Wednesday 10 August 2016

"The Class Design Was Based On The Single Hull Configuration..."

"The Soyuz-Class bridge shared a similar floor plan with contemporary Federation starships of its era."
This 6mm metal miniature of a Perry Class Frigate is one of the many starships which can be found within “Irregular Miniatures” Imperial Fleet Spaceship range as code DYE2. Measuring 30mm in length and 22mm in width, this somewhat brusquely-sculpted vessel makes a very useful “Star Trek” proxy for a Soyuz-class Federation starship, and will hopefully prove to be one of five such identically-classed warships I’ll soon have on the tabletop patrolling the Romulan Border…

Having previously painted some of “Mongoose Games” official resin starships with a combination of “Citadel” Skull White and Badab Black, I was rather keen to learn from my past mistakes and try for a greyer look to my miniatures. However, as I ultimately plan to use dark grey as the colour of some Kingon battlecraft, I decided to go with the bluish-looking “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey as my prime undercoat. Two layers later and the Frigate was washed with “Citadel” Nuln Oil before being dry-brushed with more “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey.
Oberon Class Destroyer WIPs - The 6mm starship has been undercoated, washed and then dry-brushed
With my basic phases thus finished I decided to try and pick out some of the vessels finer detail with some “Vallejo” Heavy Red for the two Polyduranide nacelle particle apertures, Gunmetal Metal on its three saucer sensor dishes and Heavy Blue for its four warp engine filed grills. These areas were then washed with “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson, Nuln Oil and Asurmen Blue respectively. The model was finally placed upon a “Games Workshop” clear plastic flying stem with 32mm flying base.

Now the first of my Federation armada finished, and some significant reinforcements ordered from “Irregular Miniatures”, I have started running through precisely the same painting phases for one of the manufacturer’s Oberon Class Destroyers. Significantly largely than its predecessor, this multi-part model has a lot more raised detail to highlight with dry-brushing, and includes an impressive-looking radar beneath its saucer.
Plaguebearer WIPs - Plaguebearers in various stages of painting and washing
Finally, as I now have a couple of my “games Workshop” plastic Plaguebearers flocked and finished, I’ve started trying to paint the minions of Nurgle up in batches of two or three. As a result I’ve managed to get a number of the washes finished on both a third putrescent demon, and his unit’s champion. These multi-part miniatures now just need to be dry-brushed with some more “Vallejo” Heavy Khaki, so that the washes blend in a little better with their rotting flesh, and they’ll be ready for some final highlights.

I’ve also ‘picked out’ the vast majority of boils, sores and innards on another Plaguebearer whose guts are helpfully being extracted by a tiny Nurgling. I’ve actually put together three of these disgusting vignettes in order to make best use of the figures’ larger ‘new’ “Citadel” 32mm round base, and imbue the unit with a little sense of fun.

22 comments:

  1. 32mm diameter bases!? GW really are the masters of scale creep aren't they? Yet another reason why I hate them so much. Still, there's no denying your colour schemes are spot on for all of the figures shown in the post. Good work, Simon1

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Bryan. The change in base size did somewhat throw me I must confess, and as a result some of the models do look a little lost with so much space around them. However with the little Nurglings bounding about they do give me a little room for wriggling them about on the base.

      Glad you like the paint scheme as its the one I'm planning on going with for my "Black Plague" zeds when I finally get a chance to paint them!!

      Delete
    2. I do wonder why with 30mm diameter bases being readily available did GW decide to increase the base sizes to 32mm. Nothing this company does makes sense to me!

      Actually, painting your ZBP Zombies in your Nurgle colour scheme should work well. Interestingly enough, the official War Painter Zombie Flesh for ZBP is very similar to your shade of green. Go for it, I say! It'll make them stand out from your contemporary zeds.

      Delete
    3. Well the Blightkings I own are apparently on 40mm round bases Bryan, and they're single standing models as well; just bulked out with armour.

      Glad you like the idea of the green. I've really been inspired by all your and Sir Awdry's "Black Plague" postings :-)

      When are we doing "Rum'n'Bones" though? ;-)

      Delete
    4. We? I dunno. When do you want to do them?

      Delete
    5. It was a royal "we", Bryan, as you're the Baron of bloggin' ;-)

      Delete
  2. I've looked at those Irr. Min's starships in the past and had ideas, but never pursued them. One of the issues I had was I really liked the 'Federation' ships but wasn't too struck on the other models they sold. Anyway, you can now prove me wrong.

    Just bought myself a 'space' gaming mat and ordered some asteroids for my Star Wars stuff, so I'm hoping to go all spaceship crazy myself on the blog.

    Trying to think of Alex Mayer's blog with his Klingon spaceship models, as he printed off some cool radar type images to place on the flying bases of his Star Trek models. I'll have to go and find it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Roy, I haven't started posting the range I plan to use as Romulans yet. But I think they're terrific too, so hopefully I'll be able to tempt you with some of them at least ;-)

      I'm looking forward to seeing your X-Wing postings, as well as Armada, as I have minis for those games I need your inspiration to paint and play with.

      A link to Alex Mayer's blog would be much appreciated. I look forward to seeing the flying bases :-)

      Delete
    2. Ah, few years since I saw his mini's so I got the radar bit wrong, it's like a firing arc thing - you'll see. It's in German, but google translate doesn't do too bad a job switching to English - Unless you speak Austro - German?

      http://wuerfelsindgefallen.blogspot.co.uk/

      http://wuerfelsindgefallen.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Klingonen

      Delete
    3. Those are excellent Roy. They look rather good. I have some of those "Mongoose Games" starships. The resin was truly rubbish :-)

      Delete
    4. I'm glad I didn't buy into the Mongoose stuff, then - I nearly did, on seeing Alex's models when he was active on a forum I'm on. I got all excited about them, it might have been around the time I started watching Star Trek, but I'd only just got back into gaming at that point and was rusty with the paints and too tight to spend that much on figures.
      Now I'm too quick to buy too much. I might need to reassess my habits :)

      Delete
    5. To be fair, I did like the resin in some ways because the models were really simple to glue together and nice and light for their stands. But casting quality was an entirely different problem.

      I did look to buy some more from "Mongoose Games" and was amazed that they entire line had been removed, along with their own range of spacecraft. Not sure who owns them now. But the sculpts themselves were great!!

      Reassessment of one's purchasing habits is always worth doing, my friend :-)

      Delete
  3. You know what? I'm going to say it again...those Plaguebearers are the business!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You keep on saying it buddy, as I love hearing it!!!

      Delete
  4. Top work, love the oozing ones

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Martin. Lots of oozing still to be done.

      Delete
  5. The Nurgle are still really nice, but 32mm bases! GW continue to bemuse and alienate the people who started with them thirty odd years ago!!!

    The Irreg starships are the starts of this post though, I've got quite a little fleet of the not Klingon ones and I really like them. I'm not a high Star Trek fan but these are rather tempting, haven't played full thrust for years, last time was with the kids, then we went to Areonef, and Dystopian wars and through to X wing. But do have happy memories of these figs. nice work Simon.

    Cheers Roger.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Roger. I'm certainly enjoying the "Irregular Miniatures", so they'll be plenty more to tempt you I hope!! I actually plan to use "7TV" for the rules, and once my latest order arrives and is quickly painted up, I'll hopefully show you how with a BatRep or two.

      Delete
  6. Fine looking plaguebearers, Simon.

    I picked up a pack of 32mm bases a while back as I needed something slightly larger than a standard 30mm. It turns out that the edges are beveled so severely that their top surface is actually no larger than that of a 30mm. (To my recognition, it may have even been smaller.)

    Thanks GW!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Finch. Well that certainly negates the suggestion that the bases were made bigger to allow for vignettes etc. I simply don't understand why they'd do that!?!

      Delete
  7. I like the designs of those ships very much - keeping true to the designs of the Trek setting. Simple paint jobs work well at that scale. Which rules will you play them with?

    PB's coming along just fine. Schnozzle-face is an interesting sculpt - couldn't find a place for him in my own PB's though. Will be interesting to see how he looks all finished with your washes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Dai. Glad you like the "Star Trek" ships as I've plenty en route. I actually plan on doing something with them and "7TV" which may seem a little strange at first. but is something I think will lead to a lot of fun on the tabletop.

      I've taken a real shine to Schnozzle-face, and hope to have another WIP of him (and his Nurgling) washed over the weekend.

      Delete