It’s been far too long since I posted up here but its sort of another Covid-19 related dilemma. When Covid-19 first descended on us I was happy to use my “sheltering at home” time for painting and catching up but as the months went on with no gaming, I found the desire to build and paint was less and less. Gaming drives most of us to build and paint, it’s as simple as that! Putting out that freshly painted unit or piece of terrain is just plain fun and justifies all the time and effort.
There’s also the fact that I have a lot more “irons in the fire” than most folks so getting distracted with other projects is common around here! I have been running a ZOOM session with our group every Saturday night and that kept our interest for a while but face it it’s not the same as really playing, seeing the figures and terrain up close, beating the crap out of your friends, or having them hand you your head!
Soviet Union (Commies in Space) part of my way to big collection of miniatures for a game I never thought I’d like or even play years ago! Note; this picture is 8 years ago, the collection is far lager and includes multiple fleets, NSL (Germans), NAC (British/US), Klingons, ESU (Russian/Chinese), Orion Pirates, and a host of civilian ships as well as planets, space stations, asteroids, and more! These ships are a mix of Ground Zero Games, Firestorm Armada, and a few ??? ships!
Well last week we ran a small game for the first time in perhaps 8 months, a game of “Full Thrust” spaceship combat, just three of us but what a hoot! So nice to get together and face off across the table. I umpired the “learning game” for Chris S and Dave D since neither really knew the rules but found I was pretty rusty as well! Thankfully Full Thrust a very easy and polished set of rules nowadays (we played the FT Project Continuum version) and within 15 minutes or so they were pretty much running the game themselves (I even managed to sneak in an Orion Pirate vessel for myself!)
The game was fun and as I drove home, I found myself feeling a motivation to paint that I hadn’t had for many months, so much so that in the next week I completed two partially done projects of the shelf. Yes of course one was the space ships you see scattered around the post, the other some more un-dead that will be up shortly.
The ships of the Carnival Cruise lines “White Star Line”. Yes on their maiden cruise to the Orion Belt a retired history professor informed the Captain of the history of another long past “White Star Line” While several managers in the corporate promotional department were known to be fired, Carnival Cruises decided since billions had been spent in publicity already it was better to leave the White stars on and bank that few would know or care about the past. Look out for asteroids!
I had received these as part of a large order a few years back to RavenStar Studios miniatures. RavenStar makes some really cool space stuff and as a thank you Chris from RavenStar sent a few ships from his newest line as a thanks for the large order. I got them ready to paint about a year and a half ago but then was struct by “painters block” where the theme for the paint job just eludes you. I had decided to paint them as civilian ships but just couldn’t decide on how to paint them. The simple act of playing cracked the barrier and “Carnival Cruise Lines” moved into space!
The NEBULA, carries the Second class passengers as well as many of the entertainers who rotate between ships. I love how this color came out, a mix of Vallejo greens. The “Fore-deck” swimming pools can be seen in this shot. Ships were purposely painted with a sort of retro look where the ships conning /operations tower resembles the “smoke stacks” of 20th century liners and the lower section the traditional red and black of the water line and below.
Raven Star Studios carries some very nice miniatures and some very cool things you may not find anywhere else! They have an extensive selection of ship lines with different themes so you can tailor your fleets looks more to the “universe” your playing in, they even have a “retro” set of ships looking like ships from the old 30s to 50s comic book space adventures. Also among their offerings are Space Stations, Repair Docks, accessories for modifying your ships and facilities, as well as tons of other cool items (I’ll be showing some of these in upcoming post).
The Carnival Cruise lines “COMET” carries 3rd class passengers and supplies and additional crew. The ship has facilities like the other two ships Nebula, and Quasar, but is less expensive due to the smaller and less ornate passenger sections onboard. Of course all of the ships allow transporter access between ships although some sections are restricted by class or time. Temporary upgrades for these restricted areas are available to lower class passengers for a fee.
One of the ships main attractions are the “Star Pools” found on the fore-deck of all for ships as well as on the fore and aft-deck of the “Galaxy”. Passengers can enjoy swimming while gazing out at the the universes wonders. The asteroid proof force-field and cosmic ray canceling “glass” protect passengers and ship easily. The balanced gravity adjustment system keeps swimmers and water perfectly balanced no matter the orientation of the ship while filters in the “glass” allow only enough radiation in to give the passengers a nice tan!
The “QUASAR” is the most luxurious of the three standard size cruise ships and is decked out for the “first class” passengers where service and pampering goes beyond whats offered on the other two standard ships, Star and Nebula. The ships also always travel in order of passenger class except for “Reverse Course” day where the return to port or midpoint of the trip is reached and each of the smaller ships spend 4 hours as first in line. On that day there is a “Mardi Gras” atmosphere through out the fleet with guest and crew in costume.
Carnival Cruise lines was not the first into commercial space travel but they were the first to make the “cruise” the main focus of the trip. They worked hard get people comfortable with the idea that just “cruising” through space could be fun in itself (sure some of the cruising happens at warp speed!) and destinations sort of a side show. This was all brought about when an order for a small ultra modern military space fleet was cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances (the buyers home planet hit by a very large asteroid) they were able to buy the almost finished fleet very cheaply. Weapons and warfare systems were gutted, sold, and replaced by passenger berthing and entertainment facilities like swimming pools and Holo-decks.
The Flagship of the Carnival Cruise lines fleet, the “GALAXY” has more onboard space for entertainment than the earth city of Las Vegas, as well as ultra-luxurious accommodations for “Star Class” passengers. Lower class passengers also may beam over to enjoy the ships facilities on a slightly restricted basis.
One of their many innovations early in their transition into commercial space travel was to go back to the “class” system for passengers and in fact they created the “Star Class” of passenger, a step above even first class! It was great marketing as where the super rich go, soon everyone wants to follow! These cruise ships were fitted out with every form of entertainment and luxury imagined! Since they operate outside of the laws and regulations of most planets systems they are only governed by basic “Galactic Convention” regulations, the cruise lines own set of shipboard regulations, and this leaves them very free to indulge their passengers whims.
RavenStars ships are produced in several mediums, resin cast, and 3d printing? (I think these are 3d printed but not positive, also not sure if they cast in pewter) and all are pretty darn nice, sculpting and design is first rate! These ships have a super nice look to them and would make a great looking “fleet” (they are part of the Cold Navy, Terran Republic line). I chose to do them as civilian luxury cruise ships for an upcoming scenario I have planned. The only real criticism I have of these castings? is the “striations” in them that lead me to believe they are 3d printed or maybe the masters are done in cad, 3d printed, then cast. Its not really a big deal or that noticeable but it did make painting a bit more of a challenge since using say a blending style of paint work is near impossible with surface irregularities. I could have spent a bit more time in prep perhaps a slight sanding to help this but then it would still be present on recessed sections. I just adjusted my style a bit and went heavy on primer (Krylon black primer) to help and I think they came out really nice!
Space Out!
Bill Witthans
