Niðavellir Shipyard: UCM Shinano, Atlantis class Battlecruiser

Niðavellir Shipyard

The Nidavellir Shipyard is a large UCM Shipyard hidden far away from any planetary system.
After the scattering of humans after the first Scourge attack many ships used their ftl drives and made an random Foldspace jump just to get away. Many of this ships found themselves alone in the dark, to close to a star or a black hole and perished but some made it to an empty place in space. And that’s how the Nidavellir belt was discovered. A collection of large rocks, asteroids in different sizes and collection of dust and sand. Exactly how this place come to be, far from any sun, placed in between systems is not known. It is believed it was created after an extremely unlikely collision of two larger celestial body, with no stronger gravity pull in the vicinity this collection of minerals and rocks have held together by their own combined pull of each other. The scatter of large rocks and the natural background radioactivity have created a hiding place. After the survivors made contact with the now formed UCM the area have been put to good use.

Named after the Norse mythology Nidavellir, the world of the dwarves, for its rich mineral and metal resources. Perfectly for foundries and a large shipyard complex.

This is the place to produce ships...

Monday, 1 May 2023

UCM Shinano, Atlantis class Battlecruiser

The UCMS Atlantis was the predecessor to the Johannesburg class. Originally concepted as a testbed for future warship development, the Atlantis was built off a cruiser hull and shares many of the same components. Her actions during the Wolfrum Penal Insurrection, as well as limited engagements with the Shaltari, proved the battlecruiser concept sound, paving the way for future vessels of similar scope. However, the UCM's pivot to a new hull design resulted in the Atlantis becoming the first and only member of her class, as despite having equivalent firepower, her hull was significantly more expensive to produce and maintain. Regardless, the Atlantis is still in active service with the UCMF.

https://dropfleet-commander.fandom.com/wiki/Johannesburg_Battlecruiser

Yeah... so that might not be entirely true...
The Nidavellir shipyards have evidently constructed atleast one Atlantis class Battlecruiser making the ship number of this class more then the prototype ship that bear its name.

The UCM Shinano is yet to see heavy action, only smaller skirmishes, patrols and as a smaller localized show of force missions. And that might be the reason she is not known to the greater UCM or the other factions.
So if the Atlantis being one and only ship is a lie then the might of the UCM might be more numerous then previously thought. No doubt because of the ships from the Nidivellir shipyards starts to sneak into the UCM forces to supply those numbers.

For the colour inspiration for this ship I looked at ww2 Japanese carriers. So I painted here as a ww2 Japanese carrier.
Dark red bottom as seen to mark the waterline for ships, white stripe on its top with an arrow and a red sun.
In the end I skipped some smaller detail step to speed up the painting time but that is smaller things only I will notice.
In the end I am rather pleased none the less.

The UCM Shinano is seen here escorted by two Santiago class corvettes.

And when I painted the UCM Shinano I also painted two small civilian satellites. The plan is two have them as terrain, objective or just to make the tabletop look better, adding another detail.
I dont remember who made them so dont ask. They are rather cute.

Seen here for scale.

Cheers // Eng

Niðavellir Shipyard