"The Heavy Cruiser Is One Of The Few Starfleet Ship Designs..."

"...To have more than two nacelles."

This Terran C-6 Heavy Cruiser was created using some "Bambu Lab" Matt White PLA (Polylactic Acid) on an A1 Mini 3D Printer, and can be purchased as an STL (Standard Triangle Language) file by "Fat Dragon Games" as part of the company's "Battlefront Valkyrie" Starter Set. The multi-piece starship has been printed using a 0.2mm nozzle, with a 0.1mm layer height in order to minimise any striation lines on the finished model.

Quite interestingly the vessel also comes with a rig STL, which allows you to produce a docking bay of sorts that helps line up the spacecraft's rearmost engine with the hull. Unfortunately, I ended up originally placing my vessel's third warp nacelle back to front, so had to literally tear it off from its support to place it the right way round. Considering how quickly super-glue sets when using PLA this 'manoeuvre' caused quite a bit of damage to the 3D print, so I ended up attaching the piece in line with its fellow engines (as opposed to being a little behind them) so as to cover up my misdemeanour.

"Mantic Games" WIPs - These Plague Lords are having their blue armour 'picked out'

Happily, I don't think my error is too noticeable, even if you look underneath the spacecraft, and will either represent a prototype/refitted Heavy Cruiser, or perhaps a Federation-class dreadnought in my games. The mistake did though rather drastically dampen my enthusiasm for the range, and coupled with my recent preference for resin 3D printing over PLA, has caused my entire (not) "Star Trek" starship project to come to a rather abrupt halt - at least until now that is.

Like all of my other Terran vessels, the miniature was undercoated using a couple of licks of "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey and shaded with "Citadel" Nuln Oil. I then patiently dry-brushed it with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey, before 'picking out' all three of the warp nacelles on its propulsion units with a combination of "Scale 75" White Alchemy and "Citadel" Talassar Blue.

"Games Workshop" WIPs - This Centurion has been base-layered, shaded and dry-brushed

Alongside my U.S.S. Federation I have continued to dabble with a trio of 10mm scale Plague Lords by "Mantic Games". I'm still currently in two minds as to whether I will support the Nottingham-based manufacturer's "Epic Warpath" Campaign on "My Mini Factory". But these fun little STLs are certainly swaying me, and I hope to also pigment a couple of Enforcer and Asterian test pieces too before I need to come to a decision.

Lastly, I've finally assembled the Centurion in MKII power armour that comes inside the "Warhammer: The Horus Heresy – Saturnine" boxed set by "Games Workshop". Frankly, this was an absolute nightmare (not of my making) to assemble, and in the end I had to resort to relocating the model's Servo-skull simply to provide the space marine's back standard with some much-needed stability...