Federation Commander

djdood · Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 1:10 am Post subject:

Wow. Has it really been since January that I worked on minis? I guess so.

Lots happened in life since then, but I'm glad some balance is returning.

I finally put the new workspace to use last night, putting several hours of work into the Federation Old Heavy Cruiser master. Made great progress - it's ready to do final assembly on it tonight. Then off to Texas it goes (hopefully in-time).

Once that guy is off my bench, I need to finish taking stock of what I had in-progress a year ago and start working again. This thread has been useful for that.
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OGOPTIMUS · Captain Joined: 10 Nov 2006 Posts: 979

Nice in progress pics.

I can't wait to see it all assembled and ready to go.

I also can't wait to buy a few.

Glad to hear you're getting back into the swing of things.
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djdood · Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 5:12 am Post subject:

Back in the saddle again.

Finished the sculpt (more of a "kitbash" really) for the Federation Old Heavy Cruiser, and got it into shipping yesterday. I've since been informed that it should get there in time to go into the current mold (assuming it gets approved by SVC and SPP).

(all the in-progress pictures are HERE)

During the mad rush to finish the oCA, there were times where I simply had to wait, for putty and epoxy glue to set up. I took advantage of the time to make some progress on other projects.

The Klingon FD7 go its "wings" puttied. Once that putty had set up a bit, I carved the "cooling vanes" into it with my redneck comb tool:

Since I had putty mixed-up, I also added the centerline plasma launchers to my Gorn HDD and CM minis (this was done over short pins I had already drilled and epoxied in-place, late last year):

I had already added a launcher to one of them (in beige Tamiya putty), but I enlarged it with greenstuff, as it is supposed to be a CS and it's literally built around a massive type-R plasma.

Now that I have a nice place to work undisturbed, I should be able to be much more consistent in my progress (I hope!).
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Nerroth · Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 7:15 pm Post subject:

I didn't realise you were adding that bulked-out dorsal hull module behind the nav dish on the OCA. Not sure if I'm too sold on the idea, personally - I'd prefer the dorsal hull to retain the CL's smooth features - but it's not a deal-breaker.

I'll still be glad to see it enter production, not least so I can use it as a stand-in for the Auroran CLA!
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djdood · Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 8:06 pm Post subject:

There was discussion with SVC on how to approach that feature.

The oCA has a pair of 360-degree phaser-1s, along with a pair of pair of 360-degree phaser-3s. These needed to be on the bottom to avoid blowing the engines off.

The sensor dish would also be an impediment.

My solution was to enclose the sensor dish in a vestigial lower hull, which then could mount the phasers on the bottom, with a clear field of fire.
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Savedfromwhat · Commander Joined: 23 Aug 2007 Posts: 657

I think its brilliant and will have to buy at least 3 of them

Nerroth · Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 8:38 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the clarification regarding the design process.

(The CLA has different weapon arcs, but then so do the Auroran FF and CL, and I'm in no hurry to modify the OCLs and POLs I have. I'm sure I'll get by...)

I'm sure I'll like it when I get to see the design in person, in any event.
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OGOPTIMUS · Captain Joined: 10 Nov 2006 Posts: 979

Loving the OCA Will. You did a superb job on that. I'll be waiting to buy several.

And the "comb" was a cool idea for the Klingon engines.
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Rick Smith · Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 8:05 pm Post subject:

I like the secondary hull idea. I've found that many of the SFU ships tend to suffer from a certain flatness. Ships like the early cruiser this model was built from and the lack of detail on the flip side of Lyran ships are a case in point. I understand why this happened; it's difficult to take a two dimensional SSD line drawing and turn it into a three dimensional form, so I'm not trying to be combative to the sculptors. But I definitely like the addition of the secondary hull on this ship.

Now if only the nacelles didn't have to be part of the model. Again, I know why this is the case. Ease of casting and to avoid breaking them off during play. But this could be avoided with careful pinning of the components.
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Rick Smith · Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 8:09 pm Post subject:

er...hope that didn't come off sounding hyper-critical. It is very commendable that you guys do this on your free time to allow the rest of us to push tiny little space ships around a table!
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Nerroth · Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 9:09 pm Post subject:

In the case of the OCL, I thought the flatness on the dorsal hull was intentional - to make it easier to lower onto a planet's surface.

I remember the FRA R-section mentioning they had been intending to use the old CLs parked at Aurora in Y130 at the new coreward colonies they had been expecting to settle - by landing the ships and gradually stripping out their parts to help set the colonies up. (When Aurora vanished, one CL was rushed back into service, another was reverse-engineered so they could build more, and the third went off to try and re-contact the Federation, but was never seen again...)

Plus there are commando and hospital CL variants that (I think?) can land.

Actually, it occurs to me that once the OCA is up and running, you could put together what might about to an unofficial 'early Republic' Auroran fleet box. An OCA, two OCLs, two POLs and an Orion CR could represent a CLA, two CLs, two FFs and the Throne of Ozymondas!
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djdood · Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 11:16 pm Post subject:

Re: the oCL landing on planets - Only SVC could answer that.

The flat bottom certainly facilitates things, but the sensor-post would still be a problem.

mjwest · Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 12:11 am Post subject:

The only OCL that is stated that can land is the commando variant. And it takes a lot of work and time to get it back into space.

So, no, the base OCL (and the rest of the variants) cannot land. Or at least they cannot land in such a way to allow them to take off again.

(This is all for SFB. Of course, in FC any ship can land on a planet!)
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SWO_Daddy · Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 3:29 pm Post subject:

OCA looks great Will!
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botwt · Ensign Joined: 01 Apr 2010 Posts: 20

Great stuff, really great stuff! Very Happy