Federation Commander

I just got Border Box 3 in the mail this afternoon. I'm not new to minis, but I am new to FC and FC miniatures. I don't know what nacelles go with which ships (or even which ship is which for sure). Well, looking at the SSD's and picture on the cover of the box is helping.

For the Feds, I think it goes like this: I assume the difference between the NCL's and the NCA's is that the NCA's get the third nacelle with the extra boxy bit in the middle of their underside? For the War Destroyer minis, it appears that each only takes one extra nacelle under the middle bottom. However, I looked at Scoutdad's link and it looks like his Fed WD's have four nacelles?

For the Romulans, which are bigger, the Battle Hawks or the War Eagles? Also, I assume it's the RoyalHawk and the NovaHawk that get the nacelles (or whatever the attachments are), but one is 2 'nacelles' connected with a 'box' in the middle, and then I have two separate 'nacelles'. I assume the RoyalHawk gets the set with the box, and the NovaHawk gets the two separate ones, but some clarification would be nice. Finally, the wings on the Battle Hawks, War Eagles and Kestrel-class KRCs are fairly tweaked. Are the Battle Hawks and War Eagles wings supposed to be completely flat? And the KRCs, are they supposed to have a bit of a curve before the 'drop-off'?

Thanks!

**EDIT** Speaking of Scoutdad's site, I went there for reference pics to help with my questions, but of course he doesn't have any Romulan or Gorn pics there...pfftttphtpt!

Shadow wrote:I just got Border Box 3 in the mail this afternoon. I'm not new to minis, but I am new to FC and FC miniatures. I don't know what nacelles go with which ships (or even which ship is which for sure). Well, looking at the SSD's and picture on the cover of the box is helping.

For the Feds, I think it goes like this: I assume the difference between the NCL's and the NCA's is that the NCA's get the third nacelle with the extra boxy bit in the middle of their underside? For the War Destroyer minis, it appears that each only takes one extra nacelle under the middle bottom. However, I looked at Scoutdad's link and it looks like his Fed WD's have four nacelles?

You are correct about the NCL/NCA. The HDW has 4 nacelles. The DW has 3. They use the same saucer/upper hull section.

Shadow wrote:For the Romulans, which are bigger, the Battle Hawks or the War Eagles? Also, I assume it's the RoyalHawk and the NovaHawk that get the nacelles (or whatever the attachments are), but one is 2 'nacelles' connected with a 'box' in the middle, and then I have two separate 'nacelles'. I assume the RoyalHawk gets the set with the box, and the NovaHawk gets the two separate ones, but some clarification would be nice. Finally, the wings on the Battle Hawks, War Eagles and Kestrel-class KRCs are fairly tweaked. Are the Battle Hawks and War Eagles wings supposed to be completely flat? And the KRCs, are they supposed to have a bit of a curve before the 'drop-off'?

War Eagles are bigger than Battle Hawks. I can't remember whether its the Royal Hawk or the Nova Hawk with the Type R Plasma, but anyway, whichever one it is gets the nacelles with the box. The wings on the Hawks and War Eagles should be straight, but are at an angle up from the main hull of the ships in a vague 'V' shape. As for the KRs, I'm not exactly sure what question you are asking. Sorry I can't be of more help.

The Royalhawk does indeed have the Plasma-R.

The KRC should look just like the Klingon D6/7 ships apart from the colours as it was an "export model". There are plenty of illustrations of how they should look (sorry, didn't get the bit about the KRC curve).

Hope that's of some help.

Shadow wrote: **EDIT** Speaking of Scoutdad's site, I went there for reference pics to help with my questions, but of course he doesn't have any Romulan or Gorn pics there...pfftttphtpt!

And so the gauntlet has been thrown...

I am in the process of creating a whole new website (but its difficult to find the tme in and amongst work and real-life issues, but it'll happen). Stay tuned for updates.

As for Romulans, follow this link:
http://www.starfleetgames.com/discus/me ... 1149373168
My romulans were entry #6 in the contest.
As for Gorns - I haven't painted any... yet!

Shadow wrote:I just got Border Box 3 in the mail this afternoon. I'm not new to minis, but I am new to FC and FC miniatures. I don't know what nacelles go with which ships (or even which ship is which for sure). Well, looking at the SSD's and picture on the cover of the box is helping.

For the Feds, I think it goes like this: I assume the difference between the NCL's and the NCA's is that the NCA's get the third nacelle with the extra boxy bit in the middle of their underside? For the War Destroyer minis, it appears that each only takes one extra nacelle under the middle bottom. However, I looked at Scoutdad's link and it looks like his Fed WD's have four nacelles?
For the Romulans, which are bigger, the Battle Hawks or the War Eagles? Also, I assume it's the RoyalHawk and the NovaHawk that get the nacelles (or whatever the attachments are), but one is 2 'nacelles' connected with a 'box' in the middle, and then I have two separate 'nacelles'. I assume the RoyalHawk gets the set with the box, and the NovaHawk gets the two separate ones, but some clarification would be nice. Finally, the wings on the Battle Hawks, War Eagles and Kestrel-class KRCs are fairly tweaked. Are the Battle Hawks and War Eagles wings supposed to be completely flat? And the KRCs, are they supposed to have a bit of a curve before the 'drop-off'?
Thanks!

Toastie has it right.
Fed NCA gets the extra engine / box-like structure. The Fed DW has only a third nacelle underneath (the 4-engine minis on my website are Fed HDW's).
The War Eagles are bigger than Battlehawks.
While I've seen the engines both ways, IMHO (and on all my Roms) the engines of the older "Eagle" class ships are raised slightly above the main hull. My Kestrels (and Klink D6/D7's as well) do indeed have a bit of a curve to the wing just before the drop-off. I'm not certain if it was intentional (as it doesn't appear to be present on any of the Battlecruiser model kits I've ever seen...), but as it was that way with the first few I painted - I haven't bothered to straighten it out on any recent minis (and have even addedit to a few... to preserve continuity).

The Royal Hawk uses the twin nacelle with the boxlike structure connecting them (that is the Plasma-R launcher).

It's a lot of info in a short response... but I hope it helps.

Thanks for the info and replies, everyone! And thanks for the link, Scoutdad, that was cool and will help when I get to painting.

I ordered the decals from Starfighterace for the sets of miniatures I have ordered, does anyone know if the sets of decals come with any kind of 'bird' motif for the Romulans, or just ship IDs, etc.?

**Edit** deleted bit about the KR wings, as I hadn't seen Scoutdad's second post which basically answered it. Thanks again!

Shadow wrote:Thanks for the info and replies, everyone! And thanks for the link, Scoutdad, that was cool and will help when I get to painting.

I ordered the decals from Starfighterace for the sets of miniatures I have ordered, does anyone know if the sets of decals come with any kind of 'bird' motif for the Romulans, or just ship IDs, etc.?

Finally, for the KR wings, it's hard to describe without being able to draw it or show you in a picture, but I'll try one more time. If you are looking at the ship head-on, the wing leaves the fuselage horizontally. Mine then curve down as they get further away from the fuselage, then have the usual vertical bit at the end of the wing. <sigh> I can't even illustrate it in ascii. Basically, the wings look like they 'droop' as they go out to the side. Should the be horizontal, or even rise slightly?

From what you are describing, the 'droop' is normal. The ends of the wings where the engine struts attach are lower than the main hull. Take a look at the painting guide for the D7 from the legacy site: http://starfleetgames.com/minis/KLN/Klingon%20D7.gif It clearly shows the main hull sloping down to where the engines are attached.

Thanks! That's basically it, though mine are more of a curve than angles. That pic helps alot!

Shadow wrote:Thanks for the info and replies, everyone! And thanks for the link, Scoutdad, that was cool and will help when I get to painting.
I ordered the decals from Starfighterace for the sets of miniatures I have ordered, does anyone know if the sets of decals come with any kind of 'bird' motif for the Romulans, or just ship IDs, etc.?
Thanks again!

I don't know if Mark's decals have a bird motif - but you can try your hand at painting them yourself. That's what I did.

Mark's decals are excellent quality,though. I use them for the finer details on my Federation ships and have never had any problems.

Good luck and please remember to post pictures when you finish them.

I'm doing some Romulans and I'll be using some Warhammre 40k decals I have on them; they have an eagle motif that will work. I'm not skilled enough to paint one freehand.

I still have some of those "Imperial Eagle" decals left over from my Warhammer days. I'd thought about doing up another Pirate clan and using the various sized eagle declas for the unit markings... now you've got me wanting to go buy more Pirate miniatures and paint up a second cartel - then we could actually play the "Hey! That's My Freighter!" scenario using two different Orion Cartels... instead of just pretending that half of the Flaming Pirates are actual, Flaming Pirates and the other half are just in disguise...

For photos of the "Flaming Pirates":
http://www.starfleetgames.com/discus/me ... 1171488829

Um...what's the best solvent for Zap-a-Gap?

After this whole thread and looking at a bunch of pictures, I still put the nacelles on the RoyalHawk and the NovaHawk backwards (and add two cuts from an exacto trying to get them off)...

Serves me right for trying to do it at work...

Shadow wrote:... I still put the nacelles on the RoyalHawk and the NovaHawk backwards ...

Hmmm. A Romulan version of the Federation Destroyer, U.S.S. Kaufman

Personally, I've never had any luck with the "so-called" de-bonders. Every time I've tried them, I've made a bigger mess. Now, when necessary, I just carefully seperate the two pieces, clean off as much as possible with the handy-dandy Exacto, and then take a Dremel tool with a wire brush to the individual pieces.

Yeah, I got it using your method (minus the dremel). The RoyalHawk has slightly mis-aligned PL-R now, but...they're facing the front! Mostly...

Oh, the cuts from the exacto weren't on the models...if only!

I remember reading somewhere once that "It's not a great miniature unless you bled on it". ':D'

Regarding Mark T's decals -
Based on recommendations from a lot of folks (Mike Raper, etc.) I placed my first order this morning. A big one.

I'll be painting and decaling my entire Fed fleet all at once (both my new Starline 2400 ones and restoring my old Starline 2200 early '80's stuff).

I'm really looking forward to seeing the decals and getting them onto my minis. I'm trying to have one in particular ready for the potential June painting contest. We shall see.