Some new minis

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OGOPTIMUS
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Some new minis

Post by OGOPTIMUS »

Another new fleet (for me): Gorns!

A few are modified from how they appeared in the newsletter, but they’re all here.

First, a battle destroyer. The GCS Scale #51. Great mini and easy to do as a first mini. The design of this mini influenced how I paint the others (bridge and running lights). The name is officially a DD, but since the DD could be “easily� converted to a BDD (any many were during the General War), I used this one.

Next, a heavy destroyer, the Gorn war cruiser (gotta love that stingy Gorn legislature and the crafty admirals and engineers who pulled this one out). The GCS Thundersnake #355. Note the added plasma S launcher under the front bubble and the extra phaser-3s on the wings.

And it’s big brother, the Medium Cruiser. The GCS Flame #354. Like the HDD I added a plasma-S launcher under the front bubble. The name is actually an HDD name, but since the CM is an HDD with an added rear bubble, and several were upgraded during the General War, I used this one.

A Fast Battlecruiser. The GCS Tricericon #157. Thought to be useful for raiding behind Romulan lines. Like the other races’ fast cruisers, these didn’t exactly work out as planned, and the Gorns converted them to full BCs before they entered the General War. This is the BC/CM mini with the 360 degree phaser-1 filed off, and extra phaser-1s and phaser-3s added to the wings. The port side of the mini got rather washed out by the sunlight—the orange of the decal isn’t that bright, it’s like the one on the rear starboard.

A heavy battlecruiser. The GCS Torch Of Conquest #232. I like the design of the plasma-S launcher under the bubble on this one. And it was nice not to have to add it myself! J

And finally, the big boy. A Godzilla Battleship #001. One honking chunk of metal. Two forward firing plasma-Rs. RUN!!!! This is the first BB mini I’ve done and it’s nice because it’s one piece and easy to clean up. I’m not thrilled with the lettering on the front of the hull, but for my first experiment with letters using my 15/0 brush, I don’t think it’s that bad.

I also want to mention something about decals. As has been said over and over, be careful about lighter colors (in this case orange) on dark hull colors. After I put down the first few I noticed that only the silver outline was visible. So, I had to paint over those areas with orange paint (CM and BDD). On the next two, I painted a bit of white under the location of the decal and that helped (BF and HDD). But the best was to paint some orange under that spot (BCH & BB). This might mean you have some touch up to do after the decals are on, which can be tough since you’re painting a VERY small space right next to nice silver things, but it’s worth it to get that orange to shine through. Get yourself a 15/0 brush to help out. :)
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Post by djdood »

Those look great! I'm partial to traditional gray Gorns like that though :wink:

I like the addition of the "running lights". It adds a bit of detail to the otherwise kind of featureless bubbles. I might steal that idea when I paint mine up.

I've added some centerline Plasma-launchers on mine, but only on my Strike Cruiser conversion of a CM. I need to go back and see if I missed some, since I paint mine screaming red too and I'd miss them if they weren't there and should have been.

I just got my first Born BB a few weeks ago, and yes, that is one big honkin' hunk of metal. Pretty imposing on the work mat. I'm definitely not trusting that one on a "stock" stand and I'll be mounting it on one of the "heavy duty" B-10 stands.

Good tip on the decals. Are you using ALPS-printed decals (like starfighterace's)? And they still go too dark?
Hmmm... I'll definitely be taking your experience with this into account when I detail mine up later this winter.
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OGOPTIMUS
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Post by OGOPTIMUS »

Thanks for the kind words Will.

I actually got the running lights idea from the BDD mini. There are some small indentations on the bubble where I painted them. That's also why the lights are more uniform on that mini than any of the others! :roll:

I added the centerline plasmas more because the big plasmas for those two ships (CM and HDD) are shown in the center of the SSD and have FP arcs instead of LP and RP.

Those are Starfighter Ace decals. But the symbols doesn't appear to have been ALPS printed. The sheet I got has generic silver and white lettering but it doesn't look like there was any white under the orange for the symbols.
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