Federation Commander

I've just finished a few new Klingon ships and though I'd put up some pictures. These ones are built with a bit more detail and better 3D shape than the old ones, which were basically a 2D cut-out with the wings and engines bent down - as passable though those looked, I wanted some better, more realistic ones! These are also grey, because I felt like having some in grey (as I believe is accurate for SFU Klingons) as well as the TNG style dark green of my previous models. My camera is being pretty useless and is up for replacement soon, so apologies for the relatively low picture quality and resolution.

Here's a few pictures of my new D7:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2806053500/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2806053512/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2806056562/

My new D5:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2806053520/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2806056598/

My new F5:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2806056568/

And my E5 - the first "non-standard" ship hull I've made:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2806056594/

And finally, a picture of the four of them together:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2806053494/

The E5 and F5 are really rather small (the E5 is only 14mm long) and so it was quite difficult to shape, especially when it came to sanding the ball part under the head to make it round! I'm pleased with the overall result anyway, and hope you enjoyed the pics.

Wow! Those are great! The E5 is awesome! I really like it and the D7.

Again, great work. They look pretty cool together!

Ahhh just what I needed after a long day!

Nice work as usuall.
I really like the group pic, they look menacing.
Thanks for sharing them.

Thanks guys Those do look a whole lot more menacing than my last Klingon minis for some reason. Maybe it's the subtle effect of having that bit better "3D-ness" about them, or maybe it's just because they're Klingons and there's lots of them together! They always look like they have some malicious and aggressive intent when they're in groups - I like it!

You can't see it too well in the pics, but to the D5 and the E5 I gave a light dry-brushing of black. The reason for this was that they were a separate batch to the D7 and F5 and once I'd done the paint job they were coloured a bit too lightly by comparison. Anyway, I did a bit of dry-brushing and I'm actually quite pleased with the "space dust" effect it gives them, especially against the black background of their stands and the board. I also have another "new" D7 in green (although with highlighting to give some depth this time instead of plain green) - I did one in each colour scheme to see which I liked better, and I like the grey best. I was considering re-painting the green one but I might not as it will help in telling the two models apart visually.

I tend to do all of my ships in uniform colors and schemes, by-empire, so I miss out on the uniqueness that you and some other folks get in their fleets. If I didn't mark the stands, I'd never be able to tell mine apart.

I'm curious Dave...what's next on your agenda? What full fleet is next
to be super-miniaturized?

Actually the Klingons are on the go again at the moment - I just finished another batch which includes a C8, C7, E4, another D5 and D6/D7 (one model that could pass as either) so that I have enough models to make a squadron for larger battles. I'll put up pics of these when I get a chance for you to have a look. I'll probably pretty much stop with the Klingons after this, maybe the odd few models like a D5W which I haven't yet got a mini for, but I now have all the "basic" hull types covered - that is unless I get some obsessive inspiration to build more.

Next on the agenda is the Kzintis as I'm getting into them in the game and only have a few models of their ships at the moment. This is all well and good until I want to use several of their ships in one battle, then I'll need more models - mixing minis and counters for the ships works fine but doesn't look as good. Also you find it hard to see the counters when there are minis to distract you.

You see, the problem is it's becoming a bit of a modeller's obsession for me - I think of a new technique to make the ships better (my Klingons are a case in point) and feel a compulsive need to make a load of different types of ship in my improved style, regardless of whether I had an "old style" one. In the case of my Klingons and Kzintis, the "new style" looks so much better than the old one that I just couldn't resist! At least they don't cost too much to build, otherwise I'd be in trouble...

Show 'em your Tholians! The newer ones, anyway

Dave, if you're going to do Kzinti ships - you'll need to do twice as many od them. Just in case you ever want to do a Kzinti Civil War (Patriarch vs. Usurper) battle.
2 dreadnoughts... 2 Command Cruisers, 2x the usual number of NCLs, DDs, and CLs.

I'll see if I can get some pics of those when I photograph my "new" Klingons. There's only a PC and a CA to see for the Tholians (I don't have Tholian Attack...) so it shouldn't be too much hassle.

Well, I'm stoked to see more Klingons and the new Kzinti. I'm sure they'll be sweet!

Are you holding out on us with some Tholians?!? Haha...gimmie!

I think for now I'll make a batch of Kzintis and then if I do decide to do a civil war scenario I'll just try and divide the force as evenly as I can. That said, I'll try and make sure I have two minis for each ship eventually just by doubling up on things like the CC and DN.

My planned fleet to build in the next batch will be the following: 1xBC/CC (I have one of these built already for the how-to guide I did, so that will make 2 in total), 1xNCA/NCC, 1xCL (I don't think the ship's that great so I won't bother making 2 for now...), 2xCM, 2xDW, 1xFF (I only have 1 ship card of this though if I need more I can print them from communique and make more models!) and 1xDD for which I have a home-grown card. I was just going to use a BC for the fast cruiser for now, until I have inspiration to make one! I may include some colour scheme variations from the usual blood red, as nice as that looks...

OK, I've finally got round to taking pictures of my new Klingons! I've taken some pictures of all of my "new" Klingons together, there are ten ships in all.

Some shots of the whole fleet:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2839803499/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2839803509/

Some shots of the C8 model:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2839803517/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2839803525/

A shot of my other D7 battlecruiser which was made at the same time as the one in the previous batch of photographs, but is painted in a green scheme. I think it actually looks pretty good in green amongst the other grey Klingons:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2839803541/

And a shot of my D6 cruiser, which is a slightly shortened version of the D7 miniatures I made before:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2839803547/

As for those Tholians which were mentioned, it turn out I had a pic of those up already with some Orions:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28932177@N08/2696030504/

Enjoy

Again, very cool.

How durable are your plastic minis? Do you have problems with engines popping off, etc. during play? The old (Starline 2200) lead minis were notorious for this and it looks like some of your plastic models use similar parts-breakdown/assembly-joints.