Fleets Under Construction

After the success of my experiments on Thursday, I started plans on making a couple of small fleets. Yesterday, I picked up some supplies from Hobby Lobby and began to create. I started small, with a cruiser, 2 destroyers, and a squadron of fighters per side. To simplify, the cruisers and destroyers are the same design for both sides (captured and converted perhaps?)

Anyway, here they are:

Assembled ships.
From top to bottom - 4 destroyers, a cruiser, 2 fighter squadrons, and another cruiser

 Construction Notes

• The hulls are made from pre-cut wood ovals I found at Hobby Lobby. The package I bought has 3 sizes of oval, ranging from about 1" to 2". I'll use the smallest for destroyers, the medium for cruisers, and the large for carriers and battleships.
• The cruiser's second level is made from a chopped down destroyer-sized oval.
• Engine nacelles are from a dowel.
• Scraps of wood and rice* are used for superstructures.
• Lentils* are used for turrets.
• Rice or lentils are used for the fighters.
• I glued the ships to the bases before painting for ease of handling (the cruisers nacelles are actually glued to the base rather than the ship).

* I got the idea to use rice and lentils from The Stronghold Rebuilt.

Today, I primed them black and painted them. I now have two small task forces.

The finished ships

Painting Notes

• The primer came out a bit liquidy (I don't think I shook the can enough)
• The white and red had trouble covering the black.
• I used black because I was lazy and thought it would save me the trouble of painting the bases.
• In the future, I think I will stick with gray primer. I've had the best results with gray (it covers the figures well but the paint goes over it easily).
• I added some details in different colors to add a little variety to the ships. Turrets are in gold or silver. The picture doesn't show it but the white ships have blue stripes along the nacelles. I used orange to show the exhaust flames coming from the engines. I especially like the exhaust flames coming from the fighters.

I was initially displeased with the paint jobs (especially before adding some details) but now I think the ships are passable. I'll make some changes to the painting process for my next go around. My desired force composition is:

• 1 carrier
• 1 battleship
• 2 cruisers
• 4-5 destroyers
• Half dozen fighter squadrons

I'm also thinking of different designs, such as round, saucer-like ships for my Aquians and jagged, pointy ships for the evil Empire.