TTCombat Dropfleet Commander Remnant Cruisers

FROM: COMAURFLT

UCMF-MIL-COMM CCEB PREC DESIG: [R]

SUBJECT: IDENTIFICATION OF UNKNOWN EAA VESSEL

Commander,

It took some digging, but we believe that we have been able to get a positive ID on that unknown EAA ship you sighted recently. The full report has been uploaded to your PPDA, but please please find a brief summary of our findings below.

𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝚃𝚛𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝙸𝚗𝚍𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝙰𝚕𝚋𝚊 𝚂𝚑𝚒𝚙𝚢𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚜, 𝚋𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚊 𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚏𝚞𝚕 𝚘𝚏 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚌𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚣𝚘𝚗𝚒𝚞𝚖 𝚌𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜 𝙲𝚛𝚞𝚒𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚁𝚎𝚖𝚗𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚁𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚏𝚕𝚎𝚎𝚝𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚞𝚜 𝚏𝚊𝚛 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝.

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚊𝚜 𝚛𝚎𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚜 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙾𝚏𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝙽𝚊𝚟𝚊𝚕 𝙸𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚢𝚜𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚋𝚘𝚝𝚑 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝙴𝙰𝙰 𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚜 𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝚊 𝚗𝚞𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚣𝚘𝚗𝚒𝚞𝚖 𝚌𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜 𝚟𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝙱𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚅𝚎𝚐𝚊 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚞𝚋𝚜𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚒𝚗𝚟𝚊𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝙴𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙲𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚕𝚎 𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍𝚜 𝚋𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚐𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚏𝚎𝚠 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚕𝚢 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚍𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚕𝚜.

𝙰𝚛𝚖𝚎𝚍 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝙽-𝟹𝟷 𝙷𝚢𝚋𝚛𝚒𝚍 𝚆𝚎𝚊𝚙𝚘𝚗 𝙱𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝚊 𝚊 𝚍𝚘𝚛𝚜𝚊𝚕 𝚅𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝙲𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚎𝚝, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚐𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚣𝚘𝚗𝚒𝚞𝚖 𝚌𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜 𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚠 𝚖𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝚙𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚃𝚛𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝙸𝚗𝚍𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜' 𝙶𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙲𝚛𝚞𝚒𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙱𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚛𝚞𝚒𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚌𝚑 𝚒𝚜 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚎𝚡𝚊𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚣𝚘𝚗𝚒𝚞𝚖 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚟𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚛𝚊 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚕𝚕. 

 

Preamble

I recently spotted that TTCombat were releasing Cutter class ships for Dropfleet Commander and that got me in the mood to paint some spaceships. A few years back I picked up a couple of event exclusive 'Remnant Grand Cruisers' as they looked like they would be fun to paint up, so I dug them out and started putting them together. At the same time, I remembered that fleetbuilding in Dropfleet is quite strict and requires you to have a minimum of one 'medium' tonnage vessel. Now, TTCombat have a fantastic range of starter fleets for Dropfleet, but I wasn't in the market for lots of ships, but after looking at the general release Resistance Grand Cruiser I had an idea...

Ignition 

The Resistance in Dropfleet Commander are equipped with ships and weapons which were manufactured before Earth and the Cradle Worlds - in this way they're actually the ancestors of both the more modern United Colonies of Mankind (UCM) and the Post-Human Republic (PHR) both of whom have drawn upon the pre-Scourge designs in their own ways. 

While one possible configuration of a Resistance fleet is a rag tag band of survivors flying whatever they can get their hands on, I wanted something a little more coherent so after picking up Grand Cruiser kit, I set about carefully cutting it apart and then recombining the parts to produce a smaller vessel that was still cut from the same cloth as the Grand Cruisers.

I forgot to take a photo of the parts before I started cutting unfortunately (I blame my recovering from getting Covid-19) but essentially, I cut the hull apart and removed a section roughly 10mm in length before doing the same thing to the hybrid weapons battery - the easiest way to do this was just to cut away the centre two 'barrels'. Once everything was cut down and cleaned up, glued everything back together again and then used a little greenstuff to clean up the join between the prow and centre section. 

I also shortened the cannon in the dorsal turret so it went from a 'heavy' vent cannon to a regular vent cannon.

Top and middle: Grand Cruisers Bottom: Converted Parazonium Class Cruiser

The rules for Resistance cruisers give them a number of 'hardpoints' to which you can equip weapons, hangers for fighters and bombers, bulk landers and fireships, or even superstructure upgrades like extra armour, better scanners or enhanced engines - essentially no two vessels need be the same and this means that unlike the other factions in the game, there aren't 'classes' of cruiser, you just build them with whichever of the permitted options you want to stick on them. 

This is cool, but I do like my stories so I decided to go one step further as I was making the conversion and so armed with the knowledge that TTCombat have drawn inspiration from Roman influences for the Resistance ships that they've released (such as the  Gladiator, Centurion, Senator, Phalanx and Trident for example) I came up with the Parazonium class cruiser - the idea being, as indicated in message at the start of the post, that it was one of the few standardised classes in the Terran Grand Fleet, but it was just entering service when the Scourge attacked.

Prep For Orbital Insertion

From the outset, I knew I wanted a scheme that would look coherent across the ships and quickly settled on blue with white markings for the armour panels and a dark silver for the 'gubbinz' underneath. The other bits sort of fell into place from this - there's a lot of detail on the ships so I picked out some such as cables in greys and blacks as well as 'glowy bits' and lenses in a combination of colours.

To try and create some texture on the large, flat armour panels, I carefully built up layers of blue using thinned paint and downward brushstrokes - the background describes them as being ceramic in nature, so I reasoned that after a while in space surrounded by dust and micro debris they wouldn't be pristine, but at this scale (1:9150/0.2mm) I didn't really want add any battle damage and as the vessels operate in a vacuum, there wouldn't be any rust streaks in evidence either.  

Markings-wise, I decided to keep it simple, opting for hull numbers displayed upon the flank of each vessel and a simple 'crossed hammers' insignia which could be a holdover from before the Scourge invasion, or perhaps is something that has been adopted in the years since.

 Steady As She Goes

The completed Parazonium Class Cruiser

Although I won't be grabbing them straight away, I quite fancy picking up some Aldrin Colony Ships soon as not only do they look cool but they'll enable me to add some 'drop' capacity to this nascent fleet which is critical for playing the game...