Federation Commander

That looks great! Excellent, excellent work.
(I like the fleet box cover below as a background, too.)

Very nice. Can't wait to see more.

Hi,

After several busy months, I'm ready to start on my NCA. I'm wondering where the impulse engines and shuttle bay are supposed to be located. Do most of you follow the configuration used in this photo from marcus_aurelius's post in the painting examples subforum?

Thanks,

-Mike

My placement of the shuttlebay and impulse engines was an attempt to be consistent with the placement on my previously completed NCL miniatures (see below peeking between the warp engines).

I have no idea if the placement in either case is "correct" or not.

I looked for the computer model images of the Starline 2500 NCA/NCL to see how it was done on those, but I could not find them anymore on the webboard or facebook. It looks like they have been removed?

On the metal SL2400 NCL mini (as well as the older small-engiine SL2200 mini), the impulse engines are in the "box" under the saucer. Note the two "L"-shaped features on bottom of that box, which correspond with the "L" features on the top of the saucer and adjacent to the impulse engines on most other Fed hulls.

On those minis, the shuttlebay door is the "ribbed" feature just above the saucer rim, on the rear edge.

For the SL2500 resin minis, Mongoose chose to move the impulse engines to the same location as all other Fed ships (the rear edge of the saucer). In doing that, the original location for the shuttlebay didn't work, so the compromise was to move it up into the engine support "yoke", on its rear face (very similar to what you did with the decal in your picture of your metal mini).

The renderings of the new SL2500 minis were moved to their own dedicated gallery page, here:
http://www.starfleetgames.com/Starline%202500.shtml

Thanks for the quick replies!

djdood, for the NCA I assume the impulse engines and shuttle bay doors go somewhere on the piece that converts the NCL model to an NCA?

-Mike

Yes, that had always been my assumption, as that piece blocks the exhaust vents on the NCL's "box".

I knew I had a drawing about this somewhere, from my comments on the SL2500 mini. It might still be useful.

So what are the hatch-looking squares on top of the warp engine yoke between the nacelles?

Just random paneling detail. There were some similar panel lines on the metal mini. I always assumed the panels on top of the yoke are just cooling grids, etc.; that's what I drew them as on my input for the BB.