This part is the whole UNSC fleet from start to finish. It’s pretty much the same steps from parts 1-3, so I put it all in 1 page instead of breaking it up. Here are the 8 UNSC ships from GZG’s Fleet Intro Pack. As you can see, 6 of them need assembly.

 

This is part of the battlecruiser. You can see the bad cast on the right side. I feel this piece was very poorly cast. Every other piece of every other ship was good, but this one was lame. Note: GZG has sent me a replacement for this part, and it is much better.

 

All the flash removed, and all the pieces washed. There was a lot less flash to clean up on these ships compared to the ESU fleet. Each class of ship is in it’s own bowl so I don’t get the parts mixed up.

 

Now for assembly. I used superglue and epoxy. There were some parts that fit very tightly. For these I used superglue, because it sets very fast. Some other parts had some play, or spaces that needed to be filled in. For those I used epoxy. It sets slower, but it will fill in space, and superglue will not.

 

Here are all the assembled ships.

 

And here they are after priming.

 

This is during painting. All ships got a dry brush of dark blue, then a more selective dry brush of lighter blue. Then details in yellow, and some ships got some details in grey. The engines are a dry brush of very dark blue, then a selective dry brush in a slightly lighter blue. Then all the ships got a red and yellow “thruster exhaust”.

 

Now to attach the stands. I used epoxy for this. Only 1 “pole” needed to be glued to the stands, the rest snapped in tight with no glue. All the “poles” are glued to the ships.

 

Getting ready for sealing. I use a clear matte sealer. I don’t want to get it on the bases, so I made these skirts to protect the base and pole.

 

 

Outside, ready to seal. It’ about 65 F here in San Diego, CA today (Dec 23, 2012). [ed: When this was origianlly posted, to Imgur]

 

 

The finished fleet. The yellow details came out better on the better cast parts. They are sloppy on the poorly cast battlecruiser hull.

 

 

 

 

A close up of the heavy cruiser.

Part 3 – finishing the ESU Fleet

I decided to touch up some of the red parts that were a little sloppy.

 

Now it’s time to attach the bases. Here are all the base pieces.

 

I used epoxy to attach the base to the ships, because the fit was pretty loose, and superglue needs an exact fit. Epoxy will fill in spaces, superglue won’t.

 

Here they all are on the bases. I glued the “pole” to each ship, but I only had to glue the “pole” to the hex base for 1 ship, the rest were tight enough to not have to glue them.

 

I’m getting ready to spray them all over with a clear matte finish / sealer. This will protect the paint, and give them a nice finished look and a bit more contrast. I don’t want to get the sealer on the bases, because it makes them look “fogged”, so I made these little skirts to protect the base.

 

Here we are in the back yard ready to spray.

 

And here they are after being sealed. The color seems to stand out more now. Compare with picture #4, where they had not yet been sealed. At this point, they are completely finished.

 

 

Here’s a closeup of the battlecruiser. I’m pretty happy with it. Next, I’m going to start on the UNSC fleet. The steps will be the same, so I’ll probably repeat myself some. After that, I will try my hand at custom storage.

Welcome to Part 2 of my GZG Full Thrust Intro Fleet Double painting recap.

I primed them black. This is the 3rd batch I’ve ever painted. This batch was done with Krylon black. In the past I’ve used Rustoleum grey. I don’t know if the Rustoleum was better, or the missed spots are just more noticeable in black than they are in grey. But I had to spot touch up a few area with regular black paint.

 

Here they are after a 1st coat dry brush of dark grey, and a much more selective dry brush coat of a lighter grey.

 

Here’s the 2 different greys I used, first coat dry brush and 2nd coat dry brush.

 

My tools and paint. To make the above greys, I mixed black & white (duh!). I started painting minis just about a month ago (ed: that would be November, 2012, as this is a repost). I bought 7 jars of Citadel paints at a local hobby store. I quickly ran out of white because of mixing. A web page I read about painting suggested Apple Barrel paints, and they are pretty cheap on Amazon.com. So I bought a huge squeeze bottle of white. In the foreground are my stir sticks, they are kabob stick cut into 3 pieces with wire cutters. In the background is my giant flashlight. It is very useful to check details and find little spots missing primer, etc.

 

Here they are finished (for tonight, anyway). I’m not that great of a painter, so I noticed in this photo that some of my red details are a bit off. I might go back and fix them, or I might decide that would make it even worse. I’ll put that off until tomorrow.

Here’s my post about getting started with starship wargaming.  I originally posted it to Imgur in December 2012.  I’m reposting the series here to get this blog started.

I ordered the “FT Intro Fleet Double” from Ground Zero Games in the UK. I chose the ESU and UNSC fleets. You get 2 frigates, 2 destroyers, 2 light cruisers, 1 heavy cruiser and 1 battle cruiser for each fleet. It took 2 weeks and a day to arrive in CA from the UK.

 

Here’s the contents of the box. It came with 2 copies of the Full Thrust Light rules, which are also available for free download (as are all the Full Thrust rules) from http://shop.groundzerogames.net/index.php?_a=viewCat&catId=130

Here’s the 2 fleets. The ships in the bags need assembly.

1st step: clean up the ships. Remove all the flash, file down the mold lines, then give them a good scrub with soap and water with a toothbrush. Here’s the flash and dust from cleaning up the ESU fleet. That’s my tiny metal file I used.

The ESU fleet all cleaned up and washed. That took about 3 1/2 hours.

Here’s the assembled ESU battlecruiser.

Here’s the whole ESU fleet, ready for primer. That will be in part 2.