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Even by the 24th century, very little was known about the Breen Confederacy. Although the Federation was aware of limited Breen outposts along their borders, the Breen historically were restricted to a relatively small area of space around their (reportedly) very cold homeworld. Breen privateers had been known to conduct raids against other Alpha Quadrant species, and to use survivors as slave labor in the dilithium mines on Dozaria. However, these raids were infrequent, and never clearly confirmed as sanctioned by the Breen Confederacy.
This isolationism had in the past resulted in a general underestimation of the Breen. The Klingons were the first to discover this, when the Klingon Second Empire sent an entire fleet to conquer the Breen Homeworld. The fleet was never heard from again.
The Federation also paid a price for underestimating the Breen. Shortly after joining with the Dominion in 2375, the Breen moved from a policy of low-level hostilities toward other major powers to one of open warfare. An attack on Earth shortly after the alliance resulted in significant damage to both Star Fleet Headquarters and San Francisco. Shortly thereafter, the Second Battle of Chin'toka saw the introduction of a previously unknown Breen energy dampening weapon. This weapon could completely drain all the main power systems of a starship, leaving them completely vulnerable to the fleets of the Dominion. Losses to the Federation fleet and her allies were extensive.
These losses continued until the Federation finally did create a defense against the energy dampening weapon. As the tide of the war began to turn, the Breen official Thot Pran required reassurance from the Dominion that, instead of retreating, they were in fact regrouping and attempting to redouble their shipbuilding and replenishment efforts.
The Breen Confederacy had been awarded several planets that were previously part of the Cardassian Union as compensation for joining the war. Extensive shipbuilding facilities had been constructed in some of these systems. True to their word, the Dominion assisted in starship development at these shipyards, and the Federation soon began to encounter several previously unknown Breen designs.
The workhorse of the Breen Navy had been the Chel Grett cruiser, classified by some as a battlecruiser. This was the primary Breen ship encountered up through the Second Battle of Chin’toka.
Thereafter, a smaller raider type of craft began to be observed away from the front lines. This craft was eventually identified by Star Fleet Intelligence as a Plesh Brek frigate.
The similarity of the roles assumed by these raider/frigates led many to suspect the previous Breen raids on outlying posts had been, in fact, sanctioned by the Breen Confederacy. Surprisingly well armed and maneuverable, these raiders proved a thorn in the side of the Federation and her allies even after the cessation of hostilities with the Dominion.
Of greater concern was the appearance of the Gel Chak battleship.
The alliance with the Dominion had provided the resources the Breen needed to construct a front line capital ship. With a full complement of torpedoes, heavy disruptors, a small complement of Bleth Choas fighters, and the energy dampening weapon, the Gel Chak was capable of standing toe-to-toe with anything the Federation and her allies could field. It was long suspected that some Breen ships also carried cloaking devices, and this was confirmed with the Gel Chak. The energy dampening weapon carried on the Gel Chak was also modified to fire on a series of alternating frequencies, allowing it to occasionally overcome the countermeasures developed by the Federation.
Fortunately these ships were produced in only very limited numbers. The exact number remains unconfirmed, although three were ultimately destroyed during the final battle of the Dominion War at Cardassia Prime. It is suspected that one or more may have been hidden within the Breen Confederacy after the Dominion’s capitulation. Starfleet Intelligence remains vigilant, watching for any signs of these craft along the borders.
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I had a lot of fun building these.
I usually strive for as much authenticity as I can. In all honesty, sometimes that takes a little fun out of the modeling process. It felt good to stretch my legs a little with two ships that are not canon, which offered me some creative freedom in the designs. Again, from the outset my goal was to build something recognizable as the subject ships, but not worrying about getting every last detail to match the reference photos. If the truth be known, the reference photos don’t even match one another!
This is also the first time I have ever entered a contest. I think having a deadline helped push me past my major roadblock. I almost ALWAYS trip when I hit the painting stage. Knowing that I needed to get these done by a particular date helped, and I tried to budget a little time at least every other day. Even if it was only 10 minutes or so.
In a perfect world, without the contest, I would have probably looked into getting the vinyl paneling cut at a shop. Because of the time constraints, I did it all by hand. It is not as detailed as it could have been if I had had it done by a machine. But you know something? I am OK with that. Without the contest, I would have struggled to try to match all the colors to the digital “studio model”. I decided to go with out-of-the-bottle color choices instead. I probably would have tried to mask each of the tiny panels to get the sharpest possible lines, airbrushing each color one at a time. Instead, I freehanded all of the painting on these models with a very fine (00000, I believe) paintbrush.
And I actually FINISHED the project.
And it actually looks pretty nice on the shelf (at least to me).
If and when Xen announces another contest, I hope to have the opportunity to enter again. Good Luck to everyone still working on their entries. If Real Life issues required you to back out of this one, I hope you give the next contest another try.
I still need to do a Breen cruiser, and there is a destroyer I want to give a try. MAYBE a carrier. I will post here if/when.
My thanks to Xen, Multiverse Models, and everyone else who made this contest possible.
My thanks also to Jasonius, without whose gorgeous 1:2500 Breen Cruiser model I would never have gotten these built.
Anyway, it really has been a blast, and I hope you all have enjoyed this little trip to the Breen Confederacy.
Bravo, Kratok! I'm with RW, someone should kit these