Back to basics

Because it's been way too long since I've posted about something related to this blog's original focus, here are some spaceship pictures.

These pics come from my 5150: Star Navy demo I ran at last fall's MillenniumCon.

In addition to my usual Starfleet Wars/Galactic Knights minis, this game included ships from the Star Frontiers and Stardate: 3000 miniatures lines.

Look carefully, and you might also spot a Silent Death model or two.

I hope to get a game of Star Navy in this weekend.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Sunday Starships: miscellaneous

Rounding out my gallery of spaceship pictures, I have an eclectic group of vessels which gave me a chance to add some variety to my various paint jobs.

These starships are from three different lines of minis:

• Starfleet Wars/Galactic Knights: Mars-class starbombers (6)
• Star Frontiers: Federation freighter and scouts (7)
• Silent Death: Muskellenge craft (2)

I haven't had a chance to use any of these models in a game, but I have some ideas: The SD ships would make nice luxury yachts, and the SF minis could make a great recurring group of sometime allies/sometime adversaries.  The starbombers can serve as pirates or, if I ever get my starship campaign up and running, players' ships.

Oh, and I apologize for the lack of visible detail on the lighter-colored ships.  The flash really washed everything out, and my rudimentary photo editing skills (and software) couldn't do much to salvage it.

This might be the last installment of Sunday Starships for awhile; although I have additional spaceships to show you, none of them are painted yet.  And I doubt I'll have time before the South Texas Mini-Con next week--but I should have plenty of pictures from that, so stay tuned!

Another gratuitous spaceship photo

Those of you waiting on the followup to my Galactic Knights review, sorry, but real life intervenes.  I will hopefully get the second part of the review up later in the week.  Meanwhile, here's another gratuitous starship photo (Star Frontiers, Starfleet Wars, and Silent Death ships--can you tell which is which?):

Ciao, y'all.

Gallery: New acquisitions

When I made a recent purchase on ebay, I could tell from the seller's photos that the trio of spaceships were painted; I just couldn't tell how they were painted.  Imagine my pleasant surprise upon opening the package to discover this:


The three vessels bear a tiger-stripe paint job in the style of the Capellan Raiders, and the smaller two of them have fanged mouths reminiscent of the Flying Tigers.  I had originally planned to remove the paint jobs and redo these ships as transports or tugs.  My wife, however, insists I should keep the existing markings and bases, and I agree.  As you can see, they're already mounted:

Unfortunately, I have no idea what line these ships are from or who made them.  Maybe they're for the Battletech setting's space combat game, AeroTech?  UPDATE: Thanks to the expertise of the folks over at The Miniatures Page, the larger ship has been identified as a Betafortress gunboat or Nemesis gunboat for the space fighter combat game Silent Death.  The smaller ships have a similar style, but I still can't pinpoint which model they are.  UPDATE 2: The author who redesigned some of the SD ships says the smaller ships are Sapper minsweeper/assault fighters. 

The bases have "Ral Partha" and what looks like the number "81" or "87" on the underside:

Take a look at the remaining pictures, and if you have any idea what these ships might be, let me know in the comments:

Unknown vessels approaching

ALERT: Scanners detecting incoming bogeys.  Two unidentified craft, approaching at .6 c, unfamiliar design:

I took this photo without a flash and heavily manipulated it.

Tonight I painted up a couple of Silent Death minis that I had acquired sometime back.  SD is a game of space fighter combat, so these figures are meant to represent individual attack craft.  Since they're about 1&7/8 inches (46mm) long--about the size of a Starfleet Wars/Galactic Knights destroyer--they can also serve as larger ships in other starship combat games.

They're not blurry when I have the flash on.

These models by RAFM are part of the Night Brood faction (whatever that is); this particular design is known as the Muskellunge (whatever that is).  I like the lines on these ships.  The insectoid design means I could use them as new Entomalian designs.  These ships could also serve as civilian luxury yachts, racers, cargo ships, pirates, or even a new alien species.

The Violeta.

The Goldie.

Since I'm not sure how I'll end up using these ships, I didn't paint them in the colors of any of the Five Powers.  Instead, I had a little fun, ending up with bright gold and electric purple effects for these craft.  I'm looking forward to getting these gals on the table, once I figure out their role.