Jindarians

Darkwing · Post by **Darkwing** » Sat May 21, 2011 10:38 pm

My brother is going through a bit of a bad time right now, but he has been a player of SFB since the mid-80's and was one of my first opponents. We were talking recently and it turns out we both bought Module F1 (The Jindarian Caravans) at about the same time. I had thought about making some minis of Jindo ships for some time, but I wanted more than simply "rocks on stands" for use as gaming pieces.

I went to the home improvement store (where else would you go for kitbashing supplies?) and bought a bag of landscaping rocks which looked to me like perfect asteroids. I then drilled some holes in them for stands and for engines and sensor probes (as opposed to dishes). I destroyed several of the rocks, but managed to create a caravan (2xDN, 2xBC, 2xCA, 4xCLs). As happens when there are too many ships in a caravan, I am splitting them up, sending half of them to my brother and keeping the others for myself.

Here are pictures of the set that is leaving for parts unknown. I know that the official description of these ships says that there are no protrusions like engines or sensor dishes, but the cover art shows a little bit of this. Also, like I said before, I wanted more than a few rocks on stands for minis. I also lit up the phasers with bright orange as if the ships were in battle.

That's enough back story. Here are the ships!

The BC

The CA

The CLs

I almost made an effort to make individual ships asymetrical (as described in the text). That is clear when you look at the DN, first from the rear (with the warp engines glowing red and the impulse engines glowing blue and then from the front. Also, the phasers are set in pairs in a layout consistent with the SSDs, but are positioned according to the rock. On one corner they are one above the other and on another they may be side by side.

The DN

Some shots with Klingon ships for size comparison

Post by **Jean** » Sun May 22, 2011 1:37 am

Darkwing, if you wouldn't mind, I'd love to use those pictures on our page on FB. Would you mind sending me copies (less than 5 MB)? PM me and I'll give you my email addy, if you don't have it already.

Thanks!

Post by **Steve Cole** » Sun May 22, 2011 8:06 pm

Pick the best singles-ship photo and email it to

graphics@starfleetgames.com

and tell him Steve Cole said to make it the mini of the month for June.

Darkwing · Post by **Darkwing** » Sun May 22, 2011 8:38 pm

Picture sent.

Thank you much!

Darkwing · Post by **Darkwing** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 7:03 pm

While the Jindos are known for mining metals from asteroids and using the hollowed-out core as the frame for new starships, they do employ a few metal hulled spaceships as well. These were conceived before the SL2500s came along, so they look a little small (the frigates are not shown in these pics, but they will be about the same size as a 2400 ISC FF). Still, as game pieces I think they work out rather well. I have posed some 2500 Klingons in the pictures as well so folks can see the size of these ships.

First is a shot before I realized I needed to add some asteroid terrain. This shows three of the strike cruiser size hulls. The reddish ones are one clan and I had imagined having some in the olive drab color to represent a different clan. I am working on several DDs in the green scheme as well.
(For those not familiar with Jindo metal ships, all ships in this shot are moving toward one another.)

And now a Klingon patrol finds a squadron of Jindarian DDs hiding in an asteroid field. There is war destroyer closest to the D6s (with the six phasers across its back), a scout with the four special sensors at the corners, a transport DD at the point with only two phasers on the back, a carrier with the expanded shuttle bay, and a regular DD model bringing up the rear.
(Here, the ships are all headed in roughly the same direction.)

I added some rocks to the D7's encounter.

The ship hanging just off the D7's bow is the unusual medium strike cruiser with four warp engines.

Once I get the FFs made, I'll post some more pics.

wedge_hammersteel · Post by **wedge_hammersteel** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 9:40 pm

Can you give us some insight on how you made the square ships? What materials?/

Darkwing · Post by **Darkwing** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 11:01 pm

I will indeed.

The square ships started off as crafting rhinestones you can get at any craft store. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, usually mixed in a bag. I found a bag that had several of the same basic shape as the Jindo metal ships and picked them out from the pile. I used a hobby saw to cut out a section for the shuttlebay at the rear and then glued a strip of plastic to the other end for (what I think is) the bridge area.

That will make a few, but I ended up making a one part mold of that basic ship and making several more. I could have made a two part mold and had the engines cast in place, but I just ended up cutting them from plastic rods and gluing them in place. In hindsight, I had tried to cast on the tractor and phaser nubs, but they ended up breaking off when I tried to make the mold. I ended up making them from putty for each ship.

Another thing I would have changed if I was doing this over would be that I would have filed down the rear of the ships to better match the pictures in Module F1. As is, mine are symmetrical front to rear, but the rear should have a narrower aft surface.

bluebirds38 · Post by **bluebirds38** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 12:27 am

great job.

Jim Lewis · Post by **Jim Lewis** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 3:10 pm

I don't know much about the Jindo, but these ships are really nice.

Darkwing · Post by **Darkwing** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 5:40 pm

Thanks, guys.