Federation Commander

My wallet says you're a very bad man...

Lovely mini, I'll want some of those.

Some of you guys might like this -
Here's all the pictures I took during the process, in-order: on my Photobucket account.

I was running out of time yesterday (*had* to try and beat scoutdad) and didn't take many pictures during the final home-stretch of filing and sanding all the "greenstuff" putty, but I did do a full photo survey of the completed master.

Here's one more shot posted here just for fun:


Enjoy.

Well, that was an interesting couple of days.

I did indeed ship the F-5W master off to Texas and then promptly realized I had goofed and left some fairly key phaser details off of it in my haste.

I let ADB know, and when it arrived, after inspection and some thinking it was decided that it really needed the details and it was worth their time to ship it back and have me fix it (I'm really happy that they are willing to extend the patience to allow this).

It arrived back from Texas this morning and I spent a couple of hours (re)working it.

I marked and drilled two new holes on the upper corners of the "wings" and added the missing phasers with teeny-tiny little stubs of brass pin stock, epoxied in-place.
Holes drilled.
Dry-fitting the pins.

Mini with pins epoxied in-place, but before clean-up:


Sometimes, phasers are added with tiny little drops of epoxy glue, but I know these are placed in an area that the mold will have considerable shear forces applied to the master and those would be prone to popping off, so pins it is. The smallest I have ever worked with, but this entire project has been a study in smallest, or finest, I have ever worked on. I've learned more in the last week than I did in the last year (maybe more).

Once the epoxy cured, I then cleaned up the "goopage" around the pins with needle files and sandpaper.

I also took the opportunity to do add a little more fillet/rounding in the undercut under the boom "top hat" with epoxy (again to ease the mold-making stresses) and a little more spit and polish on the finish on various parts of the mini.

I took some more photos of the (really, for-real this time) finished mini

She's already back with FedEx and (again) winging her way to Texas. Latest post by SVC on the legacy board says cast copies should be available for sale before the holidays.

I'm excited to see this master cast up in pewter. Always fun to see the end-product of all the work. Good times.

Tonight I get back into finishing my HDW rebuild, my new Klingon FD7 kitbash (with brass "wings"), and the masters for the Fed oCA and Klingon HF5.

For those interested in what I've done (and am doing now), I've completely rebuilt my PhotoBucket page to better organize the pictures of my various minis projects.

I also added dozens of new photos, most never before seen.

Just pick an "Album" and browse away.

For anybody who ever wanted to see what a spin-casting operation looks like (the way SFU minis and many other are made, this is a pretty nifty walk-through of the process.

This company is coming at it from a computer-model/SLI-grown perspective (hand-made masters would be slightly different, but not that much) and this is part of their marketing materials for their SLI (stereo-lithography) machines.

They also have a nifty one on very-low temperature vulcanizing rubber molds for jewelry production. Also intriguing.

that was a cool walk through! wOW!

I may be alone.. but the whole Miniature painting and assembly thing is just really really fun..

at times it can be tedious and painful.. but overall I really and truly enjoy doing it..

I think that the process for the miniature productions is very interesting.. and I love how in the end..

it comes out looking brilliant!

On a side Note, I found the perfect color for the Federation ships!!

Starship gray!!

Vellajo wolf lobo grey
http://www.thewarstore.com/product43660.html

Starsuperion -
I'm glad you enjoyed it. It has the best photos I had seen of what goes into making a mold for spin-casting (the hard work doesn't stop with the sculptor; the mold-maker is every bit the artist too).

Mini Build-Blog:
Progress continues on the oCA master (now that the F-5W is right and truly done).

I'm currently exploring different ways to set up jigs to allow me to rout out the "trench" on the inboard faces of the engines (to better match the scale-look of the traditional CA, and repair some damage done during removal of the support "hoop" from the source NCL).

Due to limitations of my Dremel tool, I'm going to have to create a sliding "table" fixture to move the part on, rather than drop the Dremel down on its drill-press. I think I have a workable approach now:


In the mean time, I did the pin assembly of my rebuilt HDW lower-engines (PICTURES).

I'm also plugging ahead at my custom "wings" for my FD7 kitbash.


I was originally going to follow John Schneder's excellent walk-through article, but realized I didn't have the required two dreadnought center engines.

Lacking those, I decided to fabricate my own "wings" from brass-sheet, brass-pins, and greenstuff. This would also allow me to tailor the "look" of the wings even more to my taste. I later discovered I did indeed have the parts to follow John's methods, but I had already done the brass sheets work and decided to follow-through and finish it this way. My "wings" will be a touch broader and more swept-back than the re-purposed dreadnought engines would provide, so in the end I'm hoping I get a more-sleek and "fast" looking mini.

(MORE PICTURES)

I'm currently toying with different ideas for how to modify the engines to make them "different" than stock D-7 engines. I might cut and "stretch" them with greenstuff (using the brass sheet backing to hold them in place. I might also just add some extra "cooling tube" details in brass rod. Not entirely sure yet.

Mini Build-Blog:
After all the back-and-forth, I'm almost surprised the Klingon F5W survived the mold-making and master casting process. However, it did, and it goes on-sale on November 16th.
Picture of completed F5W master-copy

With that done, I've been getting back to work on the Federation Old Heavy Cruiser (oCA).

Picking up from where I left off, the main-hull was essentially complete and the engines had a good start on them.

A preliminary producability discussion/review was recently done using these mockup pictures to verify the construction-approach:

oCA From Above, oCA From Side, oCA From Rear, oCA Size Comparison with NCL and oCL
(Molds are expensive, so every effort is made to try and avoid any design issues or failures before money is spent at the mold-maker/casting house)

Right now, I am continuing to modify the engines, mainly to disguise their origins (they were cut from a New Light Cruiser mini) and make them resemble the classic "tv ship's" engines a bit more. The chief change is to extend the "trench" that runs on the inboard face (with the intercooler grilles and "reactor loop"). On the NCL, this feature is shortened, due to the prominent mounting "yoke" for the engines. This leaves the reactor loop too far aft.

After much pondering, the only way I can see to correct these features is to rout the trench further forward (removing the discrepant reactor loop in the process). I can then clean that up and add a new reactor loop from a small bit of brass sheet stock, epoxied in-place. However, nothing is easy when your subject is 1/10-inch in diameter and a touch over 1/2-inch long.

I'm intending to use my new Dremel drill-press "work station", loaded with a small side-cut routing bit to rout the trenches.

My working solution is to build a jig to hold the engines fixed in-place:
Engine Jig, empty
Engine Jig, engines loaded
My original plan which was to build the jig as a sliding "table" that can be moved back and forth, under the tool:
Engine Jig Original Concept Sketch

At this point, I haven't decided if I will proceed with that method, or by mounting the jig vertically, so I can use the action of the drill-press rout the cuts in the engines, with the jig holding them vertically.
Jig, mounted vertically to scrap steel base

Either way, I wouldn't dare try to do this "by hand" without a jig. The tool would jump around and give me nasty wavy results.

Hot dang, the F-5W is back from the casting house!


More pics of the other minis in this batch on the legacy board.

the f5w is a very cool looking mini. i saw the juggernaught and fed dd's minis. they all look great. i can't wait to a few of each. i know what you mean, your wallet hates you. mine hates me. i bought over two minis in the last six months. i plan on kit bashing three fd-7 and a b-8 bb. when i'm done i will post some picts.

@bluebirds38 - Thanks.
Looking forward to seeing your pictures.

Minis Build-blog:
Finally got to run the oCA engines on the jig under a router bit and the results are a bit... underwhelming.


The jig worked fine, but the pewter is so hard that the router bit can (and does) bend as it sees fit when confronted with dense patches in the metal. I ended up with a really "wavy" trench in the first engine. The second engine I braced the router bit with a popsicle stick and that helped. They both will need quite a bit of greenstuff work to clean up, but I can work with them.

HERE'S a pic of that first cutting operation. More pics are HERE.

Will: I should have warned you about that. When I tried something similar to convert an existing CA engine into a DD engine, I had the same problem.

My solution was to construct an entirely new engine from brass, and even that had issues. If I were to do it all over again, I think I'd take a slightly differnt tack (and probably produce a better final product)... but then again - I only had to make one engine, not two identical but mirror images.

I'll make these work. Somehow.

Ideally, I could have used lead engines (it's much softer metal), but these NCL engines have never been done in lead as far as I know (and I don't have access to any that were, if they were).

If I was to completely scratch-build them, I'd dread details like the cooling fins at the rear ends. Tough to do and have them not come off in the mold.

Were I to scratch these (and it might still happen...), I think I would start with a brass rod (3/16", probably). That's thick enough to avoid bending. I'd rough that up real good, then build a roll of greenstuff around it (like the batter around the frank in a corn-dog). I could then sculpt/machine/whatever in the greenstuff easily, without the hassles of machining brass or pewter, but it would have the strength of that brass rod to avoid sagging in the mold.

Come to think of it, that brass rod could be rounded off on one end and left protruding, to act as the rear "dome" on the engine cowling.

I still think I will be able to make the scavenged NCL engines work, but I do at least have a backup plan now.

Waiting for the weekend to have some good daylight and clear head to work on the oCA engines some more (that and the Dremel noise is too much to inflict on the wife on a week night).

In the mean time, I started another "easy" project, a Gorn CF Fast Battlecruiser conversion.

The description of the ship in both SFB and FedCom don't mention it looking any different than a "stock" battlecruiser. However, I tend to ignore things like that if I personally don't feel it is in keeping with my interpretation of the SFU as a whole.

The Fed CF looks radically different from a "stock" CA/CC with that spade-shaped saucer. Most folks also seem to be painting their Fed fast ships with a blue-glow to the engine domes, in my case indicating their unique "over-driven" fast nature.

The Klingon FD7 (as-modeled by John Schneder), also has a pretty distinct "goes fast" difference in looks. Even if the standard mini sold for the FD7 is a "stock" D-7, I go with John's interpretation and am building a kitbash [see post above]. Mine will have swept-back engine wings (similar to John's), but I am going to slightly extend the engines to give them a visual show of the increased power.

The Kzinti CF is less radical, but it at least has the drone booms tucked up to the hull. When I get around to this one, it will be an easy conversion. I'll probably do something to the engines on the Kzinti CF to make them look more powerful, similar to what I am doing to the FD7.

For me, the pattern for "fast ships" is to always have a noticeable "go fast" visual difference. I want them to sand out from their "stock" counterparts on the gaming table, at a glance.

The Gorn CF mini being sold is just the "stock" Gorn BC/CM mini. Given my view on "fast ships", that just isn't going to fly, so out comes the tools for a kitbash.

I intend to take an old, lead, Starline 2200 Gorn BC I aquired in an eBay lot and convert it to my vision of a Gorn Fast Battlecruiser. The mini I will be using was missing its engines (easily replaced from kitbash packs), but had a weapons wing broken off.

This broken wing (and contemplating how to fix it robustly) led me to plans for converting the mini to a CF. I intend to remove the remaining wing and replace both with a new set of "go fast" wings from brass bar stock.


I will also take Gorn BC engines from a kitbash pack and modify them to give them some extra-power "bling".

In the end, I hope the mini looks like what it is; a BC with overhyped engines and some streamlining to take advantage of the speed the engines can offer).

At this point, the wings are fabricated, awaiting scribing of panel-lines and shuttle-pad tracks, and addition of the round shuttle pads. I've also started filing the deep groove in the bottom of the main hull for the brass wings to sit in (which will then be puttied over).

The rest of the pictures are HERE.

Very nice.

You have a great eye for these type of projects and you keep impressing me with all your kitbashes.

Keep it up! It's nice to see more work in progress pics!