USS Saladin
This is another semi-canon designs from Franz Joseph's book "Star Fleet Technical Manual." This one was much easier than the Ptolemy, but I still enjoyed it.
The USS Saladin was simple to make. Cut off the secondary hull, glue the warp engine on (after filling in the gap from the details) and making a mount for the 'radar.' The longest part was waiting for the putty to dry. Painting was a snap. The overall color is Testors' Light Gray. The details on the warp engine were done with Dark Gull Gray and Light Ghost Gray. The red cap on the engine is plain old red. The mount for the radar is Dark Gull Gray and the radar is a mix of red, gold, and a touch of black. There's also a black stripe near the front of the engine. The decals were home made.
Making Decals
To make the decals, I took some decal previews from the net and used them as a starting point. I created the decals on a layer over the preview, so it's a whole new image. I then printed them using decal sheets from MicroMark. These were the first decals I ever made, and they look pretty good, considering I used a 360 dpi printer. But if you want to make your own decals, I recommend at least a 720 dpi printer. It just looks better.
This was a simple and fun model to build. I only have a few ships in 1/2500 scale, but it looks good in the little collection. If you have some 1/2500 scale ships and some spare parts, then these would be a great addition.