"Terran Trade Authority Homecast Spaceships" Topic

Hello All,

Not so long ago, well in September new member Gameboards posted his pics of modern naval clay models.

TMP link

Unfortunately his pictures seem to have been deleted and he now appears inactive.

I thought the idea was very cool, so I decided to get into making some space ships inspired by the Terran Trade Authority ships and an online game I used to play. The results are here.

I have ,so far, made 5 fleets of fighters each, I hope, with their own characters. They are between 15-20mm long and I'm thinking of them as around 1/1200th scale. I also wanted to make some flightstands that could be adjusted for height.

The ships were first sculpted using Milliput which was ideal for making spacecraft as the Milliput dries very hard and can be sanded smooth to make some interesting shapes. Also Milliput is quick to work with. I then made silicone rubber moulds and set to casting in metal.

I have put up a quick tutorial about making the flightstands on the blog.

link

Comments and crits welcome

Very cool! I always liked the TTA artwork and universe.

They look pretty nice! The spirit of old school wargaming. You made everything from scratch!

Certainly shows where some of the old Space Master, later Silent Death, designs found inspiration.

I will say you're a better man than I!

If I can't grind it out of old plastic spoons and forks, it's more work than I'll get done. ;->=

MOST kewl!

Doug

Kropotkin303,

what you have demonstrated in no uncertain terms is my favorite point about how (1) this hobby should be accessible to virtually anyone, and (2) the cheapest, most enjoyable entry point into the hobby is through space combat gaming using home made starships and/or space fighter models as you have created here. Excellent looking ships, real Old School TTA style and finish.

Bravo!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Thanks Guys,

Glad you like my spacecraft. They were a gas to make. I'm not too sure that I haven't caused a few problems for myself as at 1/1200 my fighters are around the size of a F111, about 60 foot long. Corvettes, which is my next idea are somewhat bigger. May have to make some bigger moulds.

Thanks for the feedback.

If a fighter has a 2 man crew I guess a Corvette has a 8-10 man crew. Just thinking.

You're doing the figs, and I assume you'll be pushing them around the table. Whatever works for you.

Like most fiction, holes too big for ANYONE to speak authoritatively, though that stops no one. ;->=

Doug

Superb work! I've sometimes wondered about making some of the TTA ships myself. The patterning that marks a ship as the work of Chris Foss would be challenging though…