Miniatures Kit Bashing Archive 2007

By SSG Staley Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 08:13 am: Edit

Joe Carlson: I cannot wait to see a picture of the Fed CX you will do. I just put the final touches on my first Fed CX.

I used the old FASA Enterprise miniature (from the movie) but replace the struts and engines with ADB Fed BB struts and engines. I am seriously going to enjoy playing with that miniature.

By John A Schneder II (Keltner) on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 09:13 am: Edit

Hey Aaron, Do you still have those FASA engines?? Wanna trade?? Post here or contact me at jas888@earthlink.net :-)

--John

By SSG Staley Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 10:38 am: Edit

John, I only brought so much with me over here; I brought 2 kitbashed CX's of that type with me, but as I had no use for the engines, I left them at home a half a world away. Remind me when I get home a year or two from now and I will see what can be done, but I do believe I have a few sets (can't vouch for what condition they are in though).

Grrr. I hate Yahoo, I just spent far too much time trying to upload a picture of the CX I did.

By SSG Staley Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 11:22 am: Edit

http://awwwdrat.com/FA.JPG

There's the front view. I had so much trouble just getting this pic uploaded. Next to it are two command cruisers; Essex and Lexington. The CX is the Enterprise (naturally). I'll get better pics done soon.

By Bennett Eugene Snyder (Planner) on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 09:43 pm: Edit

Nice photo. If you should have enough of the movie nacelles w/struts, let me know if I can get a pair.

By Joseph R Carlson (Jrc) on Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 11:29 pm: Edit

Aaron,

Enjoyed the picture. I should have the CX painted in the next few weeks.

By SSG Staley Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Friday, January 05, 2007 - 08:29 am: Edit

http://awwwdrat.com/RA.JPG

http://awwwdrat.com/RF2.JPG

Finally got the other two pics loaded up. Enjoy.

The USS Essex is one of the original all metal Fed CAs that ADB released (God knows when).

The USS Lexington is the current CA; although the saucer has been redone recently with alot more detail, the old saucer still looks alright.

The newest addition shown, the USS Enterprise, is 66% FASA and 33% ADB (the engines once belonged to a Fed BB).

Being away from my minis workdesk, I didn't have any Testors Dullcoat to protect the Enterprise's decal work (and can't have any shipped). But may God bless female soldiers and their hygenic needs (meaning they need nail polish). They had some stuff at the PX called "Hard as Nails" and it's a clear coat laquer for use with ladies fingernails. It isn't too glossy, but it doesn't dull anything either. This worked well and I recommend it should you become separated from your work desk like my current situation.

JCarlson: Really looking forward to seeing your CX. I need to also figure out a sharp way of doing a Klingon DX.

By Sean Bartholome (Kana) on Friday, January 05, 2007 - 12:56 pm: Edit

I know someone made up a FRAX cruiser mini...I use to have a link for it, but seem to have lost it. I tried a search for it here and on the web, and havent found it...Can anyone point me in the right direction...?

NM...I found it...it was buried in a Yahoo Group...

By Bennett Eugene Snyder (Planner) on Friday, January 05, 2007 - 11:18 pm: Edit

Orignal metal TFG CA was around 1984, I think. Remember seeing one at an SF con.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, January 06, 2007 - 02:14 am: Edit

I have five or six of them. Two pieces. Some kind of peg and hole system to join them at the back end.

By John A Schneder II (Keltner) on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 02:04 pm: Edit

Any idea what a plasma rack might look like??

--John

By Tom McThorn (Starfury) on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 03:46 pm: Edit

I was wondering if anyone has ordered the Gorn/Romulan seconds? The description is they're a bit "off" and have lots of flash in some cases. Anyone here

bought them and what's your opinion on the quality vs. price?

On another note I'm looking for some old Gorn DN and old CA minis if anyone has some they don't want/need.

By Todd Jolley (Tjolley) on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 04:16 pm: Edit

Have purchased both Gorn and Romulan seconds..had to look long and hard to find any defects on most of them..lots of flash, but a little patience, a good sharp blade and a good file take care of that.

Definitely worth it. Thinking of picking up second batches of them to get more minis..can't beat the value.

By Scott Stohr (Scooter) on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 06:50 pm: Edit

Tom, I've got an old Gorn DN and DD sitting around. Would rather trade than sell. Drop me an email (it's in the profile and don't worry about getting bounced by the spam blocker...I'll get it) if you want to trade something.

Scott

By SSG Staley Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Friday, January 19, 2007 - 08:58 am: Edit

The "seconds" are definately worth it. Big time.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Friday, January 19, 2007 - 09:22 am: Edit

No they are horrible. Stay far away from them. They are mine, mine...all mine...

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Friday, January 19, 2007 - 10:22 am: Edit

And we have all the people who complained about the littlest stuff in the past to thank for them.

Of course, they do only work for those who have a little manual dexterity and a willingness to put a small amount of effort to fixing them.

By John A Schneder II (Keltner) on Friday, January 19, 2007 - 12:00 pm: Edit

At Origins last year, I bought tons of Kzintis from this batch, but I can't remember if the tiny ones were frigates or destroyers. Any help??

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, January 19, 2007 - 01:41 pm: Edit

We still have lots of seconds, although it can be a challenge to put together a bag. for example, no way we could build a Hydran bag (the total number of bad hydran ships is about 12) so they go into "mixed" bags (which has 12 ships not 10 since some of them are the really small ones).

Yesterday we finished in-processing the tholians from Bruce for the squadron

boxes and Bruce was like 98% good, but a few (three or four of each type) went into the "mixed" bags. I have to say that the mixed bags are a great way to build up a fleet.

By Tom McThorn (Starfury) on Friday, January 19, 2007 - 04:21 pm: Edit

Lawrence: I've ordered TWO sets of the "horrible" seconds (Gorn/Romulan) to fill out my fleets. This will give me the ability to tell my enemys to "eat flaming death!"

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Friday, January 19, 2007 - 05:40 pm: Edit

Starfury I was joking of course...in fact, I picked up somewhere in the realm of 40+ minis from the 'buckets' at Origins last year. I will probably do it again if they are available. Some were really a mess but there were quite a few to choose from so you could really find some decent ships. The fun part was the search. I even pieced together most of a B-10...and found a couple of ships I wasn't intending to buy but they were there so...

I need to remind myself to send an email to SVC and see if he has the last spare part I need to complete it. (It's the piece that is sandwiched at the front of the boom...btwn the boom and the top cap.)

By Reid Hupach (Gwbison) on Saturday, January 20, 2007 - 12:28 am: Edit

Hey Guys the ones which are a "mess" could still be usefull as ships which have Battle Damage.

I've thrown together a few scenarios where a ship or two were damaged before the game started.

By SSG Staley Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Monday, January 22, 2007 - 12:57 am: Edit

All excellent points! As you all know, I love minis. And Reid's point about ships with battle damage is a great one.

Consider that you intend to play a fleet battle and replace miniatures that receive battle damage with the minis actually painted with battle damage. Depending on how much time and effort you want to put into it, this could be very visually appealing during play! Further, if pictures are taken of the wonderful fleet action, it could make an excellent webpage with great remarks to go with the pics.

However, consider another avenue; get a little modelers putty, repair dings and dents or irregularities and paint over them. Many of these minis I find don't look bad even without the repairs and deficiencies are corrected anyway through the base hull color paint. Along with decals from Mr. Tutton, no one will ever know they are seconds!

By Scott Tenhoff (Scottt) on Thursday, March 01, 2007 - 02:57 pm: Edit

I need to strip the primer and paint from some old lead minis (yes I'm an old-time mini collector, well their might be a few pewter mixed in their also). I heard

Pine-Sol I believe. What ratio should I use?

By Tony L Thomas (Scoutdad) on Thursday, March 01, 2007 - 05:47 pm: Edit

Scott... Just useeasy off oven cleaner. Whenever I score a bunch of ebay specials... I place them in a disposable, aluminum container and coverthem with a spray of Easy-Off. Let them sit overnight and come back the next day and wash them in warm water.

90% of the guk will wash off and an old toothbrush will easily remove the remainder.

By Dean Gundberg (Star_Ranger) on Thursday, March 01, 2007 - 07:20 pm: Edit

I've used pine-sol strait out of the bottle to cover the minis and let it sit for a day or two. Other common liquids used to strip paint off of minis (in addition to easy off) are Simple Green cleaner and brake fluid.

By Greg Ernest (Grege) on Friday, March 02, 2007 - 08:51 am: Edit

Simple Green. Works wonders.

By Steven Pow (Asmoridin) on Friday, March 02, 2007 - 01:20 pm: Edit

I'd also recommend Simple Green, it's done wonders on my pewter miniatures- however, if you're using PineSol (which does the job too), you shouldn't have to dilute it. Just give your models some time to soak in it!

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Friday, March 02, 2007 - 02:01 pm: Edit

And what was the recomended cleaner for plasic mini's?

By Tony L Thomas (Scoutdad) on Friday, March 02, 2007 - 02:33 pm: Edit

I use Easy-Off on them as well... just don't soak them long. Sometimes it takes two or three short soakings rather than one, overnighter... otherwise you get a pile of goo instead of a spaceship.

Oooh, combat damage!

By Steven Pow (Asmoridin) on Friday, March 02, 2007 - 02:38 pm: Edit

Yeah, pretty much what Tony said applies to any of the paint strippers, in my experience- don't soak them overnight, or they will eat through plastic minis!

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Saturday, March 03, 2007 - 09:27 pm: Edit

I have heard that Castrol brake fluid works OK on plastic minis without melting them. Double check this on something utterly worthless before you risk a SFB mini though - use, say, a Warhammer miniature.

By Scott Iles (Smrl) on Saturday, March 03, 2007 - 10:08 pm: Edit

I've had good results with brake fluid. I've (accidentally) left plastic parts soaking for over a year with no ill-effects. Of course, I'm sure it depends on the plastic, but I have never had problems.

By Tom McThorn (Starfury) on Tuesday, March 06, 2007 - 03:43 pm: Edit

I use Jasco paint stripper to clean my metal mini's, it works great BUT you need to wear gloves when you work with the stuff. I think it's also safe on plastic but I haven't tried it.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, March 07, 2007 - 10:34 pm: Edit

Hi!

I was wondering what people use for phaser bumps on models intended for casting?

Gary

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Thursday, March 08, 2007 - 07:13 am: Edit

I just mix some JB Weld epoxy and put on a dot with a toothpick. Works great.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, March 08, 2007 - 03:30 pm: Edit

Huh.

I thought plant-ons like that got sheared off in the mastering process.

I always assumed you guys were having to drill holes, epoxy in short lengths of wire, and snip it off so it left a "stub".

Learn something new every day.

By Michael Guenther (Guentherm) on Friday, March 09, 2007 - 10:14 pm: Edit

Let me sing the praises of Simple Green!

It WORKS!

With the added bonus of smelling nice too.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, March 10, 2007 - 08:19 pm: Edit

Thanks for the tip Mike - now I'll have to find somewhere in Toronto with JB Weld...

Gary

By Dean Gundberg (Star_Ranger) on Sunday, March 11, 2007 - 12:23 am: Edit

Try an auto parts store, but any good 2-part epoxy should work.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Sunday, March 11, 2007 - 08:22 am: Edit

Home Depot or Lowes has it, and IIRC so does Wal Mart.

By Joseph R Carlson (Jrc) on Sunday, March 11, 2007 - 11:56 am: Edit

Mike,

The JB Weld I use has a tube of tan hardner and a tube of black epoxy resin. What porportion of hardner to resin due you use for phaser and photon detailing?

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Sunday, March 11, 2007 - 01:27 pm: Edit

JB Weld is designed to be 1:1.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Sunday, March 11, 2007 - 02:49 pm: Edit

Joe,

Sounds like you have JB quick, which is a five-minute epoxy; regular JB weld is black and white, and takes several hours to dry.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, March 11, 2007 - 02:51 pm: Edit

Is JB quick suitable for weapon bumps as well, or are you better off with regular JB Weld?

Gary

By Joseph R Carlson (Jrc) on Sunday, March 11, 2007 - 03:59 pm: Edit

The JB Weld I have is JB steel and the tube says it takes 4-6 hours to set up and has to set overnight before I can do anything. It turns charcoal gray after mixing. That is all the store had. I didn't see any black and white. I expect JB has mutiple types of epoxy.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Sunday, March 11, 2007 - 08:30 pm: Edit

Is Styrene a substance that would withstand the mold making process? IOW can it be used to create a master?

Oh and FYI

JB WELD

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Sunday, March 11, 2007 - 09:01 pm: Edit

I was told no. It would melt.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Sunday, March 11, 2007 - 09:18 pm: Edit

Styrene will most definately melt. Its great to work with for scratch building, but don't ever expect it to survive any kind of hot/warm molding process. This Hydran Pegasus is an example of what can be done with it though. Awesome stuff.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Sunday, March 11, 2007 - 11:17 pm: Edit

Somehow, that Pegasus reminded me of Thunderbird 1 from the Thunderbirds TV show. Amazing PFs!

By Tim Bunch (Crimin) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 11:19 am: Edit

Question for the brain trust here: I'm using the ADB plastic bases for my minis, but want to fill the bottom with something to give the base more weight. I've thought about using caulk, silicon, or epoxy but I'm not sure what would work the best. What do you guys use/suggest?

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 11:38 am: Edit

Plumber's putty. I use it for lots of different kinds of basing, and it's good stuff. You can get it at Lowes or Home Depot back with the plumbing puttys and adhesives. Comes in a clear tube, and is basically just a ribbon epoxy. Cut off a peice, kneed it until both parts are mixed, and then shape it like clay. Give it an hour and it's hard, and in 24 it's completely hard and dry. Good stuff.

By Tim Bunch (Crimin) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 11:43 am: Edit

Mike: Thanks.

I'll have to look next time I'm at a home supply store. What I've always known as "plumber's putty" comes in a tub and is used to seal around sinks and faucets, and also never really hardens.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 12:09 pm: Edit

Tim and Mike R.:

Traditional Plumbers Puddy is an oily puddy for sealing sink drains and comes in a small tub.

So yeah, be sure to use the Plumbers epoxy. That other stuff will make a mess of your map.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 01:31 pm: Edit

I stand corrected...epoxy it is. Here's a link to what I'm talking about:

http://www.acehardware.com/sm-ace-plumbers-epoxy-putty-12-pack--pi-1273357.html

You can get this stuff at any hardware store for a few bucks a tube...and one tube will do a bunch of stands. Also very useful for kitbashing.

By Scott Iles (Smrl) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 01:33 pm: Edit

For extra weight you can mix BBs in with the putty or the epoxy, also.

By Tim Bunch (Crimin) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 02:04 pm: Edit

I looked up "plumber's epoxy" on the Lowes web site and found this:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=23533-138-31270D&pad=true

It claims to be "steel filled" - steel filings I suppose. Probably not good for the map if any of them stick out though.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 03:00 pm: Edit

Nah, the steel filler is so tiny you'd never notice it. I've used it many times with no trouble to make "stone" bases for minis like this:

http://www.geocities.com/raperm2002/battletech_minis/ogre_3rdCRC_marauder_left.JPG

The base is just sculpted out of that epoxy and shaped with a little metal spatula. No problems on the map at all.

By Tim Bunch (Crimin) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 03:20 pm: Edit

Cool - The steel should give some much-needed heft to my bases.

I made the posts three different heights so that ships can be in adjacent hexes even though the miniatures "overlap". But to make that work I have to put the largest ships on the tallest bases, which gets really unstable in some cases.

I'm pretty sure my Gorn BCH crew was pretty spacesick by the end of last night's game.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 03:39 pm: Edit

Well, if the grew was turning green, at least nobody would have noticed ;)

By Tim Bunch (Crimin) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 03:45 pm: Edit

By Reid Hupach (Gwbison) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 06:31 pm: Edit

Another thing I do when I need REAL weight is use the Partha B tech hex stands. With a little filing your plastic stand will fit down right in the Lead lip glue it on and Thats what we call hefty.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 06:43 pm: Edit

Reid, I've use the same thing. The stand ends up a little bigger, but tipping is no longer a problem.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 07:25 pm: Edit

This is the "new Kit bash pack #1".

We THINK it contains: Center engine from Fed NCF

Center engine from Fed NCA Center engine from Fed DW All three engines from Fed DN Pair of Old Fed NCL engines Pair of Fed HDW engines Pair of Fed CVO engines Pair of Fed CA engines Gorn BC, CL, and DD engine Fed SCS center engine Romulan Hawk-series 1- and 2-engine

Any comments on misidentified contents or how badly you want this one?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 07:30 pm: Edit

This is the "new" kit bash pack #2

We THINK it contains: Kzinti old-design SCS engines (set of 3) D7 Boom B10V Deckhouse C8 Bridge piece B10 Bridge pieces (2) D5W Center Engine Hydran Ranger Center Engine Federation old FF trapezoid engine Lyran CW center engine Lyran DN center engine Kzinti CL center engine Klingon C8, all 3 engines Kzinti BC Center engine Lyran CA engine Neo-Tholian Command Module Kzinti Drone Wing (just one) Fed Old CL Engine Kzinti DN new design center engine

Does anyone see anything mis-identified? Do you want this pack?

Two notes: 1. We cannot change what's in a pack.

2. We can "market" one, or two, or all three. 3. I don't have a retail price yet, but it will be a little higher.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 07:33 pm: Edit

This is the "new kit bash pack 3".

We THINK it contains: D5 boom 2 Romulan Sparrowhawk engines Fed old-design NCA or some other center engine? Gorn CL, BC, and DD engine Hydran Ranger Center engine Old design Fed FF trapezoid engine Old design Fed CL engine Klingon D5W center engine Lyran DN center engine Lyran CA engine Kzinti BC and CL center engines (one each) Fed DW center engine Lyran CW center engine

Do you see anything mis-identified? Do you want this pack?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 07:35 pm: Edit

The photos are of the masters, not production pieces, so don't worry about the colors (caused by the vulcanization process). What comes out of production molds will all be bare metal as always.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 07:54 pm: Edit

I like the first one best, but have a question that may have already been answered; where are the sensor dishes? Those were without a doubt the most valuable part of a kitbash pack; a half dozen in any of the above would be great, if it can be managed.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 07:57 pm: Edit

SVC, you could count on a purchase of at least two of each from me. Tough to say which one I would want most...their are parts in all three that I would like to have extras of.

I agree with Mike...some sensor dishes would be really desireable.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 08:16 pm: Edit

I like all three but #1 and #2 most.

The Neo-THolian command module should be it's own mini three pack (with hole for a stand).

Most notibly there will be a time when Neo-hulls are very popular (like when Module M81 gets done).

So right now I would order all three packs but #3 would only be ordered once. I wouldn't mind if #3 was mixed in with #1 and #2 and the price went up a tad.

By Scott Iles (Smrl) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 08:17 pm: Edit

For the minis I have on my workbench right now, I could certainly use #2, but I would get at least one of each. You can never have too many parts.

I also third the request for sensor dishes.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 08:19 pm: Edit

I forgot to add the vital need for SENSOR DISHES to my previous post.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 08:33 pm: Edit

I never realized there was a difference between the Fed NCF and Fed NCA Center engines on the minis. Hmmm.

I regards to the packs, I'd almost certainly be buying at least one of #1 (probably more likely two) and very likely eventually one each of #2 and #3 if they get offered.

Echoing the sentiment about sensor dishes. There are a lot of naked scouts out there.

By Scott Iles (Smrl) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 09:49 pm: Edit

I've made my own dishes by using a bit of wire through a styrene disc and painted copper, but they don't have that nice curved shape. Some cast ones to replace them would not go amiss.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, April 27, 2007 - 11:32 pm: Edit

The dishes are already available separately. The only way to add dishes to the packs is to increase the price by the price of a sensor dish pack. At that point, what is the point?

By Dean Gundberg (Star_Ranger) on Saturday, April 28, 2007 - 12:29 am: Edit

"I'm using the ADB plastic bases for my minis, but want to fill the bottom with something to give the base more weight." I fill the cavities with small lead shot glued down and then covered with a hex shaped piece of flexible steel so I can store them on magnets. I have pictures of the process that I need to post sometime.

By Kenneth Robbins (Ken_The_Bold) on Saturday, April 28, 2007 - 02:24 am: Edit

Hmmm... I'd want at least four of pack #2 and perhaps two of pack #3 but none of pack #1. I have enough Fed engines to last me a while.

This proposal enables some serious Klingon kitbashing , I wouldn't likely use the B 10 parts in pack #2 but the other components would be a great help in creating midsize Klingon ships.

I see you are spreading out the contents, any thought to putting all the Gorn engines in pack #3 and all the Romulan ones in pack #1? Perhaps both copies of the Fed OCL engine could go in one pack? BTW the OCL is my favorite ship in the game!

See Ya,

Ken

By Joseph R Carlson (Jrc) on Saturday, April 28, 2007 - 11:28 am: Edit

SVC

Since I bought several of the factory second bags I will purchase each of the kitbash bags; but more of # one. I have purchases several bags of the sensor dish bags, which are of excellant quality. These look really good on the Fed NCLs in the NCL bag.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 28, 2007 - 12:18 pm: Edit

There is no way to move parts from one kit to another. Each one comes from a single mold. Spin the mold, you get one set of parts. If I started swapping parts and one kit sold better than the other, I'd end up with buckets of leftover parts.

I'll mention to Leanna the idea of adding a sensor dish sprue to each kit, but it will increase the cost. Pity that the guy who did the original kit bash packs just up and disappeared.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 28, 2007 - 05:09 pm: Edit

PRICE SET FOR NEW KIT BASH PACKS

The old kits, available randomly. If we sold out, we might get more or might wait months for more or might never get more. The new kits, available regularly, no stock outs, if we need more, we'll have them in a week.

The old kits, about 20 parts (slight variation) The new kits, about 18 parts (quick count, varies bag to bag)

The old kits, $8 The new kits will be $15 (They would be $35 if we tried to sell through stores.)

This price includes five sensor dishes in every pack.

I'd love to keep the old kits which were cheaper, but when the guy won't even come to the phone I had no choice but to give up.

The new kits are costing ADB literally SIX TIMES as much money per pack (NOT including the cost of the molds) and if I priced them like space ships the packs would be about $70 each. This is what happens when you deal with a company that makes the parts as a business instead of an individual who makes parts as a lark.

ADB has to make enough money to not lose money, and to pay for the molds (which are several times the price of the parts). We're mostly doing this to keep you guys coming back, not to make money off of the packs. You might or might not realize (or care) that the way this happens is I take the box of bulk parts home and hand sort them into bags and not get paid for my time. I don't mind doing that (keeping my hands busy stops me from eating, and I do all kinds of stuff like this, including thousands of bags of FC paperclips). If I had to pay Mike to inspect, sort, count, and bag, they'd be about $3 more per bag.

By Joseph R Carlson (Jrc) on Saturday, April 28, 2007 - 05:39 pm: Edit

SVC,

The price is more than reasonable at the $12-$15 range. The new packs have a better mix of parts that match the current ship, parts for older style ships, plus sensor dishes.

When will the packs be available?

Is it possible to purchase the Fed DN saucer as a seperate item like the Fed CC saucer?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 28, 2007 - 07:14 pm: Edit

We should have packs in 10 days.

You can talk to Leanna about the DN saucer. I doubt she wants to list it on the shopping cart but I'll bet she'll sell you one since we buy that ship in parts, not as a kit.

By Joseph R Carlson (Jrc) on Saturday, April 28, 2007 - 08:00 pm: Edit

SVC,

Thanks for the response. I also thank you for for all the time you put in making

all these great products for all of us. I don't know what other company would put the time and resources into making something like the 3 kitbash packs for their customers giventhe cost and price. Again thanks.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Saturday, April 28, 2007 - 09:01 pm: Edit

Price seems hunky dory to me. Actually a bit less than I was expecting.

By Kenneth Robbins (Ken_The_Bold) on Sunday, April 29, 2007 - 09:22 pm: Edit

SVC,

Thanks for the info, I didn't know the parts came in those exact sets because they HAD to... and I very much appreciate you taking the effort to make these parts available for us. I realize we are a niche market in a niche market.

How many Star Fleet miniature builders are there in the whole country? 10,000? Of those, how many scratchbuild? Not many, I would guess.

I imagine we will see a few posts like "Wanna trade engines?" in the near future so the issue of the parts not coming in ratios we use will sort itself out.

See Ya,

Ken

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, April 30, 2007 - 11:00 am: Edit

Ken: That engine-swapping thing has been going on for years, and my original post did note that we cannot change what is in the sets.

By Barton Pyle (Bart) on Monday, April 30, 2007 - 12:40 pm: Edit

Will you still be selling the Sensor dishes seperate

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, April 30, 2007 - 01:20 pm: Edit

Sure, if people will buy them.

By Barton Pyle (Bart) on Monday, April 30, 2007 - 10:28 pm: Edit

I plan on getting some Sensor packs at Origins this year.

By John Pepper (Akula) on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 03:22 am: Edit

While I was working on my company website tonight, I came up with this Fed DNW graphic. It works very well with the SSD, which if you note has no shuttle in the secondary hull and is a more massive NCA section. I moved the lower warp engines up slightly to account for the 360 PH-1's, drones, and Photon's. That lower section could be a reconfigured HDW secondary hull piece. It actually doesn't look half bad, maybe a little blocky. This is from a graphic I found in the Mini section of the site. If it needs to be removed I will but its kinda bad,I'm not an artist, so I don't think it will be a problem.

http://64.22.102.85/DNW.PNG

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 10:43 am: Edit

We probably won't have sensor packs at Origins unless pre-ordered. We can't take everything.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 10:44 am: Edit

John; I don't know what your drawing is in but I have no software able to open it. Can you do a PDF?

Bart: If you email me about a week before Origins and remind me, and insist on getting a reply that it has been done, I'll stick a dozen or two sensor sprigs into a bag and put them in the bottom left rear corner of the booth box.

By Barton Pyle (Bart) on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 12:13 pm: Edit

SVC: I was planning on making an order for pick up at Origins. The Sensor sprigs was going to be part of that order.

By John Pepper (Akula) on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 02:37 pm: Edit

SVC: Here's a link to a normal JPEG. http://64.22.102.85/DNW.JPG

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 05:14 pm: Edit

JP: thanks.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 05:24 pm: Edit

I've been meaning to build one of those; got most of the parts, I just haven't gotten 'round to it. Maybe one day...

By Roland Lafleche (Archmore) on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 07:48 pm: Edit

I only see 1 problem with the drawing...... it has 2 Hull numbers LOL

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, May 09, 2007 - 03:36 pm: Edit

Kit Bash Packs have arrived. They aren't on the cart yet and in fact I haven't even bagged them, but they are here. Should be on cart by tomorrow.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, May 09, 2007 - 06:13 pm: Edit

Kit Bash Packs on cart.

0041, 0042, 0043.

Please convince Leanna I was not wasting my time on these.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, May 10, 2007 - 12:11 pm: Edit

Just added to cart. Kit Bash Pack #4. 30 assorted parts, leftover from making sets out of the other three. When we buy these, we get three boxes, each with a huge mix of parts from that mold. We make these into sets,

trying to get each one right, but we always have some leftover parts as the casting house doesn't send the ones that didn't cast right. While the other kits have about 20 parts, these special mixed bags have THIRTY! You get 50% more but don't know what you are getting! What an adventure! Stock number 0044.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 05:29 pm: Edit

My order for two of the kitbash packs wil go in (concurrent with a bunch of other stuff) as soon as CL35 is up on the cart (no sense making two seperate orders).

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 08:14 pm: Edit

CL35 should go on the cart on Monday. We can't put it up now or the "pre-authorizations" would expire before it was time to charge the cards, tripling the workload.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 08:11 am: Edit

Well, I did build a DNW; doesn't look quite like John's drawing, but it ain't bad. The aft hull turned out not to be as deep, so it has a pretty slim profile. Not a bad looking ship at all, and you just have to love those 4 360-degree P1's.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 01:36 pm: Edit

Might have helped if I'd have put the pictures up...

Federation DNW USS Goliath, front view

Federation DNW USS Goliath, aft view

Now off to Ebay it goes.

By ART TROTMAN (Drneuro) on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 01:49 pm: Edit

Mike, I sent you an email about this ship

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 01:57 pm: Edit

Mike, remind me. How do you do your panel lines? Drawn on with a technical pin?

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 02:05 pm: Edit

Mike -

If I'm seeing things right, your DNW mini started with a CVo saucer - correct?

Which engines are those? The aft caps don't look familiar.

Great work and thanks for sharing it with us.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 03:09 pm: Edit

Will,

Yeah, it's an old flatbed saucer. I liked it for this mini because it was thicker, and because it has a bigger bridge (which suggests flag bridge, even though the SSD plants the flag in the aft hull). The engines are modified zocchi tug engines.

By John Pepper (Akula) on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 04:45 pm: Edit

I like it. John

By Greg Stillings (Gstillings) on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - 04:32 pm: Edit

Maybe I'm just missing it, but how do you add an image to a post?

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - 05:49 pm: Edit

You can't. The board is set up so only the admins (SVC, etc.) can do that to limit bandwidth usage, abuse, etc.

If you want to put up images you have to host them offsite and provide links.

Like THIS.

By Greg Stillings (Gstillings) on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - 06:03 pm: Edit

Okay, but I'm computer illiterate. How do I set up the link?

By Mark S. Hoyle (Bolo_Mk_Xl) on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - 07:25 pm: Edit

Look to the left on the menu bar -- Under Documentation select Formatting

Probably best to right click and select Open in new window

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - 08:13 pm: Edit

Greg -

There's different ways to format links on this Discus BBS software. You can have the link appear in-line (like I did above) or on a completely new window.

If you are asking about how to host the image, that's a larger subject. I'd recommend Flikr or other sites, as they will walk you through the process.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 02:19 pm: Edit

Okay, I'm going to do something totally outrageous and silly, and I need to see if anyone has a part from a kitbash pack I can have. Anyone remember the old Nexus quote about the mythical Klingon A-11 uber-battleship? Here's what it says:

Quote:

The purpose in printing the B-10 was (as its notes said) to put an end to

the submission of enormous ships by players. By saying that nothing as big as the B-10 wa ever started, and that was never finished, it was hoped to bring the deluge to a halt. Instead, it made it worse, since every player wants his race to have something that big; the A-11 is Klingon propaganda, although it is rumored to include 6 engines, 2 maulers, 8 disruptors, 2 hellbores, a type-R plasma, 12 drone racks, 24 fighters, and uses F5's for PFs."

Sooooo...I wanna build one. Going to employ a bit of artistic licence with it, so it won't exactly match that, but it'll be real close. But, I'm missing a C8/C9 center warp, and I was gonna use two of them for the fifth/sixth engines. Anyone have one? i've got it all drawn up, so I know how I'm doing it, but I need that one part and don't want to buy a whole mini to get one. I have scads of other kitbash parts to trade, though, so if there are any takers, let me know.

By Todd Warnken (Toddw) on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 02:41 pm: Edit

Can't wait to see what it looks like. Many years ago a friend of mine made up an SSD of the A-11 (took up two pages of graph paper). Sorry can't help on the warp engine.

By Reid Hupach (Gwbison) on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 03:00 pm: Edit

I got an old lead mini piece in a scrap pile YEARS ago which I felt was about perfect for an A-11 Boom if you send me an address and I can find it in my Cave "o" lead in the basement I'll send it to you

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 03:11 pm: Edit

Todd,

Yeah, I did the SSD, too...pretty freaky!

Reid, thanks, but the engine is all I'm after. I plan to use a VERY heavily modifed B10 mini for the bulk of it, with lots of cutting/pinning, body widening, etc. That and adding the mauler batteries and cables will be the toughest part.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 04:12 pm: Edit

Mike,

I should have one. Will need to check when I get home. Send me an e-mail with a mailing address.

Jeremy

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 08:08 pm: Edit

Thanks, Jeremy! I have one...just need a second. Need to go ahead and order a

B-10 too. Gonna be a horkin' big mini!

By Paul Findsen (Zap) on Saturday, July 21, 2007 - 06:44 am: Edit

Mike, don't just widen the thing, lengthen it as well! Think Viagra!

By Tim Losberg (Krager) on Sunday, July 22, 2007 - 06:57 pm: Edit

Mike.. please oh please say you are going to include the attached flotila of F5's

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Sunday, July 22, 2007 - 09:07 pm: Edit

Looking forward to seeing the big beast finished at some point Mike!

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 10:57 am: Edit

Quote:

Mike.. please oh please say you are going to include the attached flotila of F5's

Thought about it...I really did. Even have a good plan for adding them with magnetic strips. Basically, since I have to widen the body so much and build a new bridge module, I figured I could incorporate that flexible magnetic sheeting you can buy at craft stores. Since the F5 has a nice flat belly surface, cutting a small peice of magnet and fitting it to each would be an easy thing to do...then you just stick them on the mini (two on the sides of the bridge, two on the belly, two on the aft end). When you want to deploy them, you just unstick them and put them on stands (easy to do...just re-drill the holes after the magnet strip is placed).

Trouble is, it will cost a ton. The B10 is $20, the F5's would be another $40 for all six. That puts the cost of materials at $60. My usual fee for a standard mini or simple bash is equal to the cost of the mini, so that's another $60 at least, if I sell it. I can't imagine anyone would want to drop over $100 on a mini! So, no F5's for now. I do admit it would look very cool, though.

By ART TROTMAN (Drneuro) on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 11:32 am: Edit

I agree-that does sound a bit prohibitive as a price

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 11:59 am: Edit

We still need PF minis... sigh, someday I suppose.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 12:11 pm: Edit

Someday soon.

By ART TROTMAN (Drneuro) on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 12:31 pm: Edit

SVC-PF minis? Really? Klingon PF flotilla, here I come!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 01:23 pm: Edit

Sooner or later. I have the minis and just need to figure out the mounting system. If that was the ONLY thing I had to do, it would have been done already.

By Reid Hupach (Gwbison) on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 02:43 pm: Edit

Hey Mike,

I was ging through my old SSd's the other day and came across an A-12. Want me to sent a copy to you? Its old and this one DOESNT talk about F5's as attached.

Its got 14 disruptors, 23 Ph1's with the k refit, 6 PH3's. 8 drone racks. 2 ADDs, 2 SFG's, 2 sensors, 90 warp, 10 APR, 13 impulse, 15 Battery, 15 Transporters. 14 control spaces, 8 lab 4 mech link tractors, 16 fighters, 8 shuttles, 2 probes and a 90 box front shield.

566 points.

OW

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 03:26 pm: Edit

SVC, the Elite type stands wouldn't work? Or is it too much to include six PF's and six Elite stands?

You know, now that you've published the Light PFT's it seems reasonable to sell PF in packs of three (just like the Elites were).

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 04:40 pm: Edit

Not going to use elite type stands.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Thursday, July 26, 2007 - 12:48 pm: Edit

Mike, I did get that engine in the mail to you yesterday. Sorry for the delay...been crazy busy at work.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Thursday, July 26, 2007 - 12:58 pm: Edit

No problem, man. I haven't even started yet, but hope too next week. Let me know if there any parts from a kitbash pack you need...I've got scads of spare stuff.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Thursday, July 26, 2007 - 01:29 pm: Edit

Will do. I'm sitting pretty well on parts at the moment.

I need to get motivated and start decaling Feds. I have, no kidding, 68 shiny,

newly-painted and glosscoated Fed minis (my entire Fed collection repainted and brought to matching standards) sitting on my workbench waiting for decals. The photos I posted before Origins (in another thread) are a portion of total effort. Standing back and looking at them makes me think its all sort of psychotic.

By Bennett Eugene Snyder (Planner) on Thursday, July 26, 2007 - 01:35 pm: Edit

Has anyone tried making a Daedalus class ship to the Starline scale? Was curious.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, July 26, 2007 - 02:17 pm: Edit

I'm right there with you Jeremy.

I have finished assembly and clean-up of both my Fed and Klingon fleets (other than some stragglers I ordered Monday). All told, I probably have somewhere around 50 in bare-metal. I know 50 is tiny compared to the monster fleets some folks have, but it's a start.

I'm waiting for dry weather on a day off from work so I can prime and basecoat them all.

I've got a big envelope of decals from Mark T that have been waiting patiently for several months now...

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Saturday, July 28, 2007 - 01:08 pm: Edit

In a shamelessly selfish frenzy (I have other things I should be doing), I built the A11 mini. Took two days of non-stop work to do it (I even took Friday off, I was so excited about doing it), but it's done. Man, it's a whopper, too! I particularly like how the mauler turned out. Instead of "solid" batteries, like I've done before and like we have on the production maulers out there, I used some textured square-block styrene to make these batteries look like groups of smaller ones. The two small groups have sixteen each (4x4), and the big group has 24 (4x6). Had to scratch build the deckhouse and widen the boom/aft hull, and rebuild the whole command module to incorporate a wider bridge platform and the plasma R launcher, too. Lots of work, but it was fun, and worth it...it's my best kitbash, IMHO. Now I just have to paint it...

By Tim Losberg (Krager) on Saturday, July 28, 2007 - 10:09 pm: Edit

can't wait too see it

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 01:01 pm: Edit

Likewise. Looking forward to those pictures.

I'm busy plowing through decaling my Fed fleet. Five ships down...sixty three to go...I'm going blind!

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 01:55 pm: Edit

Been thinking about a little experiment with the paint job on a Fed BC. Specifically, painting my Bismarck with the black and white camo stripes of the

20th century battleship. My initial plan is a black/white chevron across the bottom of the saucer, one around the secondary hull, and a third around each engine. Slightly darker gray forward of the first chevron on the saucer and aft of the stripes on the engines. Leave the top of the saucer "clean" with normal Fed markings.

If all goes well, maybe do something similar for New Jersey. Anyone got a good image to go by on that one?

Thoughts?

By Tim Losberg (Krager) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 02:38 pm: Edit

Jeremy, this is the only Image of the New Jersey with a Camo pattern that I have seen... I have a book on WW2 US camo patterns an I'll see if the have one NJ that I can scan for you when I get home.

http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/kits/images/Boat/revell-ussnj.JPG

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 03:29 pm: Edit

I did find this on Missouri's camo: Tamiya painting guide. Doesn't need to be exact - not like this needs to be precise in any case. I'm not even sure how I'd apply this stylistically to Fed ship (the Bismarck pattern is a lot easier to transfer). Any ideas?

What do you guys think? Worth the time and a couple of minis? Or will they just end up ugly?

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 03:39 pm: Edit

Hmmm. I've seen the battleship camo done on some other minis, notably Orion and Lyrans, and it looked pretty good. But those have a more unified hull...not sure how it'd look on a Fed. Then again, it's only paint, so why not? You could even go for some stylistic changes, using the straighter, jagged edge pattern on the Bismark and the curved pattern on the New Jersey. Worth a shot, you know?

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 03:54 pm: Edit

Jeremy,

it sounds fun but I'd only do one before commiting two minis to it.

The idea did make me consider what value any sort of camo work on a Fed ship might be and it occured to me that maybe it would be done to alter the visual form of a BCH to appear at a distance as a regular cruiser.

So, you'd have sensor absorbant black on the side edges of the saucer (from front makes saucer CA sized), on the torp tubes and on the underside of the aft hull (reducing the apparent size). A early tac-intel levels you might mistake it for

a CS (because of the engines down low). Otherwise I can't think of what camo would do because sensors track the ships subspace signature (the only way to track FTL matter).

I could see earth colors on a landable troop unit though, big time.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 03:58 pm: Edit

Bismarck looks like it will be pretty straight forward (and the first one I'm likely to tackle). New Jersey will take some more adaptation. I might follow a similar approach - limit most of the camo to the bottom of the saucer, secondary hull, and the engines. Leave the top of the saucer plain gray with normal markings.

A less aggressive approach would be to confine all the markings to the bottom of the saucer. I did this on the CF Wolverine, which has the Michigan football helmet pattern painted on the underside of the saucer. Looks like plain ol' CF when viewed from above on the gaming table, but a great conversation piece when picked up.

I like the idea of spreading out the Bismarck camo pattern to the rest of the ship (it just looks cool) but the New Jersey pattern may look too weird. I might go with more subdued colors (all relatively close to the base grey) just to keep things under control.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 04:04 pm: Edit

Loren...you've got me thinking about changing the paint on one of my Fed CLs to make it a CMC. I've got plenty (thanks to the factory seconds I bought at Origins). So what kind of camo would the Feds use on a commando ship? A desert sand or woodland CL anyone?

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 04:39 pm: Edit

I would think desert sand would be most effective since landing in the midst of a forrest would be problematical. They need to land in some sort of clearing. The CMC is still pretty big ship. The camo patern on the CMC is of particular use since it cannot take off again in a scenario.

You should do a Prime Trooper in the same design.

By Tim Losberg (Krager) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 05:06 pm: Edit

Jeremy, that scheme for the Mo looks to be the same as what that other link had for New Jersey, I'd fgo with that.. look forward to seeing the finished product!

By Paul Findsen (Zap) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 05:30 pm: Edit

Sculptor John Schneder did these a while back for a Klingon fast fleet. I think your Fed idea should look good!

By John A Schneder II (Keltner) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 05:31 pm: Edit

Jeremy, I painted a fast Klingon squadron in a similar pattern (C5, FD7, FDW). Its here at:

http://web.mac.com/zapski

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 05:48 pm: Edit

JAS,

nice site!

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 09:08 pm: Edit

Loren, I'm thinking Desert Sand as well.

JAS...I dig the Klingons!

By Mark S. Hoyle (Bolo_Mk_Xl) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 09:14 pm: Edit

What would be the best paint scheme or modification for the Terminator to show the difference in it and the Cobra --

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 11:48 pm: Edit

Very large teeth...or cool mirrored sungalsses.

By Nick G. Blank (Nickgb) on Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - 05:15 pm: Edit

Just paint it like a big red and white bulls-eye...

By Mark S. Hoyle (Bolo_Mk_Xl) on Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - 07:07 pm: Edit

Was thinking of putting an arrow on top w/"this side toward enemy" --

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - 08:22 pm: Edit

LOL, just like a claymore! I love it!

By Bennett Eugene Snyder (Planner) on Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - 10:49 pm: Edit

What about a Smiley face?

Just to be deceptive, of course.

By Mark S. Hoyle (Bolo_Mk_Xl) on Wednesday, August 01, 2007 - 02:15 pm: Edit

Mini just to small to do much with that will stand out -- Thinking lightning bolts on it somewhere also -- Now just to get in the mood to paint --

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Wednesday, August 01, 2007 - 03:23 pm: Edit

In seriousness, if you really want it to stand out, in needs a battery. Other mauler minis have those huge external batteries on them, so adding one to a standard Andro sat ship mini should do it. That, and some kind of nose mounted emitter.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Monday, August 06, 2007 - 05:41 pm: Edit

Okay, I finished the A11 mini. Man, that's a big mini! For those not in the know, it's based on a couple of sentences from an old Nexus magazine. Here's the relevant quote:

Quote:

The purpose in printing the B-10 was (as its notes said) to put an end to the submission of enormous ships by players. By saying that nothing as big as the B-10 wa ever started, and that was never finished, it was hoped to bring the deluge to a halt. Instead, it made it worse, since every player wants his race to have something that big; the A-11 is Klingon propaganda, although it is rumored to include 6 engines, 2 maulers, 8 disruptors, 2 hellbores, a type-R plasma, 12 drone racks, 24 fighters, and uses F5's for PFs.

Sooo...that's what I used as a starting point. The mauler is actually one peice, designed as a sort of spinal mount; got the idea from the design for the B10 from Star Fleet Command. It's a squre brass tube, with cables made from wire (which was a pain to bend just right to get both sides to match) and batteries from epoxy and textured styrene sheets. The wider deckhouse was a scratch build, made from epoxy and a couple of different types of styrene sheet. The body was widened about a half inch, as was the boom. The deck of the boom was made from styrene, with a standard B10 deck added on top. The Plasma R launcher in the nose is a bead, and the scads of phasers were added with black and white epoxy and a toothpick. All in all a very time consuming bash but a darn fun one.

Here are some pics:

Klingon A-11, oblique

Klingon A-11, front

Klingon A-11, aft

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Monday, August 06, 2007 - 06:31 pm: Edit

That's awesome, Mike! Tell me, when the mauler fires does it make everyone's hair stand up on the bridge?

"Ah, Admiral Kangor, come in. I see you've been firing that mauler of yours lately."

(picture of Lloyd Bridges in Airplane snorting the glue in the control tower)

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Monday, August 06, 2007 - 06:45 pm: Edit

BIG and mean.

Totally cool Mike!

I hadn't thought you were going to use dreadnought center engines on the deckhouse like that. Good idea - they look good and have a nice distinction from the normal "flying butress" struts in the 'normal' B-10 placements.

I'd love to hear about a duel between this thing and a Juggernaught at a tournament. They'd look awesome on a map together.

By Tim Losberg (Krager) on Monday, August 06, 2007 - 06:47 pm: Edit

Amazing work Mike!! that is a truely awsome Mini!!!

now if only I could build that sucker in F&E!!

By Paul Findsen (Zap) on Monday, August 06, 2007 - 11:41 pm: Edit

Good job, Mike!

At first I wasn't sure I liked the Mauler tube, but it grew on me really quickly. It's a departure, but I kind of like the idea of the creeping series of thoughts its opponents might have:

What the heck?

?............!

OH S***! RUN!

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Tuesday, August 07, 2007 - 09:00 am: Edit

Looks great Mike!

By Tim Bunch (Crimin) on Tuesday, August 07, 2007 - 11:13 am: Edit

That's awesome Mike. Now you just need to put up a picture of it with either a D7 beside it or a Fed CA in front of it for scale to really show how frightening that thing is!

By John Erwin Hacker (Godzillaking) on Tuesday, August 07, 2007 - 01:40 pm: Edit

Oh for the LOOOOOOOOVE of the INSANITY of ALLLLLL HUUUUUUGE SHIPS........hehe

Mike you have outdone yourself once again

.

"THE GODZILLAKING"

By Mike Curtis (Nashvillen) on Tuesday, August 07, 2007 - 02:19 pm: Edit

I was hoping to see the F5's on the mech links...

By Scott Stohr (Scooter) on Tuesday, August 07, 2007 - 04:57 pm: Edit

Truly an incredible mini, Mike! Great work.

Scott

By Bennett Eugene Snyder (Planner) on Tuesday, August 07, 2007 - 10:49 pm: Edit

Not something you'd want to see in a dark nebula.

By Greg Stillings (Gstillings) on Wednesday, August 08, 2007 - 10:34 am: Edit

Not sure this really goes here, but I have several Klingons I would like to trade off for Feds, Neo Tholians or Lyrans. If anyone is interested let me know.

D7 x7 D5 x4 Klingon tug w/pods x1 Klingon tug w/o pods x2

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, August 08, 2007 - 10:49 am: Edit

There is a buy-sell-trade topic.

You might want to let people know which ships those are. The old lead D7s are much prized for conversions and masters. There are two different D7s with booms and warp engines attached, and two (one lead, one pewter) with them separate.

By Tim Losberg (Krager) on Wednesday, August 08, 2007 - 07:38 pm: Edit

I don't have SSD's for the 2 ships, what modifications would be needed to use the Fed SCS as a CVA?

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, August 16, 2007 - 03:31 am: Edit

Cross-Posted from the FedCom board

I finally finished assembling my Juggernaut kit (the 5.5-in one). PICTURE 1

I'm modifying mine to include engine nacelles (which I'm fabricating from styrene plastic bar stock). PICTURE 2

I also finished work on my restored Klingons, including the chop-job to reduce the length of the engines on my old lead D-5. PICTURE 3

Here it is in-company with some other Klingon minis for comparison. L-R: modern Starline 2400 pewter D-7 Battlecruiser, my restored old lead D-7, the modified lead D-5, and a modern (pewter) D-5. PICTURE 4

Finally, here's the fruits of some labor I put in at my local Kinkos: PICTURE 5 Six new laminated ship cards for Federation Commander (none of which are in the game yet - all from the Communique newsletter). These are added to my custom ship card I brewed up of the Federation Fast Destroyer.

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Thursday, August 16, 2007 - 09:32 am: Edit

Will: Very nice!

By Barton Pyle (Bart) on Thursday, August 16, 2007 - 12:08 pm: Edit

Love the A-11 Mike. Can we get that into production SVC?

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, August 16, 2007 - 03:49 pm: Edit

Thanks Aaron.

By Dale McKee (Brigman) on Thursday, August 16, 2007 - 11:02 pm: Edit

Sweet work Will!

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Friday, August 17, 2007 - 07:19 am: Edit

John Schneder II tells us how he created my Seltorian CC "Wind of Night":

http://awwwdrat.com/Seltorian_CC_WindofNight.html

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, August 17, 2007 - 10:28 am: Edit

Love the A-11 mini!

I wonder what the marketability of an A-11 Minature is without a matching SSD for SFBs and FC?

By Reid Hupach (Gwbison) on Friday, August 17, 2007 - 11:12 am: Edit

Hey Jeff

I still have a copy of the old A-12 mini, instead of Maulers It has SFG's

By Reid Hupach (Gwbison) on Friday, August 17, 2007 - 11:13 am: Edit

Correction Not MINI but ssd

OOOPS

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Friday, August 17, 2007 - 04:40 pm: Edit

Thanks Dale.

Last night, the Juggernaut got it's engines attached and puttied. Tonight is final sanding. Tommorow is primer.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, August 17, 2007 - 05:00 pm: Edit

Reid, thanks but I still have the copy you gave me years ago, I was just looking at it a few days ago... very impressive, but not "official".

Until or unless the steves decide to publish it, the A-11 (or A-12) just doesnt exist in SFB's beyond the old Nexus Magazine comment.

By Dale McKee (Brigman) on Friday, August 17, 2007 - 06:02 pm: Edit

Mike: Dang, I missed your A-11 post when I was away on vacation - just found it. INCREDIBLE work dude. Nice!!

By Doug Hawes (Inari7) on Sunday, August 19, 2007 - 04:22 pm: Edit

I am looking only for Klingon engines/warp nacelles I get them through ADB?

For Kit bashing.

Any ideas would be appreciated thanks..................Doug/Inari7

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Sunday, August 19, 2007 - 11:38 pm: Edit

Doug -

Kit Bash Pack #2. I put a link to it in my reply to your post on the FedCom board.

By Doug Hawes (Inari7) on Sunday, August 19, 2007 - 11:58 pm: Edit

Thanks

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - 12:47 pm: Edit

Alright, finally completed my all metal Federation DD squadron.

http://awwwdrat.com/Federation_DD_USS_Xerxes.html http://awwwdrat.com/Federation_DDL_USS_Kublai.html http://awwwdrat.com/Federation_SC_USS_Bowie.html

When the new Federation CA saucer came out a few years back, I decided to try to do an all metal DD. I'm not entirely pleased with the result, as they were severely unbalanced and I ended up having to add some additional lead weight to the bases (on the top and rear of the base). The engines came from metal DN rear hull minis. The scout saucer was done with a GSC saucer and I feel it had a very decent effect.

By Todd Warnken (Toddw) on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - 12:51 pm: Edit

Nice work Aaron!

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - 01:29 pm: Edit

Todd, thanks.

I also forgot to mention that I filled in the one "non-smooth" side of the engine (with green stuff) so that I could have the engine decal on both sides. Alot of work for just a DD. Not to mention having to drill out the hole for the saucer to mount into the engine.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - 03:59 pm: Edit

Good work on those Aaron.

Personally, I'm a fan of the newer CC saucer (I find the old one just too thick to ignore).

I'm lucky as I am starting essentially fresh with my collection - I didn't have a big stock of "legacy" minis with the CA saucer already built. I could use the new saucer for all my Fed mini's (except the fast ships).

It was expensive, but worth it.

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Thursday, August 23, 2007 - 12:32 am: Edit

Will: I agree on the new Fed saucer, however the above pics were from ships I already had built and just needed some touch up.

I will probably re-attempt this with the newer ssaucers.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, August 23, 2007 - 01:15 am: Edit

Here's what I did with a pair of Fed BC's (adding new-style CC saucers and scratch-built torpedo blocks): http://mysite.verizon.net/djdood/fed-bc_new-saucer.jpg

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Thursday, August 23, 2007 - 09:33 am: Edit

Will, that is VERY clean work, I like it very much. I just finished my first Fed CX

kit bash. It's drying. Perhaps around noon or 1 it'll be ready for pics.

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Thursday, August 23, 2007 - 11:26 am: Edit

Introducing my Federation CX Advanced Command Cruiser:

http://awwwdrat.com/Federation_CX_USS_Enterprise.html

This was done using the saucer and rear hull sections of the FASA USS Enterprise 1701A mini, and a pair of ADB Federation BB engines. A challenging piece, and fitting that the first CX miniature I did, be the Enterprise.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, August 23, 2007 - 01:31 pm: Edit

That's quite cool. The BB engines look really good on that (much better than I thought they would).

It looks a lot like what I had been hoping the CS mini would look like (kind of like the old MasterCom 'Decatur' class).

I've been toying with the idea of cutting up my CS mini to make it look different from the BC (it looks *way* too similar right now). I think you just gave me the idea I was looking for. I think I'll flatten the bottom of the engineering hull and mount a pair of BB engines.

By ART TROTMAN (Drneuro) on Thursday, August 23, 2007 - 05:40 pm: Edit

Aaron-nice CX!

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 12:46 am: Edit

"I think I'll flatten the bottom of the engineering hull and mount a pair of BB engines."

Hmm. I like that idea.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 01:20 am: Edit

[evil laugh mode] Muhahaha!

I tried that tonight with a pair of DN engines from the kitbash pack (which are the same as the BB engines). It worked out great!

I filed the struts to a bit of an angle and also I filed a notch into the bottom of the engineering hull to mount them to. Once the CA cures overnight I'll build it up a bit with epoxy putty to reinforce it (and make it look like a strut-root).

It still has the nacelles below the saucer (so the phaser arcs are the same) but it looks significantly different from the BC. It looks pretty sleek actually. I'm digging it.

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 12:14 pm: Edit

Will, take a pic, I need to see this.

By Paul Cordeiro (Ogoptimus) on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 12:45 pm: Edit

Aaron:

Nicely done! You've inspired me to get moving on some things. I had a similar idea-though somewhat backwards of your design.

I'm working on using a BC mini that has the extra torp deck, and add some custom "angled" nacelles to it (set slightly below the saucer) to be the first "Enterprise" cruiser.

Again, very nice.

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 01:05 pm: Edit

Paul: Excellent! I eagerly wait to see what it looks like. And one day, perhaps our minis will square off on the megahex map!

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 01:55 pm: Edit

I'll have a photo up tonight Aaron. I wanted to let the CA cure overnight before I start manipulating it too much.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 03:33 am: Edit

As-promised, in-progress pictures of my modified Fed CS mini: PICTURE

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 10:28 am: Edit

Will, that definately adds some good detail and is an excellent alternative to the Fed CS. Very nice work.

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 02:30 pm: Edit

Alright you Federation kitbashers, check this out.

http://awwwdrat.com/FEDCXKITBASH

Had a customer like the Fed CX I did and asked for one. I wanted to do one with all ADB parts, but alas, this could not be done as I can't get the rear hull in a timely manner (within the cost I need to keep down for now). So, I have (literally) a pound of FASA Enterprise 1701A rear hulls and figured I'd play around with that, an ADB CC saucer, and a pair of BB engines. Note that my original CX was a FASA 1701A with BB engines.

I sheered off the saucer neck from the rear hull (as can be seen from the pictures) as I did not want to do that to the very well made CC saucer neck. I cut a depression/gouge into the photon torpedo launcher deck for the saucer to mount. So I didn't have to do it very deep (which can be time consuming and meticulous) I filed down the leaf on the saucer that is to fit into the gouge.

I took a different approach this time with mounting the engines. Instead of drilling into the rear hull, I noticed that the existing mounting holes were already at the perfect angle, just need to do some really minor filing on the engine leafs and carefully use a pair of pliers to bend them downwards (inserting them into the rear hull and checking to make sure the engine is mounting firmly and straight).

And Whallah! My customer's Fed CX is born! He'll love it I'm sure.

By Paul Cordeiro (Ogoptimus) on Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 05:51 pm: Edit

Anyone know how I can get some of those BB engines? Is it luck of the draw with either the Factory 2nds engine bag or the kit bash packs?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 06:45 pm: Edit

BB engines are the same as CA engines, TG engines, SC engines, DD engines, and DN engines. Standard Fed 15 Box engines. You can order an 'engine bag' and get a few.

He may be talking about CVO engines (18 box engines). A few of those randomly turn up now and then. (There is a pair of CVO engines in KBP 1.)

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 11:56 pm: Edit

SVC: The BB engines are different in the struts. While the nacelle is identical as you say to the CA and the rest you list, the struts are what make these engines particularly desireable.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Sunday, August 26, 2007 - 02:11 am: Edit

Like Aaron said.

The BB engines are the same part as in Kitbash Bag #1 (which is where I sourced mine from). I could've just as easily "borrowed" them from a BB, but both of mine are already assembled.

The engines for the BB are metal versions of the plastic DN engines (I'm assuming Mike Raper had them made into metal the same way he did the plastic DN saucer).

They're handy little parts.

Here's my CS modification, all filed-up and in primer: PICTURE.

By Paul Cordeiro (Ogoptimus) on Sunday, August 26, 2007 - 02:14 am: Edit

Thanks guys, I might just have to get KPB #1, if the plastic ones don't work out.

Will-nicely done, I'm digging it.

By Michael Powers (Mtpowers) on Monday, August 27, 2007 - 11:06 pm: Edit

My new position offers me some opportunity for play.

Hydrans reimagined. Zentradei-style. (Little, Big; Big, Little.)

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - 02:02 pm: Edit

Michael -

A very interesting take on them.

Modeled in Rhino 3D?

By Michael Powers (Mtpowers) on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - 12:04 am: Edit

No; I-DEAS. I'm doing this in my spare time at work, so I use the tools I have available.

It's rather unfortunate, really; I'd love to have something with a decent rendering package, but we don't need that at work so it's flat-shading FTW.

Oh, an update: Hunter, Cuirasser, Crusader, Saracen.

http://www.clan-lmssm.org/mike/hydran/

By Joseph Riggs (Junior) on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - 02:05 pm: Edit

Micheal -

The cruisers are almost identical to one of the original ship designs for the Jovian fleet in the Green Book version of Jovian Chronicles (if you're familiar with that game). The current 'White Book' edition uses a different hull shape for that particular ship, however.

I'm surprised that you've held off on the destroyers. Their regular hull design seems as if it's pretty close to what you're trying to achieve.

By Michael Powers (Mtpowers) on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - 02:44 pm: Edit

Joseph: Actually, I think both they and I used the same source; as I said, it's the "Zentradei" warships from "Macross".

I will indeed wind up doing destroyers that are similar to the original version, although it will be a bit more curvaceous than the original "Mac Paint" version. I tried a bunch of different things for the Lancer, but none of them really looked right.

By Joseph Riggs (Junior) on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - 03:29 pm: Edit

Micheal - while it may be possible that the ship in question (either the Godsfire or Poseidon class - I think it's the former) was loosely based on Zentraedi shape, Jovian Chronicles sites Gundam as its primary inspiration. So I personally doubt there was a Zentraedi link.

In any case, the primary thing that got me considering the similarity between the two was the fact that both your cruisers and the JC ship in question are "higher" than they are wide. In contrast, the Zentraedi vessels that have a similar shape tend to be more squarish, with the height and width roughly similar.

Unfortunately, I don't think the old Green Book ship images are available anywhere on-line for comparison purposes.

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 08:18 am: Edit

I fell in love with this mini. But I did it for someone else. It figures, probably the

best work I've ever done and I did it for someone else.

http://awwwdrat.com/Federation_CX_USS_Enterprise2.html

This is that kitbash I did a week ago with the BB engines, FASA 1701A rear hull and an ADB CC saucer. I will probably try this once more with the ADB CC, and replace the engines with BB engines. Chances are, I will probably make that a CB.

By Michael Powers (Mtpowers) on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 10:41 am: Edit

Nice job!

I like the warp-engine effects; are those decals or paint?

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 10:50 am: Edit

Half and half. The black on the front portion of the nacelles are decals. The red stripe on the side with the numbering is decal, and the little blue-ish box under the fins are decals. Everything else is painted.

I do the bubble on the nacelle by painting it orange first. Once that dries, I use red, do a circle around the edge where the orange turns to white (so the colors are now white, red and then orange) and then draw a red "+" with the four lines extending all the way to the red circle. Then I draw a red "X" over the "+" and that gives you neat little orange arrowheads within the red.

Note: Orage and yellow looks really good too.

By John A Schneder II (Keltner) on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 11:32 am: Edit

VERY, VERY nice Aaron:-)

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 11:45 am: Edit

Hey John Schneder, was it you I was giving old gamescience stands to a few years back?

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 12:12 pm: Edit

Great work Aaron and thanks for the run down on your nacelle dome technique. I'm painting my first in 20 years tonight, so anything I read now is good for helping me plan.

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 12:46 pm: Edit

Will M: Just a suggestion, get with Mark Tutton ( starfighterace@yahoo.com ) and see what decals he has for you - they REALLY make a difference!

By John A Schneder II (Keltner) on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 01:13 pm: Edit

Yes it was. I've used them quite often in the last years. Do you need some??

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 01:26 pm: Edit

John, the better question is, do you need more? I keep getting these things whenever I get minis on e-bay and various other sources, and they just take up space - I never use them. E-mail me the addy again and I'll ship them to you.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 02:04 pm: Edit

Aaron - Agreed. I bought $120 worth (nearly enough for my entire planned fleet) from Mark, several months ago. They look fantastic. They've been patiently waiting for something to get painted, so they could get applied...

By John A Schneder II (Keltner) on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 02:29 pm: Edit

Sure, we use them a lot now as I am converting all of my minis to magnetic bases. The older ones have a larger platform for the magnet:-) Address being sent after this posting. Thanks again!!

--John

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 03:02 pm: Edit

Been toying with an idea for a kitbash, now that I have a good source for the parts I was missing. Going to make myself a Fed Stellar Domination Ship, complete with fighters. Should make a nice display.

Aaron, that's a great interpretation of the CX. Nicely done!

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 03:04 pm: Edit

I'm real curious as to your plans for the fighters Mike. I'm sure you'll impress us as always.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, September 02, 2007 - 04:52 pm: Edit

Mike Raper: Please finish the Gorn BB before you do anything else. We cannot do the molds for the new DNs without having the Gorn BB model you are making. We need it in a week, no more than two, preferably less.

By SSG Staley, Aaron M. (Awwwdrat) on Monday, September 03, 2007 - 12:01 am: Edit

Mike R: Please do finish the Gorn BB. I really need that and those new DNs.

PS: I'm really looking forward to EVERYTHING you do!

By Michael Powers (Mtpowers) on Monday, September 03, 2007 - 01:46 am: Edit

I have done some work on the Light Cruisers. (I must say, it's very convenient that the Hydrans have so many classes that are basically weapon-swaps.)

http://www.clan-lmssm.org/mike/hydran/

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Monday, September 03, 2007 - 09:37 am: Edit

Gorn BB goes in the mail to ADB this week. Just needed some touch up on the hull circles. John S did the engines, and they're great! Should make a nice mini.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, September 03, 2007 - 12:18 pm: Edit

EXCELLENT!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, September 03, 2007 - 12:20 pm: Edit

Mike Powers: I must have missed a memo. What are these "hydrans" about?

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Monday, September 03, 2007 - 02:10 pm: Edit

Actually, all those Mike Powers models would be good stuff for a new race.

By Michael Powers (Mtpowers) on Monday, September 03, 2007 - 04:06 pm: Edit

This is a "re-imagining" of the Hydran ships, done in the style of the Zentrandei from "Macross".

By Scott Stohr (Scooter) on Monday, September 03, 2007 - 08:31 pm: Edit

About a year or so ago, Mike built me a Gorn BB and that baby is AWESOME! Trust me, if his new one looks even half as good as the one he did for me, it will be beautiful.

Scott

By John Erwin Hacker (Godzillaking) on Tuesday, September 04, 2007 - 12:13 am: Edit

Mike Raper:

Hopefully they get a molder to make a mold that makes all the circles on the mini as perfect circles. I got my Gorn BCH mini and I had to cover up the indented rings on it and make new ones because the ones on there originally were all garbagey looking. Hopefully they get a first class mold this time because the one for the Gorn BCH needs to be replaced.

By Paul Cordeiro (Ogoptimus) on Saturday, September 08, 2007 - 12:02 am: Edit

So I'm jumping on the bandwagon of kitbashing a Fed CX and/or CB (as I said earlier). I'm wondering if the side phasers are LS/RS or if they are restricted like the CA's phasers are. I would imagine not, since why would new ship design go back to limiting the ship's capabilities when the BC, CS, NCA and NCL all have the better arcs, but one never knows...

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Sunday, September 09, 2007 - 10:13 pm: Edit

JEH -

You are aware that Mike Raper is one of the guys who sculpts the masters for the mini's? He may well have been the person who sculpted the BCH mini.

The mold pretty much takes an impression of whatever is on the master sculpt. The only issues that usually seem to come from the mold-making and casting processes are "shrinkage" and a general tendency for things to flatten out. ---

In regards to my own sculpting, I took a crack at a FedEx Courier boat over the weekend. PICTURE ---

Paul -

I'd agree that going back to restricting the arcs seems silly. On my modified Fed CS mini, I ended up taking a different approach to keeping the side phaser arcs clear but still have some thing that looked different than the BC (which has the "flat" engines). They look fine on the BC and are kind of iconic at this point, but I thought the CS mini looked too much like it. PICTURE

By Paul Cordeiro (Ogoptimus) on Sunday, September 09, 2007 - 11:35 pm: Edit

Will-

Gotta say I really like your mini. Very non-traditional with the nacelles mounted at the bottom of the hull rather than on top or even at the sides. I'm looking at having mine slightly higher--perhaps even with the saucer. Though of course, mine is slated to be a CB/CX not a CS.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Monday, September 10, 2007 - 01:53 pm: Edit

Hmmm.

A way to put them "slightly higher--perhaps even with the saucer" could be to keep them on a flat strut (as-on the BC), but mount that strut to the top of the engineering hull. Something similar to the drawings of Federation Dreadnoughts refitted ala the movie Enterprise.

That would place them at the height you want, but still give a really different look to the other Fed ships.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - 12:57 pm: Edit

SVC -

Just checking to see if you got the email I sent regarding my FedEx mini sculpt. Pictures in this this thread, two posts up.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - 04:16 pm: Edit

I don't recall seeing any email about it. If it's castable, get it to me and I'll stick it in a mold.

By Michael Powers (Mtpowers) on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - 04:48 pm: Edit

Will: I think that your CS looks very attractive. It's proportioned more like the TNG Enterprise; with the nacelles on a plane between the saucer and the hull (rather than two planes, one with nacelles/saucer and the other with hull.)

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - 05:31 pm: Edit

SVC -

There was a small question about if it was castable or not (thus the email).

It is sculpted from Tamiya 2-part epoxy putty, which I've seen used by some other folks for masters (Star Blazers Fleet Battle System, etc.). John Schneider (who encouraged me to offer the sculpt to you) suggested we check with your experience before I got too involved in offering it up.

If that material has worked before, or even if you just want to roll the dice with it and see what happens, I can get it boxed up and off to you. Assuming you say "go" -it's your money/time involved in the mold-mastering.

Michael -

Thanks. There seems to be a following for the CS modification I did. I'm currently building two more like it for a client.

By Paul Cordeiro (Ogoptimus) on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 01:18 am: Edit

So about a year ago, I bought a couple plastic tug bags from ADB. And I set to work on a few things that I had in mind. Along the way, I put the hobby down for about 6 months and now I'm back. Some (read most) still need some work, but here's what I did (then and now):

Not much, but a Fed DD that I cobbled together from an extra nacelle (odd number in the bag), and an extra saucer (again, an extra). Thus, the USS Pompeii is born.

Even less, a freighter from a Tug pod (I've got about 20 of these sitting around) with plastic tubing, cardstock and putty. Fairly unimpressive.

A Kearsarge class Light Cruiser. This one's fairly simple and the ship isn't much different than the mini that exists, I was just out of ideas at the time (and hadn't yet bought a bag of factory 2nds that had 2 of these in it). This one is going to be the USS Kirishima.

An SFC inspired cruiser, similar to one Derek Taylor posted last week. This one's going to be the NCL USS Repulse with the lower "secondary hull" housing the photons, phaser 3s and drone rack.

A kitbashed FASA Loknar using a ton of putty, cardstock and a saucer and nacelles. I really like how this one came out. FASA called it a frigate, but it's too cool to die so easily. So it's gonna be my Fed Fast Cruiser USS Stingray.

These aren't from Tugs, but I've got them here now, so I'll post them:

A Fed Bismark class Heavy Battlecruiser made from a Zocchi DN and the rollbar from a Micromachines Reliant miniature that I drilled and pinned to the saucer (Mike Raper's idea before me). I'm still debating what to do with that rear sensor dish. I kinda want to cut it off and round out the rear of the hull with some putty. Got the decals for the USS Nikolai V. Ogarkov.

And finally, my version of a Federation First Generation X-Cruiser. The USS Revolution. This one is made from an ADB CC mini (love the saucer), putty for the extra torpedo deck and some of the pylons, cardstock for the nacelle struts and a pair of Zocchi nacelles that I sanded down so the sides would be flat and angled at the back (something else I took from one of Mike Raper's old designs). I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out. It needs a bit more work smoothing out the putty and adding a bit more here and there, but it's largely finished and ready to paint.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 02:56 am: Edit

Paul - good stuff. Comments in the FedCom forum.

By John Pepper (Akula) on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 03:42 am: Edit

Hey your SFC inspired cruiser would actually be almost perfect for the Heavy Destroyer from CL34. For reference the HDD was a DD with a extra frigate nacelle and a HDW type pod under the hull between the ship and nacelle.

By Michael Powers (Mtpowers) on Sunday, September 23, 2007 - 08:28 pm: Edit

DEE-STROY! The Lancer-class is in the lineup.

http://www.clan-lmssm.org/mike/hydran/

Actually it was there before, but I did a bit better job with the model this time; I worked out how to get rid of those thin black lines running forward-to-aft. I also added the "window" details (the blue boxes on the forward area.) I did similar re-working to the Light Cruisers, but I haven't re-done those images yet.

I'm about two-thirds finished with my interpretation of the Paladin.

(On another forum, one user commented that the Lancer looked like a "flying space platypus".)

By Michael Powers (Mtpowers) on Thursday, September 27, 2007 - 06:38 pm: Edit

http://www.clan-lmssm.org/mike/hydran/

Say hello to my little PAL.

By Jon Berry (Laz_Longsmith) on Thursday, September 27, 2007 - 11:57 pm: Edit

Playing the Hydrans over in Farthest Stars, I must say that I love your work here,

and would love my ships to look like that. Any chance of seeing a Stinger?

By Michael Powers (Mtpowers) on Friday, September 28, 2007 - 02:50 am: Edit

I dunno; it would probably just end up looking much like a Zentradei fighter pod. My muse is silent on the subject of the Stinger.

To tell you the truth, I'm done with this project. I can't figure out a way to do the NCA, and I can't figure out a way to do the Overlord and not have it look like something from a Cronenberg flick. I've gotten what I wanted, now I'll move on to something else. Thanks for the compliments! It's nice to see that other people are as pleased with the ships as I am.

By Scott Tenhoff (Scottt) on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 - 04:37 pm: Edit

OK, I don't know which topic to put this in, so I'm dropping it in here, since it has to do with painting mini's.

My Grey paint grew mold.

I opened it up after about 1-2 months and it's a freaking spore-farm in their.

What's up with that? I've never had any paint, let along grey, do that. And I've painted for 20yrs now, about. And I've had paints stay idle for 5-8yrs in the box and the ones that didn't dry out, were fine.

Admittedly this paint was on the desk and not sealed in a box during this time, but still.

Wouldn't a 'grey' paint be 'inorganic' and get it's coloring from a grey clay? (Lets say not like bright yellow which might come from an organic dye.)

This was a "Reaper Minitatures" paint bottle, if that matters.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 - 05:42 pm: Edit

I don't think an oil based paint would have grown mold but if it is water based then mold will eventually grow where moisture is. Mold grows on rocks but only if there is moisture.

For some molds all that is needed is moisture and air. Amazing thing life is. In it's purest sense it finds a way to exist almost anywhere.

By Reid Hupach (Gwbison) on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 - 08:02 pm: Edit

Make Grey Penicillin

By Paul Findsen (Zap) on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - 12:32 am: Edit

Paint it!

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - 09:17 am: Edit

Mold will grow directly on dried paint and different molds like different foods. (Aspergillus, for example, seems to like cloth book binding.)

All it takes is something the mold likes and good conditions (dark and warm). It sounds like you just had terrible luck.

You quickly closed the bottle and disposed of it, right? Take a HEPA vacuum and clean your work area thoroughly to remove any spores from the mold. Take the vacuum outside to remove the bag (no need to let the spores escape in the house!) Hopefully this will hinder any further transmission.

Personally, I'd probably check my house to see why it happened this time. Do you have a hidden mold problem in the attic? Under your work table? Behind a bookcase? But then, I am very paranoid about mold.

By Scott Tenhoff (Scottt) on Friday, October 12, 2007 - 03:40 pm: Edit

On a seperate subject, I've been contemplating creating terrain for Epic40K and I have some old White Dwarf articles in making terrain. I'm going to start with simple hills.

Now I'm going to use corrogated cardboard for the base/layers (as the article describes) to give it the correct height (ie about 1 1/2" high hills, about 4-6 layers of cardboard). Well I do have some styrofoam too, so I could do a mix of them.

But the article says that I should use "Filler" for along the edges of the layers (fill in the gaps from the corrogation).

Filler in Ye Olde English is different than American English.

What should I use for this, that's cheap to purchase in quantity? (IE I'm not using AB epoxy for it)

By Dave Butler (Dcbutler) on Friday, October 12, 2007 - 04:20 pm: Edit

I used PollyFiller, back in the day. I suppose any drywall patching compound would do, provided it's not excessively wet.

By Tony L Thomas (Scoutdad) on Friday, October 12, 2007 - 09:36 pm: Edit

While not exactly on-topic: this was the best place I could find for this question.

OK, due to a discussion in a thread over at the Fed Comm forum - I have begun searching the web for information on vacuum forming.

I've built many vacuum-formed models, so I understand what it is. I'm now looking for information on creating vacuum-formed kits. I have looked at a couple of websites adn am still digesting teh data contained therein, but now I'm going to my biggest resource - the SFU.

If you have any experience and / or knowledge you'd like to impart, please feel free to do so.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Friday, October 12, 2007 - 10:08 pm: Edit

I know how to do it - just never felt like putting in the work. Everything I wanted to try it on ended up being done as vac-form or resin by someone else (better) before I could get motivated.

I will say that the Starship Modeler and Thomas Models boards have people who are posting pics and info as they go about making their mandrels, vacuum-rigs, etc.

By Ian N. Kisluk (Iams) on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 02:51 pm: Edit

Hey guys, I was wanting to do a Kitbash of a Federation CB. If I was wondering, if it was a model, wouldn't it basically be a BC Saucer on a CA hull?

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 03:01 pm: Edit

Ian, the big difference in the BC saucer "piece" is the weapons station on the dorsal that connects the saucer to the aft hull. That weapon station is not present on the CB (and therefore the saucer portion of a BC mini not really appropriate). I would think the externally visible differences between a CB and a CA would be minor (drone hatches, number of phasers, etc).

By Gary Bear (Gunner) on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 03:13 pm: Edit

Don't forget the CENTER WARP in the CB's saucer that the CA/CC doesn't have. I think that's why he was proposing the BC saucer.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 04:34 pm: Edit

That's true. Still not sure there is any details on the BC saucer I would attribute to the center warp. I agree, there is probably something, but the current BC saucer looks identical to the saucer sold on the all-metal CA or CVS.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 05:05 pm: Edit

When I tweaked my BC's to use the pretty new CC saucer I added blocks to represent the "Neck" mounted weapons (as-on the BC saucer part). I couldn't find a way to represent the center warp that didn't deviate to far from the published art, so I just skipped it. It's only a two-box engine, so maybe it's internal to the hull or embedded into the "neck".

By Ian N. Kisluk (Iams) on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 03:10 pm: Edit

Thats what I was thinking; I would get rid of the extra weapons on the neck. I forget, are the drone hatches in the same place, or the same number for that matter on the CB? I can't remember right now. I was just thinking about what ship conversions I could make with all the current parts avalaible without a lot of editing of the pieces.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Friday, November 02, 2007 - 02:25 am: Edit

I'm not going to be much help on the CB (I don't think I have the product it came

in).

I have been staying busy though. The "Gang of Four".

These are my original Fed CS mod, a new copy of it for myself, and two I did for a client, along with the decal sheet that gets applied to them this weekend.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, November 08, 2007 - 02:49 am: Edit

I finally finished and shipped off the two Fed CS minis I modified and painted for a client. Here they are with all the decals on, dull-coated, and ready to kick some Romulan butt: Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3 Picture 4 Picture 5 Picture 6 Picture 7 Picture 8

Now, to go finish my two.

By Patrick H. Dillman (Patrick) on Thursday, November 08, 2007 - 11:00 am: Edit

Dang Will, that's some good work!

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, November 08, 2007 - 02:34 pm: Edit

Thanks! I hope my client likes them too.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Thursday, November 08, 2007 - 10:20 pm: Edit

Hey where did my post go??

I posted right after Will put the pics up.

"Those are fabulous Will, nice work."

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Friday, November 09, 2007 - 07:35 am: Edit

Lawrence, I never saw your post, so I don't know. I promise I didn't delete it.

Jean WebMom

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, November 09, 2007 - 10:15 am: Edit

I didn't delete it. Sometimes when one of my posts disappears I figure out that I closed the window before it finished posting and it dropped out as an incomplete operation.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Friday, November 09, 2007 - 12:18 pm: Edit

Thanks Lawrence.

Sometimes my posts disappear too, but I just figure that is the discuss software telling me that I've made another dumb post... ;)

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Friday, November 09, 2007 - 10:11 pm: Edit

Excellent, Will! Those are really great!

By Michael Powers (Mtpowers) on Saturday, November 10, 2007 - 12:15 am: Edit

I said it before, but I'll say it again: I really like the "low angle" look you've done for the CS warp engines.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Saturday, November 10, 2007 - 12:23 am: Edit

Yeah I probably closed the window too early.

No worries.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Saturday, November 10, 2007 - 01:19 am: Edit

Thanks guys!

By Aaron M. Staley (Aaron_Staley) on Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 12:30 pm: Edit

Guys, I HAVE to pass this on.

I have discovered #2949 Model Masters Transparent Black Window Tint. It's kind of an enamel spray wash! Hold the can about 12 inches from the model and spray lighly for 2-3 seconds and let dry. If needed, repeat after drying. THIS IS AWESOME! Please excuse the post, but this will be VERY handy for many I think.

By Dale McKee (Brigman) on Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 02:25 pm: Edit

What does it do? Besides being totally awesome that is. Got any pics of the effect?

By Greg Stillings (Gstillings) on Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 11:02 pm: Edit

I second that. Pics please. With before and after if possible.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, November 12, 2007 - 01:35 pm: Edit

Aaron: Good info of use to players/modelers. If you can post some before/after photos, or some comparing this to other ways of coating the ships, it would be of interest to many here.

By Aaron M. Staley (Aaron_Staley) on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 01:02 pm: Edit

Turns out this is not a good wash, however, it does have some surprising effects. I will do pictures tomorrow after I do some pics for one of my customers.

When I first picked this up, I thought to myself, "can they really make an enamel that does a transparent black?" I generally don't use washes and have virtually no

experience with them (I find a coat of dullcoat #1260, dried, then followed up with Lusterless Flat Laquer #1960 brings out quite a bit of detail that would normally be drowned out by good lighting and the over-all brightness of enamels).

When I first tried it, it was on a General FT mini (with no base hull coat). The effect was astounding (I thought) and I got excited and made the post here (as I was short on time, veteran's day approaching, work to do as well as charity work and visits to our vets at the hospitals, color guard ceremonies, and all that) rather than hunt down a bunch of emails and tell everyone that way.

I then tried it on a WYN Shark I had applied a flat white base hull coat to. Decent effect, but I wasn't really pleased. I tried a heavy coat to a Fed NCL and a light coat on a Fed NCA I was planning on refurbishing. The effects were still not great. I tried on a Lyran mini (which had a yellow base hull coat) that I had purchased a while back from Mr. Fulton, and it gave it a nice dirty look.

My overall opinion of the product is now this: be carefull. On light colors, this could be a tragedy - and apply decals AFTER the coating of this product. It may be great as a coating for General and Orion ships, or even some other ships such as an Omega race or something. But this is not a good wash, and I wouldn't qualify it as one, I got a great effect on one mini and I got too excited I think. However, I plan on trying it on a Gorn. I'm going to do a dark green basecoat and give it a heavy coat of this stuff. I'm thinking this will really turn out for that race.

Apologies for getting excited on this product, but as it turns out, it's usefulness is extremely limited.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 12:08 am: Edit

If someone was to make Jindarian asteroid ships, what would be the best rock to use? The most similar in appearance/composition to a real asteroid? How about size? How big is a Jindarian asteroid CA compared to a Federation CA? I would guess it would have more volume but it is wider or longer? Taller, or maybe shorter and not as wide..but more compact? How do the other asteroid ships compare to the relevant size classes of Federation ships? DN, BCH, CL? Any help is appreciated :+)

By Tony L Thomas (Scoutdad) on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 12:28 am: Edit

Shawn, I made a series of Jindarian asteroid ships a while ago. I used some pumice / lava rocks I found at a garden center. They looked like crater pocked asteroids.

I used one about 1 1/2 inches long and 3/4-inch across for the DN and then went down in size for the different ships. The were very similar to the Federation ships of the same class - sizewise.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 02:06 am: Edit

Many years ago I found in the pocket of a ne pair of stone washed jeans (yikes... that WAS a long time ago) a small oblong piece of pummice. I bore a hole into it and put it on a stand. To this day it is my one Jindarian mini.

By Dale McKee (Brigman) on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 02:13 am: Edit

Tony: Any pics?

By John A Schneder II (Keltner) on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 11:42 am: Edit

Carnivon paint schemes

To any with an opinion: I kitbashed some Carnivons for our campaign, and have finally gotten around to painting them. Anyone have any thoughts on paint schemes?? Would they use Lyran-esque (painted a bit like wolves or dogs, varing from horde to horde) or would they have the relatively uniform colors of Kzinti?? Any suggestions would be appreciated (and probably incorporated:-)

By Todd Warnken (Toddw) on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 12:18 pm: Edit

Since they have a decentralized structure I would lean towards a Lyran style instead of a uniform scheme.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 02:33 pm: Edit

The ones I made I painted in tans and browns, to match the names of the classes. The Bear was painted dark brown, for example, and the wolf a tan-ish color.

By Dale McKee (Brigman) on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 03:43 pm: Edit

Yeah, Mike, I bought those from you. Awesome stuff. I'll try to find the time to snap a pic of them sometime...

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 03:48 pm: Edit

Yeah, I would agree, some sort of stylized, individualist paint scheme. Of course, I'm not sure what some would think of a ship painted like Snoopy.

By Dale McKee (Brigman) on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 03:57 pm: Edit

How about a Dalmation?

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 08:24 pm: Edit

Any thoughts on making Space Dragons?

By Scott Iles (Smrl) on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 10:15 pm: Edit

My brother found a Wyvern miniature for a D&D type game that I use for a space dragon. I was looking for quite a while for a dragon mini that didn't have forelegs.

By Tom McThorn (Starfury) on Thursday, December 13, 2007 - 08:22 am: Edit

For Space Dragons Ral Partha or Grenadier used to make blister pack dragon miniatures which were not too big to use with FC/SFB. The only problem is finding them for sale on eBay and not having to pay a huge amount.

There may be some Warhammer 40k/Fantasy figures that would work too but I haven't kept up with their product lines for a few years now.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, December 13, 2007 - 11:41 am: Edit

I have, for over a year, been trying to figure out where I put my Reaper catalog so I can just make a deal to buy dragons from them.

By Michael H.Oliver (Mholiver) on Thursday, December 13, 2007 - 07:43 pm: Edit

WarHammer has a 10mm Miniatures called Warmaster I think they have Dragons listed

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Saturday, December 22, 2007 - 07:01 pm: Edit

Here is a link to Reaper Minatures Figure Finder, just type Dragon into the box, click on "go" and it will show you ever dragon that they have.

http://reapermini.com/FigureFinder

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Saturday, December 22, 2007 - 09:14 pm: Edit

http://reapermini.com/FigureFinder#detail/02453

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Tuesday, December 25, 2007 - 02:26 pm: Edit

Is this the Reaper Dragon Steve Cole thinks would best represent a space dragon?

http://www.reapermini.com/gallery/2400s/2453_G

2453: Karamor, Guardian Dragon by Jason Wiebe

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, December 26, 2007 - 08:36 am: Edit

Dunno, I haven't looked at all the others.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Wednesday, December 26, 2007 - 09:33 am: Edit

I kinda like this one: http://www.reapermini.com/gallery/box_sets/10018_G

Might be a bit much ($50), but •••• it does look cool!