Im enjoying my three way build so much that Im drawing it out a bit but theres no dodging the fact that the three ships will be built soon. So although I certainly have plenty of other things to build I believe Im going to extend this conversion gig for one more round and a fairly big one at that. I had originally bought an AMT 1/537 STVI UDC ship to be built as the Enterprise-A, but thanks to Scott Trusty that ship is now going to be a 1/350 Polar Lights build further down the road. Scott made the great suggestion of converting the model I have now with Alliance Models Belknap assault cruiser conversion kit. I looked at that and the VA Miniatures three nacelle dreadnaught conversion for it but felt that might have issues holding up over the years. VAs Shanks cruiser conversion was also looked at but the design just didnt draw me as much as the Belknap. Just the other day Mike Lakowski, Ron Freeze, and I were chatting about the Decatur Class Im building now being the forerunner of the Belknap Class. In thinking about that discussion the fun Ive been having from that model has really solidified my choice in doing the Belknap conversion. Its more expensive, but its a very solid ship and I think quite pleasing to the eye. Besides Alliances kit I will be using the updated Belknap/Ascension style nacelles from Federation models not only because they were designed for the ship, but also because they are lighter than the Enterprise-A nacelles which will further add to the ship holding up well. There are two sets of decals for it from JT-Graphics. One for the name of which there are three choices. I will pick the USS RAAN which you see here in these pictures of John Paynes rendition of the ship Im posting now as before so you can get an idea what my ship will look like. That other script, btw, is Denebian. I guess that means it has a Denebian crew. I chose the name both because thats different and kinda neat, but also so I get to name a ship after my buddy, Ron (sorta). The second set of Belknap decals from JTG is also seen in these pics as it it provides all the detail specific to the ship. Other than that the only other thing I need for it is a couple of STV style shuttles which you can also see in the pics I selected to upload here. To see several other pics of John Paynes work on this ship go here: inpayne/models/trek/uss-raan.html All the parts and decals for this model can be found at Federation models.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 08:55:53 +0000
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