BuShips' yard: NOVA launched

[BuShips]

Here is my first ship for ACTA. In assembling it, I had to make some decisions regarding what extra details I wanted to add that would not hinder it as a game piece. Therefore the antennas are made using steel wire and not plastic. This should give due warning to anyone wishing to grab it at a convention. :wink: In a sense, they're "interceptors" for unguarded fingers. :lol:

The decals were made using decal paper run through my laser printer and sealed with matte acrylic before applying. I used the lowest point height of 4pt. for the text and it barely fit on the model. I suppose I could have picked a shorter name like 'Patton' :lol:. I need not say how hard the decals were to cut to size and apply. The ship name is about 1MM high. :shock:

Another critical decision was what to use for an "Earthforce" grey, as I would be standardizing on it for its use with the entire Earth fleet (with exceptions like the Hyperion of course). As I thought that I needed a metallic finish I passed up "normal" hobby paints and decided on Rust-Oleum ® hammered gray. I think it closely approximates what was seen in the series.

Lastly, I am spending additional time modding the 2" flying bases. In a risky move, I'm going to a height of 3" on the stem by using brass tubing. To offset the lesser stability of pewter models at a greater height, I'm adding several 2" steel "fender" washers (about $.30 ea. if bought in bulk) to the base. One I've glued under the Mongoose base and the other I've fitted to the top of the base, not glued. By adding a reinforced circular template over the second washer and punching an alignment hole for the stem, I can use that for a built-in weapon arc and turning key of sorts.

Anyway, I thought I'd show you my first ship, launched out of BuShips' "yard".

 

[Da Boss]

nicely done

Have you tried the Ninja Magic Adaptors - very nice for stopping that annoying stem breaking off

Like the base - looks good and useful!

 

[EDFDarkAngel1]

Very nice, very beautiful. One problem though... you have a "J" on the lower hull of the front. From my knowledge, it should be the first letter of the ship's name... an S in this case.

One minor, insignificant detail out of a large, beautiful model. You did a great job!

Dark Angel

 

[WereRogue]

The level of detail you've put in is amazing, from the base, to the antennae, to the decals.

However, I think you're missing a couple of key touches that would send the model into the next stage of painting.

I would highly recommend inking the grey you've painted on the model with some black ink, or, better still, some "Didi's Magic Ink" available from http://www.thewarstore.com. It would work wonders defining the turrets, panel lines, etc and bring up the detail greatly.

Finally, before doing your next wave of decaling, I'd recommend investing in some brush on matte varnish. I managed to get a bottle of Windsor-Newton matte varnish at Hobby Lobby that's paid for itself many times over. Brush it on the area where the decal is going to go, and let it dry. Then, place the decal over the area where the dried varnish is, and let the decal dry. Finally, after the decal is dried, brush it over again with the matte varnish. If you'd like, and are feeling frisky, you can hit the decal before the last coat of varnish with a heavily wantered down version of the grey, to allow the decal to blend in a little better. All of these techniques will serve to get rid of the decal "silvering" around the edges.

Still, that's a nice model and some good enhancement work!

-Ken

 

[BuShips]

nicely done

Have you tried the Ninja Magic Adaptors - very nice for stopping that annoying stem breaking off

Like the base - looks good and useful!

Yep, I was aware of the Ninja Magic system. I gave the idea to Ninja Magic to make his versions for the Ad Astra games of Attack Vector: Tactical and the Saganami Island Honor Harrington game. I haven't bought any though.

What I am doing for my ships is to drill a sufficient hole in the mini and mount a very strong steel pin (1/8"x3/4"). By leaving a little over half of the pin exposed, it fits into the 1/8" i.d. of the extended stem. This way I can remove the mini for more compact storage and I don't need a completed stand for each model. Also, I can make some of the modded stands shorter. I guess the thought is that I can allow ships to pass under/over other miniatures on the table in some cases. But yes, I've decided to make sure that the models have a very strong mount that is removable from the stand.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

That's some really nice work. Over and above the call, franly... 8)

 

[BuShips]

Although I've done ink-washes extensively on other models, on this one I only did it on the rear engines. On these photos it does not come through. Also, the ship name looks a bit "stark" in these photos but is not really on the model. I actually did not wish for the name to be "worn" (personal taste here) as it does not appear to be that way on the series. I'm probably going to go with the current mottled metallic grey without further antiquing, but I do plan to use it on other fleets. I've changed my mind in the past thought, so no promises there. :wink:

As to the hull letter designation, this is canon on the Schwarzkopf, actually (interesting, eh?). Unless the 'net resources I looked at were not screen captures, that is . There are a few other ships that did not stay consistant with the use of the ship's name's first letter. Examples are the Omega's Agrippa (letter S) and Nimrod (G) are some of those. Be assured that I will try to stay consistant with the series "inconsistancies" though. :lol: I'll agree that a majority of the letters do indeed match up with the ship names (like A for Agamemnon). I was wondering when someone would notice, though. It did not take long. :wink:

One more thing, too. The stark white backgroung of the ship name block is not consistant with most of the Omegas. In those, I think all of the boxes are outlined but have no fill color other than the hull's own.

Thanks for the critical comments, as they are always welcome.

 

[Da Boss]

nicely done

Have you tried the Ninja Magic Adaptors - very nice for stopping that annoying stem breaking off

Like the base - looks good and useful!

Yep, I was aware of the Ninja Magic system. I gave the idea to Ninja Magic to make his versions for the Ad Astra games of Attack Vector: Tactical and the Saganami Island Honor Harrington game. I haven't bought any though.

What I am doing for my ships is to drill a sufficient hole in the mini and mount a very strong steel pin (1/8"x3/4"). By leaving a little over half of the pin exposed, it fits into the 1/8" i.d. of the extended stem. This way I can remove the mini for more compact storage and I don't need a completed stand for each model. Also, I can make some of the modded stands shorter. I guess the thought is that I can allow ships to pass under/over other miniatures on the table in some cases. But yes, I've decided to make sure that the models have a very strong mount that is removable from the stand.

Ah Well I guess you will be aware then!!!!!!!!!!!! :shock:

it does seem to be the way to go with removable stands

 

[BuShips]

it does seem to be the way to go with removable stands

I agree heartily. That is, if the minis are ever going to be stored anywhere other than a table or shelf.

My "joke" answer in the future for the hull letter is that the Schwarzkopf wasn't the first name for that Nova. They didn't have time at the yard during a refit to finish the paintwork on the old "Jankowski". Thus, a long and fine EA naval tradition ended with the embarrasment of the son of what person the ship was first named after. :lol:

 

[Greg Smith]

That is a rather splendid model.

 

[BuShips]

Thank you, Greg.

A bit more of my story of how the "J" came to be (that I'm inventing as I go):

During the Earth-Minbari War, EarthForce BuShips (Bureau of Ships) saw the list of active EA ships drop at such a rate it would have warranted them being placed on extinction watch if they were living creatures. However bad it got, one ship seemed to survive the massive culling after over two years of war. Vowing that the ship's name would not ever be used again if it was destroyed, it seemed as though it was laughing at the EarthForce bureaucrats by not falling on its sword. Thus it came that the ship had to be refitted after a repeated mistiming of joining battles too late to fight in, let alone find any survivors.

Thus the order was cut to the "lucky" ship. When in dock for refit, it was to be renamed. General Jankowski was stricken from the roles of the EA, to be replaced by General Schwarzkopf. While some of the Nova's crew noted that it could be unlucky to serve on a ship that had been renamed after being first commissioned, the "luck" held out as the ship was one of the few Nova class to survive the Earth-Minbari conflict.

:wink:

 

[BuShips]

A bit more of the exposition that JMS is known for- :wink:

When the mid-range bases fell to the Minbari advance, first at Proxima III and then at Io, the newly rechristened EAS Schwarzkopf (named for a gallant ship recently lost in battle) was called back to duty. In their haste, while the yard crews did get the new name applied to the hull, they did not have an opportunity to update the hull letter insignias. The 'new' Schwarzkopf was ordered to reinforce the EA forces at Mars and thus left with only part of her "makeup" applied.

As it turned out, the refitted Nova was one of the last ships to leave Earth space before the defense line was formed by a desperate request of the EarthGov President. The Minbari forces bypassed Mars and as they say, the rest is history. In the many years that the EAS Schwarzkopf has entered EA yards for repair and refitting, nothing has been done to update the hull letter insignia. Crew legend has it that the ship's good luck up to her renaming was a case of 'reverse bad luck', sort of like someone believing that number 13 was somehow lucky for them when it was normally considered as bad for luck for someone else.

As it was felt that the unfinished job of updating the hull insignias somehow contributed to the ship surviving the balance of the Earth-Minbari war, each successive crew made it known that the "yard dogs" could not touch that particular paintwork. Trusted crew members only would provide maintenance of that section of the hull surface. It was as if General Jankowski's spirit guarded the ship, atoning in part for the mistakes of his arrogant son.

The ship may be listed as EAS Schwarzkopf on the ship list of the Earth Alliance forces, but it is still known to its crew as the "Lucky J".

Novel to follow. :wink:

 

[M1ndr1d3rs]

Splendid work... She certainly looks old and rugged, and your attention to details are most impressive, with the antenas and all. Even back stories...
Is this General Fraklin's Schawrzkopf (GROPOS)? Add some hermes transports for escort and you're ready for the Akdor campaign :wink:
Although I'd have thought if you ever do a Nova it'd be the EAS Hood, judging from your avatar :lol:

 

[BuShips]

Splendid work... She certainly looks old and rugged, and your attention to details are most impressive, with the antenas and all. Even back stories...
Is this General Fraklin's Schawrzkopf (GROPOS)? Add some hermes transports for escort and you're ready for the Akdor campaign :wink:
Although I'd have thought if you ever do a Nova it'd be the EAS Hood, judging from your avatar :lol:

Yes, it's supposed to be the ship from that episode. Really, It was my first B5 ship mini (in about 10 years) and it's meant to test the hull color for the EA ships I'll be making up for use in ACTA. I just picked up the 2e rules and fleet book. This is maybe a bit backwards, but I'll be pulling out my DVD disks to freeze-frame the episode and see if the web pics are indeed screen caps from it. If they fooled me, then they were good enough to make me think that this was one of the ships that did not use the large hull letter and tie it to the ship's name.

As to the Hood, I'll find something to pin that onto in B5 eventually. :wink:

 

[Rabidchild]

Nice work, I love the base. If you made bases like that, people might buy them... people like me. I love the little extras on the ship, my only critique would be the colors. On my screen the body of the ship looks more green than grey and the red/blue combo suffers from "superman syndrome". Which is to say that red and blue, when next to each other or when taking up a large part of the model, should not be the same intensity or it begins to look cartoony. Just like red and green next to each other shouldn't be the same intensity or it looks like christmas. If you made one of the colors darker I think it would work better.

 

[Sigmar357]

Love the idea for the base directions i'll need to try that sometime but i am using my bfg compass it works just as well .

Nice going BuShips but your avatars and sigs are killing me to

 

[BuShips]

Nice work, I love the base. If you made bases like that, people might buy them... people like me. I love the little extras on the ship, my only critique would be the colors. On my screen the body of the ship looks more green than grey and the red/blue combo suffers from "superman syndrome". Which is to say that red and blue, when next to each other or when taking up a large part of the model, should not be the same intensity or it begins to look cartoony. Just like red and green next to each other shouldn't be the same intensity or it looks like christmas. If you made one of the colors darker I think it would work better.

Well, one of these days you'll get to see it up close and then you can tell me what you think again . I can tell you that while the camera is hinting at a slight green look, it "ain't" there in real life. The red and blue are tinted heavily to grey (I'm using Grayed Blue and Grayed Vermilion acrylics) but I'm going for as much of a canon look (pretty much that's the colors of the engine area).

I'll keep in mind how much you like the flying bases, so when we get together I'll show you exactly how to make them . I can even provide you with printed sheets of the weapon/turning arcs to laminate and cut out. Be prepared to buy some "big-ass" fender washers- 3/8"x2" monsters. I use two of them to add to the base weight (in addition to the weight of the Mongoose stand). My extended stem is over twice the height of the MGP 2" diameter base.

To drop in another bit of back story, in a piece of serendipity the white background may be the only example of the ship name that I'm aware of (at least in the Nova/Omega classes). To explain its apparent continuity issue with other EA Novas and Omegas, I'm explaining it as the method chosen by the yard to be the quickest way to switch names, one going over the previous. Thus, the name Jankowski was literally white-washed over. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :lol:

 

[BuShips]

Nice going BuShips but your avatars and sigs are killing me to

Yes, we use a tactic whereby first we distract the target and cause motion sickness before we STRIKE. MUAhahahaa.

 

[David Anla Shok']

Can't be a Nova. All of the turrets are still on.... ;>

 

[Lord David the Denied]

As to the Hood, I'll find something to pin that onto in B5 eventually. :wink:

I planned to use Hood for a Hyperion. Seemed the most appropriate class.