>> The Yerushalyim and Barak are particularly nice cruisers,
>> and the Ben
>> Gurion and Tzion are rather unique capitals. The whole fleet has a
>> greate cohesive theme, and, well, _character_.
>
> Is that a Monty Python great? "Greate, just greate!"

Roit!

> Those Yerushalayim(sp?) and Barak ARE fetching, but aren't they a 
> little
> close in appearance. In person, is there any problem in telling them 
> apart?
> It's a delicate juggling act, making unique ships that still 'hang
> together'.

The Barak is more "muscular" looking in the fore hull and engine. I 
think if you painted them Identically you could have some confusion. 
So... don't paint them identically.  :-)

>> It is simply gorgeous. Well designed, well cast, and a
>> marvelous look.
>
> Wow, Noam, I thought you'd done some of the sculpting; you aren't 
> tooting
> your own horn, are you? ;->=

Nah. I never got my act together to make the attempt at building 
models. I'd still like to one day, though. So I'm tooting for Jon.

>> Great job, Jon!
> He's got your lucre; you can quit sucking up... ;->=

No, no. My point is he deserves _your_ lucre. Or, rather, more of it.  
:-)

> I can't depend on getting kits together the way they're intended. Just
> figure, whatever you suggest, may well show in the next kit list. Are 
> you
> going to share bashed kit ship stats?

I can certainly to that. Once I get the NI Beta designs OK'd and 
online, I'll think through a couple potential bashed options. Or 
You-bash-it and I'll-stat-it.

> What's bigger than an SDN?
>  The Star Fleet Battles designation of Space Control Ship (SCS) might 
> work.

I like Leviathan (LN) as class alot (Or Leviatan for an NI uberDN).
For the UN you could use Titan (TN)
I agree that Monitors sound slow, but that shouldn't stop you if you 
like the term.

> The degradation potential that this thread has acquired
is...dangerous.
You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is: 
"Never get involved in a land war in the ESU." But, only slightly less 
well known is this: "Never go in against a Federal Statsman, when 
_death_ is on the line!"

And one last kitbash note. I may have mentioned this before, but if you 
replace the fore-hull on the Tzion with another fighter bay and turn 
the mini to face the other way, paint the bays as engines, and the two 
engine pod/nacelles become twin Big Honking Honking Guns (Twin Nova 
Cannons? Graser 4's or 5's?). Not really an NI alternate design, but 
something to think about.

Bizarre Hempen Analog	 (Noam Raphael Izenberg - pass that clip along, 
please)