Echoes

Test Echo supported by double Bellerophons in the back.

I got a lot done this evening.

First off I've gotten it down that I can complete a heavy cruiser inside of 3 nights of light painting. About 2 hours to black the models and do touch ups to the cream on the hulls. Another 2 to silver and do broad details and a final 2 to touch up details and do some shading.

Which meant I was able to finish another Bellerophon tonight! So I've got 2 painted in my fleet. With 4 cruisers done and 5 frigates, I decided to give myself a bit of a reward and paint up my Echoes.

The normal PHR corvette is a problem for me; it looks for all the world like a derpy dolphin. While it does convey speed and maintain some design principals of the overall PHR theme of sleek lines, gravity nullifiers and a sub-light engine, the execution of it is something that I'll just never field in my fleet.

I wanted something that paid a bit of homage to the kind of Alien-esque design of the PHR fleet.

The fleet grows!

Something that almost looked drone-like, or animal, in a technological kind of way. So I opted for a kitbash for the 4 Echoes I plan on fielding.

It's pretty simple with just 7 parts. First I take the hood of the Andromeda frigate and turn it upside down on top of a Calypso underslung ECM systems. I make sure to turn them backwards however and align them so that they are more or less perpendicular with the hull.

I then knocked off the sensor array on the prow of the Calypso underbelly to create a flat bonding surface where I glue a cruiser prow mass driver to represent the Echo's Medium Calibre Turrets.

On the back end I flatten off the round part of a frigate fin, turn it upside down and nestle it in the natural pocket that forms between the Andromeda canopy and a light cruiser's underpaneling that has been cut in half. That will form the aft of the ship.

They look pretty good, I think!