Federation Commander

I just got a batch of figs off EBay. After spending two days in pine sol. The paint turned to goo. Never had paint do this quite so bad before. Must be the old paint. really weird. after a day of scrubbing and wiping I got them all cleaned up. I found some thing funny. On a paladin C 1982 SVC but looks hand scratched into the metal. But here is where I am going. The paladin is 3/4 of an inch shorter than the 1984 ranger. Is this the difference between the 2200 - 2300. Or just the way things were back then. I was a chit player way back then so would not know.

The Paladin is one of the elite scale minis produced in the early eighties. They were designed with 5/8" bases that would fit on the regular 42x30 paper map that came in the basic set.

I'm not sure what their actual scale is, but they never caught on like the 1:3788 scale Starline 2200 / 2400 series.

And in case you do not know, there is a specific way to put them together. Glue the stem to the ship, then glue the base to the stem so that you can align the ship to the base in proper position.

I have seven squadrons of Orion mercenaries of these ships and I just gave three Tholian cruisers to Wedge last night.

I gave up on plastic stems 30 seconds after a friend used one. I drill out and replace with brass tube. My stems do not break!!!

The plastic stands can work well, but yeah the little "nubbin" at the top of them is a weak-link and breaks off if you look at it funny.

I've had good results with snapping that little bugger off, drilling the hole on the mini out bigger, and then using the plastic stand shaft as the part to glue into the mini's hole. Nice and strong, but it takes extra work.

Truth be told, I usually junk-box the plastic T-rods and use metals ones for most minis (I buy extra metal stands). I only use the plastic T-rods for the smallest of minis (APT, Orion LR, Rom Snipe, etc.).

AFAIK the Paladin has always been shorter than the Ranger.

We Hydrans see shortness as a virtue

We are Hydrans! NO ONE LIKES US!

Not even in Lyran stew???

Fried in Heavy grease!!!! yum yum!!

The proper way to serve Hydran is cooked in their own methane. Everyone knows that.

Beware "chili-night" on a Paladin.

You know, if they attacked the Vudar, then Gave the Klingons Their old Vudar Territory, they might become friends (Asumming the Vudar weren't) in league with the Klingons After All.

And why on Hydra would we want to be friends with the Klingons?

We're going to attack Klingon territory and give (some of) it to our Kzinti allies.

We're going to attack Vudar territory and give it to ourselves.

We're going to attack Lyran territory and give them indigestion.

And why on Hydra would we want to be friends with the Klingons?

You regard them as an honorable military foe. They would be even stronger as an ally.

We're going to attack Klingon territory and give (some of) it to our Kzinti allies.

Hmm, I dunno about that... you don't share a border with your Allies, they do.

We're going to attack Vudar territory and give it to ourselves.

Again I dunno about that for the reasons above.

We're going to attack Lyran territory and give them indigestion.

Now, That is a good Idea . Mattero'fact My dad flies Lyrans against my Feds all the Time ("This is for destroying our supply lines!"), and I wouldn't mind if they just went away...

By the way DJDOOD very nice work on CS. it's one of my future projects, will be looking to your work for insprastion

Thanks for the compliment.

This might be of benefit to you:


In-work Picture 1
In-work Picture 2

Based on the experience I've had making five of these, I've learned some things.

The reverse-swept angle engine struts are cool-looking, but flimsy. You might be better off just leaving them intact. You still get the cool "up-swept from the bottom of the engineering hull" look and they will be stronger. I originally built my first one that way and only later filed the struts back - for durability's-sake, I almost kind of wish I'd left it.

If you are using clear plastic DN engines (as I did on several) *beware* - the plastic is so brittle from age that it doesn't take well to the kind of rough filing it takes to reshape it that much. They end up snapping off at the root. Metal engines (like from the BB mini or kitbash packs) are much easier to modify and more forgiving.