"It's One Of Ours, Admiral. ...It's Reliant."

"Reliant in our section, this Quadrant, sir, and slowing."

This 6mm metal miniature of an Oberon Class Destroyer can be found within “Irregular Miniatures” Imperial Fleet Spaceship range as code DYE3. Measuring 30mm in width and 35mm in length, this wonderfully detailed spacecraft makes a very good proxy for the Miranda-class Federation starship featured in the 1982 American science fiction film "Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan", and as a result will represent the U.S.S. Reliant on my star-field tabletop. As to whether the NCC-1864 will be commanded by Captain Clark Terrell or Khan Noonien Singh though, will depend entirely upon the scenario being played; albeit for now her only orders will be to patrol the Romulan Neutral Zone along with a number of Soyuz-Class vessels.

Having previously painted one of "Irregular Miniatures" Perry Class Frigates I decided to stick with the light grey colour scheme I'm using for the United Federation of Planets and applied two layers of “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey over the entire model. The Destroyer was then washed with “Citadel” Nuln Oil before being dry-brushed with more “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey. I was especially pleased as to how this basic painting technique worked on the figure, as the sculpt seemed to contain much more detail than the (somewhat tired-looking) Frigate casts I currently own.

Imperial & Dysonian Fleet WIPs - A dry-brushed Perry Class Frigate and washed Blitzspear Corvettes

With my basic steps completed I 'picked out' some of the vessels more colourful areas and used “Vallejo” Heavy Red for its two impulse engines, Gunmetal Metal on its primary hull's large radar sensor and Heavy Blue for its two warp nacelles. These areas were then appropriately washed with either “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson, Nuln oil and Asurmen Blue.

Originally I had intended to place this model upon a “Games Workshop” clear plastic flying stem with 32mm flying base. However whilst enlarging the hole for the stand I promptly drilled straight through the saucer section. Close to discarding the miniature and starting again, I finally settled on gluing a piece from an old "Brigade Games" "Aeronef" mast over the hole and quickly painted the tiny metal disc with a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil. I then super-glued an old OOP "Games Workshop" 'ball and socket' flying stand to the miniature, and thus covered up the damage both below and above, additionally ensuring that my U.S.S. Reliant would 'markedly' stand out from any other Miranda-class starships I subsequently paint.

Bloodletter WIPS - It's early days for my "Chosen of Khorne" and accompanying Hornblower

Sticking with my "Star Trek" theme I have started to apply some washes to the first few of my Imperial Perry Class Frigates and Dysonian Blitzspear Class Corvettes. Indeed I have even managed to start dry-brushing one of the "Irregular Miniatures" vessels I plan to use as Soyuz-Class Federation proxies. However in doing so I have discovered that the casts for this model are markedly more pitted than the starship I bought as a test-piece a few weeks ago. Hopefully the "Coat d'arms" Gloss Varnish I routinely use will help smooth the sculpt's surface down somewhat, as currently the spacecraft's overall look somewhat jars with that of it's sister ship despite both models being painted with precisely the same colours and in exactly the same way; albeit I'm now using a "Royal & Langnickel" Size 6 round brush for my dry-brushing...

Finally I have continued to assemble and prime more of the plastic multi-part models found within the "Games Workshop" Bloodletters boxed set. These lesser daemons of Khorne will initially provide my Host of Nurgle some most welcome support as Allies. But will almost inevitably end up as opposition once I have painted up enough of the Blood God's forces to challenge my pimple-covered Plaguebearers for control of their Mortal Realm.