I've been working through the really old Jes Goodwin sketches that were made for the original Space Fleet (remember that?!). They really struck a chord and so I decided to turn them into minatures.
Below are some extracts from the sketches of what I've been working on so far:
I then had to do some thinking of my own to work out how exactly the models would look. (bonus imperial prow and Eclipse sketches). A lot of the thinking was about the bridge and how the foreward hull would curve out of plane. The tail is familiar if tricky territory. This is the main cruiser type shown here.
In this next image, the small attack cruiser is shown. This has a substantially shorter tail and an overall sleeker silhouette.
Continuing along the same theme, the annotations are about how I was considering forming the shapes required. The gun turrets are also shown. The idea for this fleet was something a little longer ranged, hence the use of old-school starcannons as weapons.
In this final sketch I elaborated on the battleship, particularly the detailing on the areas where the original sketch was a little unclear. Later annotations also cover the size and how the parts would go together.
After the concepts were worked out, I hit the CAD. I'm afraid I only remembered to record the frigates, freighter, and the battleship via Twitch.
The first escort design work:
Part 1
Part 2
(note that I ended up having to spend some time faffing about with the mesh at the end - ended up finding a flaw in how Fusion360 exports STLs).
The second escort design work:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
The battleship design work:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
The small transport design work (the tail loft especially was difficult):
Part 1
Part 2
Some flashy renders:
With the design work done, I printed some of my own! I'm not the best at painting. This paint scheme was:
- Vallejo black primer
- Abaddon black
- Drybrush Vallejo military green
- Drybrush Vallejo flat green
- Very light drybrush of Vallejo white
- Glaze with Agrax Earthshade
The sails on the cruisers are done in a metallic copper which doesn't come across well on a photo at all!
The battleship was a bit different. The hull was Vallejo silver and Retributor armour, which then received two coats of Agrax Earthshade to bring the colour down. The sails were again Vallejo copper. I then went at the hull with a scratchy brush which chipped and weathered the paint back to the silver undeneath, making it look a little more weathered. Now it really lives up to the name "Radiant Dragonship". Note that I've also started mounting my ships using ~2 mm brass rod into the base, which looks especially good on escorts.
These models are available at: