To the second part of the question: cargo packs for the CPC and others. There is a drawing of one in CL #33, part of the PC deckplans. It's an irregular hexagon tube, as wide as the spine where it connects, increasing to a bit less than 50% wider in the middle, lower half a mirror image of the upper half; about as tall as the top width.

Now to the starship labs to test construction techniques: I took a plastic sheet and cut several narrow strips. I was able to stack 5 of these along the channel between the wings of a Tholian mini, so that's the width of my top and bottom panel. I chose 7 for the width at the middle. Clamped a straight edge on my cutting surface and pushed the edge of a strip against it, then used my 5-deep stack as the measure and the guide for cutting. Did that four times, the best two become the top and bottom panels. Increased the stack to 7 to cut a strip the width of the middle. Centered on this middle strip, glue one of the ugly strips, then the top panel, flip over, repeat. Filled the stairsteps with putty and smoothed to form the sides of the hexagon. Here's a picture of the first attempt, with the putty too thick. Oddly, here it looks like the slope of my pack is going to match that of the wings, it should be steeper, and pull away from the wings. Also, it needs a hole drilled/gouged in it so it will fit over the disruptor it blocks on the C or D. I'll do that after I decide which side looks best after priming and re-sanding. Then I'll cut the front and back at a rakish angle for fashion -- and to match the art in Module R10 that shows a disruptor or photon "pack" welded to the bottom of a CW to turn it into a New Heavy Cruiser.

By Marc Potts (Patrolcorvette) on Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - 06:02 pm: Edit

CL 33? That's the one I've got waiting for me to pick up at my FLGS because of those very deckplans! That's brilliant.

Oh, and thanks for the advice and images as well, and that's not just you, I really do appreciate all the advice that everyone's given me so far on this topic.

By David Young (Semperatis) on Sunday, May 18, 2014 - 11:33 am: Edit

A couple of recent conversions.

USS Virgil prototype NCL

[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l4/xuihpilli/DSCN0104_zps00b6c884.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l4/xuihpilli/USSVirgilExperimentalNCL002_zpsa28249e4.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l4/xuihpilli/002_zpsc2a2cdd0.jpg[/img]

Prototype Fast Destroyer.

[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l4/xuihpilli/004_zps96264804.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l4/xuihpilli/005_zps55138631.jpg[/img]

Deckhouse Destroyer.

[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l4/xuihpilli/001_zps260a3bb2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l4/xuihpilli/002_zps52a35e1e.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l4/xuihpilli/003_zps178e4476.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l4/xuihpilli/004_zpsc9a35729.jpg[/img]

By Norman Dizon (Normandizon) on Sunday, May 18, 2014 - 12:18 pm: Edit

Very nice work! I like the look of the Deckhouse Destroyer.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, May 18, 2014 - 11:28 pm: Edit

David,

The BBCode tags from the FC forums won't work here on the BBS. The Disqus formatting is a little different, but the board isn't set up to allow non-authorized posters to show images directly.

(You could use the newurl tag to link to the images in a new tab, like this.)

Also, where did that version of a fast destroyer come from? The only DDF which I'm only aware of is the Two Moons-class from SFB Module R12 and FC: Reinforcements Attack.

By David Young (Semperatis) on Monday, May 19, 2014 - 07:15 am: Edit

Hi Gary,the fast destroyer is in reality one of SWO-Daddy's,though he was calling it an HDD,a design running in direct competition to the NCL. He had envisioned the two FF engines being mounted above the saucer NCL style,but I felt that it looked better this way round and that a DDF prototype was a better choice for it. Jeremy had submitted this design back in 2002,though everyone seems to have forgotten it.

By David Young (Semperatis) on Monday, May 19, 2014 - 07:18 am: Edit

Here's a pic of all three DD mods together.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l4/xuihpilli/004_zps341c1764.jpg

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - 07:55 pm: Edit

HALF-POUND SCRAPYARD SACKS: Today we sacked up 18 of these half-pound scrapyard sacks. These contain ships that were not good enough for factory seconds. The includes missing parts, broken parts, and other serious problems.

Jean doesn't want me to provide a list of contents, since they vary widely. I can say that we went through the nine pounds of stuff we had (almost ten, actually) and divided it up into types. For example, all of the leftover Fed HDW engine sleds went into one cup, all of the tugs we didn't have pods for went into another, all of the Fed NCAs and NCFs that we didn't have lower engines for into another, all of the defective Fed DN rear hull/engine, all of the leftover fed engines, all of the ... you get the point.

Then we got 18 plastic cups and I would count out 18 of something (say, leftover Fed saucers) and hand it to Jean, who put one in each cup. Things that we only had a few of (those tugs) went into a final cup and were used to make all of the bags weight 8.4 to 8.6 ounces.

You could find anything in your bag. A fed FFB with a dinged engine, a Kzinti something with a broken boom, and so forth. You could even find a complete ship that you don't know what's wrong with.

When we were done I had a few small broken parts left that were of absolutely no use to anyone. I was going to drop them into the melt bucket but pity stayed my hand and I threw them into a few random cups. So if you get the broken off bridge boom of a Fed D5, you didn't pay for it, and I don't care if you throw it away or glue it to the freighter that is probably also in the bag.

Jean will put these on the cart sometime, maybe this week or next or maybe she waits for Christmas eve. Who knows what marketing will do?

By Mark Hutton (Trynda1701) on Saturday, May 02, 2020 - 10:23 am: Edit

A question for kitbashers here on the board.

When modifying older pewter or plastic minis, were people using razor saws? If so, is there a particular tooth size saw to use for our scale minis?

I'm thinking of using some spare Micromachine Trek minis to try and recreate something I saw on the kitbashing Facebook pages.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Saturday, May 02, 2020 - 01:23 pm: Edit

Personally, I did indeed use a razor saw for my major cutting projects, an Xacto-branded one. Looking at the web about it now, the tooth size wasn't specified, other than "fine" and "medium" and I leaned to the fine.

For the softer plastic that was used for most of the MicroMachine trek toys, a razor saw may not be needed. Some good, steady pressure and a nice sharp scalpel blade will probably slice right through it.

The upside to using a razor saw is how well they work with a miter-box, to make nice straight cuts. The downside to using a razor saw and miter box is that it is often quite tricky to fit SFU minis into a miter box, in a way that will keep them securely held, without marring their surface.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Friday, October 08, 2021 - 11:56 am: Edit

deleted post

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Saturday, March 05, 2022 - 11:41 am: Edit

Quick and dirty DefSat rig at 1" scale. Three (yellow, red, blue) in low (1") orbit, two (white, green) in high (3") orbit. Both low and high orbit DefSats turn independently of each other and the planet.

Used a standard ADB stand, one of my arc templates, two long sewing needles cut to size, five ball-head sewing pins cut to size (the white and green cut very short to insert in the long needle eyes), a plastic sewing machine bobbin cut in two, a rubber ball from a cheap paddle ball game, and DAP Weldwood to attach template to base and pins to bobbin halves (and the green & white pins to their respective needles).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XdwcnMAeYYjjiL1gOFQjDNkaxAC2wLYH/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V9O83zTA3HK9fFV6ssuJRWPWD8JKJ_Hr/view?usp=sharing

By Mark Hutton (Trynda1701) on Sunday, March 06, 2022 - 11:13 am: Edit

Nicely done, Jessica!

By Robert Russell Lender (Rusman) on Saturday, November 26, 2022 - 01:12 am: Edit

Are their any old parts bags of miniatures left remaining anywhere?

I'd REALLY love to get my hands on a bunch if they are compatible with the 2400 series miniatures. especially Kzinti deflector/sensor dishes.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, November 26, 2022 - 10:28 am: Edit

If it helps, there is a sprue of sensor dishes on the ADB storefront.

Although the Kzintis now have a number of dedicated scout variant miniatures over on ADB's Shapeways storefront. (The minis marked as "3788" are to scale with the "classic" Starline 2400 minis, whereas the "3125" ones are to scale with the "Mongoose" Starline 2500 line.)

By Robert Russell Lender (Rusman) on Saturday, November 26, 2022 - 06:38 pm: Edit

Those do help. One thing I liked about the little Kzinti dishes from the beginning was that they did not appear too large and disproportionate to the ship I would mount them on to represent scout variants (whether Kzinti or another race). They were the perfect size. I will pick up a few of those to modify some more of my mini's to scout variants.

Thanks Gary :-)