A few years ago I painted a fleet of ships for a charity auction at a game convention out East. I volunteered to paint another fleet this year and was give a fleet of Tin Men ships from Ravenstar Studio.
These ships have a robotic crew, so I wanted to make sure they had a look that matched that idea. In my head, this group of ships has been assigned a guard post in a distant nebula and have been stationed there for millennia. The constant exposure to the corrosive elements in the nebula have taken their toll on the ships and they show the wear and tear. (I know this may not make scientific sense, but it sounded good in my head).
The ships have interesting designs and I was happy with the paint scheme. I hope whomever won them at the auction enjoy them and put them to good use.
One of the issues that seems to be common among those of us that play with space ships, planes, and aeronefs is how do you keep the stands from breaking off when transporting. Most of the stands are glued onto the model. Sometimes you can use pegs that fit into a whole, but that has some limitations as well.
I wanted to have stands that could be attached to the model, but could then be removed for transport and storage of the models.
CorSec Engineering has a line of products called Omni-Stands. These are a collection of bases, mounts, and rods that thread into one another and are easily removed. A few months ago, I ordered 30 bases, 30 pegs, and 30 mounts to use with my new Brigade Games models for Imperial Skies. I spent about $80 for these. These are a very nice product, but they are very expensive.
CorSec Engineering base, peg, and mount.
Many of the ship models I have cost $.75-1.50. I don't want to add a base that is 3 times the cost of the model.
CorSec suggests you buy a mount for each model, but you only need enough bases and pegs for the largest fleet you plan to play. Since these come apart, you don't need a base and peg for each ship you own, only for the ones in your fleet.
Not a bad idea and their product is pretty nice, but this is a story of a frugal gamer. So I started thinking about how I could do something similar on the cheap.
So I stopped by my local home improvement shop and found a 6-32 threaded rod and some nylon lock nuts as well. I went with the lock nuts so that I wouldn't tighten the rod into the base and break the base/model away from the nut. The nylon will stop me from threading the rod too far onto the nut.
I have a pair of wire trimmers that allows me to cut the threaded rod so I didn't need to purchase that.
Wire trimmers to cut the threaded rod.
I cut a length of threaded rod about 1" long (you can cut the rod to whatever length you like). I also bought some 1.25" fender washers. For a little more money you an use Litko hex bases of whatever size you like. Whatever you decide to use, glue a lock nut to the base and another lock nut to the ship model. (Try to get the nut glued to the center of gravity to help keep the model stable.) I thread the rod into the two nuts and I now have a stand that comes apart for transport/storage. And is very cheap.
Fender washers, nylon lock nuts, threaded rod, and aluminum tube.
My cheap flight stand with a CorSec mount.
A nylon nut glued to the ship.
My cheap stand works well for ships of different sizes.
You can paint and/or texture the bases if you like.
If you don't like the look of the threaded rod, you can "hide" it fairly easily. Also from my local home improvement shop I picked up a 3/16" aluminum tube. Cut it to length with a hacksaw and you have a sleeve to go over the threaded rod.
You can use some aluminum tube if you want to hide the threaded rod.
Just cut the tube to length and slide it over the threaded rod.
My cheap removable flight stand
Fender Washer 1.25" (pack of 30) - $3.69 or $.13 each
Threaded rod (36" rod cut into 1" lengths) - $3.99 or $.12 each
Aluminum tube (36" tube cut into 1" lengths) - $2.89 or $.09 each
2 nylon lock nuts (purchased in 100 packs) - $3.49 or $.08 per pair
Total Cost - $.42 each
CorSec Engineering's Omni-Stand
Omni-Stand 1.25" Hex Base - $.75 each
Omni-Stand Small Mount - $.45 each
Omni-Stand 1" Rod - $1.29 each
Total cost - $2.49 each
Just to be clear, CorSec Engineering's stands are great and I will continue to use the ones I have purchased. They have some cool features that make them worth the money. And they have some interesting additional items that can give you some additional options to your modeling. However. for most of my ships, I just don't want to spent that kind of money on the stands.
In addition, I used 6-32 threaded rod so the nuts and pegs are all interchangeable between my cheap stands and the CorSec stands.
If you only need a couple of stands, then maybe you should go with CorSec's stands, but if you are like me and have a couple hundred models, then this might be a worthwhile alternative.
What do you use for your flight stands? Have you come up with any clever solutions?
I have finished the project and the models are going in the mail. I hope these go to a good home and make a few dollars for the Toys for Tots folks.
I decided to magnetize the sides of the dreadnought. I was worried about it breaking during shipping and I thought it might be fun to add a little flair. It isn't a perfect job, but not too bad for my first effort (other than turrets).
I painted up some mine tokens to go along with the ships I have been painting for the Toys for Tots Auction. I thought I would write a post about them so you can make some of your own if you are interested.
I found a box of beads that have been sitting around the house for years. These are left over from some craft project the kids had at some point. After looking at them for a bit and thinking how I could use them, I decided they would work as Mines.
I went to my local craft store and got some plastic rods that would fit into the holes on the beads. I cut the rod to different lengths and glued some beads to the rod. For the bases, I decided to just use foam core board cut into squares. Nothing fancy, but it is effective.
I sprayed the tokens black. For this batch, I decided to paint the mines green to match the fleet I am painting.
I painted the mines the same green as the ships and then applied a wash of nuln oil. To finish up, I highlighted them with a brighter shade of green and I'm done.
I'm happy with the look and think they will work good on the tabletop.
I made 10 tokens to go with the fleet. I'll be making more for my own gaming needs.
I've made a fair bit of progress on the dreadnought and I've assembled and base coated the remaining mine tokens.
I was worried about how the big ship was going to look. With just the base colors applied, it just didn't seem to match the other ships. I am always surprised what a wash will do. After the wash was added it looks great.
I've got a lot of highlighting ahead of me, but that should go pretty smoothly.
I have come to the end of the challenge. I completed all the models that I set out to paint at the beginning of the challenge and made some good progress on some Firestorm Armada ships as well.
I have to say that I am a little burned out on goblins at the moment. I do have plans to add more models to this army, but it probably won't be anytime soon.
Thanks to Warboss Tae for putting this challenge together and encouraging me and others like me to put some time into a painting project. These challenges help us to set goals and those goals help us to get stuff done. As I've said before, I'm a fan of setting painting goals. They help to motivate me. I usually hit the goal and go a little further, but even if I don't hit the goal, I still get some stuff painted.
There are quite a few others that completed the challenge this year and at least a few that are still working on it. Good work to all that completed it and good luck to all still working on it.
I look forward to doing this again next year.
Day 31
Secondary Objective 4
Secondary Objective 5
I will be finishing the Firestorm Armada ships very soon. Now I've got to think about my next project. I was hoping to start on my aeronef fleets for Imperial Skies, but I have not received them yet, so I'm thinking I will work on my 6mm Celt army or possibly work on some 15mm stuff for Gruntz.
Any thoughts on what you would like to see me work on next?
With the goblin horde finished, I've been able to work on the Firestorm Armada ships.
I've made a little progress and like how they look. I've also done some mine field tokens that I will be including with the ships when I send them off for the auction. I'll make a separate post on the blog on how I made these.
I also got distracted by a couple other projects. I painted up a model to represent a character in a RPG that I've joined and I worked on some Aeronef models (that belong to Doug). These will be used with a new game called Imperial Skies that has just been released from a Kickstarter project.
I've managed to make a little more progress on this project.
All three cruisers are now complete and I've started on the big dreadnought. I also put together a few home made mine tokens that I will be including for the lucky winning bidder.
I haven't actually spent a ton of time working on these models yet, but I have accomplished a little bit of work.
I've cleaned and trimmed all the models and primed them all grey.
I decided on a grey and green look so I painted green over some of the panels and then washed the model with nuln oil. After that I started doing some highlighting on the green.
The grey will get highlighted as well and the engines will get painted blue. I'm happy with the look so far and hope these are received well at the auction.
With the basic idea and colors put together the rest should paint up pretty quickly.
I finished up the models I set about to paint in the boot camp. I've added a unit of 12 spear armed moria goblins to my forces.
I finished them with some time to spare so I also worked on some bases for my ever growing Kings of War army and I even spent some time working on some spaceships.
Moe the Great made a post on The Miniatures Page looking for volunteers to paint some models that will be auctioned off at the Fall In! convention to support Toys for Tots.
While I'm not the greatest painter out there, I thought I would throw my hat in the ring and offered to paint something for this event.
I contacted Moe and was given the option of a couple different options that I could paint; Firestorm Armada Fleet, Perry 28mm Mercenaries, 15mm sci-fi vehicles, etc. I told him to pick whatever and I would paint it.
He chose a box set of Firestorm Armada models and sent them to me to paint.
I've painted a couple of models from this line in the past, but they were from a different faction. I will do my best to paint these models up to a respectable level and will hopefully be good enough to draw some interest and some good dollars at the auction.
I plan to post my progress on my blog.
My next step will be to clean these up and to wash the models.
I've been looking around for some ideas on the paint scheme. If you have any ideas you can post links in the comments and I will take them under advisement.
I'm pretty sure that if you have been playing miniature games for more than a month, you have a pile of bits somewhere that you have saved for some future project. I have lots of piles of bits.
I decided I wanted to see what i could do with some of those bits. After digging around a bit I found some Ork arms and got my clippers and exacto knife. After a little trial and error, this is what I came up with.
For my first try I took a chain saw choppa arm and a couple of regular choppa arms.
I trimmed off the ork arm and smoothed the surfaces that would be glued.
I used a little glue and drilled a hole for the stand and...Ta da.
Next up I took another chain saw choppa arm and 2 ax arms.
Same process of trimming and smoothing.
Some more glue and another hole and another ship is finished.
These are pretty clunky, but they look alright for a less advanced race like Orks. When I put together a few more ships and add a little paint and and I will have the start of another fleet using bits that I've got laying around.
What do you think? Any ideas for making larger ships to match these frigates? Maybe use some parts from a kill kan or trukk?
I love spaceships. I can't get enough of them. I own a rather large collection. But, I could always add a few more to the fleet, right.
A while ago, my friend Doug showed me some scratch built ships he was working on. It inspired me to try my hand at making my own. These are not great, but it just shows what can be done with some bits and bobbles laying around.
I started with some basic ideas and just played around. Sorry about the pictures. These were taken before I got my new phone.
Parts for frigate.
Finished frigates.
Cruiser Parts
Basic shape for cruisers. Note the beveled edges.
Finished cruiser
Rear shot of cruiser
Parts for 2nd frigate design
2nd frigate finished
Beginning design for battleship
Battleship finished. It is a little off balance.
A different angle of the battleship
Painted battlegroup
Painted battlegroup
The paint job on these guys is nothing fancy. I have always wondered why space ships have such elaborate paint schemes. In my mind (nothing based upon realitiy) I don't see why you need to paint a ship that only floats around in a vacuum. You don't have to worry about corrosion. So I just painted the windows, and engine exhaust ports on these. Maybe not flashy, but it works for me.
What do you think? Have you built your own ships? What do you use? How elaborate are your ships?
