Federation Commander

[malleman]

Can't wait to see them djdood. Sounds like you are having some fun. I would be interested in seeing pics of your acceleration tokens/cards.

[djdood]

Certainly.

Here's a picture of the cards.

I haven't trimmed the corners off the Accelerate token/cards yet (I need to raid WallyWorld's scrapbooking section again to find a smaller corner-cutter).

The "movement cards" are very much based on those in the old SFB Module A. I wanted something that had more of the color FedCom look. I also wanted to be able to print, laminate, and trim out several sets.

The intent of the movement cards is that at each point where a simultaneous movement decision is required, each player plops down the appropriate card for each ship he is controlling, face-down. They are all then flipped face-up simultaneously. Quick, fair, and no silly paper notes.

The new "acceleration" thingees will work the same way. Rather than noting it on the ship card or some other means to indicate that acceleration had been bought for a given impulse, one of these tokens is bought and put with the ship card. Once it's used, it goes back in the stack.

My play group is still new to FedCom and new to "war-games" in general. The "movement cards" were an existing idea I "dolled-up". The acceleration tokens/cards are something my players needed (they're still very much overwhelmed and tended to forget who had paid for acceleration, sometimes even if they had).

We used the movement cards in our last session and they immediately improved the speed and flow of the game (as well as adding a bit of fun card-flipping tension). My two newbies both liked them a lot (as they are also a handy reference to what the legal moves are - excepting weird stuff like 'reverse'). I'm hoping to try the acceleration cards in the next couple of weeks.

[EDIT 10/15/09 - moved picture(s) to PhotoBucket]
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[malleman]

Nice job!

[djdood]

I didn't want to start another thread, so I'm just going to add-on to the same one I've been using for a long time now.

The first of the "new batch" is out of the dock and finally finished.

This is a resurrected Zochii-plastic Federation CA that I have owned since circa-1984. It was my very first SFB mini, before I even knew there was a game to go with it (the 13-year-old me just wanted the nifty little model of the "Enterprise"). This poor mini suffered through much in the intervening years. Both engines had broken off at the root of the struts and had been glued back on multiple times. It's "paint job" was bare plastic, which yellowed badly with age (no base coat ) and some slopped on details in model paint. These included terrible attempts at the side pennants, all done with those huge, stiff, awful, Testors-brand brushes. I knew it was crap even as I was doing it, but it was the best I could do with the tools (and the skills) I had at the time.

One of my goals with my recent painting was to go back and fix the old minis that I've had in a box for twenty years. They all got stripped, drilled-out and steel-pinned where they were broken or brittle or weak, primed (for the first time), and painted/detailed to the standards I have always had, but could not meet until now.

I give you the U.S.S. Republic (images-linked, to save bandwidth here on the board).
From Above, Front, Underside, Bottom.

Republic is one of the few remaining examples of the old "R"-class Heavy Cruisers, several of which were refitted to incorporate the technologies used in the later Constitution-class ships (the Republic and her sisters Reshadije and Ramilles acted somewhat like prototypes). She still has some of the hull markings that the early Constitution-class ships did (gray saucer-margin arcs, periphery markings for the forward antennae farm, etc.). Removing these from the old ships was always a low priority and, once the Romulans stormed across the border on the Day of the Eagle, there were more important things to worry about. She fought in the war looking like a mixture of old and new, but with every ounce of heart she had always had.

I have another old battered plastic CA, which will get finished this summer as the Reshadije. It and Republic and will serve on my gaming table alongside my several metal Fed CC's for years to come.

[EDIT 10/15/09 - moved picture(s) to PhotoBucket]
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[Savedfromwhat]

That is one fantastic looking CA. Did you use decals or is that handpainted? What was the base color you used if you can remember. How did you get the grid lines on the saucer to pop like that? Ok rapid string of questions /off

[djdood]

Thanks for the kind words.

Those are a mixture of purchased decals and custom decals I drew and a friend laser-printed for me (the vast majority are purchased). I did the gray-arcs, the red/yellow nose marks, the saucer-edge windows, and the gray engine bands. This was my first mini to use the gray engine bands and I found them infinitely less frustrating than trying to mask off that small of a gap on a tiny little cylinder.

The base color is a custom mix of Testors Model Master enamels, essentially a very slightly-green light gray (based on Paul Newitt's research into the color of the Enterprise filming miniature). Those pics were taken in full-sun, so it's kind of washed-out.

I shadow washed the mini with slightly black-tinted "Magic Wash" (Future floor polish, greatly thinned with water). The details are painted in Tamiya acrylics. The weathering is Tamiya pastels.

The grid I picked out very lightly with a pencil. On the top of the saucer it got a bit too smeared, so for the bottom I switched to a harder (HB) lead in a drafting pencil and I'll be using that for all the rest.
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[Savedfromwhat]

Thank you for the quick answers and being so concise. It's funny but I keep fitting myself into a box thinking along the lines of paint and brushes... I never would have thought to use a pencil.

Lesson learned: Anything goes so long as it looks good

[Scoutdad]

Will - Dood!
That's one incredible CA. I really like the details you've added - even if some of them were stickers!
Mark's decals improve the look of a mini 10-fold, but the extra details you added really make the "Republic" a work of art.
I have a new goal in life now. I have about 15 or 16 more Fed ships in the queue and I want just one of them to look so good. I have been experimenting with the use of an artist pencil to add fine details - I found that a soft pencil was prone to smearing and that a HB was about right. I guess your results were similar!

I'm currently working on two masters for FC:OA but after that comes the end of the WYN fleet and then I start over again with the newest Federation acquisitions, including a couple of newly acquired FedEx'es and a Monitor or two.
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Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF

[Scoutdad]

p.s. That's cheating! using gray stripe decals for the engine bands. Everyone knows that real painters free-hand those.

Next thing you know, I'll decide that I'm tired of free-handing the fleet bands on my Hydran fleet and I'll print up a bunch of fleet stripes to use.
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Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF

[djdood]

Savedfromwhat -

I certainly can't take credit for the idea of using a pencil for those grids-lines. It's literally how they did them on the original Enterprise filming model, so I'm just "borrowing" a good idea. There's debate about if they ever intended for the lines on the filming model to be visible (they certainly weren't on any normal TV in 1965). They may have only been there to help locate the lettering decals.
Who knows?
FJS made them prominent in his classic Technical Manual. I can't picture a Fed ship without them now

I wanted them to "pop" a bit, because I wanted the plastic Fed ships to look like they "belong" with the newer metal minis with prominent recessed grids (like the DW and the new CC saucer).


Tony -

Thanks. I really tried hard, so I'm glad folks are liking it!

I tried masking and painting those engine bands on four Fed CS' I was doing last year and the DDF I did for the contest. Yech. Never. Again. Masking tape just doesn't want to work at that small of a size.

I cheat like big-old cheaty-cheater and I have no shame. I admire what other folks pull off with paint, but I know I can't do that and I won't settle for making my minis look less than I can make them. That pushes me to decals. I won't win any contests, but I can smile when I look into the storage box. I'd rather have spiffy-looking minis than pride

My wife says you should print up a big bunch of "tiger-stripe stickers for all your kitty ships".
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[djdood]

To give some perspective, HERE is what the mini (and my other old plastic Feds) looked like before getting stripped.

HERE is a closer look at another one from that same time period.

[EDIT 10/15/09 - moved picture(s) to PhotoBucket]
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[Scoutdad]

[djdood]

I'll let her know.

Re: the architects tape, been there. Didn't work. The engines are just too small for my chubby digits to get tape wrapped around (even using the tiny pin-striping tape I found, which is as small as a pencil lead). It's decals for me.
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[HowieTallGuy]

WOW!

[djdood]

Thanks Howie. You'll get to see her in-person at the meet this Sunday!
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