To Conquer the Stars Part III

I have been pretty busy the last week so my progress has slowed a bit. I did manage to finish up the Phalon fleet before i got swamped with real life. I have been wanting to get a post done with pics of the finished Phalons. I also got all of my Kra'Vak assembled as well as the Plasma Bolt tokens for the Phalons. I just need to prime them and slap some paint on them...

The Kra'Vak looking menacing as always!

The are the Amarillo Design Group Photon Torpedo markers I will be using for the Phalons.

I have been wrestling with a question of how to handle my fighters as well. They are not such a big factor in the style of games we plan to play - being Star Trek is fighter light. However I would like to get them all finished at the same time as the fleets if at all possible. A while back I participated in a Full Thrust campaign and it was so easy to come by resources that before to long we had huge fleets with twenty plus ships and thirty plus fighter groups. I happened to just be getting my Full Thrust models at the same time so I actually based my fighters on little wooden discs. One fighter per disc with enough room to stick a d6 behind it to keep track of fighter group losses. My question is this... Should I keep them that way, or should I get some GZG fighter bases and base them properly? My inclination is to do the later because I think they would look better, but what do you think. Here is what they currently look like and here is what a properly based group looks like...

Originally based to make swarms of fighter groups... now I'm not so sure.

This image is from Laughing Ferret Lab well worth taking a peek at and the other idea I am thinking of using for the fighter groups. Your opinions are welcome though I am leaning towards this idea.

Here are some pictures of my completed Phalon fleet...

Yay! My first fleet is completed (minus the fighters and plasma markers but still).

Front view closeup with the Macro setting...

and the view from the rear where you can see the thruster glow!

To Conquer the Stars Part II

I've made some progress on the fleets this last few days. I am about half done with my Phalon fleet with all of the base coating and wash being finished. I am about halfway through the dry brushing and then I just want to go back over them and add a few small details. Engine glow mostly. Here are the picks of the Phalon fleet WIP.

Shades of blue - I thought about doing green but not only were my color choices limited but I thought they would look to much like Zentradi ships.

Close up of a Light Cruiser... I can't wait to see these boys in action!

So Chris continues to be pretty excited by the whole idea of running this as a Star Trek style fleet battle game so I did some research and found that there was a great conversion done by W. Scott Field which I think really capture the spirit of Star Trek using the Full Thrust rules called Full Trek, he also has a few other sci-fi setting conversions on his site. For those of you unaware the Full Thrust rules (all four books) are now free to download off the designers website, Ground Zero Games, there is also a link to their store where you can buy models of all the ships (and then some) found in the book.

I have also decided on a paint scheme for the Kra'Vak. I will be doing a light grey with a charcoal wash with a grey drybrush. I will be painting the rail guns and engine glow red. I also plan to add tiger striping in white. I "should" be finished with the Phalons within the next days and then I'll start cracking on Kra'vak.

To Conquer the Stars Part I

I recently made a new friend at work, Chris, who is a gamer (mostly rpg's & board games) however he has taken an interest in some of my miniature games namely Full Thrust because he is an avid fan of Star Trek. Well Chris and I were recently talking about dusting off some of these miniatures I own that I have never used and it got me digging into the closets looking for the boxes of Full Thrust miniatures that I bought about two years ago. I found all of them... which was amazing considering they were in three different places and I have moved three times in the last two years.

After taking everything out and giving them the once over I realized there was quite a bit of work to do. I have a New Israeli fleet already to go, although I would really like to repaint them or at least add some further details at some point. I have a Kra'Vak and Phalon fleet as well already assembled and I need to just pick some colors and start slapping on the paint. I think that is a good point to start because after that everything will require some assembly. However, I do have a small O.R.C. fleet, a small Pirate/Reaver fleet, a small UNSC fleet, a large FSE fleet as well as a mix of civilian/commercial ships. I think once I get done with the Kra'Vak and Phalon fleets I will put together the O.R.C. fleet as I just love the look of those ships and follow that up with the civilian/commercial ships to help vary the objectives with.

Chris has offered to help me whip some terrain together for this as well which in all actuality shouldn't take long as I already have the asteroids made they just need to be glued to bases. I have some closed cell polystyrene to make planets from as well so my table will look appropriately celestial. I even have some black fabric to use for a table cover on my 4x4 table. I'm hoping to have a game of Full Thrust going inside of a month if my schedule permits.

New Israeli Fleet

Phalon Fleet (in need of some color)

Kra'Vak  Capital Ships

The remaining Kra'Vak. I actually have another whole bag of ships to assemble.

A Pirate/Reaver Fleet

The O.R.C. Fleet which is by far my favorite looking fleet. i can't wait to get these put together.

All three fleets that can be used now. The Pirates/Reavers and the O.R.C. fleets are in the bags behind the New Israeli's. The bag in front of the Phalons are markers I will be using as their primary weapons. I think they are actually photon torpedo markers from the Amarillo Design Group. Behind the Phalons are their fighters swarms. In front of the Kra'Vak are the extra ships I still need to assemble and behind them are the heavy fighters.

A close up of the New Israeli Fleet

The Phalon Fleet close up

Lastly the intimidating Kra'Vak Fleet in your face!