“My Friends, The Great Experiment...The Excelsior, Ready For Trial Runs.”

"Stardate 9521.6. Captain's Log, U.S.S. Excelsior. Hikaru Sulu commanding."

This 6mm scale metal miniature of a County Class Heavy Cruiser is by “Irregular Miniatures” and can be found within the company’s New Spaceship Range under code DYE5. Measuring 28mm in width and 60mm in length, this rather formidable-looking vessel will be used as a proxy for the Twenty-Third Century excelsior-class starships first seen in the 1984 Science Fiction Motion Picture “Star Trek III: The Search For Spock” and as a result will represent Captain Hikaru Sulu’s first command, the U.S.S. Excelsior (NCC-2000), during my planned “7TV” space battles.

Having painted several of "Irregular Miniatures" Imperial Fleet vessels up as Federation starships over the past few weeks, I stuck to my ‘tried and tested’ technique of initially undercoating the model with two layers of “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey, washing it with “Citadel” Nuln Oil, and then dry-brushing it with more “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey. In addition I decided to 'pick out' some of the prototype vessel’s more colourful areas such as its warp nacelles with a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Blue and “Citadel” Asurmen Blue, and its saucer section’s deflector dish with “Citadel” Ironbreaker and Nuln Oil.

Herald Of Nurgle WIPs - The converted Plaguebearer has lost his scythe's Nurgling 

Originally I also started to paint a number of areas of the spacecraft with “Vallejo” Heavy Red and “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson. However I soon found myself struggling to reach some of these details, particularly those around the front end of the Excelsior’s nacelles, with my brush. This was partially due to the vessel’s main hull getting in the way. But I was also somewhat frustrated by the quality of the miniature’s casting, which was a little ragged and torn around the edges. In the end though I finally decided to abandon my plans when I realised just how predominantly red the extra work made the model look; something I especially wanted to avoid considering that the potential “fastest starship in the entire Federation” appears somewhat blue in colour when seen on the silver screen due to its transwarp drive.

As a result the majority of these red areas were treated to a layer of “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey, washed with “Citadel” Nuln Oil and then dry-brushed with more “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey in order to ‘merge’ back in with the rest of the vessel’s main hull colour. Annoyingly though, even this simplification of the vessel’s paint scheme didn’t ultimately help lessen my time spent on the model as I ended up having to re-paint parts of the warp nacelles following my “Coat d’arms” Gloss Varnish suddenly going all cloudy…  

Mega-City One Undead WIPs - The futuristic cadaver has had his torn attire base-coated and washed

With my “Star Trek” themed “Irregular Miniatures” monthly project now concluded, I have started working on a second Herald of Nurgle for my “Age Of Sigmar” Tallyband. I have admittedly already begun painting one of these multi-part plastic miniatures this month. But having bought another “Start Collecting!” Daemons of Nurgle boxed set from “Games Workshop”, I thought I’d paint the two Plaguebearer heroes simultaneously.  I have however decided to convert this former Balesword-wielding Daemon by replacing his black-coloured sword with a Putrid Blightkings scythe and swapping his H.R. Giger-inspired head for that of a champion Plagueridden.

I had also added a second Nurgling to the Herald’s assemble by super-gluing one of the cheeky imps onto the staff of his hand-weapon. However, having primed the model, washed it and dry-brushed it, I came to realise that the additionally tiny terror was making the miniature appear a little too busy for my liking, and I have now ‘clipped off’ the "Tiny Plague".

"STAR TREK: ATTACK WING" - The U.S.S. Enterprise-D & U.S.S. Constellation battle The Doomsday Machine

Sadly, the Gleeful Castoffs’ removal has slightly mucked up the binding two-thirds of the way up the scythe’s shaft, but I now plan to simply paint that area “Citadel” Abaddon Black and maybe highlight it with a little Charcoal in order to cover over my mistake. If this doesn’t work out then I think my grey-stuff skills may suffice to re-sculpt the damaged cloth fastening.  

Fortunately none of these distractions have been particularly detrimental to my painting plans for Zomtober 2016, and my “Mongoose Publishing” Mega-City One Undead. Indeed, having already finished one of the futuristic cadavers (to be posted at the weekend) I am currently steadily progressing a second of the nine “Judge Dredd” knee-pad wearing corpses that I want to have finished before the challenge is concluded.