| boy wundyr x | 26 Aug 2015 12:59 p.m. PST |
Ok, so I was checking out spaceships on Shapeways, as there's a free shipping sale from now till the 30th and I'm interested in some of the AOTRS ships. But while I was poking around, I discovered there are official Starfire ships available now:
shapeways.com/shops/starfire Just beware that the prices you see are for Plastic Acrylic, NOT the usual White, Strong Flexible. But WSF is an option, if you go to the individual ship's page you can change the material and will see a significant price drop (to 1/3 of the original listed price in some cases). I'll pick up a few for my other projects, I love the look of the Terran ships, and the destroyer looks like a certain mercenary ship from the Traveller canon (close enough for government work!). |
| elsyrsyn | 26 Aug 2015 1:19 p.m. PST |
Those are pretty cool! Doug |
| gamershs | 26 Aug 2015 3:50 p.m. PST |
Only problem is that I have no way to determine the size of the ships. If I purchase a 1/300 (or 1/144) scale aircraft I know the size of the aircraft as I can take it's actual size and divide it by the scale. As the spaceships size and scale are not known I have no way to determine the size it is. A coin or ruler in the picture would help. I have MANY space fleets and it would be great to add another fleet as long as the ships were not too big or small. This is a problem with many manufacturers. |
| Allen57 | 26 Aug 2015 4:45 p.m. PST |
Look carefully at an individual miniature listing. The dimensions are given in both inches and centimeters. |
| boy wundyr x | 26 Aug 2015 7:15 p.m. PST |
As Allen said, there are dimensions in the listing. The longest I noticed was about 5". So a fleet scale, maybe close to Brigade or GZG, maybe a bit smaller/slimmer; I'll need to see some in person. |
| nukesnipe | 27 Aug 2015 6:20 a.m. PST |
I bought several of these (two squadron packs and two data group packs) a few months ago. They're pretty nice, though I haven't painted them yet. The dimensions listed on the Shapeways pages are pretty accurate. I wouldn't recommend the white strong and flexible as the miniatures come out a bit rough and lose some of the detail. Being a huge Starfire fan, I'm pretty stoked by them. Regards, Scott Chisholm |
TheBeast  | 27 Aug 2015 9:59 a.m. PST |
So, these are based on later images, and not similar to the original race-generic castings, correct? Actually, some make me think of some Traveller designs. May keep the page in the back pocket for such use. Thanks! Doug Edit: Whoops, sorry, missed YOUR Traveller reference, but it's not the only one! |
| boy wundyr x | 27 Aug 2015 10:43 a.m. PST |
Many of the individual ship listings actually have page references to the illustration in the Starfire books they are based on, if that helps, but they look to be the "modern" (3rd edition plus) books. What other Traveller lookalikes do you see Doug? There's almost a Fer-de-Lance, but it's Dreadnought sized! |
| nukesnipe | 28 Aug 2015 9:14 p.m. PST |
Most of the designs are based on artwork from "The Stars at War" with the sculptor extrapolating the ships that aren't represented in the books. Regards, Scott Chisholm |
| TheBeast | 30 Aug 2015 8:46 a.m. PST |
There's almost a Fer-de-Lance, but it's Dreadnought sized! Between the vagaries of starship models, and the vagueness of actual scale, could be modeled a pinnace for all I care. ;->= I'll have to give another look later to see if I can see more not-Traveller, but I assume I was actually seeing Traveller-'Inspired' styles. Doug |
| David Johansen | 30 Aug 2015 5:06 p.m. PST |
I think there's some artistic overlap with Dave Detrick doing the cover for third and possibly some of the internal art. However, the original minis were all cylindrical and while these have the classic silohuetes from the counters, yes the art is based on the counters, they have been flattened out. Probably due to the inevitable phallic jokes. Anyhow, while the prices are steep these are very tempting, how's Ultra Starfire anyhow? |
| nukesnipe | 01 May 2017 6:28 a.m. PST |
There was just a discussion on the Starfire forums regarding the "scale" of the miniatures. The Starfire rules do not provide dimensions for ships other than "hull spaces", and the dimension of a "hull space" is not defined. So, unlike most miniatures, the Starfire miniatures are built to a volume scale of 30 hull spaces per cubic centimeter. A 30 hull space destroyer has a volume of 1 cubic centimeter, while a 100 hull space battleship has a volume of approximately 3 1/3 cubic centimeter. That's why the spherical Terran designs are so much shorter than the more angular Khanate designs. The Terran DD is a tiny little thing compared to the Khanate DD… The consensus on the forum was that the "scale" would come out to about 1/5000, which I think qualifies as Fleet scale. Regards, Scott Chisholm |
paints more hovercraft.
