Personally,
I am not much into the pewter side of gaming
miniatures. I have a bunch of them, but they
all seem to have niggling issues that call
for a lot of corrective work and adjustments
to make them come out close in quality to
the plastic Zocchi variety. I generally set
them aside for later, and later, and
later... Before I went on my quest to build
a Franz Joseph Squadron of gaming
miniatures, I cut teeth on this one. It
turned out to be a bit of an adventure.
The
example I had to use for my rendition of the
Strike Cruiser USS Nimitz was probably the
worst of the ones I had in my unbuilt
collection - so I set out to do something
with it - to get it out of the way. After
all, it only comes in four pieces, how hard
could it really be, right?!?
When I
purchased #0229 from my local hobby shop, I
really didn't inspect it much. It was one of
a precious few left on the sales peg, and
marked down - so on an impulse - I grabbed
it. Like most modelers, I put it into the
"to be built pile", where it languished
several months before I took it out to
actually inspect it and put it together. I
was a bit dismayed with what I found. The
Primary Hull was considerably warped, in
different directions, all around the
saucer's perimeter. The neck was twisted, as
were both Warp Nacelle/Pylon assemblies.
With some careful coaxing with a set of
modeler's needle-nose pliers these problems
could be reasonably addressed without adding
more damage to the soft white metal, but the
Secondary Hull was worse off than all the
other parts put together. It had much more
pitting on its surfaces, gouges and nicks
and was asymmetrical - a misshapen
representation of what it should have been,
neither side or angle matching the
corresponding area on the opposite side of
the hull. The forward Hanger Bay Door
section was cast onto the Secondary Hull out
of alignment - severely twisted to the port
side. I briefly contemplated sawing it off
and attempting to square it up again, but
set the thought aside. In actuality, the
entire Secondary Hull needed to be replaced
altogether because it really doesn't look
the part as nicely as show in the drawing
from the Starship Schematic
Database. I admit the idea of
creating a new Secondary Hull didn't
interest me at all - perhaps at a later date
when I wanted to get more into conversions
of these gaming miniatures - but not right
at this moment. So, I pressed on and
attacked all the surface imperfections with
Squadron Green Putty (which worked out
surprisingly well) and a Wire Brush in my
battery-powered Dremel Tool (also working
out really well to cleanup and polish the
surface of the white metal to something I
felt I could get a good finish out of). I
worked the Warp Nacelles into a relatively
good shape, except for the port Nacelle - it
was twisted and the inboard channel still
displays a slight kink from certain angles.
The Pylons weren't exactly in the same
position attached on the Nacelles, so one is
slightly out of alignment with the other,
also noticeable in close photos. The last
feature of the pewter miniature I don't
really like is the deeply engraved Deflector
Grid system on the upper surface of the
Primary Hull. It just stands out too much on
the finished miniature, deep trenches more
than the thickness of a couple of men in
that scale - it is the first thing that
leaps out at you when you see the miniature,
accentuated with a wash or not. I
contemplated filling them slightly with
Green Putty, but set the idea aside for a
later attempt on a different one. Overall I
really liked the miniature, and when put
together and tweaked a bit, it definitely
looks the part. Above, I photographed it
alongside of its assigned escort, a Zocchi
plastic miniature done up as the Destroyer
Escort USS Halsey, NCC-565. I can't
say enough about how much I like the Zocchi
Plastic miniatures, they are nicely detailed
and easy to work with. There is a slight
difference in size that you can see when
they are displayed together - but not
dramatically enough to spoil the feeling. In
the near term, I intend on buildups of her
other two escorts; FFR Escort Frigates USS
Fletcher, NCC-315 and USS Spruance, NCC-316
to complete the battle group. ![](Resources/USSNimitzCVSsmall.jpeg)
The
through-deck cruiser design is interesting,
and looks quite a bit like a standard heavy
cruiser design from certain viewing angles.
I have hopes that the new 2500 series of
miniatures coming out late-2011 will
eventually offer this strike cruiser design
- it could be a very nice addition as a
centerpiece for a new gaming miniature task
force.
The
CVS operated with a battle group, consisting
of an attendant squadron of fighter craft
and up to three escort vessels throughout
the General War. From years 168 through 173,
a Strike Carrier Battle Group consisted of
the CVS, one DE (Destroyer Escort) and
either one or two FFE (Escort Frigates). The
CVS carried a contingent of F-4 Fighters.
From years 173 through 175, the fighter type
changed to F-18 and an NEC (Escort Cruiser)
could replace an DE or FFE. From Y175
through Y185, the fighter contingent
remained F-18, but the escorts could be a
combination of DEA (Destroyer Escort), NAC
or FFA. Also, from Y183 and beyond, F-18C
Fighters were used and a combination of NAC,
DWA and FFA escorting vessels could be found
making up a Strike Carrier (CVS) Battle
Group.
When I
finished USS Nimitz, I wanted to represent a
battle weary veteran of the General War.
These were desperate times in the Federation
Commander Universe, and though the CVS
design resulted in a precious few number of
vessels built, I wanted USS Nimitz to both
display a lot of use and good service
nonetheless. I did not want her to be pretty
and pristine. As there are no painting
instructions nor specific set of markings
(that I know of at this time) for rendering
the CVS, I cobbled them together from
Starfighter Decals Federation Commander Sets
to suit my impression of USS Nimitz. I
wanted to place Combat Leader Rings on her
Primary Hull - but alas, I didn't have the
decals handy to do so when I finished this
miniature. Perhaps at a later date, I'll go
back and add the Combat Leader Rings,
fitting for a Strike Cruiser, but probably
little else other than a minor touch up here
and there. My rendition of USS Nimitz is by
no means perfect, but I really like its
gritty character and appeal - it looks like
a battle-tested gaming miniature - having
stalked many a victim on uncountable numbers
of hex maps in her day.
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