Greetingss all,
I have been lurking on the list for a bit now. I orgionally subscribed to see
if there were any SGII players on the list but I reciently picked up Full
Thrust and played it. I used odd shaped bits of plastic (plugs from automobile
factory audio wiring) and extra clear "flyer" stands I had left over from some
other game whose name excapes me to represent 2 escorts and a cruser for each
side. While this worked quite well I couldn't resist getting actual ship
models. I picked up some Traveller (The Spew Era) ships boats of various
designs. 5 minis for 5 bucks, gotta love that. Now I am in the process of
cleaning em up and getting them ready to be painted. Which leads me to my
first question for the list:
What are your painting phlosophies for your ships?
Do you do the matte grey "Star Wars" thing, or do you go for the
Narn "Zebra on drugs" paint scheme or a variation on both? Do you even bother
painting the minis you play with (eather too eager to play or *gasp* don't
like to paint) Are elaborate CNS fleet markings complete with ship numbers
your thing or do you just slap a coat of paint on and go? Do you think ships
would even be painted or that it would make a difference what the color of a
cruser is when you are firing on it from half a light minute away? If this
topic has receintly been done to death or is "taboo" I apologise for bringing
it up.
On a related note, what (if anything) is the weirdest object you
have used to represent a ship or station or whatever that wasn't specificaly
made for gaming use? Dog toys? Car parts? Old hard bits of pizza crust?
Enjoy,
The way I am going to paint my EA ships is to base coat them in Black Acrylic
primer, then dry brush them with a medium Gray. This will be followed up with
color banding, a light drybrush of light Gray and picking out details like the
tips of sensor spikes and Launch bays. I am going to leave engine mouths
black. All my bases are matte black. I final everything with a light spray of
Matte Acrylic Clearcoat. All in all it takes about 20 minutes per figure once
the production line is set up.
> Greetingss all,
Greetings, one,
> I have been lurking on the list for a bit now. I orgionally
I've got it, but have yet to play. :-/ No one around my immediate
area interested (everyone is WH40K for some reason :-/ )
> quite well I couldn't resist getting actual ship models. I picked up
It varies. I've got a flat black fleet (which comprises of a couple
of what-I-just-learned-are-space-fleet-minis, a few Traveller 'needle'
ships, an odd Klingon frigate, etc), a metallic maroon fleet (thanks to Daryl
;) which is made up of my ESU fleet and Entomolian ships),
a metallic/jade green for my Kra'Vak, and a flat 'gunship' grey fleet
(which consists of just about everyone else).
My recently acquired Sa'Vasku have adopted a metallic black for some
reason. ;-)
Haven't gotten around to painting my micromachines, though. And for
the most part left the plastic Star Trek/Fred ships alone
> Do you do the matte grey "Star Wars" thing, or do you go for the
> Narn "Zebra on drugs" paint scheme or a variation on both? Do you even
> bother painting the minis you play with (eather too eager to play or
Paint when I can.
> Are elaborate CNS fleet markings complete
> go?
[jingle,dong,jangle] "Yes"
(I tried some fine detailing and found my skills...lacking)
> Do you think ships would even be painted or that it would make a
> half a light minute away?
It shouldn't make a difference. I use it mostly for fleet identification
and because they look nice painted. :-)
Mk
Hello: For the most part, I tend to stay with a uniform color for the ships in
each of my fleets. My NAC are light grey with red "running lights" (i.e. just
about any small raised surface gets a dab of paint.).
My NSL ships are dark blue. My FSE ships usesd to be dark red with a badly
painted gold chevron (my first attempt at detail). After discovering that I
hated that, I dunked the Frenchies in acetone and repainted them medium grey.
My few Kra'Vak ships are a mix of greens, tans, browns and reds. I am not an
artist, My attempts at painting numbers or symbols have always met with
failure. I plan on making my own computer generated decals if I can get ahold
of some plain decal film. Just pop 'em into the inkjet and there you go. This
will come in handy for my Yamto minis
and my EA minis (when I finnaly get them.) BTW, while we are one the subject,
can anyone give me suggestions on how to paint EA ships. Not that I don't know
the color scheme (gray's, with some whites and blues) it just that I want to
get really detailed for this lot.
Later,
Before you charge off and try to run decal film through the ink-jet,
think about one small thing...it doesn't work. The ink beads-up on the
decal film and wipes right off the sheet. No amount of drying time will help.
Now, that all said, there is a company that is working on a new
decal film made just for ink-jets (and color lasers for that matter). It
should be available in a few months. For now, the only way to print them is
with a dye sublimation printer (like from HP).
Win Barker Imagineer Solutions onQue
> ----------
See the section in the FAQ attached.
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/ / / /
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FULL THRUST FAQ. Compiled by Darren Douglas ddouglas@vmark.co.uk
1. Rules and Req and legal bits.
2. About Fullthrust
3. Full Thrust
4. More Thrust
5. Ships
6. Its a friendly old universe (sides?)
7. Xenophorfic Us. (Aliens in FT)
8. Rules Calrifications
9. Ground Zero Games (who, what, where)
10. Happiness is laser shaped. (New and optional weapons)
11. The only good klingon is a dead klingon (Star Trek with FT)
12. Modeling.
13. Painting.
14. Bases.
15. Campaigns.
16. Its a funny old world (background to the FT universe)
17. FT and The internet.
18. New and expanded rules.
1. Rules and Regs
Unless stated by the contributor all material in the FAQ can be used in any
way or reprinted by ANYBODY as long as suitable recognition is provided.
Where possible in the FAQ, names and e-mail address's will be
attributed to the contribution to identify and record the contributor.
Where stated full copyright is preserve by the contributor.
The right is reserved to reformat contributions to fit in the FAQ. This does
not challenge any copyright that may exist.
The FAQ itself is not copyrighted and can be printed and redistributed in any
form as long as copyrights in the FAQ are not infringed in any way and that
full recognition is given for all work in the FAQ and the FAQ itself.
Contributions.
When you want to send in a contribution mail it to me at ddouglas@vmark.co.uk.
The contribution will then be formatted and mailed back for the ok before
being put in. Sometimes I will mail people requesting permission to add things
they have posted to the FAQ and these will also be send to you for an ok. You
can say no and the item will not be used.
If you say yes then you can ask to retain copyright on your work. If you do
then that will go on the contribution. If you say no you will still be
attributed with the contribution. Keeping your copyright will mean that there
is less chance of your ideal being used, so if you clammer to see your name in
printed somewhere anywere, then not keeping your own coptright is the way to
go, but the choice is wholey yours.
To make my live a hell of a lot easier can the contributions
have a title, your name and e-mail address and be mailed
direct to me ( some days I just can't get time to read the mail list).
Spell checking would also help me a shed load, I'm not the worlds greatest
speller and use this funny thing called UNIX without one (look ma no
hands..... splat).
Finaly can the contributions be concise and as complete as possible I see some
really good stuff on the mailing list and would love to add it in but it seems
never to be summarised. There has been some really good B5 stuff, but it is
scattered.
I am currently hoping to take up Mike's kind offer to help summarise rule
clarifications etc. but your help will be very usefull.
2. Introduction to FT for new players to the system.
Introduction.
Short piece of a FT game....
What do I need to start thrusting?
All you really need is the Full Thrust rule book, dice, a tape measure or
ruler and some space to play in. In the book are the templates, order sheets
and counters to play the starting scenario.
Do I really need lots of models to start?
No, the starting scenario is played out with 2 medium and three small ships a
side.
Unlike other games there are no minimums to the number you require to make up
a force. This is because all ships are payed for in points, so you could have
one very large ship worth a lot of points on one side and lots of smaller
ships on the other.
Do I have to use such and such's models?
One of the most refreshing things that I found when I first read the Full
Thrust rule book and played the game was the open and frank way that they
advised people on collecting fleets. There was no buy our ships or else, in
fact it was quite the opposite, they went to great lengths to stress that you
can use anyone's ships, they also provide in the Full Thrust book information
and the address's of manufacturers of ships and equipment for Full Thrust.
How much space do I need?
It does depend on speed, but from about 1 metre or 3'6 square will do for a
start. You can go up to as much space as you have available.
How long will it take me to learn the rules?
One of the most often quote saying about Full Thrust is that the basic rules
can be picked up in about 10 to 15 mins. The basic rules are simple but well
done and do not change once you have learnt them. The addition rules can be
learnt at your own pace but it should not take more than a game or two with
the new rules to learn them fully.
What are the best forces to start with?
One of the earth forces are the best to start, there is no difference between
them. I would avoid the Kra Vak and other aliens until you have played the
game a bit. The reason for this is their rules appear in More Thrust, which is
the expansion for Full Thrust. They can also be tricky to use and introduce
quite a few extra rules for a beginner on their first few games.
3. Full Thrust
This is rundown on what the Full thrust rule book contains.
Core Rules. Equipment needed to play. Ships groups and classes. Course
determination. Ship velocity. Thrust ratings. Movement. Making cource changes.
Firing. Defensive screens. Threshold points abd specific systems damage. Ship
record sheets.
Ship Classes. Classes and hull sizes. Ship diagrams. Symbols used.
Advanced Rules - Weapons.
Fighters. Anti fighter defence. Fighter to fighter combat. Pulse torpedoes.
Needle beams. Submunition packs.
Mines
Mine laying. Mine sweeping. SPINAL MOUNTED NOVA CANNON.
Advanced Rules - General.
Sensors. Dummies and Weasel boats. Collision and Ramming Merchant Ships.
Faster Than Light driver (FTL). Asteroids. Tugs and tenders. Starbases and
installations. Q Ships.
Advanced Ship Design. Point costs. Special hulls. Weapons and other systems.
Senarios.
Campaign rules.
Background.
Appendix. Model availability. Counters and templates. Ship Recor SHeet.
4. More Thrust
This is a rundown on what the More Thrust rule book contains.
Introduction.
New weapons and systems. Missiles. AA Mega batteries. Wave gun. Planetary
bombardment system Reflex field. Cloaking devices.
New optional rules. Basic rules revisions. Anti Missile systems. Sensors
expanded. Sensor jamming. Damage control. Fleet morale. Squadron operations.
Terrain effects.
Expanded fighter rules. Scrambling. Fighter endurance. Fighter quality
Advanced and specialised fighters.
Combining with ground combat games. Space and ground combat actions.
Full Thrust/Dirtside II interface.
Transporting ground troops. Interface craft.
Full Thrust/Hellfire interface.
Interfacing with other systems.
Competitive and tournament games. Ship design and fleet composition. Type of
game and scenario.
Ship design. Superships. Expand space installation rules. New designs.
The Kra'Vak. Kra'Vak technology. Thrust and manoeuvre. Armoured hulls.
Weapons. Scatterguns. Fighters. Mass and points for the Kra'Vak. Basic ship
designs.
The Sa'Vasku. Bioships. Power points. Pulse weapons. Anti fighter fire. Damage
points. Screens. Drone pods. Ship design.
Background. Brings it upto date.
Scernarios.
Model Availability.
5. Ships
Buy it, fly it, kill it. Ships in FT.
6. Its a friendly old universe (sides?)
NAC - New Anglian Confederation.
ESU - Eurasian Solar Union
NSL - New Swabian League
PAU - Pan Africa Union
FCT - Free Cal Tex.
LLAR - League Latin American Rep.
IC - Indonesian CommonWealth.
IF - Islamic Fundermentalists
FD - Free Dutch.
FSE - Fredral States Europa
RH - Romanov Hedgemoney
OU - Oceananic Union
Iseral - ....
UN - United Nations.
7. Xenophorfic Us. ( Aliens in FT)
The Kra Vak. Do they have pasttes on their heads or what?
The ones the begin with S.
8. Rules Califications
What is the fire arc of a scatter pack?
The scatter pack has only one 90 degree fire arc. You can position the fire
arc to fire in any direction (excluding rear arc), but you can not purchase
addition arcs for the weapon.
Question answered by: Mike Elliot
9. Ground Zero Games (who, what, where)
For UK and europe contact this address.
GZG Address: Ground Zero Games 'Fizno'
Barking Tye
Neddham Market
Suffolk
IP6 8JB
England
For North America contact Geo Hex.
GeoHex Address: Capricorn Space 2126 North Lewis
Portland
Oregon 97227
USA
Currently GZG does not have net access, although Mike Elliot, who has net
access will sometimes post to the mailing list.
Jon Tuffley who runs GZG was kind enough to provide the following information
onto the mailing list and I have included it here.
To: All GZG rules users and customers
From: Jon Tuffley, Proprietor, Ground Zero Games
Hello. This information posting came about after discussions between myself
and Mike Elliott, following his kindly sending me a large amount of material
he had printed from the FTGZG mailing list. As I do not at present have
Internet access, Mike has been good enough to act as liaison between GZG and
all of you out there. It is apparent from several of the questions regularly
asked that some background on myself, Mike and GZG would be of some use so
here goes!
1) GROUND ZERO GAMES (GZG) is a _very_ small one-man operation,
that one being me (Jon Tuffley). Having been an avid SF wargamer since the
early 70s (OK, handsup who else started skirmishing with Airfix Astronaut
sets...!), GZG was actually started 10 years ago as a
part-time extension to my own hobby. In 1991 I finally got to the
point
where I could turn it into a full-time business and the rest (as
they say) is history.
The success and warmth with which Full Thrust and Dirtside II have been
received by the SF gaming world has surprised me as much as anyone, and I'd
like to extend a very sincere thank you to all of you who have bought them
(and hopefully like them enough to continue playing).
GZG is and probably will remain, a tiny minnow in the sea of Big
Corporate Fish - at least this allows me to write mainly what I
_want_
to, rather than what some market analyst tells me I should! Please rest
assured that as long as you like what I'm turning out I'll continue to produce
it.
2) GEO-HEX (and Capricorn Space): for those of you in the USA and
Canada,
Geo-Hex is my American licensee, dealing in the books themselves,
my own resin model ranges and the "official" starship and vehicle lines from
CMD. They don't have everything in production yet, but the inventory is
growing all the time and they are endeavouring to get as many regional
distributors as possible to carry the lines. If you can't get the stuff at
your local store, get the owner to hassle his
distributors to contact Geo-Hex. "Capricorn Space" is the division
of Geo-Hex specially set up to handle the GZG and CMD ranges.
3) MIKE ELLIOTT, who many of you already know (on Internet at least),
is NOT an employee/partner of GZG. In fact he is not connected to
GZG in any business sense. I stress this purely to make it clear that Mike is
completely independent of any of GZG's business interests. Mike is a very good
friend and extremely dedicated wargamer who gives me invaluable assistance on
the rules development front purely for the fun of it
- the
only payment he gets is a few miniatures now and then, something which I feel
very guilty about! As Mike works in the computer industry and has Internet
access, he has been good enough to act as an intermediary for
myself and GZG, with my full approval and support - in fact as
co-developer
of Dirtside II, Mike is probably better qualified than I am to answer rules
queries on it!
[Legal comments removed...]
Please feel free to comment on this (via the mailing list or by
e-mail to Mike). If anyone has a better suggestion I'd be only too
happy to hear it!
OK, that's about it except to say thanks again to all of you for
buying and playing the games - keep the messages coming, and I'll
try to keep in touch with any upcoming news.
Jon Tuffley 6.6.95
10. Happiness is laser shaped. (New and optional weapons)
11. The only good klingon is a dead klingon (Star Trek with FT)
Its with greatful thanks to Dave Brewer
(db-ft@westmore.demon.co.uk)
for providing the information and insight into FT, star trek.
Early this year I played a few Star Trek: Full Thrust games at a convention...
Revielle '95 in Bristol. A participation game was being run by the SFSFW. For
the third year running they won the best participation game prize. I'm sure
that the SFSFW has been plugged on this list before, but I'll plug it again. I
am the Man With No Shame.
On the first turn of my first game (a Klingon free-for-all) I
exchanged fire with another ship and tipped him over his threshold. He drew a
card... and three more... and three more... His warp core breached but not
ejected his Ka'Vort class cruiser was destroyed, but he had an FF card
"Trouble with Tribbles"
which he played on me. It took me seven turns to de-tribble my
ship and I had to sit there, dead-in-the water.
The game was run using products from "Felix Enterprises", a tiny company run
by the SFSFW journal editor James Clay in his spare time. It was my
introduction to Full Thrust and a splendid game. James collection of
micromachines is prodigious and includes a Borg ship made of eight small Borg
ships glued together to make a bigger cube.
How to convert from FT to Star Strek?
The conversions from Full Thrust to Star Trek were very simple.
Phasers = Beam weapons.
Disruptors = Beam wepons + one extra die. No 'A'-class.
Impulse = Thrust. Warp = FTL. Shields... = Shields.
Photon Torpedos are the only innovation. Range 18", three dice. Each ship
carries a limited number of "spreads". To fire a spread you must have an
unused FireCon ("tactical station") and you must write the target in your
order phase. They may fire through your rear arc.
The products are:
ST: FT record cards: Beautifully DTP'd record cards covering the micromachines
range. No formal design procedure was used to
generate stats- James just made them up. Each card also
includes QR tables.
Threshold cards
To speed the game up at cons instead of rolling for each system at thresholds
you draw a card. Some cards give
you no damage at all, others a simple system loss, some destroy your ship
utterly, some force you to draw three or more extra cards... giving insane
runaway damage. Drawing a card is a moment of tension and humour.
Final Frontier cards:
Occaisionally a threshold cards states that you should draw a "Final Frontier"
card. Strangely for a damage result these are helpful or just strange, and
very Star
Trek...
Felix Enterprises address.
Send an SSAE or International Reply Coupon to:
James Clay
Felix Enterprises
The Copse
Shiplate Road Bleadon, Avon.
BS24 0NX
United Kingdom
Need more information on how to wipe out the klingons.
As Dave stated in his post the game he took part in was run by SFSFW. I has
contained a large amount of FT and specificly Star Trek FT stuff and will
continue to do so, a must for any trekker out there.
The SFSFW is the Society for Fantasy and Science Fiction Wargamers.
Membership gets you a splendid bi-monthly journal
"Ragnarok" and numerous discounts
5% from GZG, 10% from Copelands etc.
Membership is L12.50 UK (BFPO/USFO); L15.00 Europe;
L18.00 USA and other countries (airmail).
L = pounds sterling.
Sorry no address as present.....
12. Modeling.
13. Painting.
Painting tips and hints.
Larry Fausnach (FAUSNACH@12CS2.rnd.aetc.af.mil): If you are planning on
keeping with the typical light grey "panel"
scheme, a good idea is to give it a base coat of a medium-ish gray
(not too dark) then bring up the highlights with successively lighter shades
of gray, finally with white. Try to drybrush unevenly to avoid an excessively
even coloration. Look at the Star Trek movie U.S.S. Enterprise and you can see
that its not a solid shade of gray.
Since this is science fiction, you can really go hogwild if you want. Fine
examples of this are Babylon 5 ships which have mottled appearances.
Try a tiger- or zebra stripe pattern. If you stay with the typical white
ships, try painting the weapon blisters red for good effect. (Red goes fasta,
right, Brett?)
MCCLURE@force.ssd.lmsc.lockheed.com: I have a number of spaceships ranging
from some old Archive and Valiant designs, Superior, RAFM's Traveller's stuff
and even some of the FT line.
What I have used as a guide in many instances are the sci-fi
illustrations done by the artist Chris Foss. In my case, almost all of my
ships are individualized so there is really no consistent theme. But you could
easily adopt one. You could either apply it as a "fleet theme" (all ships of
your fleet carry the same color scheme) or a "type theme" (your fleet escorts
are all blue and black banded, the cruiser types are a menacing grey, etc).
Another idea is to just scan the net or the library on naval camo used during
WW1 and WW2 and take a variation off that.
Rick Rutherford (rthrford@cygnus.umd.edu):
I used the standard "basecoat - dark wash - drybrush highlight"
technique to paint my ships, and it works great if you use a lot of contrast.
I wasn't sure if I could do it with colors, so my ships are grey with black
shadows and white & silver highlights. I also tried painting them
blue, and they looked good after drybrushing them twice -- first with
light blue, and then with light grey on top of the light blue.
I was mostly concerned with making the ships look like they're
HUGE, because at that scale (1/2400) a 1-inch ship model would be 200
feet long in "real life." So I made sure the shadows were pure black by
painting in the little lines and crevices with black paint, and I made sure
the highlights (all the bulges and edges) were white (or silver) by painting
them on top of the drybrushing. The thing that helped was that after
the standard paint/wash/drybrush I sealed them with acrylic spray sealer
and then went into the crevices with black paint using a very thin brush. The
black paint flowed easily into the crevices because the layer of
spray-seal
made the surface of the figure very slick, and when I made a sloppy mistake I
could wipe the excess paint off the figure with my fingers. After that, I
sealed them again.
Tim Jones (timj@arc.uk.gdscorp.com): I use the pictures on the front of Full
Thrust and More Thrust as initial inspiration. I also studied 'Return of the
Jedi' as it has the most capital ships in it (Mon Calamari cruisers, Frigates
and Star Destroyers). The newer Star Wars Micro Machines contain a Mon
Calamari cruiser with a simplified scheme that can be adapted.
I clean the models with soapy water to remove mould residues. I then prime
them with Grey Car primer as a base coat. Black primer can also be used to
produce a more shadowy model.
I have a large selection of Grey paints which I have mixed and collected
(10 shades) and store in eye dropper bottles ( I have all the GamesWorkshop
and Humbrol acrylic grey paints this gives a wide selection). I select a set
of 3 or 4 shades of grey for a given fleet going from dark to light.
I then build up the greys in layers starting with an over all coating of a
darker grey that I make sure goes in the recesses but I don't care about on
the raised detail.
I then apply the next three greys in a series of dry brush layers with the
first application being not very dry and with a No. 2 flat brush and the
grey being the next in the shade sequence from dark to light.
The next two shades are applied with smaller brushes and are each dryer and
more sparing than the last with the last layer being very light and very
very sparingly applied. That completes the main scheme.
I then detail the model with a fine good quality brush to pick out engines
(matt orange), vents (matt black), navigation lights (yellow), guns(red),
sensors (copper) using distinct colours. Where you paint these it a matter of
interpretation as the model may not have them moulded as such.
This is then sealed with Humbrol Stain varnish to give a good surface for the
decals.
Finally I apply some decals, I use Letraset white 8pt or 10pt letters
(expensive but you don't need much) and all sorts of odd model railways and
War Hammer transfers I have collected to give the desired effect. I use
Humbrol Decalcote to get them to mould to the surface. If I am feeling keen I
outline details
such as panel lines over the decals using very dilute grey/black Indian
ink and a 000 brush or Rotring pen. Finally finish with Matt Humbrol varnish
to remove the unnatural gleam.
This procedure can be trimmed down if you want a fleet fast. The drybrushing
technique is very good for doing batches of ships. Detailing can be skipped or
minimal. Decals are optional.
Darren Douglas (ddouglas@vmark.co.uk): Look at some aircraft books, the best
ones are the WWII German ones they did some very interesting things with
camouflage for their bombers and ground attack aircraft.
Jon Tuffley: When asked how the CMD "official" FT ships should be painted, my
usual response is "paint 'em any colour you want, they're your ships!!"
However this question has been asked so often now that it seems I am going to
have make some kind of pronouncement on the matter. Before giving the colour
ideas though, I must stress that these are ONLY IDEAS - they are
suggestions as to how we see the various fleets, and you are still free to
paint your own ships any colours you like. If we ever get to the G*m*s
W*rksh*p state of saying "you can't play our games unless your figures are the
right colours" then I think it'll be time for us to hang up the ol' laser for
good.....
So, here we go. In some cases these colour schemes are the ones used in our
own demo fleets for show games, in others they are just what we think looks
good. Please note that the ships seen on the GZG/CMD joint trade stand
at some UK shows are actually painted by Paul Copeland of CMD, and are done
for sales display only - these do NOT relate to the colour schemes given
here.
Overview of ship colour theory in the FT universe:
[WARNING! High level of PSB (pseudo-scientific bullsh*t follows....]
There is no "ideal" paint scheme for combat ships in the 22nd century, and as
a result all the major powers have adopted different ideas. As optical
detection is still a significant part of most sensor suites it would seem to
be sensible that a ship is painted in dull, dark colours to minimise
visibility against the starfield; this has problems, however, in that as well
as not providing a reflective target for enemy sensors it can also not
reflect solar energy, beam weapon energy or anything else - result: a
hot ship that you are forever having to cool by some means, which of course
gives off a big IR signature anyway. On the other hand, if you make a ship
bright and reflective so that it does not need such effective cooling systems,
then you have something that stands out like a sore thumb against a starfield,
shining in any little bit of reflected starlight...
So, space naval colour schemes come down to part compromise, part aesthetics
- a smart looking ship looks good on the holovid newscasts back home....
Colour schemes. Empire (40K):
Adam Delafield (ad4@bolton.ac.uk):
The Imperial ships have a simple all-grey colour scheme. I did
this by spraying with black primer, drybrushing with Grey Primer and
highlighting by mixing codex grey (then available from citadel) with white.
The prow on many of the larger imperial ships have more detailed paneling. I
painted each panel a separate shade of grey. I found that the more contrasting
greys to be better than greys that were very close to one another. Turrets
were painted bright red. The shield generators, domes etc were painted green.
The engines
were painted black before being dry-brushed with brown and then
silver. A very simple, but striking colour scheme.
ESU:
Adam Delafield (ad4@bolton.ac.uk): These are usually painted 'yellow' as far
as I can tell. Despite sounding odd, it actually looks quite good. Light brown
works too.
Darren Douglas (ddouglas@vmark.co.uk): I painted these for the NAC player when
we first got FT. They are white with red markings. For them I used a base,
wash and dry technique like the others, but instead of washing with a light
grey I used a
cream/bone colour and dry brushed white. This made them not look dirty
and dull and made the white brighter, another colour to wash with could be
light blue. The markings were lines and stars, god do I hate painting
stars after these. I used big ones in the centre of cruisers and little ones
on the wings and small ships. I also painted on the battle ships one big star
surrounded in a circle by lots of little ones.
Jon Tuffley:
Eurasian ships are generally mid-green or yellow-on-white (both look
effective, so its up to you); as with the NAC suggestions it is best to use
a base colour of a darkish shade and then panel-shade or dry brush with
lighter colours. Markings could be traditional red stars, with some IDs in
either Cyrillic or Chinese!
Kra'vak:
Adam Delafield (ad4@bolton.ac.uk): Are supposed to be Green and Pink. Although
this sounds like it might be garish, try this. Paint the main hull a Matt Drab
Olive Green. Make it quite dull if you can, you know, the sort of colour that
was popular for the camo stripes on '70s aircraft. For the 'pink' use a sand
brown. This changes what could have been disgusting into a distinctly military
look.
Darren Douglas (ddouglas@vmark.co.uk): I painted these in purple as the
background said. This was also a base, wash and dry brush technique. Detail
and markings were added I used a Japanese symbol as marking. Look OK Not that
pleased with
them.
Jon Tuffley:
When we mentioned a "shifting, green-purple" scheme in More Thrust, this
was because a friend of mine had painted up a few KV ships this way using
shades of green, cyan, purple and even pink in places. Believe me, they DO
look good! Since we haven't yet let on just how the KV society works, you
could
get away with almost any scheme - probably different clans/tribes/packs
(or whatever groupings they use) have different ideas anyway.
NAC:
Adam Delafield (ad4@bolton.ac.uk):
I think would be Blue/Grey. I'm going to paint mine pastel shades of
blue, and add the arrowhead insignia that one of the lads here suggested.
Darren Douglas (ddouglas@vmark.co.uk): A friend has a growing NAC fleet and
has painted them in medium blue with half a union jack on the blub bit at the
front and various red and yellow detail picked out. This has been done for all
size ships and looks very good. They have been painted with a base coat, wash
and then dry brush technique and then the detail added.
Geoffrey Stewart (Geoffrey Stewart@uow.edu.au):
I first prime the metal with white metal primer / undercoat, which can
be obtained in car accessory shops. Then I paint the ships mid range blue,
then use dark blue ink and carefully ink all the cracks and depressions in the
ship. Finally I dry brush the ships a slightly lighter shade of blue, and
carefully paint a triangular union jack on the arrow head of each ship. The
final result is very effective, and doesn't take too long to do.
Jon Tuffley:
New Anglian ships use a predominantly blue/white scheme, though
grey/white
is a good alternative if you prefer it. A good technique is to paint the ship
an overall medium blue (or grey), then either (i) pick out all the raised
panel work in white or (ii) simple dry brush in white (not quite as nice, but
a lot quicker and easier!). A finishing wash of a dark shade
(blue-black or black) will bring up the surface detail and give a "used"
look - not strictly authentic on a spaceship I know, but all the movie
modellers use weathering so why shouldn't we?
NSL: Darren Douglas (ddouglas@vmark.co.uk): Another friend has the NSL and has
painted them in panzer gray like WWII tanks. The models were mounted on their
bases and then spray painted black all over (with a spray can). They were then
high lighted with a panzer gray and then a lighter gray, detail was then
picked out in white. He is going to added German crosses and swastika recon
flags. (Can we say "Space Surf Nazi's) The black stands look IMHO much better
than the clear ones and we are going to convert all the stands we use to
black, try it.
Dave Lavictoire (dlavicto@chat.carleton.ca): If the watchword of the NSL is
'efficiency', then you might colour your
ships as NASA does, and paint 'em _white_.
A FoaF (Friend of a Friend) told me that NASA spaceships are white so that
fuel leaks, etc. are easily visible, especially against the black background
of space.
Sounds good to me - and they'll look sharp on the tabletop, too.
As for German Crosses, I've been eyeing the roundel decals from Hostile
Aircraft (1/144th scale). They're expensive, but very nice.
Rick Rutherford (rthrford@cygnus.umd.edu): I don't know if there's an
"official" color, but I decided to use greens for the NSL ships, and I'm
really happy with the way they look. I chose green because I've been using
cool colors for the others (grey blue and purple), and green was the only cool
color I hadn't used yet.
Adam Delafield (ad4@bolton.ac.uk): Last time I saw GZGs models (Ragnacon) they
had a couple of NSL ships
painted in what I can only describe as baby-shit yellow. Needless to
say, I don't recommend this.
The NSL strike me as sticklers for efficiency. This gives me two possible
colour schemes.
a.) No paint. The NSL may well decide that their ships could well do without
being covered with several hundred kilos of paint. Paint the models up as
metallic, with the occasional flat white panel. I've found metallics to be
very difficult to get done well.
b.) Military. A general, all grey, anti-corrosion paint scheme. Don't
know how valid this would be on a SPACE ship, but it gives the right feel. A
nice matt slate grey colour scheme. I've got my 40K Space Fleet painted up
like this, and it looks non too bad.
Insignia would probably either be a German flag or an Iron Cross with a string
of numbers. Warning flashes near drives and hanger bays (and possibly mark out
some airlocks this way.
I think the 'Feel' you should go for is a Flat, Efficient fleet with very
little in the way of flare (leave that to the FSE). Well disciplined and
confident. They should treat warfare as a grim chore rather than the
gung-ho
attitude that some fleets have.
Jon Tuffley:
Neu Swabian ships are usually a functional mid-grey with lighter grey
panel work, though some squadrons have been seen in "dazzle" patterns of
diagonal
dark grey, white and pale blue-grey stripes. NSL command is often
surprisingly lenient about special paint schemes on certain ships, especially
if the commander has suitable aristocratic connections (for example, 12th
Kampfgruppe has a Markgraf class cruiser named the Manfred
von Richtofen and painted overall bright red....).
One important note concerning the NSL: according to our background, they
are NOT "Nazis in Space", so no swastika markings! Think in terms of noble
Austro-Hungarian and Prussian aristocracy - use WWI/modern German
crosses if you wish, though we prefer stylised eagle symbols.
FSE:
Darren Douglas (ddouglas@vmark.co.uk): I have just finished these the other
week, I tried using an air
brush on these and sprayed them all a dark/panzer type gray. I then when
they were dry spray fine lines of a light gray over them like
camouflage. I then took some black paint/ink and painted it carefully
into the panel lines to make the ship not look so flat. I then painted on the
markings, for the FSE I used blue with yellow stars like the European flag.
The stars again were done in various sizes and all the ships even the little
ones have them.
Jon Tuffley:
Hmm, problem here - I've not yet painted up any FSE ships, so really
don't know how they'll look best. Overall white with a black wash is one idea,
or possibly a deep (French) blue? Any ideas anyone?
Free Cal/Tex:
Darren Douglas (ddouglas@vmark.co.uk): Half white, half red and a Blue piece
at one end. Like the flag with a white star.
Surfer patterns and loud colours.
I am currently building a free Cal/Tex fleet and have already named one
of my scout ships the "exellent adventure".
Holland:
Darren Douglas (ddouglas@vmark.co.uk): Orange, seems to be a good colour for
them.
Tyranid Hive Fleet (40K):
Adam Delafield (ad4@bolton.ac.uk): Drones: These are green. Painted dark green
and dry brushed olive green. Guns painted black. Details in Pink, Blue and
Red.
Kraken: These space squids have some tentacles that I painted purple and
drybrushed pink. The main body was painted black. I highlighted areas on the
body dark grey to light grey. It gives the appearance of whale skin. Some have
details that I painted red.
Hive Ship: I've got one of these. The tentacles are the usual
purple -> pink. The 'head' is green, painted in the same way
as the drones. The eye was painted bright red. The body is in
two colours. First I did a brown/yellow colour. I highlighted
areas up to pastel yellow. I also painted some blue stripes, very reminiscent
of squids, on the body. These I painted dark blue to light blue. It looks
quite good.
I glue my fighters to pins (except the tie-fighters which ARE pins ;-) )
and stick 'em in a black piece of cork.
14. Bases.
How people are basing there ships.
Geoffrey Stewart (Geoffrey Stewart@uow.edu.au):
I base my ships using 1/8" perspex, I have standard shaped bases for
escort, cruiser and capital classes. I mount the ships on the base
using stiff 1/16" wire, using two pieces to base larger ships. Once
I have done this, I paint the perspex and the wire matt black, and then paint
stars etc onto the base.
The final result is splendid, and looks stunning when used on my star mat (If
you don't own one, I strongly suggest you do so)
How I paint and base NAC fighters: I drill a small hole in the back of each
fighter, and mount it on a piece of stiff, thin wire about 3" long. I then
mount 6 of these into a perspex base as discussed in my previous posts. I then
paint the fighters white with a blue stripe around the middle running
lengthways. The cockpit is silver. Then I paint the wires and base matt black.
Then I dry brush on red, then orange then yellow, for about 1" from the rear
of the fighter down the wire, trying to merge the colours. This creates an
excellent fighter exhaust effect. The wires are then bent in various locations
and directions so the fighters are going in different directions and angles,
this, combined with the exhaust effect noted above, creates a visually
spectacular and very dynamic appearing fighter group.
The base is painted with stars as noted in my previous posts.
15. Campaigns.
Any campaign information etc.
16. Its a funny old world (background to the FT universe)
The FT background.
17. Full Thrust and The internet.
Mailing List FAQ/information.
So you have picked up the FAQ and have a burning desire to join in. There is a
Full Thrust mailing list available and all you have to do to subscribe is:
Send some e-mail to the following address. The e-mail should
contain the following message. The subject line is not important.
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Message
Subscribe FTGZG-L "Your Name"
Once you have subscribe you should recieve the mail automatically. If you wish
to contribute and send mail, construct it how ever you like and then post it
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If you wish to use a Mailserver command you should construct a message with
the command and send it to the following address. A full list of commands is
sent on subscription and are availble if you sent a message HELP to the
mailserver. The mailserver address is:
> On Tue, 8 Apr 1997, Mike Wikan wrote:
> The way I am going to paint my EA ships is to base coat them in Black
About color banding (i.e. adding stripes and such); does anyone have any good
suggestions about how to do do it?
Later,
> On Tue, 8 Apr 1997, <Mark Andrew Siefert> wrote:
> On Tue, 8 Apr 1997, Mike Wikan wrote:
If you're patient and willing to work small, try masking the lines with
masking tape, paint the lines, remove the tape and touch up any leaks. Only
really works well on lareg flat surfaces. Trying to get tape to follow complex
curves is more effort than its worth.
--Binhan
> The way I am going to paint my EA ships is to base coat them in Black
Don't forget to hit it with an inkwash, this can really help to bring up the
fine detailing on the models in terms of hull plates etc etc. Assuming they
actually have some. (I hope.)
The "Official" Full Thrust ships lend themselves to a very easy but highly
effective tech-nique. After priming the ship, spray it with a gloss
enamal (the color of your choice). Then it gets several "baths" of acrylic (a
different shade), blotting off the excess after each wash. The last coat is
black. The acrylic (Liquitex brand) being watery will sink into the cracks and
crevices. Blotting keeps the original base coat from being blended into
oblivion. What all this dipping accomplishes, is fantastic detail. My NAC
fleet was done in a base coat of yellow, dipped in umber oxide, and ivory
black. The ivory black tends to be translucent, so you don't have black lines
all over just a very deep shade of the second color. I know the color scheme
doesn't sound that great, but my ships are constantly complimented.
> On Mon, 7 Apr 1997, Nezach wrote:
> What are your painting phlosophies for your ships?
Building 2-10 ship squadrons in similar paintschemes helps identifying
your forces. Also, if you have several pieces of the same mini, I find it more
fun to paint slight variations of the paintscheme rather than just putting ID
numbers on the bases. Like, black wings and white wingtips on
one, reverse colors on another.
> Do you do the matte grey "Star Wars" thing, or do you go for the
> Narn "Zebra on drugs" paint scheme or a variation on both?
Gray can be good, and it's probably the most "realistic" choice (or flat
black). Base gray can be embellished with stripes, spots etc.
I like colorful paintschemes, but I'm not artist enough to paint neat patterns
on flat surfaces. I use decals (see below) to liven those up.
Except when I can't resist doing tiger stripes.
> Do you even
What?!? Sacrilige! I would rather play MtG than field unpainted minis.
If you're looking for a real fast, non-skilled paintjob, do this:
Inkwash bare metal. That's it. Get some ink, add some clear varnish (optional)
and dab it all over the mini. Just try to avoid major puddles. Repeat after
drying if it doesn't look deep enough.
Anyone can do it and it adds depth to the mini. Black, dark blue, brown and
green inks are good traditional choices, but I've gotten some very interesting
effects with orange, yellow and red.
Ofcourse, this won't help with plastic minis...
> Are elaborate CNS fleet markings complete
Try stealing decals from plastic model kits. They're also sold separately, but
those are for accuracy freaks. It's probably cheaper to
buy some of the cheapest mass production kits you can find. Go for 1/72
or smaller. Sometimes you can use the tiny text on the sheet that wasn't
really intended as a decal.
Cut up the decals to hide where you got them. Plain numbers are great,
roundels and stars are pretty common throughout recent history, many flags can
be cut up as colored stripes...
Ofcourse, you need to have relatively flat surfaces on your mini. Some minis
are just not suited to decals.
Oh, and clear label stickers *are* a lot thicker than decals. Use at your
risk.
> go? Do you think ships would even be painted or that it would make a
Nah... I like getting away with bright and attractive paintjobs I can't do in
historicals (except with WWI biplanes).
Win Baker commented that ink-jets and colour laser copiers don't work
when creating your own decals. I have to disagree, having made a sheet of my
own for my Star Fleet Battles miniatures (pretty much gave up the game in
favour of FT,
but still have the ships) -- Federation nacelle stripes and hull
markings, ISC ship
IDs and the like -- which turned out pretty well.
What I did was this: the markings were made using Paintbrush and printed out
on a colour inkjet printer. Then I took them and a sheet of blank decal which
I got from Hannants (a big mail order model firm here in the UK, for those who
don't know of them) to my local Rank Xerox copying store and asked them to
copy one onto the other. No problems, all quite quick and easy.
The end result was what I wanted: a sheet of markings on the decal film which
could be cut out and applied to the models in the normal fashion. I had no
trouble with any of the potential problems that Win mentions, and the decals
took a coat of matt varnish without running or any other worries.
The one thing that you do need to be aware of is that the decal colours are
translucent, not opaque, so don't expect your pale markings to be visible on a
dark background. For the model-builder/gamer, this means that you need
to place the decals on a light area of the ship, either as part of the paint
scheme or
specially added for the markings. Then they look great -- or mine did,
anyway.
As for colour schemes -- I use whatever references I have to get
"existing"
schemes right (ST/BSG/B5, etc.) and design my own for other fleets such
as
those from FT. Having said that, I make my own mind up about so-called
"official" schemes, such as those given by companies like GW and TFG. How much
detail I add to each ship depends on the paint scheme, how finicky it is to
do, and whether or not I think it's appropriate. Ships like the FT designs,
with lots of surface detail, can lend themselves to a lot of fine work, and
look all the better for it. I just wish there were a few flat areas on which
to put markings!
Phil, looking forward to the B5 Wars miniatures and using them with JT's
rules.
As far as painting ships is concerned, I try to have an idea of who will be
the "crew" of the ship. On a few Star Blazers plastic kits I put together, I
started with an Air Superiority Grey (Testors spray enamel) base coat. I
knew the unit that was using the ships was in a martial/totalitarian
state (ala that "other game"). I washed the whole thing with black ink, to
bring out the panel line and other details. After the ink dried, I drybrushed
the mass of the model back up to a shade darker than the original color. I
added yellow accents to some various spots, like the nose, on the little
winglets, etc. To help guide my brush, I used the recessed panel lines already
on the model. Very easy. I weathered the whole model using drybrushing and
colored pencils. My drybrushing went from the nose to the back, to represent
flecks of paint being scoured off by various bits of space dust and the like.
I finished by adding decals from GW's Epic line. The Marine and Imperial Guard
ones are simply smashing for this, as they are heavy on lightning bolts, check
patterns and other martial looking stuff. Hope this helps. Jay
> On Mon, 7 Apr 1997, Nezach wrote:
The thing I keep in mind when I'm painting a starship model is the need for
contrast. If you think about it, the difference in color between the
shadows & highlights on a starship hull in space will be stark --
after all, there's no atmosphere to disperse the starlight when it hits the
hull, so the transition from light to dark will be very sharp.
One thing I like to do is to find every little bump that's sticking up from
the model and paint them with bright silver or gold. I find that the metallic
highlights make them look more like futuristic starships and less like
airplanes in space.
> Do you do the matte grey "Star Wars" thing, or do you go for the
> Narn "Zebra on drugs" paint scheme or a variation on both?
I started with grey, using white for highlights and black for the shadows in
the creases, and I still like it a lot. I usually choose one overall color for
the whole ship, and then vary the tones somewhat. I also like using blue and
red for base coats.
> Do you even bother painting the minis you play with (eather too eager
I'd never play with unpainted figures!
> Are elaborate CNS fleet markings complete with ship numbers your thing
Nope. I can't see myself painting 1/2400 scale ship numbers.
> Do you think ships would even be painted or that it would make a
Sure they'd be painted -- one of the best ways to find trouble spots
on the outside of a starship's hull would be to look for the places where
the paint has been damaged/discolored.
> Win Barker wrote:
It
> should be available in a few months. For now, the only way to print
Hmmm... I own a Fargo printer capable of dye-sub that would work just
fine. I might have to try this, as I also would like to customize my ships
with
some decals. I have purchased 1/285 scale numbers made by GHQ that work
well, but I would like to use some custom insignias at times. I remember a
company advertizing special decal sheets just for this in Fine Scale Modeler a
while back.
> Mark A. Siefert wrote:
I use liquid frisquik(spelling may be off a bit) for masking odd shaped
objects like most minis. You just paint the stuff on where you want a mask,
let it dry and you are ready to paint. When your done painting, the liquid
frisquit is easily removed like white glue and does not tear away existing
paint. You can find it at craft and hobby stores.
For doing stripes quickly, such as painting a dazzle paint scheme on my NSL
ships, I just use cut shapes and straight edges from cardboard when painting
with my airbrush.
> On Wed, 9 Apr 1997, Mike Miserendino wrote:
> Win Barker wrote:
Micro-Mark sells inkjet decal sheets. I've never used it, but I HAVE
used injet transparancy sheets... so I know it's possible to injet onto
plastic, just expensive!
> Brian Lojeck wrote:
Except I use a dye-sub printer. Have you seen any for dye-sub?
> Except I use a dye-sub printer. Have you seen any for dye-sub?
from the messages I've seen around the list, it seemed you could dye-sub
onto regular decal sheets... but I know next to nothing about DS, so don't
take my word for it...
and no, I'v seen laser and inkjet, but that's about it...
> Mike Miserendino
> From: Nezach <Nezach@ix.netcom.com>
I paint my ships with a base coat of black (black primer actually). Then I add
dark blue (cobalt blue) or purple lines at random. I then cover it in
branching lines of light to medium grey. The overall effect obscures details
and makes the ships appear more like asteroids, until you are in
range :-) However, each ship takes 1-2 hours just to do the grey part.
Then I have to quit due to crossed eyes and a headache. It's a labor of love.
> On a related note, what (if anything) is the weirdest object you
> have used to represent a ship or station or whatever that wasn't
I used fishing lures (with tenticals/frills at the front and twister
tails) to represent Sa'Vasku organic ships. Looked great. (Translucent smoke
color
wiht silver flakes - No painting needed!).
> On Apr 9, 21:32, Robert Crawford wrote:
Yeah. Even Micromachines beat the snot out of 'em on detail.
I really liked the level of detail that the Star Trek ships (CinC?) produced
for FASA had. Made the ones Task Force has for SFB look like total crap. I
just wish TFG would buy the molds or something, since the better ones are no
longer being produced.
> On Wed, 9 Apr 1997, Brian Bell wrote:
> > From: Nezach <Nezach@ix.netcom.com>
Basic philosophy: Whatever looks good, with no basis at all on reality.
Frankly, I have yet to actually paint any of my FT minis -- I have
enough problems getting them cleaned, assembled, and primed. However, I do
actually have plans!
My ESU fleet I plan on being inspired by Battlestar Galactica -- basic
dark gray with black shadows. However, I'm stuck since I can't find a copy of
the damn movie for the life of me (none of the video stores I
frequent have a copy -- Blockbuster had the case, but the tape had been
missing for 6 months;().
My NAC fleet is being inspired by the new parking garage on campus. I'm
planning on a light gray base with a light shade of pine green facades.
My original thought was X-mas green and orange, but the ship I first
tried this on quickly cured me of that thought. Gross!
I have a small squadron of FSE (which I had requested pieces of for
X-mas)
which I'm not entirely sure about. I'm thinking of going with Star Destroyer
white (they have that look), with maybe some red or orange details. I wouldn't
mind some suggestions on this one.
I also have a motherload of Tyranid Space Fleet minis for Savasku (which I
lucked into at $1 per pack at clearance). I'm planning on taking ideas from
tropical fish and cephalapods in nature. Plenty of bright oranges, reds,
whites, purples and such. I always thought that the clownfish would be a good
model for a camouflage design. Bright orange with white
blotches -- awesome. I plan on painting some units of DSII minis this
way.
> > On a related note, what (if anything) is the weirdest object you
> > have used to represent a ship or station or whatever that wasn't
Part of my job here on campus is clearing out peoples office of stuff they
left behind when they graduate/move on/pass on. In one office I
procured a huge box filled with shells from around the world, many of them
will be useful for filling out my Savasku. Not really weird, but it'll look
good.
> > On a related note, what (if anything) is the weirdest object you
The absolute coolest I've used IMO, are these seed-pods I found while
working in the field in New Mexico. I think they're called Devil's Heads or
some such. They have a sort of horned, skeletal look, looking a lot like, well
devil's heads. The coolest thing is they come in sizes
varying from 3cm in length with small 1-2cm 'horns' to about 4-cm with
whopping, curly 5-7 cm long horns. Perfect for that ancient, invincible
Sa'Vasku 'mother of all' Supership-being. Now all I have to do is figure
out a way to keep 'em from breaking into little tiny pieces before I can play
with 'em.....
Gene
> Are those the plastic ones, or am I thinking of something
AFAIK the plastic ones are almost certainly those made by Lou Zocchi for the
Star Fleet Battle Manual, yet another early ST rules set based on the same
Franz Joseph technical manual as the SFB universe is based on. The Zocchi
plastics are still available from some sources (provbably
Zocchi/Gamescience themselves) and come in plain off-white,
glow-in-the-dark (!?!) and even transparent (for "cloaked"...) plastics.