I was at a bit of a loose end the other day, so I had a fiddle with some plasticard, thinking of knocking up a few more ships for ACTA: Star Fleet. I initially thought I'd bang out something vaguely diamond-shaped, reminiscent of a Imperial ship from Star Wars. But what I ended up with didn't really work for me. It was too flat. I might end up salvaging it by claiming it's a recon variant, but I moved on to a second design. This time the ships was a three-dimensional diamond, and I quickly devised the basic shape, and knocked out three. While waiting for the glue to set, I decided to have a go at an easier to craft third variant made from some leftover bits from the second version. Having knocked up that basic shape for four ships, I decided I'd add a few lays to the upper parts of the ships to make them more closely resemble the built-up centres of Star Destroyers. It has all gone well so far. The remaining major elements are the engines, and the bridge together with neck. I have a good bit of plasticard tube which is the right size for the engines, so I just need to cut it properly. The bridge rhomboid and neck I am going to have a longer think about.
So I have a fair little fleet on the go here. There's Variant #1: the one-dimensional recon vessel, variant #2: three chunky diamonds, and variant #3: four slightly smaller diamonds. As well as these eight, I have two larger toys, probably from Micromachines or something. They're both larger than the models I have currently in hand, which is deliberate. The finely-detailed stuff I've bought can be the nice flagship versions, while the smaller ships are to be the bulk of the fleet. That said, they will doubtless do duty as everything from merchants to Gorns, and I may even concoct some rules for a Star Wars fleet. No transporters, naturally! Here are some photos of the work so far. The painted Star Destroyers are the bought ones. Enterprise and an IG officer are included for scale.
