Federation Commander

In case anyone is interested in doing up the old Terran hulls (CL and POL) from the Starline 2500 series to match their counterparts in the Federal Republic of Aurora (the CL and FF [http://www.starfleetgames.com/documents ... ised)1.pdf]), I was able to commission a set of "FRA custom" decal sheets from the guys at Tenneshington Decals; modified from the originals in order to represent the ships of the Auroran Navy.

The Auroran decals aren't too different from their Star Fleet (and Federation Police) originals. The engine banners are blue instead of red; the Star Fleet arrowhead on each is replaced by an Auroran star; the ship names are listed as "R.S.S.", for (Federal) Republic Star Ship, instead of "U.S.S."; the "NCC-" registry is replaced with the class designation, and includes a "leading zero" on numbers lower than 10 (a custom which Star Fleet does not use); and each decal includes a miniature FRA flag (of the kind shown here) to use on the hull.

(The specific ships I have on order are the light cruiser CL-05 RSS Andoria, the frigate FF-08 RSS Bremen, and the frigate escort FFE-01 RSS Hessen; all ships which were part of the Auroran fleet that fought the first key battle for control of the Aurora system in Y149. There isn't much of an official ship name-plus-registry list around just yet, however; so while the ship names are "real", don't take those registry numbers as gospel just yet.)

While the guys have the new custom banners on file, they won't be adding them to the individual sheet section of their web site. While they can be ordered, they will essentially be "off the menu" items only; so you'll have to specifically ask for them to be added to your order.

So, if anyone is looking to kit their Terran hulls out for use in the Omega Octant, now's your chance!


(For some reason, the link to the FF file won't work properly; though it does seem to work on the Mongoose board. Hmm.)

My own FRA decals arrived in the post yesterday! Hopefully, once the actual minis they are intended to go on (which are on order at the moment) arrive, I won't mess things up when it comes to actually applying them.

(If things turn out well enough, I may try to post pics of the minis with the decals applied to them.)

One thing to note for anyone considering a set for themselves; as it stands, the "white" on the FRA flags that come on the sheet is, in fact, "clear"; the current print setup for the decals doesn't allow for them to be given a white background. While that may change if Tenneshington get a new printer, for now Tony has suggested that one should simply paint the portion of the hull where the flag is set to go white; so that, even if the rest of the hull is a different colour, the overall effect will be the same.

Gary:
The ideal solution is to purchase a printer that is capable of underprinting in white. ALPS made several models that were very good at this (and even licensed the tech to Citizen who made two or three models). Unfortunately, production of all of these models has been discontinued.
We are currently searching for a working MD5500 (and as soon as one comes up, we will purchase it).
The only other option is a 4-color process printer as is used by most major publishers and those run into the 10's of thousands of dollars. I don't think we'll sell enough decals to justify that expense.
unless we can convince Scoutdad to buy decals for all his miniatures... wait, nevr mind. =He'd just want a bulk discount.

(Most of) this set arrived in the post today!



Alongside the large-print (10-point, as opposed to the standard 9-point) edition of Captain's Log #45, there are Starline 2500 versions of the Fed New Fast Cruiser, Light Cruiser, and Police Cutters (which come 2 to a pack); the Orion Raider Cruiser; and the Romulan FastHawk.

The NCF and FFH are intended to stay in the Alpha Octant; the other four minis will (eventually) be set up to serve in the Federal Republic of Aurora over in the Omega Octant.

Also, in the envelope above the magazine, there are sets of decals from Tenneshington Decals for the Fed minis.

The NCF's decals are for Star Fleet; though the hull registry is actually for the NCC-1382 Simon Bolivar, a ship that had served as a (new) fast light cruiser instead. If Mongoose ever do a proper NLF mini, I can use the decals for that ship; otherwise, if I don't make an attempt to convert the NCF into an NLF myself, I may simply consider this ship to be what the Bolivar might have looked like had it been upgraded to an NCF during its service life.

For the others, the custom FRA decals noted above will allow them to serve as the CL Andoria, the FF Bremen and the FFE Hessen. All three ships served in a key battle in Y149, that helped establish the Republic's independence from encroachment by the silicate Trobrin Empire. (Once again, the FRA custom decals are considered to be "off the menu" items; if you want to order them, you have to ask for them specifically when making your order.)

I can't guarantee how long it might take to actually get some paint on these minis, though; let alone apply those decals. But, I'll try not to leave it too long before I do...

I'm looking forward to your colour scheme for the 'Throne' Gary,it'll be nice to see your version.

Well, first I would have to actually figure one out for it!

I was imagining that the ship would have been given a series of different paint schemes during the course of its service life. So, perhaps one era saw it done up as a "regular" Naval ship, with the kind of emblems seen on other Auroran starships; or, instead, that it was given no Auroran markings at all, in order to make it look as "independent" as it could be. (Although, I don't think anyone would have been fooled by the time word had started to spread about the Throne's, and Republic's, existence.)

One good thing about the decal sheet is that it has plenty of spare FRA flags; so I'm sure at least one could end up on the Throne's hull if it was worth adding one to it...