OGOPTIMUS's Minis

OGOPTIMUS · Post by **OGOPTIMUS** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 5:48 pm

Just posted several sets of minis in the Painting Examples threads:

Federation 6th Fleet and X-Ships.

Klingon ships.

And of course, Gorns.

EDIT:

Links to all other of my minis threads:

First SFU minis! 09.07

Federation ships 01.08

More Federation ships 02.08

Y- and X-era Fed ships 03.08

Federation 6th Fleet Y173 07.08

Fed BC and CB 09.08

Klingons 2.09

Orion paint scheme 7.09

New minis 10.09

Wolverin61 · Post by **Wolverin61** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 8:33 pm

The Feds are awesome, especially the X-ships, which I really like anyway.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 8:47 pm

I'm still blown away by the 6th Fleet project. The sheer number of completed minis in the same style is staggering.

Brigman · Post by **Brigman** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 9:17 pm

Incredible work on those X-ships. Have you written any "how to" articles?

thebart · Post by **thebart** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 10:04 am

I've never played SFB but what is an x-ship?

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 12:50 pm

thebart wrote:I've never played SFB but what is an x-ship?

X-Ships are advanced technology versions of the standard hulls. Using advanced technology, such as:
Batteries that hold 3 points of energy...
Heavy Weapons that can be loaded in shorter times...
Built-in ECM bonuses...
etc.
This provides and overall increase in survivability/firepower without a substantial increase in hull size.

Wolverin61 · Post by **Wolverin61** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:28 pm

thebart wrote:I've never played SFB but what is an x-ship?

Scoutdad pretty much covered it. As an example, the Enterprise NCC-1701A is an X-ship in SFB.

OGOPTIMUS · Post by **OGOPTIMUS** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 9:31 pm

Wolverin61 wrote:
thebart wrote:I've never played SFB but what is an x-ship?
Scoutdad pretty much covered it. As an example, the Enterprise NCC-1701A is an X-ship in SFB.

To be clear, there is one Federation X-Cruiser named Enterprise (not currently found in the Starship Name Registry, but it is printed in SFB Module X1: The X-Ships). That does not mean that the "new" design seen in ST:TMP through ST:VI exists in the SFU, in fact, it doesn't, and it can't.

The actual design for the Federation X-Ship can be seen on the Covers of Module G3 and X1R, it was designed by Adam Turner.

thebart · Post by **thebart** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 9:37 pm

Scoutdad wrote:
thebart wrote:I've never played SFB but what is an x-ship?
X-Ships are advanced technology versions of the standard hulls. Using advanced technology, such as:
Batteries that hold 3 points of energy...
Heavy Weapons that can be loaded in shorter times...
Built-in ECM bonuses...
etc.
This provides and overall increase in survivability/firepower without a substantial increase in hull size.

Thanks alot, they are the ones with the blue nacelle covering, correct? And the X-ship named the Enterprise is essentially a blue nacelle covered CA

OGOPTIMUS · Post by **OGOPTIMUS** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 10:01 pm

thebart wrote:Thanks alot, they are the ones with the blue nacelle covering, correct?

My X-ships do indeed have blue nacelle domes. Many people (including me) paint fast ships with these too. See these discussions for some other insights:

http://starfleetgames.com/federation/ph ... php?t=2011

http://starfleetgames.com/federation/ph ... .php?t=734

thebart wrote:And the X-ship named the Enterprise is essentially a blue nacelle covered CA

Sure. There are some other minor external differences (phasers and such), but that would suffice.

OGOPTIMUS · Post by **OGOPTIMUS** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 12:57 am

Kinda quiet around here.

I thought I'd post a few in progress pics of some things that are (and have been for a while) on my workbench.

Lots of Feds this time around since I have to finalize my Kzinti and Klingon paint jobs before doing anything more with them.

A Federation GSC.

A simple kitbash using some Zocchi plastic DD sensors that I cut and pinned to the saucer of a CC.

A Federation GCA, resurrected from a FASA Heavy Cruiser.

This mini was so messed up. Those thin pylons are just too flimsy. I'm working on a refit Constitution, and it's a pain.

A (woefully underarmed) Federation DDF with custom nacelle.

I took inspiration for the rear of the nacelle with three post stage flux tuners units from the art on the cover of Border Box #2 and Booster #4.

And a Kzinti BF.

This one I really like. Had to set several pins in the sides to get the new wings to line up properly. I'm not sure those wing phasers clear the front, but the dimensions match the artwork in Module R6.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 3:52 am

I did something similar for my GSC (I used metal sensors from a kitbash pack). Yours looks better though.

Great job on the DDF. It looks like Tony is putting all of us DDF kitbashers out of business with the metal DD engine he did.

I also really like your Kzinti CF. I'm hoping to also do one like that with an old SL2200 lead BC.

You're right about it being really, really quiet here in minis-land. Hardly anybody is posting anything lately.

OGOPTIMUS · Post by **OGOPTIMUS** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 10:04 pm

After a painting accident involving my cat...I've gone back to working on fixing up a FASA Constitution refit.

The pylons for this thing were so mauled--completely bent out of shape and broken, that I just cut them off and made some custom ones that would be thick enough not to bend, but not too thick to be way out of proportion (like I did for my GSX).

Yes, these will lack the cool detail grills of the metal ones, but they were so shallow anyway that they'd likely get covered in paint, so I'll just make some decals for them.

The problem is getting the new pylons to stick to the nacelles without losing all that great lead-cast detail, and making sure they don't come off if I look at it (or for some reason drop it).

So the solution was to drill into the nacelle (with a #72 drill bit) and put in some pins that would connect to the new 0.8mm thick pylons.

I was so excited for this to work I forgot to take a picture of the nacelle with just the pins. Sorry guys.

Port nacelle (before I filled holes with putty and sanded everything flat.)

And also to make sure that they stayed lined up and tight to the hull, I drilled some guide holes into the other side of the pylon and put some pins in the hull.

Before the nacelle

And voila!

I also had to work on the impulse engine, making it look more like the filming model.

More photos can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12686828@N ... 876596273/

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 11:59 pm

Looking good Paul! (the first picture is failing to link though)

I've become a big fan of brass pins. They are not as hard to drill and place as I used to think, and they certainly improve the mechanical strength of many joints a great deal. Vastly stronger than glue alone.

I see you drilled slots into the engineering hull, so you are already one step ahead of where I was with a similar project (my restoration of an old plastic CA).

In my case, I used a pin to strengthen the connection where the plastic strut had broken off, but by using only one pin, it was still not strong enough. Eventually, just normal handling broke the tiny glue joint and allowed the thing to spin around the pin. To fix it "more better", I've had to drill out a second hole for a second pin (it's not like the plastic CA struts are very big to begin with, so this was maddening). I had it all drilled out and ready, but it got put aside out of sheer exasperation and I haven't found the gumption to go back and assemble it again just yet.

Your slot for the plastic strut to sit in will perform the same function as a second pin (actually, it will do a much-better job). Kudos for being smarter than I. I'll have to try your way on my next one.

OGOPTIMUS · Post by **OGOPTIMUS** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 12:18 am

Fixed the picture.

Thanks for the kind words Will.

I have also recently noticed how much easier kitbashing can be by just adding some pin or paperclip "bones" to the mini in question.

I wish I could, but I can't take credit for the trenches in the secondary hull. There were some very small shallow ones already on the mini. I did widen and deepen them though.

I had a similar problem to yours on my GSX. For some reason, one of the nacelle pylons came up short, and I didn't realize it until after I put it on the mini! So I drilled into the pylon and the nacelle, installed two pins, and then covered the two pins with putty to make the rest of the pylon. That was not fun. I think it turned out well though.