Kitbashing the Federation DN

[Ben2]

Well, ships have started flowing and soon people will start having spares they aren't going to use. While the C8 is so awesome a model that having two in your fleet isn't an issue and if you have spares after that Romulan players will want a couple and you can sell them to those pointy eared back stabbers, the Federation Dreadnought turns up in a lot of places.

Namely the Fleet box, squadron box #1 and squadron box #7. Squadron box #7 has the NCA, NCL and DW plus a BC and DN, so some Fed players will be getting two or even three of these to give them large numbers of the war hulls. Everyone can use three BCs (though not necessarily all the time) but three DNs?

Of course would I be wittering on about this if I didn't have a potential solution? No. And that is kitbashing. What new ships can you build out of the Federation Dreadnought kit?

I noticed this as I was assembling my metal DN. I'll try and make one from the scrap resin DN I have. Just need to fill in the side engines.

We're a creative bunch on these boards. What can we come up with to solve the DN glut? Miss out the saucer engine for a heavy battlecruiser?

 

[The Big D]

I was thinking on a couple of possibilities myself.

A separated DN saucer. Lots of guns and photons, not enought power for them all.
Early FJD DN with slanted engines and forward shuttlebay lots of work to do.
Super heavy destroyer like a massive battle frigate with top engine in place and the 2 others slotted under the saucer!

Suddenly I want loads of dreadnoughts to mess with!

Geoff

 

[billclo]

Ben, does this mean you are going to be buying up the surplus BCH/DNs to give them a home?

 

[Ben2]

Ben, does this mean you are going to be buying up the surplus BCH/DNs to give them a home?

Once a few more sets get released, I was going to suggest a trade thread.

Squadron box #3 contains - Kzinti Battlecruiser and frigate; Tholian patrol corvette; Orion Raider; large and small freighter; battlestation.

Squadron box #4 contains - Federation BCH (again), two Free Traders, Federation Police Ship, Tholian Destroyer, Kzinti NCA.

Squadron box #10 contains - Gorn CL, Heavy Freighter, Romulan Snipe, Federation Strike Cruiser, Federation Battle Frigate.

A Kzinti player buys Squadron boxes 3 & 4 to get the 3 Kzinti ships, a battlestation and four freighters for scenarios, swaps the Fed BCH and POL for a Kzinti BC and Frigate with a Fed player who bought squadron box 3, and the Tholian DD and PC for another Kzinti Battlecruiser and Frigate from a Tholian player who bought squadron box 3. Suddenly for two squadron boxes you've got 3 Battlecruisers, 1 NCA, 3 FFs, four freighters and a battlestation, plus a spare Orion raider.

With the mixed bag squadron boxes, I think trading is a very good idea, particularly because the ships in them tend to be the ones that you'd like quite a few of, like Kzinti frigates or Tholian destroyers.

If there are a few very nifty Federation DN kitbashes and some nice homebrew rules to go with them, I can see Fed DNs being desirable to have.

On the subject of Federation BCs, lets see some bashes.

 

[nekomata fuyu]

Nice idea on what to do with the DN swarm. It's almost a pity that I don't think I'll have enough DNs for my already existing plans :wink:
(4 DNs in various colour schemes, and 1 DN as battle wreckage)

 

[billclo]

Nice idea on what to do with the DN swarm. It's almost a pity that I don't think I'll have enough DNs for my already existing plans :wink:
(4 DNs in various colour schemes, and 1 DN as battle wreckage)

I should have 3 DN and 3 BCH available once my 3 Federation Reinforcement boxes arrive. I've already got 2 DN and 3 BCH, which is enough for my taste.

 

[Ben2]

Looks like we'll need two threads, UK swaps and US swaps.

 

[Greg Smith]

I was thinking of kitbashing a proper secondary hull for the New Heavy Cruiser using the extra Dreadnought from the reinforcement box.

 

[The Big D]

On the subject of Federation BCs, lets see some bashes.

Already done one.

Destroyer leader (front of squadron, the Lysander)

Geoff

 

[SteeleViper]

Premise:
1-A Federation Dreadnaught has to "Saucer Separate" towards the end of a battle
2-The Dreadnaught's secondary hull does not survive the battle
3-The saucer, with the high engine, make it back to a Federation battle station
4-The base, where the saucer returned, is expecting a follow up attack within days
5-To get all the ships they can ready for the upcoming fight, the base engineers decide to attach an engine and "neck" they have "laying around" from a Saladin destroyer, to the bottom of the dreadnaught saucer
6-The Federation Battle Destroyer is born, the "U.S.S. Devastator" prototype

I made one of these with the plastic starships years ago. I’ll have to look to see if I still have it.

 

[Ben2]

Once we've got a few ideas and examples, I'll stat them up.

Liking the DDL. I'll try that tomorrow.

Tried dry fitting the resin DN scrap bits together. It'll be a green stuff and pinning day tomorrow I think.

 

[nekomata fuyu]

I'm currently pondering the idea of a DN saucer, with 2 nacelles directly mounted underneath and the 3rd nacelle mounted in the usual position. Basically think of a monster Ramius.
I expect that this would act as a lighter DN, with less structure and weapons, but a more agile turning capability.

 

[JohnDW]

Well if anyone wants to try this. I've had the idea of two saucers mounted front-to-end, one has two nacells on the top, the other has two nacells on the bottom. Tactical Cruiser that appears as one ship on enemy scanners, breaks off into two ships during combat once the fed numbers have been underestimated.

 

[GamerDude]

Premise:
1-A Federation Dreadnaught has to "Saucer Separate" towards the end of a battle
2-The Dreadnaught's secondary hull does not survive the battle
3-The saucer, with the high engine, make it back to a Federation battle station
4-The base, where the saucer returned, is expecting a follow up attack within days
5-To get all the ships they can ready for the upcoming fight, the base engineers decide to attach an engine and "neck" they have "laying around" from a Saladin destroyer, to the bottom of the dreadnaught saucer
6-The Federation Battle Destroyer is born, the "U.S.S. Devastator" prototype

I made one of these with the plastic starships years ago. I’ll have to look to see if I still have it.

Interesting premise... while I remember the DN as it was first presented in the original ST Tech Manual, it was in there or in an early ST Magazine the three engines were describe like this (I have the history down, not the exact words).
"It was originally thought that adding a third engine would give greater speed to the DN. But balancing three warp engines against each other proved virtually impossible. So, the original 2 engines on the secondary hull were dedicated to propulsion, with the third assigned to provide power to the rest of the ship. Removing the need to provide power to the ship allowed the original two engines to reach greater speeds."

If this is still considered how the DN worked, the only propulsion the saucer section would have is the impulse engines - barring the Chief Engineer's ability to convert that saucer nacelle over to providing some level of propulsion.

 

[Rambler]

In the Star Fleet Universe the 3rd engines actually do provide increased propoltion. So seperated Saucers and even Klingon Booms (C8s and K9Rs) do actally produce Warp capable units when seperated. Of course if you tried to fire all the weapons at once you could not move. Also seperated booms and saucers are only allowed in the case of catastrophic damage i.e. you lose the rear half when it explodes.

 

[Zarathustra Suicune]

Perhaps the battle in which the engineering section was lost happened was around/near enough to the station for it to be able to reach it and be kitted out with a standard engine from spar parts/another ship that had been badly damaged (say cut off from the ship and then the ship was destroyed, leaving it free to use.)
I'm tempted to perhaps to try something that looks like a giant, modern version of the texas possibly, based on an old conversion someone did on ebay years ago from micro machine parts, it was called the N.C.C Lightning I beleive.

 

[Ben2]

Let's not go down the rabbit hole of Star Trek science. That way madness lies.

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

On the subject of Federation BCs, lets see some bashes.

Already done one.

Destroyer leader (front of squadron, the Lysander)
*DDs snipped*

Geoff

Quite nice! Are those all kitbashes? Or only the one in front? Also, they're made from BCH parts, not DNGs, yeah?

 

[The Big D]

On the subject of Federation BCs, lets see some bashes.

Already done one.

Destroyer leader (front of squadron, the Lysander)
*DDs snipped*

Geoff

Quite nice! Are those all kitbashes? Or only the one in front? Also, they're made from BCH parts, not DNGs, yeah?

Yep, all kit bashes. One was a BC, and the other 2 CSs. I stole the other engines from them to rebuild several CAs that were missing/miscast engines so I thought what the hell, give it a bash with the leftovers!

I have 1 one engined BC left that I'm goning to build into a scout, once we see how the scout models are going to be done. Given the unlikelyhood of seeing the FJD ships soon I want to see the NSC sensors first.

I have a CL and a FFB missing some engines too. I Like the idea of wrecked ships for the rescue scenario. Might have to give that a go.

Geoff

 

[SteeleViper]

Premise:
1-A Federation Dreadnaught has to "Saucer Separate" towards the end of a battle
2-The Dreadnaught's secondary hull does not survive the battle
3-The saucer, with the high engine, make it back to a Federation battle station
4-The base, where the saucer returned, is expecting a follow up attack within days
5-To get all the ships they can ready for the upcoming fight, the base engineers decide to attach an engine and "neck" they have "laying around" from a Saladin destroyer, to the bottom of the dreadnaught saucer
6-The Federation Battle Destroyer is born, the "U.S.S. Devastator" prototype

I made one of these with the plastic starships years ago. I’ll have to look to see if I still have it.

Interesting premise... while I remember the DN as it was first presented in the original ST Tech Manual, it was in there or in an early ST Magazine the three engines were describe like this (I have the history down, not the exact words)...

I’m pretty sure the Saladin-class destroyer only has one engine mounted to the bottom of the “neck".

So, the DN I’m proposing would only have a total of two engines, the original DN high saucer engine and add a Saladin engine to the bottom of the DN’s “neck”. At least that is what I intended.