Ravenstar Studios Fort Courage and more Domain ships.

Last month Ravenstar Studios had a 30% off sale so I purchased the Fort Courage space station and one of the starships.   Due to the large number of orders that were placed for the sale it took about a month before I received my order, but it was well worth the wait.   Fort Courage is a very nicely detailed model and after seeing a post about it on The Miniature Page I had decided to take advantage of Ravenstar's next sale to purchase one.  The model includes the main ring assembly, a piece to glue on the top center of the hub.  another piece to go under the station, and a small piece to glue into the center of that one.   Ravenstar was also kind enough to include some extra items with the order.   I only used a black wash when painting the model.

Fort Courage.   The camera flash has washed out some of the color on the closer part of the model.  I had taken a picture of it without the flash, but the interior house lights had given it a yellowish tone which can be seen in the pictures of the ship models..

In addition to Fort Courage, I also purchased some more Babylon 5 ships.  The 3d printed models are nicely detailed and are available in a variety of sizes.   The level of detail is quite a bit greater than I had expected.  I decided to use the larger of the two Omega models that are in the photo below.   While it is about four times the price of the smaller one it is more detailed, has a rotating center section, and is a better size fit for the light cruiser.   It is listed as the EA destroyer.  The model comes in three pieces, the rear hull and engines, the rotating section, and the forward section.   It does not have to be glued together and if using spray primer it is better to prime the pieces prior to putting them together.  Other ships purchased from the same shop were the fleet scale Nova dreadnaught, Warlock, and the guided missile battle cruiser.   Another ship that I purchased was the Poseidon from the store with the smaller Omega's and Nova's.

Clicking on the pictures will enlarge them for better detail

The two Nova models

The two Omega models

Poseidon carrier.

Warlock model from the same site as the larger Omega

The EA battle cruiser

The smaller Nova will be used for the Domain frigate.  The larger Omega will be for the cruiser and the EA battle cruiser will be used for the Domain battle cruiser.
 

 The three Domain ships/  Battle Cruiser at the top, missile cruiser in the middle, and frigate at the bottom.  The Omega is the same model as in the previous picture with the rotating section turned.

All of the ship models have been sprayed with dark grey prime and given a black wash.   I may add decals or dry transfers to them.

The Poseidon may be used as it is intended for a fighter carrier, or it might be used for an assault troop carrier.  The Warlock may end up as a ship for the aliens.   The ships in the StarCruiser game are the German Sachsen frigate, Hamburg cruiser, and Bismarck battle cruiser.  The Sachsen can control two missiles at the same time, the Hamburg four, and while it can only launch four missiles per turn the Bismarck has been modified to control up to eight missiles at once.  This allows it to hit targets with four missiles each turn while other ships firing at a 15+ light second range usually have to wait a turn between launches.  With its screens and armor it would probably take three or four Federation guided missile destroyers to take out the Domain battle cruiser.

Domain and Panthari space ships

While searching the web for a space ship model similar to the appearance of the battleship in the StarCruiser rules that I am using for the Panthari Imperium, I found the agents of gaming website.
Agents of Gaming
They carry a fairly good selection of the Babylon 5 wars ships and books.  These come in two different scales, ACTA (a call to arms) and fleet (similar in size to full thrust)..  I purchased some of the larger scale models

 

 This is the ACTA scale Warlock which I may use for the aliens.

This is the explorer which is close to the battleship design.



Further checking of the web located other models which I have decided to use for the Domain's starships.  These are available in a variety of sizes and prices from as low as $4.50USD each to several hundred for the very large ones (about 18 inches or more in length)

A slightly out of focus shot of a Domain fleet.  I had to drill 1/16" holes for the bases which came from Brigade Models.

Size comparison of the Agents of gaming model in front and two others.   The Agents of Gaming model is the ACTA scale.  The rotating section can be glued in any position, but does not rotate.  The larger model from https://www.shapeways.com/shops/halcyonyards in the back is designed so that the center section will rotate.   The smaller one from  https://www.shapeways.com/shops/pulsefired does not.  Pulsefired offers listings for multiple ships at a discounted price per ship.

The Agents of Gaming model is actually the Shadow version and comes with a substantial selection of spines to attach to it.   Checking for images on the web brought up several different version with a varying number of spines pointing in various directions.  These were located in the area of the engines at the back and at the forward structure of the ship.   I decided to use some of the smaller spines that came with the Shadow model to convert the larger of the other two to a shadow version.   The spines can be bent in different directions.  I added two sets of triple spines to the engine area and two doubles and two singles to the front.

 clicking on the photo will give a closer view of the models detail.

The cloth background is from JoAnn fabrics.   It can be found on their site at navy star fabric  At the time I purchased it, it was on sale at half price so I purchased enough for a six by ten foot area.  They have several other patterns including the one I have used in a previous post.