Wednesday 28 September 2016

"Fate. Protects Fools, Little Children And Ships named Enterprise."

"Risk is our business. That's what this starship is all about. That's why we're aboard her."
This 6mm scale metal miniature of a Kitakami Class Tug is by “Irregular Miniatures” and can be found within the company’s New Spaceship Range under code DYE10. Measuring 27mm in width and 68mm in length, this somewhat flat(ish) sculpt, at least when viewed from the side, makes a fairly recognisable proxy for one of the Constitution-class starships shown on the Sixties American Television Science Fiction series “Star Trek”, and as a result will represent the U.S.S. Enterprise during my planned “7TV” space battles.

Having now painted several of "Irregular Miniatures" Imperial Fleet vessels as Federation starships, I followed my usual technique and colour scheme by simply undercoating the model with two layers of “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey, washing it with “Citadel” Nuln Oil, and dry-brushing it with more “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey.
The U.S.S. Enterprise leads a Federation fleet against a flotilla of Romulan raiders
I then 'picked out' some of the vessel’s more colourful areas such as its field impellers with “Vallejo” Heavy Red and “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson, as well as its main deflector dish with “Citadel” Ironbreaker and Nuln Oil. As a last thought I also added a couple of “Vallejo” Heavy Blue dots to the spacecraft’s forward phaser array, and washed them with “Citadel” Asurmen Blue.

Unfortunately, despite the relative straightforwardness of this Federation starship’s paint-job. The model itself proved somewhat difficult to assemble beforehand. This was primarily because the design doesn’t seemingly allow for the fact that the Tug’s separate warp nacelles need something stronger than just super-glue in order to remain attached to the top of its main engineering section. As a result I felt compelled to drill two ‘fixing’ furrows along the rear of the vessel’s hull and ‘slot’ the two pieces into them first.
"Irregular Miniatures" WIPs - An Oberon Class Destroyer, Revised Perry Class Frigate & Jarl Class Frigate
In addition, because I wanted the U.S.S. Enterprise to sit upon one of the old OOP “Games Workshop” flying stands I use for my spacecraft, I also had to carefully remove the rear of its deflector dish before there was enough room to affix the somewhat bulky ‘ball and socket’ element of the base to its underside. This problem proved particularly annoying as it resulted in me drilling straight through the saucer section and thereby needing to cover over the offending hole with a metal piece from my bitz box. Luckily the Seventies "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" version of the N.C.C.1701 was in fact a refitted Constitution-class starship, so the repair is easily explainable...

With the deadline for my “Star Trek” themed “Irregular Miniatures” project now in plain sight, I have been pushing on with a few more models from the manufacturer’s range. These vessels predominantly involve Imperial Fleet spaceships, such as the Oberon Class Destroyer and Revised Perry Class Frigate. But I am also hoping to perhaps still paint a few more craft from their Dysonian Fleet in order to be able to ‘field’ something other than Blitzspear Class Corvettes for my Romulan flotilla.
Nurgling WIPs - These tiny daemons are riddled with zits, open sores and gore
Finally I am making some good headway through the mass of Nurglings I need to paint for my “Age of “Sigmar” Host of Nurgle. These three stacks of tiny mischievous daemons are packed full of characterful detail and are proving a real slog now my brush is waist-deep in their entrails, slobbering tongues, horns, red eyes, pointed teeth and pustules. Fortunately I’m now almost halfway through the number needed to use a minimum-sized unit on the tabletop, with most of the Khan’gurani’i requiring just a combination of “Citadel” washes before being ready for some final pock-coloured highlights.

26 comments:

  1. Your diverse projects are coming along nicely. Good progress all around. I did like the photo of your Federation ships taking on the Romulan Raiders. It looks like a very one-sided fight!

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    1. Many thanks Bryan, diversity is certainly the spice of the my hobbying life. I was actually thinking of you when I decided to take the photo you mention, so I'm delighted you like it :-)

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  2. You deserve so much credit for remaining on course during September Simon, last push now. Great to see the Nurglings again, I've developed quite a soft spot for these mischievous critters.

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    1. Most kind Michael. I'm hoping this monthly subject matter will keep my course my focused and as you say, it would seem to have worked for "Star Trek" September. My fingers are crossed for Zomtomber :-)

      I've got the first base of Nurglings finished, and hope to have the second done soon, so next week there should be a posting containing at least one completed stack of the little terrors :-)

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  3. Those are nice sculpts, well painted too!

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    1. Cheers Fran. I like them more and more, as I paint my way through them.

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  4. Ha, I'm so out of touch that I didn't even recognise that (now OOP) GW flight stand. I thought you were talking about those really ugly flight stands they used to sell between the late 80s to the early 00s.
    Everything's coming along nicely, and I really like that top-down image of the vessels painted so far.

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    1. Thanks Roy. I'm really not sure why the stands are OOP as they are the best I've so far encountered. Although Brummie has pointed me towards the "Hawk Wargames" ones used for "Dropzone Commander".

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  5. I will check out Irregular Miniatures ships a bit later. I had forgotten they do those. I`ve always liked Ian`s work, but uuugh yes, some of that stuff is very stubborn and simply DOESNT assemble easily *coughs.... Napoleonic cannon*

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    1. Please do give "Irregular Miniatures" a look Steve, their range is great imho. But I do wish some of them were a little easier to assemble. Still hopefully my U.S.S. Enterprise shows that the effort is worth it.

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  6. I can imagine it's turning into a bit of slog with all the Nurgle figs but they look great and will do even more so when together in all the gruesome glory!

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    1. Thanks Gordon. Slog is a good word, though now the first base is finished there's a bit of incentive. Looking at a third back row which I've yet to start is rather depressing though with all its eyes, teeth, horns and sores etc.

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  7. All those starships ****drools uncontrollably****

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    1. Cheers Andy. My OTT photo covers about half the minis I've so far painted. But hopefully gives an idea as to the vessels' relative sizes to one another.

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  8. Nurglings are progressing nicely dude! I always spot something at the next session that I missed from the previous one. Usually something glaringly obvious.

    You've got an awesome collection of ships taking shape. Will you play a mass fleet action with them?

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    1. Thanks Simon. The moment I always dread is when I'm just cropping a photo of my newly painted mini for this blog and spot a mistake etc. That's when I grimace :-)

      A big BatRep using "7TV" is planned for the starships. Though because I only have so many Romulans this time round, I'm not sure whether all of the Federation vessels will be included; especially as I plan to use the U.S.S. Enterprise as my Star and U.S.S. Reliant as a Co-Star. But we'll see.

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  9. more snot monsters please, and space ships and etc. etc.

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    1. Oh absolutely Martin, but they'll be some zombies first ;-)

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  10. Consider me sold on the Irregular Miniatures starship. I will definitely be buying some to bolster my NARN fleet. As for enemies, i'very got my eye on some Brigade Models ships, which will be supplemented by the eM-4 ships I now have, which will be entering in my next post.
    Of course, I will be using the "Final Frontier" rules, which are now available to download from my blog for free! They seem to be going down quite well...

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    1. Glad I could tempt you Jez. I only have a couple more "Irregular Miniatures" postings left as "Star Trek" September closes and Zomtober 2016 begins.

      "i'very got my eye on some Brigade Models ships" - Don't worry about the predictive text my friend, as it happens to the best of us.

      Looking forward to seeing your next "Final Frontier" posting, and I'm glad to hear that your rules are going down well :-)

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  11. Enterprise looks great! The original theme tune is running about my head and now won't go away - not a bad thing. :)

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    1. Thanks Dai. Much appreciated. I hope you'll like my U.S.S. Excelsior too as its my fave sculpt of the lot so far.

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  12. I like those nurglings more and more with each post.

    Happy Zomtober Eve, BTW.

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    1. Cheers Finch. Happy Zomtober Eve too. I won't unfortunately have anything finished for tomorrow but it will be a zed-led posting :-)

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  13. Lovely stuff Simon, those Irreg starships look excellent. Especially that Kitakami tug, that is a belter, and one I will have to pick up at some point, those are all really nice ships that I have foolishly ignored in the past as I'm not the worlds biggest "Trek'head", but I think I might have to build a "Federation" fleet myself now after your posts.

    Your Nurgle stuff looks a treat too, Looking forward to what you do for Zomtober (it could be anything with you!), But I'm guessing they wont be green, as I expect you're sick of the sight of that colour by now!

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Many thanks Roger. I'm actually rather sorry to see "Star Trek" September end as its been a blast, and I'm probably only halfway through my collection of "Irregular Miniatures". However, I'm sure the drawer will come up on a future dice roll for another month at some point. In the meantime I have a few more starships to simply finish off and post... and then the all-important BatRep :-)

      Nurgle will continue to grow and be green (with some Khorne red thrown in) for the foreseeable, so perhaps that'll tempt you at some point too? As for Zomtober I've nothing finished for my first post tomorrow but will have plenty of WIPs of the Judge Dredd undead I'm hoping to paint during the month... and they are perhaps surprisingly rather green-looking :-)

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