"My First Scratchbuilt Fleet " Topic

So, inspired by some pictures I saw of somebody making retro style ships from the old Imperium strategy game, I decied to embark on my own quest toward scratchbuilding madness.

It started with a mad dash of cobbling together various shapes of wood craft bits and plastic shapes from the junk boxes.

Then the obligatory bits adds. I wanted to keep it simple because I plan to make multiples of each ship. I went with sprue off cuts and plastic rod for the most part. Some scrapbooking supplies will be used as well. The occasional bit from other models and such did make it in, but I have a limited supply of those.

Excellent!

Is that the paint you'll go with, or are you planning more detailed?

Some pie cuts on the domes, maybe a bit of aztek-ing here and there, maybe some decals would really make 'em snap.

Again, as I say, not as I do. *blush*

Doug

This is just the primed models. After assembly I like to spray them down with a unifying color. I am trying to keep them from being overly cluttered but I do want to add some more detail.

Yup, very Imperium. Love it.

Nice! An old chess set might be handy as well. You could probably do something with pawns that would fit very sweetly with these.

Nice.

Tony

@darthfozzywig – Definitely an inspiration for this project.

@Tempoary like Achilles – I looked at wooden Meeples long and hard but thought that would almost be too easy

-Eli

I would recognise them anywhere. Very good.

Nice scratchbuilt!

A good source of bits and pieces would be old electronics. The resistors, caps, diodes etc. can all make some neat feature. Three pronged FETs could make a cool looking turret.

I really like those.

Those are really quite the thing

Good job! :thumbs up:

Very nice indeed. 'Not Lego' sets can be a great, cheap source of repeated shapes, especially cones and hemispheres.

I've seen plenty of 'craftee' wooden toy soldiers, but these must be the first spaceships I've seen using the same materials! :D

Thanks folks!

It has been really enjoyable trying to recreate these retro style designs. Of course there are a number of styles for that period of time, but this is one that really does not seem to be represented in manufactured miniatures.

I'll post up some other pics later as the project continues.

-Eli

After a couple of setbacks involving an unfamiliar brand of spray paint, I lost a couple of completed ship models. A light cruiser I had modeled up was trashed but will work for a wreck. The battleship, a brand new design for me, was toast beyond salvage.

I have now rebuilt the battleship as well as a dreadnought design. After getting a handle on the new paint, I managed to get it work rather nicely for the models and so I now have all the ships in their red fleet color. Detailing remains but I have decide on whether these will be human or alien vessels and what sorts of markings they need.

Battleship front view showing spinal mount weapon.

"Medusa" class dreadnought side view. This will represent an older design still in service.

Bow view of the "Medusa". This angle shows off its unique radial weapons arrangement that is its namesake.

Medusa and battleship shown alongside the previous destroyer and frigate designs.

The new battlewagon looks outstanding. Overall very Imperium (the boardgame) look and feel.

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Thank you oh master scratchbuilder :)

-Eli

While designing a cruiser as shown in the first picture, the rear part of the hull came off. Unexpectedly, it looked rather nice that way.

Without the rear section, the cruiser looks a lot like a smaller version of the battleship (also pictured). So, now I have to decide if I want to reattach the rear section or keep it as it is.

I think I dig it without.

So do I. As much as I dig it that way, my brain won't let go of what it was supposed to look like. So, I have fixed it and will likely design a different ship using the same or a similar configuration to the "broken" version.

-Eli

These are fantastic. Thanks for sharing.

I hope you consider this a form of flattery, I'm going to steal your idea.

Steal away! I got my idea from another gamer as well.

I'd love to see what you come up with.

Just quick update on this…

This is coming along nicely!

What a knob of a spaceship!

Any plans on a 'blue' fleet? ;->=

Doug

@Doug,

I am icking up some of Ravenstar Studios retro fleet stuff as the core of my Earth forces.

-Eli

What great imagination, they look great!

LNG, excellent!

The Vilani won't know what hit them!

Doug

Thanks all for the continued encouragement.

Here is a bit of an update on the spaceship project.

I recently received my exploratory order from

Ravenstar Studios – ravenstarstudio.com

These ships are from his Retro range's Earth fleet. I like the style of the ships and their sleek, supersonic age lines. The counter the powerful but bulky looking ships,of my scratch built fleet.

I have them arranged here in a general approximation of equivalency. I was not able to order all of the ships from Ravenstar's Retro Earth range, so there are some gaps.

If you're familiar with ancient Star Trek models, you'll note second from the left is similar to the Lief Ericson, later 'Mystery Ship from Space' glowing in the dark. ;->=

I think Chris has done an AWESOME job taking single, little known pieces and expanding into whole fleets.

Let's keep our observations on the third from the left to ourselves…

Doug

These are coming along nicely. I wish I had the vision to oil this stuff off. VSB and BWP are leaders here for scratchbuilding and are sources of inspiration as well.

I am familiar with BWP but not sure I recognize VSB.

Thanks,

-Eli

V(irtual)S(cratch)B(uilder)

Doug

Those look great. I've just finished a quick scratch build space station to go with TOS era Trek ships that is similar style to what you've built.

Your ships kind of made me think of these as well…

I may have to go build some ships now!!!

I only recently became aware of those conjectural Star Trek ships and had the same thought once I saw them.

I do love them and may have to model up the Earth Romulan War at some point.

-Eli

Shame we're on different continents. I'm up for a game of old-style scifi ship combat with lasers and missiles instead of phasers, disruptors and photo-torpedoes!

Oh, I am sure we could come up with crazy weapons too.

LNG – a bunch of your image links are broken – are the originals collected anywhere? I'd love to keep a folder of these, they're VERY inspirational.

They are all on my blog at leadpeople.blogspot.com but not in a single collection.

EDIT: They are broken there too. Looks like I have some fixing to do.

-Eli

nvdoyle – I created a Pinterest gallery at link with all the photos I have collected of the project thus far.

-Eli

Eli,

Thank you!

*sigh* Pinterest, Facebook…

No world for a curmudgeon such as myself. Still, got to see some of them again, and since only towards the end, progress I'd missed so far.

When I said 'greeble', I only meant panel lines and small bumps, but I do like where you've gone on.

Thanks!

Doug

Sorry Doug, it was the easiest way to post them and know they aren't going to get link changed and such.

-Eli