Adding the Kzinti BC and FF that I already had waiting for paint, and the CM and FF that I already finished, this yields a fleet of 14 vessels. Additionally, I completed about 30 fighters, using models from GZG. Here are a few pix:
The entire Kzinti fleet.
Close-up of the Tug and a strike carrier.
Battle cruisers, CVE, and medium cruiser.
Some of the GZG fighters.
The painting is done, but decals will have to wait, as I'm semi-broke for the time being. I'll need bolster the Lyran fleet also, before getting decals, so probably going to October or there abouts, before decals get ordered.
I haven't settled completely on the bases for the ships, as those included with the ADB ships have posts that are too small to fit the holes in the bottom of most of the ship models. Most of the bases shown above are from my 1980s castings. I will probably use the ADB bases with appropriately sized brass posts replacing the plastic pins for the smaller ships, and use my own resin cast bases (like the white one in the foreground of the top photo) for the larger ships, as it has a slightly larger footprint, than the ADB bases. I intend to paint all of the bases black to match the fighters.
Another unresolved issue, is how to label the bases. I am currently hoping to use either small stickers or press apply type letters and numbers to identify the ships by class. Currently, I am still searching for the option requiring the least work.
While I think the fighters are small enough to convey a reasonable and obvious indication of their role, the models are probably about ten to twenty times too larger for the 1/3788 scale of the ships. These were about the smallest size (generally not more than 3/8ths of an inch in their largest dimension) models that I thought manageable as individually based fighters. ADB does make some fighters for most of the empires, but don't have enough different models to represent the variety of fighter types that we want to use in the campaign. GZG's models are nice, priced right, and provide the variety that we need.
In time I hope to add patrol gunboats or pseudo-fighters (PFs) as we're not supposed to call them. I noticed that ADB now offer Klingon G1s through Shapeways, and I am hoping that by the time we reach the introduction date of PFs, that ADB will offer PFs for more of the empires. If not, I'll just scratch-build them. I'm expecting these to be in yet another scale placing them between the ship and fighter scales, and resulting in models bigger than fighters, and smaller than frigates.
Next up are the few Lyrans that I have, and updating my old Romulans (until I can afford to order more Lyrans).
Nice fleet.
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