[FT] The knight who sees NI (long)

Mine eyes have seen the glory that is the new New Israeli Fleet. It's 
fantastic.

Jon was kind enough to send me about 10 megs of pics of the new 
miniatures, and I'm going to tease you with inadequate descriptions.

You may commence drooling in 3... 2... 1... Mark.

You already know and love the Tzayad DD, Maccabee CE, and Sabra BB, so 
my ship descriptions will relate to those.
First - the fighters
FT 1501 	Kfir Light Fighters - already out, these are not BG
Colonial 
Vipers.
FT 1521 	Bard'las Heavy Fighters look... heavy, already starting
the 
wing+pod theme of the ships of the fleet.

The ships all have the Techno/Deco look to them that the first three in 
the series established. The designs hint at 1920's and 1930's concepts 
of  rounded streamlined spaceships in the fore parts, then getting into 
more "bricky" modern sci-fi as you move aft. The arrowhead shapes of 
the bodies are distinctive, and the vertical "wings" in the capital 
ships are unique. The star-engines are also quite nifty. I like that 
they're pretty subtle unless you're looking at them dead aft.

FT 1502 	Sheir Scoutship
FT 1503 	Sa'ar Corvette
These are rather dart shaped, and look built for speed.

FT 1504 	Ra'am Battle Frigate
FT 1505 	Tzayad Destroyer
Ra'am looks less arrow-head like than Tzayad - a bit like the human 
fighters in the rather awful movie rendition of the Human-Kilrathi 
spacewar game who's title escapes me at the moment. WHile the movie was 
bad, the ship design was cool, and Ra'am is, of course, a frigate, not 
a fighter.

FT 1506 	Kashat Light Cruiser
FT 1507 	Maccabee Escort/Patrol Cruiser
FT 1508 	Yerushalayim class Heavy Cruiser
The cruisers are again all related, looking like three stages of growth 
of the same ship from youth to adolescent to adult. Kasaht is a little 
more jagged than Mac, and Yerushalayim is longer and more muscular 
looking - especially in the fore-hull. Yerushalayim and larger all have 
that underslung barrel (evloving into it's own pod in some of the 
larger classes) which seems to beg for a heavy weapon.

FT 1509 	Barak Battlecruiser
FT 1510 	Sabra Battleship
Barak is an evolution of Yerushaliym in that the arrowhead wings grow 
some, and the forehull gets more meat. Sabra looks basically like a 
Barak unfolding into the third dimension.

FT 1511 	Chalutz Chalal Heavy Battleship  (Battledreadnought)
Take a Sabra, widen the arrowhead enough to fit _two_ engine nacelles 
in the back, modify the fore hull a bit, and you have a Chalutz Chalal. 
Very nice.

FT 1512 	David Ben Gurion Superdreadnought
Widen it still more, and stik on two quad shoulder gunpods facing 
forward, and you have Ben Gurion. David means serious business.

FT 1513 	Kineret Light Carrier
Take a Chalutz and swap out the forehull with an underslung fighter bay 
pod, and you have a Kineret  - probably 4 groups

FT 1514 	Tzion Supercarrier
Change out the shoulder gunpods of the Ben Gurion for Fighter bays, and 
thicken up the fore hull, and you have the awesome Tzion. 8 groups, 
maybe around 280 TMF

They're great!	I  just know that kitbashers are going to love the 
capital classes.

I'm in the process of generating some Alpha test stats for the ships 
(alas, _not_ with stealth hulls_). These will be released with, or soon 
after the pics go up - whenever Jon gives the OK.

My fleet is going to kick so much @ss (when I get the darn thing 
painted). But here's a preview... one of my almost finished Sabras. 
With a little CG
http://nift.firedrake.org/Mini_Images/SabraCG.jpg

Zone Miner Garb   (what Noam R. Izenberg wears in the Zone Mines)