romulans have, except for the V'Tir light cruiser have extra components to allow upgrading. Additional pictures can be seen in the Romulan Gallery.

Romulans

Been a while since I had time to post. Had the Romulans on my workbench for a while. Finally found time to post them. These are some early casts of the ships. They were based on designs from the PC game Starfleet Command (at least the larger ones were). From left to right, they are (SFC designations), they are the the T'Korex (Firehawk), Thersus (Skyhawk), Vadak (Seahawk), and V'Tir (Sparrowhawk). A Hallmark D'derix warbird and a Talon/Theta escort are in the shot for size comparison. The grid consists of 1 inch squares.

With the exception of the Sparrowhawk, extra parts are included with the ships to make variants. I'm currently working on them and should have additional photos up soon. Ships are available in the "For Sale" section

Retro ships

These are some additional ships from Ravenstar's Retro line. Like the Strategic Space Command ships, they are based off of models produced in the 1970's. This time, the ships are based of the Milton Bradley Star Bird line of toys (descriptions can be found here and here). For this line of ships, I decided to depart from the predominately white coloration (I have too many white/off-white fleets) and experiment with a darker orange combination. I view these ships system patrol boats rather than deep space combatants and the the orange coloration may reflect more of a utilitarian feel to the ships. Here is the main Star Bird type ship is shown above. There was a variant of the Star Bird that was called the Intruder. This is my interpretation of the ship:

I'm not sure what the other two ships of this fleet are based on, however, they seem to fit well with this fleet

On the whole, they produce a nice system defense fleet:

The ships can be found on Ravenstar's site under the Retro line.

Strategic Space Command

Been very slow with the posts because of real life. However, still have plenty of ships to show. Most of the information I know about the Strategic Space Command is off of the incredible website maintained by Winchell Chung. According to him, the Strategic Space Command universe was based off the Lief Erickson model kit. If the kit sold well, a series of other ships would be made.Unfortunately, the model didn't sell well and the universe was scrapped. The model itself survived and you can still find kits today (full history here).

Chris over at Ravenstar Studios took a liking to these ships and managed to expand them into a fleet. I managed to grab a bunch of them during a sale and they are wonderfully detailed ships to paint. Here is the Velbor battleship and the Unicorn battlecruiser.

As for the lighter ships, here are the Mallard and Delta destroyers:

 
and the escorts (designation XL-15A):

These ships make for a very nice fleet:

If you are interested in these ships, they are available at Ravenstar Studio under the Retro line.

Pirate Fleet

The last major faction in the Space Dreadnought 3000 Universes. Unlike the other factions, their ships are organic. Additionally, they do not  have the full complement of ship classes like the other factions.

Pirate Baseship

These ships were given a dark purple metallic basecoat followed by light purple highlights. The large orbs of the ships were painted black followed by several layers of gold for a smoooth, even finish. the engines were painted boltgun metal followed by a silver drybrush. White was used for engine glow.

Fighters were painted in the same fashion as the capital ships. I used the SD3000 line to experiment a little with metallic paints. Overall, I am happy with the results. The reflection from the metallic paints does tend to brighten the ships somewhat, however, they still kept very good details. The ships themselves were well cast and I received great service from Kallistra for these ships.

Altaran Fleet

There is not much background information on the Altaran fleet. What is know is they are an aggressive race that reproduces rapidly and are rather militant. Their crew numbers are apparently higher than other races, which are advantageous for boarding actions.

Altaran Baseship

For this fleet, I used a red metallic basecoat, followed by a metallic pink drybrush. Guns were painted with steel followed by a chrome drybrush. The hull was high-lited with steel and bronze. Fighter bays were painted black. I used white to represent engine glow.

Fighters were painted in the same fashion. The red metallic paint gives a nice aggressive feel to the fleet.

Quellaris Federation Fleet

The Quellaris Federation was formed from exiles and political refugees from the Earth Empire (which became a fascist state after the Vargans almost wiped them out) and other races who were trying to flee the chaos of the competition for Guardianship. Their fleets are a hodgepodge of technologies from various races and supposedly have a strong economic base.

Quellaris Baseship

For this fleet, I decided to use a gold basecoat and accent with steel. Again gunports were painted black and drybrushed with chrome. Chrome and steel were used to provide some contrast to the hull. For the larger recessed areas, a black was was applied and then carefully repainted with steel. Engines were painted boltgun metal and white was used for engine glow. This better seen here:

Painting the fighters was relatively straightforward.

Kaylon Fleet

The Kaylons originate from another galaxy and are the Guardians in one of the sectors. The are here in the Milky Way galaxy to compete for another Guardianship here. They are supposedly more advanced than the other factions, however, they are constrained by numbers as reinforcements have to come from the home galaxy and can take a while.

Kaylon Baseship

For this fleet, I decided to use blue metallic paints with gold accents. The ship was painted dark metallic blue and then drybrushed with light metallic blue. Guns and port engines were painted in gold. details on the hull (i.e. the bubbles) were painted light blue to add a little contrast. No engine glow was needed in this ship.

Kaylon Fighters

I like the dark metallic coloration of this fleet. It gives a rather imposing feeling to the fleet.

Vargan Fleet

The Vargans were the race that almost wiped out humanity in the Space Dreadnought 3000 setting. If it weren't for the Talliscan brokering a peace between the two races, humanity would be extinct. Even though they may seem like "bad guys" in their Universe, it is not totally black and white.

Vargan Baseship

Ships are nicely detailed and had little flash. I wanted to experiment with metallic paints with this faction. I started with a dark metallic green basecoat. this was followed with a light metallic green drybrush. Details were painted with steel followed by a chrome drybrush. Gunports and fighter launch tubes were painted black. Engines were painted with boltgun metal and white was used for engine glow. I particularly like the fighters as they are asymmetric:

They were painted in the same manner as the capital ships. Another nice fleet.

Talliscan Fleet

Here are the Talliscan from Kallistra's Space Dreadnought 3000 range. They were the supposed inheritors of Guardianship of Sector 7 until it was decreed that they had to fight for it, like everyone else.

Talliscan Baseship

Aesthetically, they look a little like klingons with the boom and large back. Painting them was relatively straightforward with a bronze basecoat followed by a copper drybrush. Guns were painted with steel, followed by a chrome drybrush. Gun orfices were painted black and the engines were painted with Boltgun Metal and the engine glow was painted white.

Talliscan Destroyer

The ships had some nice detail and were fun to paint.

Earth Empire Fleet

I always found the ships from the Space Dreadnought 3000 line rather interesting. I managed to order a fleet of all of the main factions in that range. The setting is the galaxy is divided into 16 sectors, each sector is administered by a Guardian power. Travel is via jump points (called Star Centres). Guardianship for the 7th sector (where Earth is located) is up for grabs.

Earth Empire Fighter Baseship

The background for the Earth Empire is rather interesting. They had just fought a devastating war with the Vargans and if it wasn't for the Guardians of sector 7, Humans would be extinct. Earth became extremely xenophobic as a result. Because of their relatively small population, their ships are highly automated. Above is the Fighter Baseship (carrier) for the Earth Empire. The ships were painted with Steel followed by a black wash. Steel was then reapplied in the overly dark areas. A light drybrush of aluminum and some of the details in the superstructure were emphasized with chrome. the main guns were painted with Boltgun metal with chrome highlights. Fighter bays were  painted black and engine exhaust was painted white.

Earth Empire Superdreadnought

In this game, ships are essentially eggshells with sledgehammers. Cruisers, Battle Cruisers, Dreadnoughts, and Super Dreadnoughts are the main fleet combatants. Patrol ships and Destroyers make the smaller, more expendable components of the fleet.

Earth Empire Patrol Ships

The fighters come 14/pk. They are mounted 6 ships on a ring with a 7th in the center. I took the ships off the ring and mounted them on earring posts.

Earth Empire Fighters

I had fun painting these ships. The have a clear design aesthetic and an interesting background. Additional pictures can be found on the gallery page.