"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.