Even More 1/7000 Star Trek

 

Oh

      no.

     Could it possi

                      bly be

even more!

S          (to boldly go)

P

A                       (make it so)

C

E

ships.

Wonder.  Geez.  For a little while there I was transported to an alternate universe where everyone had to write like how e.e. cummings wrote poetry.  I'd go back and change it but I'm afraid of provoking another space anomaly and being stuck there for                 ever.

MORE 1/7000 Star Trek 

Returning to normal and moving on: I've been on a painting spree lately and have really been cranking them out; when compared to myself, which is the only comparison that matters.  Unless you're someone who paints even slower than me.  In which case my hobby-life is rich and fulfilling and yours is void and stagnant by comparison and I get rewarded by feelings of well being.

  

I'm tellin' ya; Downward social comparisons are the KEY to happiness.  You should try it.

Painting Sweet Spots

Returning to normal FOR REAL this time and moving on: I'm in the Painting Sweet Spot with these spaceships.  I'm sure all of use wargamers have felt the happy effects of the Painting Sweet Spot at one time or another, and it kinda comes and goes, and can be defined rather personally.  For me there are 2 definitions of the Painting Sweet Spot.

1) The time when painting a project that you have painted enough of X to have a good grasp on how you like to do it and you like the results, but you still haven't painted enough of X yet for it to be a boring chore; like my children are. 

This is where I am with the spaceships.  I've painted enough of them now (around 20) that I know what I am doing and I like the results but not sooooo many that the novelty is gone.  It's still engaging.  

2) The time when painting a project that you have painted enough of X that the project is nearly done, like 95% done, and the last things are easy.  It's the anticipation of completeness.  Sometimes it can take a LONG time to get there and sometimes you never seem to get there because the project just goes on and on and on.....  Like taking care of my children.  

This is where I will be soon with the spaceships; as there's only about 10 or so more to do and the project is done.  (unless I order another fleet....maybe Romulans?)  

I only said that last part to mess with Dai.  There will be NO Romulans.

(maybe, actually I found some Romulan ships that aren't crazy expensive, so we'll see).

Finished Feds

As seen in the pervious post: I've have some purchases arrive with Star Trek reinforcements.  I've now painted all of the Federation new arrivals for a fleet of 13 total ships.  Impressive?  yes. 

Defiant Class:

Here we have another Defiant class starship.
There she is:
Defying you to not to love her.

Excelsior Class:

Excelsior class starships.
They excel at being pretty.

As the work horse of the fleet I've added two more of the Excelsior class starships.  

Ambassador Class

Ambassador Class Starship.
She can be the ambassador to my heart anytime.

A good looking ship but with a stupid class name.  'Ambassador Class' sounds like the group of people who paid $30 extra to board an airplane first.  

Sovereign Class

Extra pics of this shup as I think it came out looking rather well.

Sovereign Class
She will reign over our hearts. 

This class of ship is the 24th century version of the Enterprise.  Known as the Enterprise E, and is the star of the latest Star trek movies.  Not counting the Kelvin timeline.  DONT GET ME STARTED on the Kelvin timeline.  Just call it a reboot and move on, we all know it's fictional.  (if you have no idea what I am saying then you have a more fulfilling life, probably because you don't have children or they are better behaved than mine). 

The previous Enterprise D was blown up in a movie; mainly because they wanted a new ship that would look better on the wide screen.  The Enterprise is always being blown up in movies.  

A Galaxy class next a Sovereign class.
The Sovereign obviously has gotten a few up grades.

Whole Fleet:

Technically I now have all the ships that I need to run a good scenario at the up coming sci-fy convention in March..  I don't even have to paint those additional Klingon ships that I got.  Which Kinda makes them a waste of money and time...  like these children I have.  Except that I actually wanted the spaceships.

Here is everybody:

Star Trek Federation fleet.
Also known as "The Grey Menace." 

Federation: "We like saucers and rocket thingys."

All that's left to do now is attach labels to the ship bases somehow.  And I'll probably paint up those unpainted spaceships I have laying around just for the sake of completeness.

That's Where I Do It

Someone started a fad now ragging across my favorite blogs of showing off the painting desk.  Though I have shown the marvel of my painting desk before,  I like to join in so I can feel included.  Here's my hobby desk in it's current glorious disarray (from about a week ago when I took the pic.)

down the length

From where I sit.
(the other messy desk in front of it is my wife's hobby desk.
She doesn't use it much anymore except for storage).

It's quite cluttered at the moment as I'm in the middle of being productive. 

It could almost be one of those "look and find" books for little kids.

Find the:

• Screw driver that ought to be in the tool box.
• Broken bicycle Christmas ornament that needs repairing; from 2 years ago.
• 15mm Lutheran Seminary for ACW Gettysburg games, bought over 2 years ago and still not painted.
• Dried up bottles of super glue.

and etc..least I think it COULD be like a look-and-find book.  I wouldn't know. Whenever the kids asked to do one with me I'd say something like "That sounds BORING.  You're boring. Find it yourself.  I got to watch Youtube videos' about how to make perfect fart jokes."

Kidding (this subtitle works on two levels.  I'm a blogging genius.) 

I'm kidding about the kids.  But maybe I did it a little too hard and now you suspect my parenting skills.

To put you back on team Me; here are two pics proving that I'm actually engaged with children.

here I am showing Daughter #1 (9 years old) my awesome dad-
I mean DANCE moves before we go to her schools Father - Daughter dance.
It was 1950s themed.

Son #2 (4 years old) had a rough night and little sleep due to nightmares.
The next day, we spent the morning making a dream catcher
(the plate with the center cut out)

Son #3 (2 years old) is playing peek-a-boo in the back.

What a 4 year old can have nightmares about is beyond me.  "Are there not enough cupcakes so that everyone in class gets one?  There ALWAYS enough cupcakes."

But there.  Now you know that it's not ALL yelling and timeouts and complaining.  Now you're back on team Stew.  

Thanks for Reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment. 

Till next time.  Live long and do that hand thingy.  I can do it, but it hurts my fingers.

Star Trek 1/7000 (Federation)

 Oh noes, lookit more little trek ships...but this time the good guys.

1/7000 Star Trek Federation

These are the good guys right?  I mean this is not Warhammer 40k where everyone is kinda a prick.

Defiant Class

Some would say that the true star of DS9 is not the space station but this ship.  Supposedly one of the Federation's first ships built purposely for combat (as opposed to exploration and dance parties) it was made to kick ass and chew bubble gum (and it's all out of bubble gum).  So naturally it's a really small ship that most of the time seems to need only 8 people to crew it.  

Starfleet: "We need a ship to counter the threats of the galaxy. let's make one."

Federation: "yeah cool.  Should we make a battleship or heavy cruiser or something?"

Starfleet: "Naw man, let's make an escort vessel! That will show that we mean business." 

Size Pic; next to a 25mm round.
Damn small ship.

Excelsior Class

Here's another Excelsior class starship to join the fleet.  In the My Star Trek = Ships of the Line but in SPAAAAAACCCE analogy this class is like the 3rd rates.  As such it's just the basic ship and there's not much to say about it.

"yep"

Actual size pic: a medium ship.

APPARENTLY the paint I used on the top of the saucer and neck looks blue in one pic and purple in the next.  That's very spacey-agey futuristic and totally done on purpose.

USS Freitag (I checked the spelling TWICE)

I'm pretty sure the whole internet follows the blog written by Jonathan Freitag at Palouse Wargaming Journal (as it should be).  So you will recall, back in September last year on his 10 year blogging anniversary, that he sponsored a haiku writing contest about why his blog is so great and he is so handsome.  At least I am assuming he is handsome but I've never seen him.  But all the other wargame bloggers that I have seen are good looking people and I'm pretty damn attractive so I'm just assuming that the better one is at blogging the more attractive one is.  

In all seriousness his blog is a wealth of painted units, battle reports, insights on wargaming, and positivity.

The haiku prize was a gift certificate to your favorite gaming store; drawn form all the entries.  I won the contest because I stuffed the box with 5 haikus.  Haikus are like the easiest poems to write; they don't even need to rhyme, and kids learn them in grade school when learning how to count syllables (also checked that spelling twice).  I opted for a Shapeways gift card and said that I'd buy a space ship and name it after him.

The gift card was WAY more generous than it ought to have been:
so he gets a big ship in his honor.

I haven't put the labels on the bases yet because I'm still figuring out how I want it.
In Star Trek; all the Federation ships are named USS "something"

Naturally because it was a gift I wanted to paint it really well,
so that my online friend wouldn't feel like he wasted his money.

Sorry I wasted your money.

Size Pic
This is a Galaxy class ship like the Enterprise D was in TNG.
One of the bigger ships.

Thanks again JF.  And congratulations again on 10+ years of wargaming blogging.

Whole Federation Fleet

Let's see how the Federation fleet is shaping up...

Everyone fly straight

Now fly left..

Now fly right and ignore the chair in the background

I just thought this was a cool picture.

HHMMMmmmm, the Federation fleet is just bit out numbered compared to my Klingon fleet (which can be seen on the previous post HERE if so inclined).  

Problem is, I'm all out of space ships.  OH NO I hear you say.  But what can be done?   I guess I could take a break from painting and focus on my children for a little bit.  I know, it's A Terrible Loss.

But wait, is that a fortuitous knock at the door? A package you say? 

This package has potential written all over it

Yay!  Reinforcements! Just in time in time too.
The kids will have to wait, because Dads gotta paint.

STILL heavy on the Klingons.  But this should keep me busy enough until the convention deadline in Mid March.  Probably won't even need all of them.  I got so many because I received Shapeways gift cards for Christmas and my birthday: because I TOLD people to get me that.  

And I did.

This Sky is All Star, but No Shine

....I don't even know what that means...

It MEANS: This Blog is all Paint, and no Play

Not true!  Sometimes true.  However I did recently have Mr PC, Mr. CG, and Mr. DJ over for some phaser firing, shield scrapping, photon.......um...photoning space combat.

It's pretty hard to make pics of space combat look interesting.

This was an opportunity to test out all my ship designs, as I had to create all the ships stats within the framework of the rules.  Plus I had tinkered with some stuff as most of us miniature wargamers do.  We just can't keep our hands to ourselves.  So this was a playtest (and a good time).  How did I do?  pretty darn good. but there are always things one doesn't think about till it hits the table.  

For more pics you can see David's post HERE.  

At This Point in the Space-Time Continuum 

It is time to leave, which you've already done in the past to make this future in order to prove that the past belong to this future in the present.  Time travel episodes are dumb.

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till Next time.  

Star trek 1/7000 (Klingons)

 My immediate future is the far distant future in SSSPPPAAAAACE.

Last year I began to dabble in some Star Trek ships for some space gaming; kinda on a whim.

Painting will now go into warp speed as there happens to be a local convention in March called Conquest Avalon which is exclusively focused on Sci-Fi and Fantasy.  I thought "What an opportunity to become phaser focused on getting ALL these ships ready for the game table."  

We last visited the Star Trek topic back in August last year with this Post that focused on the Federation, but I've been silently working away on the Klingons during my hiatus.  All behind the scenes, all stealthy,  like Klingon starships cloaked and lurking in ambush...hidden from sight.

(think about it
Let the joke sink in)

Star Trek 1/7000 Klingons

Going from small to large: Let's start with everyone's favorite and most recognizable: the Klingon Bird of Prey.

Bird of Prey (Kvort Class)

Like all my ships so far; this is from Shapeways and is the "aggressive little cruiser" from Nova.  Now super cool trek nerds like me (because I have joined you, my fellow trekkies) know that the in-universe size of the Bird of Prey is ALL over the place going from small, to medium, to super large in a variety of class names (but the names are in Klingon so they all sound the same).  This is because while making the movies/TV shows modelers used the same ship and just up or down scaled it as the script needed; sometimes the ship is shown as a small one or as a large one.  I would of expected more consistency from a Sci-fi universe.  The B'rel class is the small version and the K'vort class is the bigger version. I went with the big version because I thought that matched my perception of what the ship is: something like a frigate (bc star trek to me is just ships of the line in space) and at 1/7000 scale it's still a small ship on the table.  Plus I like the word K'vort because that sounds like a sexy dance while B'rel sounds like a hair removal product for ladies.

SIZE PERSPECTIVE:
To get an idea of it's actual; size, here is the ship next to a 25mm round.
As you can see, it's quite small.  Makes my paint job all the more impressive.

Renegade Class

"WTF is a Renegade??!!!!'"  

Easy trek nerds, remember I am one of you now.  I'll explain.  

In Star trek the The Original Series (TOS) the Enterprise was a Constitution class starship and the Klingons had their equivalent the D7.  Now I am on the record for stating that I really don't care for the look of the D7 (stupid ship looks like a stupid snapping turtle with a stupid hat on it*); and I'm more of a Star Trek Next Generation (TNG) or Deep Space 9 (DS9) type of guy.  By that time in the franchise the federation had moved beyond the Constitution class and onto the Excelsior class; which is what I have in my federation fleet.  Now for some reason the Klingons didn't do this and kept on using the D7.  It got a slight facelift as the K'Tinga class but really it's still a D7.  kinda like if I went to a tanning booth: I'd be tan for the first time in my life but I'd still look like me...

So I wanted a Klingon medium sized ship that was not a D7; and found this ship on Armadillo miniatures that is based off the Klingon ship in the fan made youtube series  Star Trek Renegades; which might be terrible or great, I dunno because I didn't watch it. But this Klingon ship is perfect for my needs; like when a blind date accidently admits she likes the same kinky stuff you do.  The ship looks cool, fits in better with the TNG era ships, and it's the right size being bigger than the BoP and the D7 but smaller than the Vorcha (see later in the post for the Vorcha).  

See? Waaay cooler looking than the D7

here is the actual size pic next to the 25mm round.

*EXCEPTION: David's D7s that we've used for Klingon Armada are way cool.  After some futile resistance they have flown into my heart.  Maybe the models just look cooler than the media.  I'll probably get some D7s eventually...

This ship was even featured on Trekyards on Youtube, where two guys talk about star trek ships almost as if they were real.  so I think it's official enough.  I called it the Renegade Class because I never picked up it's name other than "that Klingon ship from Renegades."  And Renegade just sounds cool to my mid forties -stick the mud-stable routine- boring family man ears.  

There you go trek nerds.  Now we can all be friends again.  Give me a smile...

That's nice

Vor'Cha Class

In the never ending arms race in the Star Trek universe (which was all about peaceful exploration) The Klingon Vor'Cha class was the response to the Federation Ambassador class.  It made it's first appear in TNG and several more in DS9 when it got it's official cannon name because it was spoken in dialogue! That seems to be a trek rule. 

I think the ship design looks the biz-ness so I'll have several.  Any good Klingon fleet is gonna have lots.

Size Pic.  Bigger in size and ferocity.

When looking online for visual references to get an idea of how the ships are supposed to look (which I don't take too seriously since it's all made up) there are exciting pics of Klingon ships with the super cool red fire bird markings on the wings and there are boring pics without them.  Obviously I went with the super cool red accents more often than not.  I think it looks good, but it does run the danger of the Klingon ships looking like Winter Warriors from the planet Christmas.

(because red and green are Christmas colors)

And Lastly we move on to the...

Negh'Var Class

This is the Klingon battleship.  It shows up in a whole 2 episodes of DS9 (and in one of those episodes it has like 30 seconds of screen time before it gets One=Shotted (blown up) by a supped up version of the Enterprise) but it's gotten really popular since then.  It looks the part of a big dangerous ship.  

FUN FACT: Vor'cha and Negh'var in Klingon mythology were brothers.  One was a brilliant thinker of strategy and tactics and the other a ferocious warrior and battle leader.  Both fell in love with the same woman and wanted to marry her, and killed each other over her.  Crazy huh;  Klingon history is almost like a Shakespeare play.  And you would think that the strategic thinker who knows how to see the long picture would recognize that the bloom comes off the rose  and let the other have her...

It's a big ship. So green and red.
Like a Christmas tree that wants to destroy your planet.

Whole fleet

What's a post about star ships without some pics of the whole fleet huh? 

everyone fly left...

Now everyone fly right...

Now fly down.

The bases aren't totally done yet.  They need some labels and a little bit of stars.  I finally settled ona  40mm round base with a washer glued to the bottom for stability.  The flight pegs are 2" or 3" which provides a nice height differential.  The ships are secured to the flight peg by magnets.  SUPER STRONG rare earth magnets.

I TOTALLY trust the magnet not to drop my brittle plastic battleship.
That's the face of someone with complete trust in his craft.

He is SO.  He just won't show it.

Full Speed Away From Here

You've wasted enough time here.  Time to move on to something productive.  But come back later if you like Star Trek because I'll be doing this stuff for the next month and a half.  

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing  comment.

Till next time.

EDIT: Shopping Cart

For anyone looking to waste your time in a similar fashion; here are the links to Shapeways where I purchased the miniatures.  I got them all in "smooth fine detail' plastic except for the Neghvar which was in white versatile plastic because the price for the miniature in smooth fine detail was too high for my broke butt.  I meant to include links in the original post but forgot as I was too busy being Hilarious.

Bird of Prey

"Renegade"

Vorcha

Vorcha torpedo (this is the hammer head on the vorcha body seen in the fleet pic)

Neghvar