Thursday 6 October 2016

“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.

30 comments:

  1. Zombies with knee pads. My life is complete! Jd and the zombie apocalypse. I need say no more!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Clint. Plenty more Zombies with knee pads coming too :-)

      Delete
    2. I remember paying a Judge Dredd board game many, many years ago. Amongst other things, there was a "faulty kneecaps" card which could be played to impede your fellow judges. Perhaps this is just an extreme example of what can go wrong?

      Delete
    3. Either that or he's taking his hobby of being a "SimP" to his grave ;-)

      Delete
  2. Nice work, Simon. I meant to ask you last time, where did you get the items to convert your zombies into Mega City One zombies and are they still available to buy? I like them a lot, especially the knee pads. Have you seen the new Mantic Deadzone plastic zombies due for release later this month? I plan on buying a box to use in my own Judge Dredd campaign.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Bryan. The Mega-City Zombie bits came through the letterbox as part of my KS reward. However "Warlord Games" now sell them here: https://store.warlordgames.com/collections/judge-dredd/products/zombie-horde-conversion-pack.
      I haven't seen the new "Mantic Games" Deadzone zeds. But I will have a look now you've tempted me!!! ;-)

      Delete
    2. Thanks, Simon. I'll be ordering a few of those conversion packs,

      Delete
    3. Nice to be emptying your wallet for a change, Bryan ;-)

      Delete
  3. I love the look of that big starship. Big, beefy, and mean-looking. I hope it has the firepower to match its looks?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Roy. The County Class Heavy Cruiser my fave of the starship sculpts by "Irregular Miniatures" that I've so far painted, and as it'll be based upon Sulu's command you can bet it's going to be tough!!!

      Delete
  4. Busy as always! Great figs...I'm really looking forward to seeing all the Nurgle figs together when you're done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Gordon. Once I've posted up my completed Beast of Nurgle, I'll be doing a Host of Nurgle group photo showing my general and three units; the core of my "AoS" force. The Nurglings won't be too far behind that and then these Heralds - I hope.

      Delete
  5. Great work all round Simon, I have to say I liked the imp on the staff, I didn't think it looked to busy, still your figure, your rules , that Excelsior is a smashing ship.

    Cheers Roger.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Roger. The Excelsior has come out rather well imho. It was a 50/50 call on the Nurgling tbh. But in the end I kept catching it up against the horns of the Herald and that pushed me over the edge and into removing him.

      Delete
  6. Love the starship, mega city zeds are groovy too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Andy. The "Irregular Miniatures" starships are super, and these "Mantic Games"/"Mongoose Publishing" zombies are turning out quite nicely too.

      Delete
  7. That has to be my favourite star ship to date, very cool Simon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Many thanks Michael. I've just two more 'Miranda-class' starships to post and I'll try and include a fleet posting, so you can better see the scale difference between them all.

      Delete
  8. Nice work on the starship Simon. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Leon. It became a bit of a chore when the varnish clouded over the warp nacelles and had to be redone. But its turned out well enough in the end.

      Delete
  9. Nice brushwork. If Irregular's not-Star Trek ships are supposed to be 6mm, their dimensions are way off - An Excelsior would be over 3 and a half feet long in 6mm ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Blackstar. I must confess I did originally look in "Irregular Miniatures" 2mm section for their spaceships (albeit even that scale would make an Excelsior a handful) and was surprised to find them in the 6mm section. Still I suppose they're not supposed to be the ship classes I've gone with, and their scales are more pleasing to my eye than those "Wizkids" seem to use for their "Star Trek Attack Wing" games. :-)

      Delete
  10. Wow! Sulu's ship looks great! The blue really stands out nicely indeed.

    O my...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Dai. Much appreciated. Blue was definitely the look I was trying to achieve :-)

      Delete
  11. Awesome work. Is your Coat 'd arms a spray varnish. I found thinning my brush on varnish with a little water helped reduce the misting. I'm also told using a little olive oil gently rubbed on can remove the misting. As I understand it I think it is slightly acidic so removes the varnish. I haven't tried that though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Many thanks Simon. My "Coat d'arms" varnish is brush on and every now and then seems to cloud for some reason. Its also occasionally seems to dissolve any washes I've used in a certain area, so I have to go back and wash those areas again. very annoying and I'm not sure why.

      Delete
  12. Funnily enough, the County Class cruiser was one on my list, so it's nice to see it painted up. Obviously, mine will be orange and white to fit in with the rest of my fleet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The County Class Cruiser is a fantastic model imho, Jez, so I'm sure you'll be pleased with it, and hopefully its measurements will help you fit it in with your fleet.

      Delete