Federation Commander

So, I bought the FC Klingon Border box set. I also bought Squadron Box #1. I've started to paint the Federation Battlecruiser (BC) as my first mini for my collection.

As I put it together and paint it, I saw a feature on it that I wasn't sure of. Its on the "neck" area, right above the deflector dish. Its like a rectangular box on the neck. Very similar to the torpedo bay area of the Enterprise from the Motion Picture ship. Is that what it is? Torpedo bays? If so, how do I paint it? Two launch tube exit bays? Four?

Any info on this would be fantastic. I'll also use this same thread to post pics of the mini when its finished. Also, further miniatures as I complete them. If I can manage to paint them on a regular basis.

That is indeed the "gunhouse" (or whathaveyou) [EDITED TO CORRECT TERMINOLOGY] for some of the extra "bang" the BC has, when compared to the CA.

If you compare the ship card of the various flavors of BC (there are three different variants) they all use that space for either a pair of extra photon torpedoes, a pair of type-F plasma torpedoes, or more drone racks.

As far as painting, if you are doing a "stock" BCJ, then paint two more photon tubes on the front of it (however you chose to also do them on the front of the saucer command "tear drop"). I use decals for mine, which are red with a black dot.

If it's a BCF with plasmas, paint them differently than photons (how to paint them varies, depending on who you ask - I intend to do mine as blue and white dots).

If it's a BCG with drone racks, you can do anything, including nothing. There is very little consensus on what drone racks look like. Some folks make them just a hatch that is the same color as the rest of the hull (in mini scale, that means don't do anything at all to indicate them- my preference). Some folks use small gray rectangles for drone racks.

Gunhouse, not blockhouse.

Steve Cole wrote:Gunhouse, not blockhouse.

You'd think you created the game or something going around correcting people like that... oh.

Just be glad he cares enough for the fan base to even bother with correcting us...

From one who's been corrected often enough that I now come with my own bottle of "white-out"!

Thats the point I was poorly making scoutdad... In my own foot in mouth way

Savedfromwhat wrote:Thats the point I was poorly making scoutdad... In my own foot in mouth way

Oh, I got it... I was just continuing the humor... in my own poor way!

Thanks guys. This totally helps. I'll be painting it to look like a pair of photon torpedo tubes. Hopefully I'll have pics up sometime next week.

Also just got the squadron boxes for Klingons and Romulans in the mail. I open those suckers and geez.....that Romulan Condor is HUGE!!

I wanna take that thing out for a test drive someday.

Well, here's my first finished FedCom mini. Its a Klingon D7 . . . one of my favorite ships from childhood!










One version had the Klingon symbols on the wings, but for some reason I liked the simplicity of the wings without them there. So I took 'em off. Another thing I'm experimenting with are the dots and dashes that are suppose to represent lit windows. Now, they don't look good up close I admit. However, at the usual distance in which they are viewed, they look okay enough for my own tastes.

Evil, I like them a lot

I like the windows too.

i was trying to decide whether to use the highlight/lowlight effect but after seeing yourse ill definatly give it a go. Just not sure how id go about doing that on a white/offwhite mini.

i received my border box one today and squadron boxs 2 and 3 are sat on the shelf.

Ive been working on the 5 federation ships in squad box 1 so far.

Theres a linky at the bottom if your interested.

Thanks for the kind comments count_zero99uk. Looks like you got a ton of work ahead of you with all those lovel Fed ships. Can't wait to see the whole collection finished.

With off-white or near white hulls.....I'd just go with dark grey or black dashes, then a light blue/white mini dash inside the darker dash. If you got a thin enough brush that is.

Well, that's what I'm planning on doing with mine at least. I'll see how it goes. Yes, I could just make decals, but man .... I'm lazy.

Great job, Evil Goatee. What color is that on the D7? I really like it!

that is indeed an excellent minature. I usually don't like "green" Klingons (I prefer then to be more grey)... but in this case, it's a good look.

Thanks! For a while, I was hesitant with which way to go. Should I go with being accurate with the original tv show or go with my own thing? The color used for the D7 is "Seafoam Blue" from the Reaper Master Series paints.

I'm not much of a "green Klingon" guy either, but I do think that it looks nice on yours. Good job.