Continuing
what turned out to be a summer of Franz
Joseph inspired starship modeling in 2011, I
used some spare parts to create my own
Escort Frigate - inspired by this fine
artwork from the Starship Schematic
Database.
Though
not an official ADB Star Fleet Battles
design, it lends itself well to creating an
SSD for playing within the game system and
isn't so overly armed as to be problematic
for inclusion.
Using
Amarillo Design Bureau's Starline 2400
gaming miniatures, this is a quick and
simple modification of the parts from the
Federation Tug. It maintains the attractive
lines of the Ptolemy-Class Tug and
immediately looks purposeful in mission and
intent - right at home with the rest of the
Franz Joseph-style starships.
Converting
the parts is easy even for a novice modeler,
as you are basically building the Federation
Tug without the Cargo Container. For my
rendition, I trimmed the Neck down to a stub
- for two reasons. One, I wanted a sturdy
section to drill into for mounting the
gaming miniature to a stand. Two, I wanted
to add something simple to represent
additional Engineering space in the
starship, and I got a place to mount an
additional Phaser for defending the rear arc
of the vessel to bout. On the upper surface
of the Primary Hull, I trimmed away the
Phaser mounts for the Tug and added four new
Phaser blisters using what I had on hand at
the time - Grandt Line #152 Rivets. About an
hour's work in cleanup and modifications and
you'll be ready for painting and finishing.
As
this is not an official ADB Star Fleet
Battles design, it does not appear in the
Starship Names Registry. Neither is there a
listing in John Bullerwell's Starfleet
Registry, covering virtually all vessel
names canon and fandom but none of this
class or type of warship, so you have a lot
of latitude in christening your own
miniature(s). As there are no individual
decals sheets done for USS Victory, I
cobbled them together using Starfighter
Decal sets for 1:3788 scale Star Fleet
Battles miniatures. It does take awhile to
line up individual numbers and letters, but
the end result is worth it. I added Combat
Leader Rings to my miniature's upper hull as
further adornment, and to match her
weathered finish as representative of long
and distinguished service defending the
Federation.
Since
Starfighter Decal sheets don't offer a
"letter jungle" for you to put together ship
names, I resorted to creating my own decals.
It was actually very simple. I used Micro
Mark #82272 Clear Decal Sheet fed through my
desktop inkjet Brother Multi-Function
combination FAX/Printer/Scanner/Copier. This
is about as simple as it gets for making
your own decals. I printed the ship's name
in 3-point Federation Regular font, applied
three light coats of Krylon #1303 Crystal
Clear acrylic spray coating as a clear
fixative over the printing, and was off the
the races in about an hour start to finish.
The Krylon acrylic finish provides a
moderately tough carrier for the printing
that can stand gentle repositioning once you
separate it from the decal sheet and apply
it to the model. I only had to work it over
a drop or two of water to get it into proper
alignment, and it won't be so thick to cover
up and blend into the final finish.
I did
the same for my Federation
Command Cruiser USS Balson at the
same time, as I was finishing it at the same
time as USS Victory. I chose Federation
Regular as the font for these two ships to
set them in a different time period (later)
than the AmarilloUSAF-style lettering seen
on TOS-era ships - which is sometimes
speculated in fandom as a font style
appearing on Federation ships between the
time of the original television series and
the movie era vessels. I like this concept
and wanted to follow suit. USS Victory would
be joining my four Balson-Class Command
Cruisers in this time period.
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