Traveller Reskins: Scout, type S

Kicking off my redesigns of the Mongoose Traveller spaceships, here's my version of the iconic scout ship. Now, I know that in it's original incarnation, the scout ship was wedge-shaped, much like the Imperial Star Destroyers, so I did not want to use that. Also, I'm not quite sure what the sublight propulsion of the Traveller ships is supposed to be, but whatever it is, in my book there should be some sort of reverse thrusters, unless you want to turn the whole ship around in order to slow down. Hence all of my designs will have engines in back and front. Sure, there should also be some smaller navigation thrusters, but I guess they are too small to be significant on the deck plans.

Other than the thrusters, I also deviated from the 'standard' plan by making the individual staterooms much smaller, so that I could get larger common area (washroom and a kitchenette) for the crew. I also introduced a second airlock at the bridge, 'cause that just seemed to make sense. The Scout is all about utility and redundancy, and having a second airlock in case the primary one malfunctions was a no-brainer.

One thing that also bugged me about the Mongoose plans that it was not always clear how the decks related to each other. Hence the cut-out section, to show the decks and the vertical shafts align.

Just one final note: These are just the previews, the final files will have grids and whatnot. But that will have to wait until I have all the designs I initially planned to do ready.

Mongoose Traveller: Spaceship reskins

The other day I was re-reading Mongoose's Traveller Core rulebook, and it occurred to me how - well, uninspiring, the designs for the iconic spaceships were. And not only that, but most of them are in a scale that is of little use for a gamer. Also, although I only have the physical book, I've come to understand that even in the PDF version, the plans are in low-resolution raster images, and therefore unscalable even there.

So, here then is my mission: to present good quality, scalable (meaning: vectorized) deck plans of the various Traveller ships. At the very least, my intention is to cover the Scout ships, the three Trader ships, the Yacht and some of the various Small Craft -class vessels: Fighters, Ship's Boats etc. The attractiveness of the designs will of course be in the eye of the beholder, but I at least try to make the designs feasible, interesting and functional. And of course, the designs will follow the numerical descriptions and tonnages of the ships in question. And if I'm able to grok it, I will try to publish each design as a layered PDF, so the grids and legends can be switched on and off when needed.

Foundry Hydra assembled

Woops. Time sure flies. Nevertheless, here's some pics of the assembled and based hydra. Despite the figure having seven heads, and the body in multiple parts as well, this was one of the easiest pinning jobs I had done, thanks to the relatively soft metal, and having big enough surfaces to drill in.

The figure settled nicely on a 40mm round base, and I made the cobblestone basing by making first a 2"x2" square from HirstArts blocks, then making a Green Stuff impression of that, and finally pressing that mold on the GS I had put on the top of the base. Worked out quite well, and now I have a ready mold for similar use at the ready.

The figure is now basecoated, and is waiting in the to-do shelf for an inspiration. Mainly, I have two conflicting colour schemes in my mind, and I can't seem to be able to pick my favourite. The first is 'eldricht', which would mean pale green underbelly and darker green back scales; the other one is 'poison', with bright orange (yellow highlights) bely, and black scales in the back, may haps with some reddish striping. Something resembling a coral snake. Then again, I already have some small spiders in similar colours. Oh well.

(Argh! Why does Blogger want to correct my English spelling and how do I get rid of that?)

((Okay, after searching in vain through Blogger preferences and whatnot, I realised that it was OS Mavericks that did the auto-corrections. I've switched it to UK English, although I suspect that it's only a matter of time until I have to switch it off altogether.))

New Arrivals: Foundry Hydra

Here's a thing that arrived today: snake-bodied Hydra from Foundry's Tribes of Legend -range. I instantly liked this figure the first time I saw it, and when I noticed it was available at Foundry's eBay outlet, FlyteofFantasy, and with postage paid, there was no excuse not getting it. I have in the past postponed some purchases, only to find out that the models have been discontinued, the store closed etc. (Red Box Helsvakt, I'm looking at you...), and I was not going to let it happen on this model.

As can be seen from the image, it's going to require a lot of pinning and filling to get the parts fit, but that was expected. Besides, having seven necks in only three parts is not that bad. And from the production point of view, having the two types of head separately makes perfect sense. Besides, there are 5 open-mouthed heads, and 5 closed ones in the kit, so one could mix and match, or even model the figure with some off-cut heads, and some necks where two heads have sprouted from the cuts. Only thing I'm bit iffy is the fact that the tail of the creature is two-forked, (which of course does not show on the image...) I think that I'll cut the other tailtip away.

The size of the figure is pretty much what I expected. It's big compared to a human-sized model, but not overtly so, and most importantly it can be built robust enough to properly function as a game piece. It will fit comfortably on a 40x40mm base, or a round equivalent. The fit of the joints is not the best, and there's quite a bit of flash on the studs, so simply gluing it together probably would not work.

Overall, the purchase went smoothly (well, I've never had any trouble with any eBay transaction yet), and was delivered promptly. And they were nice enough to include some skeleton figures in the order, as well. Probably some miscasts from their skeleton ranges, as one of the figures was cut from the middle and had a misshapen hand. But hey, freebies! Besides, the day you don't have uses for skeleton bits is the day you're tired of the whole hobby.

Plaster mixing ratio: a note

Just a quick reminder for myself: For Occlumedanit, one portion of plaster (fills approximately one mold) mix 80g plaster with 0,35 dl of lukewarm water.

City in Ruins - Ruined Houses pt. II

I have slowly been building some ruined buildings, using pieces I had already cast since somehow I'm in no mood of casting any new blocks. Fortunately I managed to build the houses I intended, although the broken corner of the house with a full-story basement is a direct result of not having enough arch-pieces for an intact level. But that's a boon of making ruins: such shortcomings are easily accommodated into the designs.

The basic structure of the buildings is thus in place. Next steps involve using latex filler to texturize the foamboard and to fill any gaps between the windows and the doorframes, then spraypainting the interiors to a matte black, assembling some rubble outside the buildings as well as texturing the bases all over, and constructing the floors using balsa wood. After that, it's just the task of painting the buildings, and perhaps if the inspiration strikes, some superdetailing as appropriate. Especially the recessed arches on the basement level scream for something. Coat-of-arms, perhaps.

To be honest, I still need a couple of corner pieces, and also some small bricks for the well, so I guess I'll have to do some casting eventually before I can go forward with the construction. But at the moment, what with weather being so uncharacteristically fine, I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Some Hasslefree goodness

HFH057 Ferrus and HFH065 Veda-Ann

Here's a couple of Hasslefree minis that arrived into my mailbox recently. I just could not put them in a drawer, to wait for a better time, but had to assemble and base them right away. Pinning Veda-Ann's sword arm was especially nice: it's always a special kind of thrill drilling a 1mm diameter hole into a 2mm piece of metal. I also had to do some 'stock removal' on Ferrus's axe and Wolf's sword to fit them to my taste, although the latter is still by no means dainty. There are still some mold lines to tackle with, and some gaps to GS, and then I can perhaps leave these to wait for their proper turn. Well, maybe basecoat them first...

That's pretty much the rest of the Personalities I need for the Wulfheimer warband. Finding the regular troopers might prove trickier, though...

HFH046 Wolf and HFH068 Boudi