RE: Nice Decados fleet Dean

Nick Caldwell wrote:
> These are gorgeous -- details, details!  They look like a green
metallic?

> Any special techniques for using the pen?  How do you keep the ink
from
> running off?

Tomb wrote:
> Just had to give a thumbs up. I too am
> interested to know how you achieved such a
> nice looking black using a technical pen. That's
> pretty thick looking and yet it doesn't seem to
> have run all over. And what paint (specific
> brand and colour) did you use for the metallic
> green? I really like the colour!

The green was Testors Bright Green Pearl spray that I picked up for $1
at a
closeout sale at a train show of all places though I have seen it in
stores
since then.  I used it over a grey primer so it wasn't quite so bright. 
It
was somewhat translucent so you sould have seen the newspaper I had the
minis on when I painted them.

It is a very glossy paint and when I tried a dark wash, it just ran off.
 I
use a coat of Dullcout to give the rest of the paint more bite.

Micron pens are great.	Local craft stores (like Micheals) have lots and
lots of them in varying tip sizes, down to really really small like .5mm
plus they come in a rainbow of colors.	I use black mainly but I'm
keeping
them in mind for other colors depending on the fleet.  Their permanent
ink
dries pretty fast and the tip is precise so all the lines you see on the
Decados minis were freehand.  The ink is thin to and cover's easily so
it
doesn't obscure and details, think of it as a very small felt tip pen. 
I
basically outlined the area I wanted black and then colored it in.  I
tried
one ship with black paint and a brush and said forget it and went out a
got
a couple more Micron pens.  If you go to the page of all my minis and
look
at the Not-TIE fighters the Brigade never made, I did all the black
detail
on the solar panels and cockpits with a Micron pen.

Nick Caldwell wrote:
> And how did you do the ship designations on the bases?
Tom Pope who has been on this list though I haven't seen him lately
produces
them under Decals Express (http://www.wargamesexpress.com/decals/) click
'Catalog' then 'Starship ID Codes'.  $3.95 for a sheet that allows you
to do
a fleet or two of bases.  I love them and they go great on black bases.
Here is a direct link to the sample page:
http://www.wargamesexpress.com/decals/catalog/11101.html

Tomb wrote:
> And the minis themselves are nice. Do you
> figure the mass ratings you gave them are
> close to what they would be when placed next
> to a canon fleet of minis? (Or did you just
> reason backwards from "this is the big one, it
> must be a DN"?). If so, then the pack you got
> must have been a reasonable deal to give you
> that nice sized fleet. And the Assault Transports
> and the DN are both very cool, as is the Cruiser.

I compared the minis to GZG minis to get a class size, then I used the
Noble
Armada stats to get a basic weapon layout.  Then crunch it all together
on
my spreadsheet to see what it looks like, modify as needed to keep it in
the
correct mass range.  I just added the boarding marines after Oerjan's
initial pass and they bumped up the Mass on all the ships so they might
be a
bit large now but I haven't checked.

The boxed sets that these minis come in can get pricy since you are also
buying the Hawkwook fleet counterparts along with the Decados ships. 
The
Capital Ship box includes 1 cruiser and 2 DDs from each fleet ant the
Dreadnoughts box includes 1 DN and 2 Assault Landers from each.  The
rest of
the minis are plastic from the original boxed set or now available
separately along with a hex map as the 'Noble Armada: Ships of the Line'
pack.  Each of those comes with 4 sprues of 8 plastic minis, here is a
pic:
http://zappa.brainiac.com/spaceship/noble-armada-minis.html

Here is a list of all the Noble Armada minis along with pics:
http://zappa.brainiac.com/spaceship/spaceship6.html#fadingsunsminis

Tomb wrote:
> Sweet work, Star Ranger!

Thank you, I thought the minis and their 'offical' paint job was
striking so
I tried it myself, wanting to get away from a white/grey fleet.  I was
able
to look at the minis Holistic Design had used for the pics on the
website
and box last year at GenCon.  They used a much different technique
(black
base then paint the green) but I think I did a good job and they look
great
on the table.

Dean Gundberg

Starship Combat News
The latest information on Space Games and Miniatures
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dean@star-ranger.com