Subtopic	Posts		Updated
	Archive through March 26, 2021	25		03/31 08:14pm

This is my current in-progress paint work for the most recent miniature arrivals.

Things seem to be going fairly well for the Paravian thus far, though perhaps less so for the ISC and the M81 pirate. But then, those "feathers" on the Paravian ship help matters somewhat.

Speaking of which, I wonder if the "A" underneath the prow, plus the two innermost pairs of "feathers" to either side of the flight stand, represent the Paravian CA's landing gear. I like the idea of certain "feathers" doubling as landing pads - I'm just not quite sure which are the right ones.

By Zac Belado (Pixelgeek) on Tuesday, March 30, 2021 - 04:44 pm: Edit

What are you priming your figures with?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, March 31, 2021 - 06:39 pm: Edit

I like Gary's painting jobs, especially because the color areas are not a uniform even color, but have almost random dark and light spots. I love the effect!

By Douglas Saldana (Dsal) on Wednesday, March 31, 2021 - 07:27 pm: Edit

The Paravian color scheme reminds me of the Vertilift from the Shogun Warrior line of toys (vintage 1978).

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Wednesday, March 31, 2021 - 08:14 pm: Edit

Actually thinking the Paravian was where the Aztecs/Mayans got their ideas of Gods.....

By Steven Zamboni (Szamboni) on Thursday, April 01, 2021 - 01:13 pm: Edit

I would have to look at the models again to see but I don't remember marking specific feathers as landing gear. All of the Paravians were done in one evening to beat the schedule and I was getting a bit loopy towards the end.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Friday, April 02, 2021 - 05:03 pm: Edit

This is how they look after a second run. I've posted individual update pics over on the FC forum.

Although I suppose they didn't end up looking much different than before...

-----

I used a white primer with "clear" colours and a black ink wash, plus some "flat" white paint to place on certain panels before going over them again with something else.

-----

One other question for the Paravian mini: is there a particular location for the impulse engines?

If not, I was thinking one could mark certain groups of "feathers" above and below the wing a distinct colour, to indicate where these engines would be placed. That way, the number of re-coloured feathers used could mach the number of impulse boxes per wing: 3 for the CA, 2 for the DW, etc.

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Friday, April 16, 2021 - 02:57 pm: Edit

I just snagged my first batch of Shapeways miniatures - an assortment of Smooth Fine Detail frigates (and a couple of freighters). I've started teaching my partner to play using frigates to keep things small and uncluttered (and it's Frigate Friday and I just like frigates!).

Now to poke around to find some nice flight stands...

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Tuesday, April 27, 2021 - 09:26 pm: Edit

And they are here! Looks like I will need to drill out for the 3mm pegs and Starfire stands I’m using, but that’s easy peasy (if careful) work. Then will be working with the new airbrush.

These are all 3125 frigates (except the Omni-scale freighters) in Smooth Fine Detail.

By Zac Belado (Pixelgeek) on Friday, April 30, 2021 - 12:38 pm: Edit

The detail on those models is incredible. Why did you get the freighters in a different scale? Were they too large?

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Friday, April 30, 2021 - 01:06 pm: Edit

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with the SFD material - the white processed plastic is just too grainy. The freighters and some other general units are only offered in Omni-scale - either things that would otherwise be too small (drones, shuttles/fighters, PFs) or just are auxiliary enough they didn't see much point to bother with multiple versions (i.e. freighters and other civilian ships).

By Steven Zamboni (Szamboni) on Friday, April 30, 2021 - 04:06 pm: Edit

The plain freighters were sized to match the earlier SL2400 metal miniatures, but many of the auxiliaries were nudged up a tad to closer match with the tug models (but they are all labeled as Omni).

Larger freighters ran into serious price inflation from Shapeways for no real point as there were no earlier SL2500 freighter models to match (and administrative time was better spend getting warships into the store). I know there's a 3125 WYN Tournament Cruiser model around but I'm not sure if it's made it into the store yet.

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Friday, May 14, 2021 - 12:23 am: Edit

Base colors down on four of them.

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Saturday, May 29, 2021 - 01:37 pm: Edit

Front and back views of the finished ships!

By Kosta Michalopoulos (Kosmic) on Saturday, May 29, 2021 - 04:15 pm: Edit

Very nice Alex!

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Saturday, May 29, 2021 - 07:26 pm: Edit

The Gorn and Kzinti are particularly well done.

--Mike

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Saturday, June 05, 2021 - 02:01 pm: Edit

Thank you both!

And on to more small ships! Again, I used the airbrush for the base coat, but I’m probably going to touch up the Cheetah and F5 by hand - they have enough overhangs and tight angles it’s tough to get a good shot everywhere on the model.

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Tuesday, June 08, 2021 - 09:57 pm: Edit

More tiny ships! (The primed Fed frigate isn’t new, but there to show size compared to the same 3125 scale Fed heavy cruiser.) I LOVE the 1/7000 scale ships.

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Saturday, June 19, 2021 - 04:23 pm: Edit

Front and rear of the 3125 Klingon F5 and Lyran FF and the Omni F-S, all in Smooth Fine Detail.

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Wednesday, July 07, 2021 - 06:24 pm: Edit

The latest batch of tiny ships - the second set of 7000 TCCs (including the alternate cranked arrow FH…which I think I like more than I expected to), 7000 Hydran Fusion Core and Lyran Core collections, and a 3125 Lyran Tiger CA.

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Saturday, August 28, 2021 - 04:26 pm: Edit

2 Tholian CAW, 2 Tholian NCA, and 2 Gorn BC for use as tournament cruisers.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, December 31, 2022 - 02:14 pm: Edit

The latest trio of ships warped in this week.

That is a Baduvai Strike Cruiser and an Eneen Heavy Cruiser (from the Lesser Magellanic Cloud), plus a Trobrin Diamond Heavy Cruiser (from the Omega Octant). All three are in 3125 scale, in Smooth Fine Detail Plastic.

There are individual images of all three ships over in this thread, over on the FC forum.

By Joseph Jackson (Bonneville) on Saturday, December 31, 2022 - 05:13 pm: Edit

Very nice. The Baduvai Strike Cruiser is just mean looking.