Federation LTT (WIP)

[jmt]

I've finally gotten off my duff and put together a Federation Light Tactical Transport. Here are some WIP pictures, including a Federation single pod Tug for scale comparisons.





Mating the metal DW to the plastic tug body required significant pinning - as did the base since the cut out wasn't balanced for the weight of the LTT.

It wasn't until I took this picture that I noticed the "lean" in the LTT's fight stand.

[djdood]

I wouldn't sweat the lean in the stand since it's a forward/aft kind of lean. Once it's on a map board it will just disappear.

I had a plastic stand like that that leaned to the side pretty bad - I ended up correcting it by heating it in a candle flame and holding it at a corrected angle until it cooled.

I was working on my LTT kitbash today too. I'm using an NCL and adding a "neck" from styrene plastic. I have the neck cutout and notched to clear the NCL's impulse engines - I just need to grind it a bit at the bottom to make it fit into a tug tow-pad (from the Fed parts bag) and it will be good to go.

I want it to be able to have the pod not permanently attached so I can use it as an NCL mini (when needed).

[mjwest]

As an aside, Jessica Orisini has an article on p19 of CL23 that discusses a modification to the NCL miniature to convert it into an LTT. It uses the Tug mounting bracket (modified, of course) to accomplish the task.

[markgeorgetwo]

Is this ship going to be included in federation commander has a ship card. or is it availble in starfleet battles ssds. could any please let me know.

[junior]

It's in Starfleet Battles. There are currently no rules that cover the use of Tugs (which is what this is) in Federation Commander.

[djdood]

I finally decided what I want to do with my LTT.

I finished the neck and tow-pad assembly last night, but decided that I won't glue it to the NCL mini. I want to be able to use the mini as an NCL (I only have three, counting this one).

What I'm going to do is rig the pod and the tow-pad/neck on a little horizontal stub of a stand that will clip to the existing NCL mini's vertical metal stand (using a mini clothes pin as the clip). This will allow it to be an LTT or NCL, as the need arises.

This will only work because the pod is plastic and weighs so little. If it was a metal pod (like the Klingon), the weight would demand a second stand.

If I pull this off, I'll end up home-brewing a ship card to use the mini as an LTT in FedCom.

[djdood]

Success.

My LTT / NCL convertible is done and is the last mini I needed to finish before my big priming party.

Here's a PICTURE

The cargo pod, tow-pad, and neck clip onto the NCL mini's stand and are removable. Two mini's in one. The mini will have too many phasers, but I think I can live with that...

Here's another PICTURE
This shot shows the pod removed.

[Scoutdad]

Will, that's a great idea on the removeable pod. I have set-up my Federation tugs in a similar manner. None of them have pods permanently attached, so I can field them with any combination of pods required by the scenario being played.

[djdood]

I toyed with the idea of epoxy-ing magnets into the pod and tow-pad to allow switchable pods for my tugs. I ended up just sanding the ends of the pod caps so that they are removable. When I need the caps for the starliner or the double-up caps for two pod towing, I can just swap them in.

[Scoutdad]

Well, that answers one question. I was going to ask what the small round disks were in the cases next to the tug...
They looked like pod end caps, but I could not think of a single good reason to have them there - but now I know.

I considered rare-earth magnetics for about 10 seconds, then had a (IMHO) better idea. I added a pod mounting bracket to the top of each pod and then filled the slot (mounting hole) with fresh, 2-part expoxy putty. I then inserted the tab from the tug itself to form a hole that just fit the tab. Once dry, the excess was trimmed off and the entire assembly painted. The individual pods now snap on and off the tugs.