Federation Commander

I have the reissue Zocchi ships coming for Christmas and will probably attempt painting this weekend. These are my first starship minis. I have painted minis for a long time, but mostly fantasy figures.

Do I need to basecoat the plastic ships, or can I get away with leaving the white plastic exposed? What works in this case? I was thinking maybe leaving them white but doing a darker wash to fill the hull details.

Tips?

You could leave them as bare-plastic (lots of folks do that).

However, all plastics change with age and white plastics tend to go "yellow". All my old Zocchis from the late 1980's were pretty nasty looking by the time I stripped and cleaned them up in 2007. They had gone well past tan on some parts and were heading for brown. It all depends on the material, the conditions it's kept in, the lighting hitting it, etc.

Another thing to consider would be color-match to any metal Federation ships you might get in the future. There really isn't a reliable way to match the color and sheen of the bare plastic with a paint over metal. My metal Fed frigates looked really odd in stark white model-paint, next to my yellowing bare-plastic Zocchis.

If you want all your minis to have a consistent look, it would be best to lightly prime and then paint the plastic ones with the Fed basecoat color of your choice. What that color should be varies with people's taste (I go with a very slightly green, very light gray, other folks go ghost gray, others go titanium white).

djdood wrote:(... others go titanium white).

I bet I know who you're refering to here...

Will is correct though. Th e new, reisue of the Zocchi box is a recently molded product and as such; the plastic will be a nice consistent shade that will look good (and be of tabletop quality) with just the addition of a wash followed by high-lighting and detail work.

OTOH, the bare plastic will age and it will age unevenly. Some of hte parts will turn to a deep tan quiker than others and eventually, you will be left with 5 mottled white-brown ships. The "Zocchi" plastics have a great level of detail and a light coat of primer will not obscure the details. This will give you the opportunity to wash/high-light to your hearts content... and if you don't like the color of the current batch of plastics - you can use any color basecoat you desire. And you can even carry that base color over to any of the metal Federation ships you add to your fleet.

One caveat however; if you go with a regular color for a basecoat - write down the brand/shade. If you decide to mix a custom color for a base coat - mix a large batch and store it in a bottle with a tightly fitting lid. Invariably, you'll paint ever Federation miniature you have or soon get in this color. Then, a year or two down the line, ADB will release a new Federation miniature that you just have to have. Then you'll struggle to match the color... unless you have more mixed up, or you know exactly what brand/hue you originally used.

Not that this has ever happened to me It was a friend of mine... yeah, that's right, a "friend"

Scoutdad wrote:Not that this has ever happened to me It was a friend of mine... yeah, that's right, a "friend"

It's happened to me. I painted the first Klingon ships I ever got, later on I got some more and couldn't remember the paint I'd used so it took a lot of trial-and-error to match them. Now I have some of the paint I mixed to match it, but once again have no idea what I used or the formula. Once that's gone, it's back to trial-and-error. I'll have the same problem with the Romulans, if I ever get anymore.

I now have a file on my computer (and the work computer - just in case) that lists every color used for every detail on everyEmpires fleet I've painted. Just so that all of my Federation ships have the same color nacelles and so that all of my Lyran Foremost ships have the same shade of green for their clan stripes/panels.

Yes, once again - can you say, "Uber-Geek!"?

After a couple of regretful "gotchas", I now write the "recipe" on stickers put on the mixing bottle.

A painting notebook is a useful thing.

Just as long as you can remember where you put it for safe keeping.

Scoutdad wrote:I now have a file on my computer (and the work computer - just in case) that lists every color used for every detail on every Empires fleet I've painted.

You should post it here for posterity...

And have everyone copy my distinctive style!

No Way!

edit:
In case you've missed the post in the minis threads - I have reuploaded all of my minis photos to Photobucket. The link is in the signature below this message.

Scoutdad wrote:And have everyone copy my distinctive style!

No Way!

It was worth a shot...