Thursday 8 September 2016

"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.

30 comments:

  1. Nice work on your not-Reliant proxy. :)

    It looks excellent. :)

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    1. Thanks Leon. It was close to being a disaster, so I'm glad I managed to salvage it.

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  2. Nicely done on Reliant, but... Oh blast, I'm starting to think about collecting Star Trek space ships now and its all your fault! ;)

    I must resist and stick with Star Wars Armada.

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    1. Cheers Roy. I'm not sure my four upcoming "Star Trek: Attack Wing" BatReps are going to help you then ;-)

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  3. Not bad at all, Simon. Fortunately for my wallet I do not feel the need or temptation to get into starship battles despite the good work shown by you and Jez.

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    1. Thanks Bryan. I've still plenty more "Star Trek" starships to show over the coming weeks, so there's still plenty of time for you to change your mind ;-)

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  4. oh boy, I do love those space ships. I`d have thought them hard to bring alive with painting, but you've shown it can be done well.

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    1. Cheers Steve. Much appreciated. Hopefully my upcoming "Star Trek" BatReps will keep you hooked too :-)

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    2. I look forward to those mightily. I so nearly got into Trek gaming in a big way a few years back. What stopped me? energy and time! Star Trek is BIG if you want to do it with all the depth and flourishing, and I would have wanted to do just that, rpg, ships, the lore, the lot. I knew when I was beat and sadly turned my back and RAN the opposite direction - before temptation got the better of me. But I`d sorely enjoy to read your battles.

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    3. Steve, glad you're looking forward to them. I've been resisting "Star Trek:Attack Wing" for ages but finally given into the bug in a big way, so there are quite a few BatReps planned. In addition "Modiphius" have announced their imminent "Star Trek" RPG. Have a look here, buddy : http://www.modiphius.com/star-trek.html. And if that doesn't tempt you then I'm sure my postings on it when I pick up a copy will ;-)

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    4. oh WOW, that looks simply incredible doesn't it. Only thing stopping me is that I am at the start of a new project myself right now (there's actually a new article just up today about it in the other site) so timing is wrong for me to dare look too closely at this lol, but WOW.

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    5. Just seen that Steve, and what a cracking project it looks too. Still at the rate you seem to be assembling and painting your "Liberty or Death" minis, you'll have that one wrapped up ready for another just as "Star Trek" RPG comes out ;-)

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    6. yessss go on go on *claps hands excitedly and looks at Stevie.. yeah, huh huh huh?*

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    7. There's no rush Steve, and perhaps a few more painted starships over the next few weeks will slowly tempt you...

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  5. {{Having previously painted one of "Irregular Miniatures" Perry Class Frigates I decided to stick with the light grey colour scheme}}

    I` going to show my ignorance here. But aren`t all Federation ships swan white and black, red and blue insignia (depending which fleet they hail from)?

    I absolutely love these and its making me feel all Star Trek-y.

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    1. Glad you're liking the starships, T. The actual original Enterprise was bizarrely "a light grey color with a light tint of green". These days though most painters tend to go for something like “Concrete” or “Armory Gray”. "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey is a little greyer than those, but really seems to work well with "Citadel" Nuln Oil. In addition its a bit closer to the "Deckhouse Blue" colour "Star Trek: TNG" era starships are. Ultimately though, its down to choice imho :-)

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  6. oh yes I see. I`m still working my way through this massive collection the guys have (I think they have them all on DVD, and I`m only part way through TNG right now). I have played the Trek rpg long ago, and the GM seemed to imply all the ships were white, with different colour insignia, but as you say, its down to each person really isn't it. as it should be. Thank you for that Simon xx

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    1. No worries T, glad you're enjoying your "Star Trek", that's what this hobby is all about :-)

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  7. The Reliant looks so good mate, right out of the film. Looking forward to seeing some pew-pew space battle action!

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    1. Cheers Dai. Hopefully they'll be plenty of pew pews too!!

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  8. Looking good buddy, I'm an occasional Trekkie but watched nearly all TNG, loved DS9 and watched all of Voyager. I had a ships tabletop game for Star Trek back in the early 90's which was great fun sadly lost to various moves :-(

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    1. Thanks Andy. If you like tabletop ships, TNG etc then I think you're really going to enjoy the series of "Star Trek: Attack Wing" BatReps I've got planned for the next few weeks :-)

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  9. I do like your "Relliant" I thought I'd never seen that ship in Irregs boxes at show then read how you'd added the box to the top to cover the hole you made. It really adds to the ship and makes it look so much better! great work, as you said its a shame that though Irreg do some lovely stuff sometimes the casting quality lets them down.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Cheers Roger. Drilling through the saucer was definitely a happy accident as far as I'm concerned. Really glad you like it. Sadly I doubt I'll be buying more of the original Perry Class Frigate sculpts, as the casting is a little off in my books. But the newer version DYE11 (Revised Perry Class Frigate) looks awesome imho, and may replace their older sister ships in the future...

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  10. These look excellent dude. Didn't realise they were so small which makes you appreciate the paintjob even more! Look forward to reading the battle reports when they hit the blog.

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    1. Thanks Simon. If you think these 'Federation' starships are tiny, then wait until you see the 'Romulan' fighters I'm currently painting ;-) I have a "Star Trek: Attack Wing" BatRep coming up very soon, so hopefully that'll give you a taster of things to come.

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  11. A little further... a little further... too far.

    Ah, the joy of unintentionally drilling straight through a miniature. We've all been there, Simon.

    Nice shade of Romulan green on the corvette.

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    1. Cheers Finch :-) With hindsight I'm amazed I didn't just chuck the model out there and then. Fortunately though I think my repairs have actually worked in its favour. Glad you like the green, hard to really do much with the Romulans as their latter-day ships just seem to be green!?!

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  12. I do like the Irregular spaceships, real value for money and look great when painted up like your ones. Shame about the 'disater' but well recovered (- I think I'd have been tempted to throw it through the wall).
    The bloodletter (haven't a clue what it is btw but reminds me of a genestealer)looks a very interesting sculpt too.

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    1. Thanks very much Joe. I was close to binning the damn thing but all's well that ends well imho. I've a fair few "Irregular Miniatures" to share over the coming weeks, so hopefully they'll be plenty of posts for you to enjoy.

      The Bloodletters are wonderful sculpts imho, with lots of character and should prove fun to paint as they're predominantly red and black - with a little gold/brass thrown in.

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