Of the first five Starline
2500 miniatures I received as a set in
Squadron Box #1: Federation, the Heavy
Cruiser (CA) was in better shape overall and
only took about an hour to cleanup and putty
over the biggest flaws in the casting. The
Constitution-Class Cruiser being universally
recognized as a symbol of the Federation in
any Star Trek-based gaming system, I'm glad
that I received a relatively good one to
work with first time out. I had a good bit
of mold slippage and pour casting remnants
to contend with on the secondary hull, and
the starboard warp engine pylon was brittle
and snapped during cleanup, but pulling it
together proved not to be a difficult
exercise. The primary hull called for some
minor filling around the edge of the saucer
too, but it mated to the neck squarely and
in mostly good alignment. From the outset, I
decided to mount my Heavy Cruiser to a
Gamescience Stand to match the rest of my
Starline 2500 miniatures, and only had to
slightly enlarge the hole in the secondary
hull with a 7/64ths inch drill bit. It
builds up into a handsome miniature, and
captures the essence of the subject very
well - even without finishing. Once adorned
with custom markings from Tenneshington Decals,
my gaming miniature USS Intrepid leapt off
the workbench.
In
detail painting USS Intrepid, I tried out
some different ideas. I painted the raised
boxes on the Warp Nacelle Pylons with an
undercoat of Vallejo #864 Natural Steel and
overcoated them with Tamiya X-24 Clear Blue.
I wanted to replicate the traditional SFU
Painting Guide for replicating Shield
Emitter Grids, but since no particular
"blue" color is suggested, I went with this
idea. With the finish flattened, these
details look interesting. Still with the
blue theme, I painted my fore and aft
Navigation Lights blue as suggested in the
old Guide. I like the result. I took care
not to heavily wash the deeply engraved grid
on the saucer, trying to avoid the starkness
and how they can overpower the decal
markings. I think it looks better, and will
keep trying to refine this idea in future
Starline 2500 builds. Tenneshington Decals provides
bonus view ports and hatches, as well as a
couple of extra ship's name decals for you
to further customize and individualize your
miniature. I used a set on the lower area of
the Secondary Hull, just aft of the
Deflector Dish housing. I also used one
extra ship's name underneath the Primary
Hull, which I hadn't done before doing so on
my FFG
Martin Luther King. Both
really make a nice addition to the standard
markings and enhanced my enjoyment of
putting together this miniature.
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