Here's my first attempt at the templates for the hulls of my first sci-fi fleet. Red Fleet (hopefully I'll come up with a better name soon) has big blocky vessels. Kinda like Star Destroyers made of bricks. Each vessel has large lower section and a smaller upper section that sits at or near the rear of the vessel. Except for the battleship, which has 3 sections. The cruisers and BB are each about 2" long. I figured that was the absolute largest I could make my ships and still be manaeable on my 1" hexmap.
Round bridge sections are not shown because they won't be cut out of plastruct. For the battleship and cruisers I've got these little wooden plugs that can sit atop the highest/smallest layer of the ship. I'll use something similar but smaller for the escorts. The BB/CA bridge section could probably be cast first and added to the prototype vessels. That way I'll only need to scratchbuild one bridge section.
I don't have specific Starmada stats laid out yet, but in my mind these vessels are armed and deployed somewhat like pre-airpower fleets. No fighters, no drones and few missiles. Just big gun platforms sliding through space with an ominous humming.
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Follow-up: I cut some sheet styrene to start work on the BB. The direction on the back are right: it really is easier to score the sheet and break it off. Unless you doing something small and fiddly, the like the narrow bow of the second tier of the battleship. I cut two of each level of the ship, intending to stack them to make the model thicker. All the cutlines need serious sanding before I can assemble the prototype. Still, I'm thrilled that the NeoTerran Republic battleship is starting to take shape.
ReplyDeleteDo you like the term NeoTerran Republic? They're sorta a Byzantium in deep space, cut off from direct contact with Mother Earth after the old Terran government fractured. Now after decades in turmoil a new government claims allegiance to and legitmacy from a distant and unreachable homeworld.
The whole thing fits into my Venturi Cluster future history project.