Ambassador class ship data card for ACTA Star Fleet

Its been a while since I last posted on my project of conversion of the Next Generation era Star Trek ships to A Call To Arms Star Fleet. My last post on The Next Generation era of ship data cards for ACTA Star Fleet covered the Excelsior Beta class of ship. This post covers the Federation's Ambassador class of explorer vessel.

Ambassador class vessel by Furuta

These were beasts of vessels, large and well defended. The experiences of the General War and the ongoing Cardassian War had taught Star Fleet some valuable lessens. Namely that although Star Fleet's primary mission was space exploration its role as the first line of defense of the Federation member worlds could not be trivialised. Too many of Star Fleets best and brightest had been lost at the hands of the Federation's aggressive neighbors. It seemed that Star Fleet had finally learnt this lesson the hard way.

It's new "explorer" category vessels would be operating for extended periods away from resupply. They would be exposed to unknown dangers and they would need to be able to protect themselves. These new vessels were in the size range of the dreaded Klingon B10 battleship. Advancement in warp propulsion, computing speeds and defensive capability permitted Star Fleet to produce larger vessels than it had ever done before. Such vessels could accommodate many more people on board than was required to operate the vessel. Being designed to spend extended periods away from any Federation base or member world, Star Fleet envisioned these vessels to act in a sense as mini villages, complete with families of the crew on board. The Ambassador class was the first Star Fleet vessel to experiment with this notion, but the Nebula and Galaxy class of vessels would really take this idea to the next level.

A Fist full of Klingon D7's

A fist full of D7's

Among my wares I have had a bunch of MicroMachines Klingon D7's that I picked up somewhere along my travels. I like this miniature but the colours...not so much. See the MicroMachines D7 on the left in the image below.

Untouched MicroMachines D7 is on the left

The grey colour doesn't really do it for me. Given that all my other Klingon ships are green in colour, I decided to try an idea with my D7's. Using a wash of Citadel Bel-Tan Green, I coated the D7's in a heavy wash and left them overnight to dry. I then lightly dry brushed them in a light grey paint.

I was careful not to dry brush over the Klingon insignia's present on the D7's. The result seemed to work well, once dry-brushed. I then painted highlights over the miniature as you can see below.

One of the MicroMachine D7's had been painted differently some time back (see post here to spot it). So I also trying going over it with a heavy green wash, followed by a grey dry brush. Surprisingly that also worked out well. So have a look and see what you think. It was a very simple process that produced the results I was after. As such, I'm rather satisfied with the outcome.

The view of the D7 most often seen by Star Fleet captains!

Impulse engines and shuttle bay were painted on using Blood Red

I used Warpstone Glow for the nacelle illumination

Bridge light and other illumination were also done in Blood Red

The vents and nacelle heavy disruptor's where painted in a dark grey

Star Trek TOS Federation Hermes/Saladin class Destroyer

A very nicely details miniature for its size

I have had this little ship for some time now on my to-do paint list. Finally the other day I got around to painting it.

Badly focused photo but you can see the detail on the ventral size of the saucer

The Star Fleet Technical Manual lists this type of ship as both the Hermes class scout and the Saladin class destroyer. Amarillo Design Bureau provide these in 1/3788 scale (ADB's 2400 series miniatures) and they come in a two pack with the old and new style detailed saucers. The old style of saucer is very plain and unimpressive. But the detailed saucer really makes this miniature.

Three photon tubes....nice!

I'm not a great fan of the TOS Star Trek, however this ship has impressed me. So I plan to get a few more of them. With the J.J. Abrams reboot of Star Trek and the Axanar fan movie, TOS era has some rather nice looking revamped ships that would look good on the table top.

The detail on the saucer is to a good standard making this miniature worth having.

Painting is fairly simple too. I base-coated  the miniature in black spray. Then I wet brushed it in white paint. Next I used a black ink all over the miniature. Finally I dry brushed the miniature in white again. After that all that was needed was to highlight with colours for the nacelle, the impulse engines and a few other areas on the saucer. I think the detail really stands out this way and makes the miniature.

Impulse engines are well defined also.

I should find some stickers to go on this thing. But it doesn't really require it to look good enough to field on the table.

It doesn't come with the hang down sensor radar dome. That's good in my opinion because I don't like them.

Better view of underneath the saucer section.

Starboard profile

Here she is compared to a MicroMachines USS Enterprise miniature. Fits well!

So, must get some more of these blighters. They make good target practice for my Klingon battlecruisers!

'Axanar' Klingon D6 from Shapeways

3D printed Klingon D6's from 'Axanar'

Coelian276 has an excellent 3D print model for the Klingon D6 as seen in the 'Prelude to Axanar' fan film available on YouTube. These are sized for Star Trek Attack Wing and work really well for A Call To Arms Starfleet 2400 miniatures line also. You can find it at his Shapeways shop here (three together) and here (single one only).

Scale
So size wise, how do these compare in scale to other models? Below are a group of photos comparing various models to give you some idea.

The Shapeways D6 next to the HeroClix K'tinga

HeroClix K'tinga, Shapeways D6, Mongoose D5 (2500 scale)

Shapeways D6 and Mongoose/Amarillo Design Bureau D5 (2500 scale)

Shapeways D6 and MicroMachines D7

MicroMachines Enterprise refit, Shapeways D6's, ADB 2400 scale Federation Destroyer

Same again, but from above (obviously!)

MicoMachines D7, Shapeways D6, HeroClix K'tinga

And same again from above

Painting
I am awaiting a bunch more to arrive but thought I would do the first test models to see how the paint scheme turns out. I followed a very similar scheme to that for my other Klingon vessels. You can find a painting guide or two here on the blog. I used a very lime coloured green for the warp glow instead of the usual Ice Blue colour. Not so sure its the best choice. But it works well enough.

So lastly. Here are some images of the final paint job I'll be using.

Enjoy!

Excelsior class Beta version ship data card for ACTA Star Fleet

The last post was on the standard Excelsior class for ACTA Star Fleet. This post covers the Beta variant made famous by the USS Enterprise B. The images below are again for the MicroMachines model. The Attack Force Excelsior model is tiny in comparison. I prefer the MicroMachines versions as they fit well with the other miniatures I have, including the 2400 Amarillo Design Bureau miniatures for Star Fleet Battles. Anyway, here you go.

Excelsior class ship data card for ACTA Star Fleet

Today's post is the ACTA ship data card for one of the work horses of the United Federation of Planets. The Excelsior class CX (Advanced Heavy Cruiser).

The standard Excelsior class Heavy Cruiser (CX)

Surprisingly there isn't a great deal of commonality on the weapons load outs for the Excelsior class. There are a number of different "cannon" style examples available on the web, but nothing consistent. This ship is bigger than the Constitution Heavy Cruiser and contained five banks of 2 phaser emitters each on both the dorsal and ventral sections of the saucer. Apart from that, variations abound.

Some examples have both forward and rear facing photons. Other examples do not have the rear facing photons. Still other examples have turret mounted phaser emitters on the engineering (main) hull of the ship. The phasers for the Excelsior are listed as Type 8 but for the Constitution class as being Type 5 emitters. So, in the end, I have gone for a compromise.

I have listed both the rear photons, the central turret mounted phasers, and rear mounted phasers seen on some "cannon" examples. All phasers are Phaser I's. This makes this ship a beast of a vessel compared to vessels of The Original Series. But one would expect improvements in power distribution systems and firepower over the intervening years. Moreover, during Star Trek The Undiscovered Country, the Excelsior was seen as a big vessel compared to the Enterprise and would have been the Battleship of Star Fleet in its day. By the time of The Next Generation, the Excelsior class was regarded as a workhorse all rounder and a Heavy Cruiser. That's how I have viewed it here for ACTA. Basically its a class of ship that depending on what era you play ACTA, this ship can be either the battleship of the fleet, or a heavy cruiser. Anyway...Boldly Go and all!

MicroMachines version of the Excelsior class

Ink and paint highlights have enhanced the original MicroMachines model

Miranda and Trident class ship data cards for ACTA Star Fleet

A new month. Another post. Still on my conversion of Star Trek The Next Generation era ships for ACTA Star Fleet. Today's post is for the Miranda class New Light Cruiser and its variant, the four nacelle Trident class.

Both miniatures in the pictures below are MicroMachines miniatures. The Trident class was made by gently cutting the nacelles off of the USS Reliant MicoMachines miniature and super gluing them onto another USS Reliant MicoMachines model. Careful with those fingers kids! I cut my finger doing this. Who said our hobby didn't have health hazards?

The Miranda class New Light Cruiser

UPDATE: The previous version of the Miranda ship data card had the incorrect number of attack dice for the Phaser-G's. So I have update it. The above version is the correct version.

The Trident class Strike Cruiser