Klingon D5 Tanker variant also from Shapeways

And here is the tanker variant of the Klingon D5 cruiser. You can also find her on Shapeways here.

Here are some more photos of it.

 

Klingon D5 from Shapeways

Finally finished painting up the D5's I purchased from Shapeways some time back. You can find this version of the model here on Shapeways. The ACTA Starfleet ship data card for this ship is almost done too, so I will post that soon. Here are some more photo's of the model.

Klingon Early Bird of Prey for ACTA Starfleet

Today's addition is the original Klingon Bird of Prey (Enterprise series era), also known simple as the Early Bird of Prey.

Gravitic Mines are a new weapon for ACTA Starfleet. These weapons are dropped directly behind the vessel during the Long Range Drone Attack Phase. Place a mine marker when a mine is dropped. It remains active for the entire game or until detonated. The mine becomes active when the laying ship has moved four or more inches away from the mine marker. Any enemy vessel entering a four inch (4") radius around the mine marker will suffer a mine attack of 3AD with the Devastating +1 and Multi-Hit 1D6 weapon special traits.

Design methodology: my thinking on the design of this vessel for ACTA Starfleet was based on the notion that it was the main Klingon combat vessel for the era where the Klingons first took to space with a warp capability. An aggressive warrior culture would build their vessels for war. As such this baby would have been able to contend against all comers of that era. Designs online show the vessel to have a number of disruptors. With the advent of ACTA Starfleet version 1.2, disruptors received an upgrade from the original Mongoose version. This gave the option to utilise the new version of the disruptor as the 'Heavy Disruptor' seen as a bolt on screen, and the older (Mongoose) version as the ship born beam weapons seen in the later series such as The Next Gen and DS9.

The inclusion of gravitic mines is in part a homage to DS9 episodes where the Klingons laid mines around conquered Cardassian planets. This behaviour would also have been fitting for the original series Klingons and also is a key feature of the Star Fleet Battles computer games. Dropping a mine with an enemy on your tail certainly made them change course and give you the chance to shake them off. So why not have that same option in ACTA Starfleet?

Klingon Ro’Tahr-class Bird of Prey for ACTA

Studio Bergstrom Praetor Pocket Destroyer

Following on from yesterday's post on my take on Klingon vessels (as seen on our TV screens) for ACTA Starfleet, today's entry looks at the little patrol vessel I have named the Ro'Tahr class Bird of Prey. This ship was never on our TV screens but its simply too cool not to include.

This sweet little mini comes from Studio Bergstrom and is a Praetor Pocket Destroyer.

Klingon Raptor-class Scout for ACTA Starfleet

Klingon Raptor-class Scout vessel

I thought it was high time that I got back to developing my take on the cinematic view on Star Trek vessels for A Call To Arms. ACTA Starfleet doesn't capture the design features of the later TV series and movies. For example, Klingon vessels do not use photon torpedoes and have phasers. However, in the TV shows and movies Klingon vessels come armed with photon torpedoes and utilise disruptors as a beam weapons (mostly) instead of phasers. Romulan vessels are armed with disruptors and plasma torpedoes, etc.

I want the TV/movie feel and so have been thinking how best to design my Klingon vessels with that design principle in mind.

As such, I plan to post a series of blog entries detailing my take on the Klingon vessels as seen on our television screens for A Call To Arms Starfleet. This is the first entry in an attempt to capture that style of vessel. See what you think.

Is Eaglemoss ECS Horizon model compatible with 1:3788 and 3125 scale miniatures?

See for yourself...

Eaglemoss Horizon cargo vessel next to an Eaglemoss K-7 station

I wanted a larger cargo vessel for use in A Call To Arms Star Fleet. The original Mongoose version of ACTA Star Fleet has cargo vessels with LOTS of hull points. The newer ADB version of the rules cuts these hull points down dramatically. The way I see it that just doubles the number of types of cargo vessels plying the space lanes.

Horizon next to an ADB 2400 (1:3788 scale) Federation Destroyer

So I wondered whether or not the Eaglemoss ECS Horizon model would be suitable as a very large cargo freighter (as described in the Mongoose ACTA Star Fleet version of the rules) in comparison to 1:3788 and 1:3125 scale star ship miniatures.

The model was described as being 9cm in length on their website and so I took the punt and procured two of them to use as J-class freighters (i.e. a very large freighter in Mongoose ACTA Star Fleet speak).

Horizon next to ADB Fed Destroyer and kit bash Fed Tug

As far as I can see it these are compatible. So they were a good buy and are highly detailed. Given that they seem to scale well enough with the 1:3788 (in my humble opinion) they will scale well also with the larger 1:3125 scale miniatures out there.

So there you go. Looking for a large freighter to act as a target for Orion Pirates? Look no further!

Star Fleet Light Tug

I wanted to make a "light cargo tug" for the Federation to use in A Call To Arms Star Fleet. The Ptolemy class tugs would be a different class to this vessel and capable of utilising battle pods which turn them into a light cruisers. This ship however would be a support vessel capable of cargo and troop transport and lightly armed by comparison unable to attach a battle pod.

Looking around the available miniatures, I decided to hack up an Federation Command Cruiser from Amarillo Design Bureaus' 2400 series (i.e. 1:3788 scale). You can find the miniature here.

I kept part of the secondary hull and attached a rare earth magnet to the back of the hull which I had cut and filed to shape. I also removed the sail from the secondary hull and attached the primary hull / saucer section directly to the secondary hull. It was a hack job, but it did turn out to work pretty much the way I wanted it to. My big mistake was removing the deflector dish and so had to paint one on after stuffing up that area of the secondary hull.

The cargo container section came from a Studio Bergstrom / Irrational Designs cargo hauler (you can find that miniature here). I have two of these and the first model had the cargo section made of resin (the other is metal). As it was resin it was light weight enough to easily attach to the tug with a second rare earth magnet. Each of these being a 1mm x 1mm round magnet.

Just make sure you get the correct opposite pole facing the rare earth magnet on the tug. I botched it the first time and had to get it off. Be warned! These are very tricky b@$#* to stick on with super glue and they have a very bad habit of rolling over in the drop of glue to present the incorrect pole. Much anguish later and I finally got it to work.

So there you go. One Federation light tug.