FT: mini purists, "new" weapons

A gaming friend of mine got upset one time when a gamer brought
his WW2 battleship miniatures to play FT.  He even designed the
ships to have turreted mounts similar to those BBs.  I laughed
and had no problem with the mini's.  Later I gave my friend a
hard time by saying next time I'll bring some of my Matchbox
and Hot Wheels vehicles for FT; with a Corvette class Corvette,
a Porsche class Cruiser, a Limo class Battleship with flag bridge,
and an auto-carrier CV.  He wasn't amused.  We were in the game
store last Saturday and the only large selection of space ship
mini's available were from Silent Death.  So I picked a bunch
that didn't look too fighterish for my newly designed fleet.
He scoffed and complained that you cannot play FT without FT
mini's.  I think he's a hopeless purist (and a little anal,
I told him that, too <g>).  And then, AND THEN, he makes the 
suggestion to use some of my SFB mini's or get some B5 mini's.
Argh.

One thing I found about designed FT ships is that, after
doing designing ships for years using the more detailed 
Traveller design rules, they are a little, um, lacking
(I also disagree with the streamlining percentages, but
that's another issue).	So I thought of putting some of
the standard weapons into groups and use them as "one"
weapon and give the "new weapon" a fancy name.	
So here are some of my ideas and also some ship design 
ideas to go along with it.

Baryon-Stutter Torpedo Launcher, mass 16, points 48, 1 arc
(4 pulse torpedo launchers).
Ion Flux Emitter, mass 2, points 6, 6 arcs
(2 class 1's)
Ion Flux Cannon, mass 4, points 12, 3 arcs
(2 class 2's)
Ion Flux Spinal Mount, mass 24, points 72, 1 arc
(6 class 3's)
(I dislike the current FT "spinal mounts")

Each "weapon" will take several hits to actually
destroy, but each hit would degrade its firepower.
The Ion Flux Emitter can split its fire in anti-fighter
and anti-missile defense modes.

Game-wise, there isn't any difference but I'm adding
flavor and placing some self-imposed restrictions
when firing on targets.

I haven't look at Needle Beam yet, but something
similar could be done with that.

I'm only going to give 1 ship design idea:
an assault cruiser that remains at a distance
and fires its 2 BSTLs (8 pulse torp launchers)
as a fleet support platform.  A friend showed
me that I needed fighter protection so mix in
some anti-fighter defenses and add 1 or two
support vessels in case a few fast ships decide
to break off the main force and take out my
support ship(s).

btw, 
Why would anyone want 1 class 4 when you
can have 2 class 3's for the same mass and points?
(so far, I'd rather have 2 class 2's than 1 class 3)

Glen