Building the Dragon

Excepts from the Imperial Archives, Vol. MMMCMXVII Appendix 88,943,022

“Sector Six: Military Capabilities of Minor Factions During the Age of Decline”

Continuing from the last volume,
the 4^th Reich, in a daring surprise attack, captured the 34th Imperial Titan Legion on its home base of Xochoi.  Not just the Titans were captured, but the entire logistical train and manufacturing infrastructure. After their capture, the Titans were renamed the “Reich’s 1^st Titan Army” and became the vanguard for the Reich’s next offensive. (Link: HERE)  Additionally, Officers of the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe began to appropriate the huge Titan weaponry from the factories onto new starship hulls. Obviously, the relative size of these weapons were miniscule compared to actual Imperial Navy ordnance, but when deployed against their equally insignificant military rivals within Sector Six, this was a massive advantage. Thus the ostentatious classifications of “Battleship” and “Battlecruiser” on ships that would be outclassed by even the smallest of Imperial escorts.

Below are two pictures retrieved from the RS Die Drache's maiden voyage.

Ok, while designing the Dragon as part of my joint project with airbornegrove, one thing became very obvious to me. Since I’m not invested in playing the bad guys, my Reich’s troops and equipment have been very one dimensional. They mostly get painted as targets. To get the most out of this build and really make it sing, I had to emotionally invest in the bad guys. No flexibility. This ship is going to be a Nazi ship, with a Nazi crew, Nazi fighters, assault pods and markings. She’s bad!

This is my 4^th major ship and each has been built using a different base structure. The previous build, the Mary Shelley, I would describe as a "layer cake". The first deck had  compartments and an aircraft elevator, then the main deck had the runway and AA guns, and finally the traditional carrier “island”. Thinking on that, for the Dragon, I wanted to build “underneath” the hull to emphasize the 3d aspect of space. That idea can best be described as a “slab” type of hull. Essentially, a main deck with items stuck on the top and bottom.

The slab is  2” thick high density foam. It’s light and strong, perfect for the job.

My concept was to build the “opposite” of the Mary Shelley in terms of how it was laid out. The Shelley has a “carrier” main deck, and then her “battleship” guns are underneath. The Dragon has a “battleship” main deck and then “carrier” compartments under.

She had to have massive guns, so I used 2” diameter pvc tubing mounted on 6" Lazy Susans for her main battery.

This caused a major problem, and the first deviation from the plan. Pvc is unexpectedly heavy. The turrets unbalanced the original flying stand, so I had to build a new one with a significantly larger footprint, and I had to reinforce the slab with a 1”x1” rail for extra support. That rail comes back later… Also, the weight of the turrets meant that I left them off the model while I was building so I could easily flip it over and work on the underside.

As for the carrier compartments underneath, I had an L shaped maintenance deck 

and then a couple of compartments aft for the launch bays.

BUT THESE LAUNCH BAYS LOOKED HIDEOUS! 
It made the ship look like a riverboat from a cheap ABC movie of the week circa 1977. I kept waiting for Kenny Rodgers to break into "The Gambler". Ugh.

So I ripped them out…

NEVER be afraid to take a step back. ALL of my failures have been when I decided I was “too far along” or “I could just live with it”. Or my favorite excuse…”but, these building supplies are precious”. Look, those projects end up in the closet and never see the light of day anyway. So the building materials are still wasted. Rip it out, step back and build what works. It’s the only way.

Moving on…

I also had another problem. To have my planes parked on the tarmac I usually build a landing gear tray like these:

but the Russian Technolog fighters have a very irregular underside that does not lend itself to something easily made using this technique. And then it struck me, unlike my pvc turrets, the small Technolog fighters were very light. I could glue magnets to the top of them and then glue magnets to the reinforcing rail (remember, I said it would come back) and have them hang from the underside of the ship like parasite fighters.

Now the next part was dealing with the boarding action aspect of the games we are planning. I didn’t want a ram on the ship, but I did want the ability to take a ship in a boarding action AND a nod to the concept that Capital ships are the “allthing”, like a Battlestar or Star Destroyer. I had gotten this funny walker from playmobil, and it was pretty perfect, and first I thought about the infantry being robots on external racks. I mean you could even store the robots on the outside of the pods on the outside of the ship exposed to space.

but I never could really make it work visually for me. It was like trying too hard, and seemed forced.

The pods needed guns. I found some fantastic gunmounts from “Death Ray Designs”. The walkers serve double duty. When embarked, their guns are the close defense AA batteries. When they launch, they act as Assault Pods, internally carrying a squad each.

Next up, I found a building from another mdf scenery company called Lasercraft Workshop that had a tower, and I felt the building would be a huge upgrade to be the superstructure. So again, tear something out to move forward. Be savage.

I went from this...

To this...

It’s a great kit. Lasercraft stuff comes pre-punched, so a huge plus. AND while the model is complex, assembly is not. I only wish Lasercraft had a wider selection. But what they have, is outstanding.

Hatches and accent parts are from a company called Miniature Scenery from Australia. (they also designed the Orxwings and the Growler) Lastly, most of the griblies covering the hull are leftover from various kits already built, and bits of mdf sprue.

To finish off…

I really like how it turned out, so the evaluation below should not be taken as dissatisfaction, just a view toward best practices.

What Worked

Huge Turrets, the Super Structure and the Hanging Fighters. To me, those details define the model.

What did not…

The L shaped deck underneath is so invisible that it is lost space. Viewers cannot see it and it is too awkward to place scenery or figures.

The “slab” style really limits the available real estate to place crew “doing things”, and might limit the scenic scope of a boarding attempt. A “layer” or “sandwich” might work better…

…next time.

Comments and Questions Welcome!