Spaceship/Starship minis

[captnchuck]

As Ad Astra is basically abandoning the Traveller project. Is there any hope of finding someone to take the mantle up. Heck,I will even support Mongoose doing it. The fleet ships look nice but seem too small for me. I would like for both Adventurer scale and a fleet/squadron scale stuff.

 

[Spinward Scout]

I would like for both Adventurer scale and a fleet/squadron scale stuff.

Maybe I missed something. What would be Adventurer scale and what would be fleet/squadron scale? Before Andrew Bolton passed away, he was working on some ships to be printed by Shapeways.com I wonder if anyone would know what he had finished.

 

[captnchuck]

Look at the Ad Astra site. The smaller stuff,ie free trader scout and so on where in one scale. The Fleet ships where in another scale

 

[captnchuck]

anyone know a seller on Shapeways making stuff?

 

[captnchuck]

Making My fleet

Going with Monday Knight and GZG for my fleets. They will not look 100% but close enough. Only one question,where do I get a Tigress?

 

[esampson]

I'm trying some experiments with Shapeways right now (http://shpws.me/p822, http://shpws.me/oWvK). I've already ordered one set of the Scout/Couriers but found the details to be too fine. While the rendered details look deep the model is only about 1 1/2" long after being printed and the space between plates was so small that paint would quickly obscure it. On the other hand the size of the plates themselves looked pretty good.

Once I'm happy with what I've got I'll still need to contact MM to get permission to sell them, but if Ad Astra is going to stop producing Traveller minis that might be easier now. I've got the outlines of a couple of other Traveller ships also in the works once I've got a better handle on how large to make details so that they will make a good model. Unfortunately the A2 is just kicking my butt at the moment because it has such a weird shape.

 

[captnchuck]

Looks good

Looks good what you got. How easy do you think it would be to do Armee versions of the stuff you plan on doing?

 

[esampson]

Looks good what you got. How easy do you think it would be to do Armee versions of the stuff you plan on doing?

I can't say until I know what "Armee" means.

 

[esampson]

Just got my order from Shapeways and I am really happy. The level of detail on the frosted ultra detail version of the model is incredible.

I was worried that the reason for the lines between the plates being so thin was because the material expanded slightly as the laser set it and that by going from .1mm lines to .2mm lines I would move from hair thin barely visible detail that would be wiped away with a good layer of paint to huge gaping canyons carved in the surface of the model. Nothing of the sort. In fact I bet I could increase the width to .3mm, but .2mm seems right now to do the job.

I am a little concerned about whether the white detail version has deep enough cuts but I think it's good and that the only problem I'm having is that the material is hiding the detail. With a layer of paint I think the details will pop out nicely.

My only sadness at the moment is that my camera phone just can't take a decent enough photo. If I were to upload what I've shot you would just see the outlines of the ship and maybe the turret. Hopefully tonight I'll get the chance to shoot them (both pre and post primer) with a dedicated camera.

 

[navanod]

anyone know a seller on Shapeways making stuff?

Working on it, slowly but surely. 1:1000 scale, doing ships from the DSL Ironworks line. Available here - https://www.shapeways.com/shops/DSLIronworks

 

[esampson]

Not a great photo but the best I could do right at the moment. I'll try to get some better lit shots without as much of a depth of field problem over the weekend.

This is the frosted ultra detail print but I was actually pretty happy with how well the white detail model came out. You can definitely tell the difference between and since it's only about an extra $3 I don't think I'd buy any more in white detail except for testing purposes, but it still came out fairly respectable. Probably about the same level of detail you would expect from a normally produced white metal figure.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Very nice. I got one of the ones that Andrew Bolton made and it doesn't have quite as much detail. Try to put up an aft photo, too. Where on Shapeways did you get it?

 

[esampson]

I created it (http://shpws.me/p822). I've been tinkering with printing starship minis on Shapeways for a bit, mainly to get an idea how things translate from model to final print.

As an example I did an earlier version of this with .1mm grooves, which is the finest level of detail Shapeways says can be printed with frosted ultra detail. I got the product and it did have ultrafine grooves cut through the surface. However the detail was so fine that it would be very difficult to paint. Paint would obliterate detail if you weren't careful, but being a translucent material you couldn't put on the paint extremely thinly.

I wasn't sure if there might not be some expansion of the materials that was shrinking the grooves and was worried that at .2mm I would go from ultrafine hairlines to huge gaping canyons but it looks like that's not the case. I could probably even kick up the grooves a bit more but then that makes some of the finer details like the iris valve grooves hard to fit into their tiny little circle.

Now that I'm getting a finished product that I like I'm going to see about talking to MM to see if I can get permission to sell the figures through Shapeways. Assuming he gives the go ahead I'll open up the model so anyone can order their own copy. I'll probably attach a small markup (like a dollar) to keep the wife happy and possibly a second dollar to help fund CotI (Shapeways has this thing where you can make people co-creators, but it would require MM to set up his own account) but the figures will still be pretty cheap ($11.71 for FUD. Unfortunately shipping is going to be on top of that but if you order a bunch at once the shipping stays pretty constant).

I've got a couple of other designs I'm also working on that I'll finish up now that I think I've got my parameters pretty well dialed in.

If I can't get permission...well, I don't know. I'm certainly not going to go the route of just naming it something else and pretending it isn't a Traveller mini. I suppose that if MM doesn't object I might just open source the file so that anyone can set up a Shapeways account, upload the file, and print it themselves. However even that would have to be with permission. While I am almost certain there would be nothing illegal with doing that I would not be comfortable ignoring MM's wishes in the matter.

Another option might be to just send MM the .stl file so he can set up his own Shapeways shop (or he could even set up shops on alternate print on demand sites). One of the things that has me really attracted to the PoD setup for minis is that basically the only reason for them to ever become discontinued is either A) there are simply much better versions available of B) licensing has lapsed. There's never an issue with a model not being popular enough to justify another run.

 

[esampson]

This is with some paint and an ink wash applied. Unfortunately since this is my first time working on something with this configuration and given my level of skill the paint job is somewhat crude. Still, it really helps to pull out the detail level of the model I think.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Very nice! What kind of turret is on there?

 

[esampson]

Just a generic turret. It's designed as a bar across the face that can be raised and lowered while the turret itself pivots. There's a pair of small holes in the bar, so it's a dual turret but it could be lasers or missiles or whatever.

Unfortunately the printing requirements are such that if I built the turret with any kind of barrels or missiles they would have to be ridiculously wide in scale (about 1m across) and they would still be terribly fragile. Since the turret is pretty close to scale (on nearly all figures it looks like the turrets are enlarged) the oversized barrels would be enormous on it. So I looked at lots of older figures to see how they had handled turrets and this was the general design that I liked the most. It looked to me like it could actually be a turret design, there's a vagueness to it that means that it could be a missile turret or a laser turret or whatever, and it is much closer to scale (it looks like I need to enlarge the two holes a bit more. As they currently sit they are all but invisible).

 

[elbmc1969]

The Ad Astra Games project is very much not dead ...

 

[infojunky]

I have been pondering Traveler Ship minis for a while, and the real question is what size?

Consider this generally, if a 100 ship is a inch long, then a 800 ton ship is going to be 2 inches long, and a 2700 ton ship is 3 inches, Etc. etc... Which isn't all that bad if you stick to "Adventure class" ships. (Which to be honest is my preference)

But I suspect that many people want the larger ships.

 

[aramis]

I have been pondering Traveler Ship minis for a while, and the real question is what size?

Consider this generally, if a 100 ship is a inch long, then a 800 ton ship is going to be 2 inches long, and a 2700 ton ship is 3 inches, Etc. etc... Which isn't all that bad if you stick to "Adventure class" ships. (Which to be honest is my preference)

But I suspect that many people want the larger ships.

All inches to nearest ¹/₁₆"

If a type S is 1" long (at 37.5m overall), 11/16" wide, and about (9m=) 1/4" tall...

A correct merc cruiser is 3/4" diameter, and 7/16" tall.

500KTd Happy Fun Ball is about 120m in diameter. Or just about a 3 radius ³/₁₆" sphere.... so 6 ³/₈" diameter.

And the Gazelle is 1 ¹/₄" long, the same ¹¹/₁₆" wide, , and the same ¹/₄" tall, but that tall all the way, save the last 1/8" or so.

The AHL is 10 ¹³/₁₆" long, 1 ⁵/₈" wide, 1" thick, with a ⁷/₁₆" fin, for overall thickness of 1 ⁷/₁₆".

Just to give an idea about the sizes.

 

[Ulsyus]

Great mini! I've got too many, but would purchase these guys if you can get them out.

I wasn't sure if there might not be some expansion of the materials that was shrinking the grooves and was worried that at .2mm I would go from ultrafine hairlines to huge gaping canyons but it looks like that's not the case. I could probably even kick up the grooves a bit more but then that makes some of the finer details like the iris valve grooves hard to fit into their tiny little circle.

This'd depend on what you plan them for: displays, dioramas or gaming? Don't forget to apply the 2 foot rule for the latter: what's it going to look like from that far away under normal lighting on a starfield mat or sheet with at least a few other ships also there, with markers and a few other things on the table? In case, bigger grooves to better define the vessel's features is better.

I have been pondering Traveler Ship minis for a while, and the real question is what size?

Consider this generally, if a 100 ship is a inch long, then a 800 ton ship is going to be 2 inches long, and a 2700 ton ship is 3 inches, Etc. etc... Which isn't all that bad if you stick to "Adventure class" ships. (Which to be honest is my preference)

But I suspect that many people want the larger ships.

Smaller is better for BCS games, not as large as Full Thrust capital vessels, maybe about the size of the Ad Astra ones (though the Plankwell was again big).