The Rhomboid Cruiser pt 1

Hi all!
Its my pleasure to reply to requests to see where the rhomboid cruiser is at.
Its getting there. So is XMAS.
v1 of the cruiser finally printed in under a day, but with a few (tolerable for my collection) defects

Above: The Rhomboid Assimilationer, its a weird geometry. I like it in ST:A3.

 Above: The more flattering angles for this blocky-beast. Its in the process of being bitsbashed, and will eventually be painted properly.

Above: This angle reveals some of the defects with the rhomboid
The rightside pylon didn't print properly due to layer speed and vibration error, so its curved and undulatey. The leftside pylon had the opposite problem and lifted up at opposite corners, though otherwise printed perfectly.
Likewise, the core and connectors printed perfect, so not too bad for a mostly hollow ship! (A Hollow-ship? or a holo-ship...)
So, these rhomboids are supposed to have a spherical recess on the top - this was not possible to achieve with the torsional strength required, so perhaps later I will adapt (ironic no?) a coffee filter into the sphere connector.

This thing teams up with the type 2 obelisk or the cylinder to trap enemies inside of a borg-tholian suspension field (green instead of orange, coming soon). the field is 4-6 rhomboids in size, so it is a very tight squeeze to fit the vehicles in there - this is to force borg vehicles to have to clump together, and become more vulnerable to the new types of torpedo and AOE weapons to nerf them a little.
Did I mention, that in my GOBS rules I play, the feds can cause subspace distortions (play trap cards etc) and that the borg-tholian suspension field has a chance to implode, causing everything in it to implode and be removed from play?...

I'm toying with making that either an Assimilator ability (wasn't fussed on the armada special ability, and all ships can do what made it unique originally), or making type 2 obelisks a mandatory unit choice, and making the cubes and up a 0-1 rare choice, with the Cylinder/VGer Monolith being a hero/unique/HQ.

The Interceptor will be a troops choice, as will borg-asteroid (cheap fodder) and assimilated ships.
I'm undecided as to whether the Tetrahedrons and 4/5point pyramids will be troop choices or elites/fast attack.
The Fusion Tesseract will count as 7 unit choices: 1 Elite, 2 Troops, 2 Fast Attack and 2 Heavy Support.
Spheres are elites, captured vessels are 0-1 and elite (Borg would rather cannibalize captured vessels than field them constantly, and sometimes prefer destroying these "uglies" for raw parts... Borg can get the parts they need one way or another, sooner or later... resistance is pointless)

Regular cube, Tactical Cube, type 2 cube and locutus cube are heavy support, (locutus also being a HQ choice)
The queen's borg diamond is 0-1 unique hero, and can't be fielded in an army with V'Ger or Locutus.

Basically, playtesting these and the other craft, including the gyroscopic hypersphere, or the 127-cell/dodecahedron and octahedron... its been fun! and both GOBS and STAW/ST:40K systems have been reasonably balanced.
We're still working on STAW rules replete with carefully worded cards for all of em.

So, hopefully next;
some display stands, (POP Acrylic pivotable and extendable?)
some romulans and more federation craft,
and perhaps some game recounts.

For those wondering where futures reflection has gone, after taking some advice, I post elsewhere about that and for here, I provide a link to those interested from elsewhere soas they can see it. It works out for everyone.

A Question Of Scale/A Matter Of Taste

Hi there folks!
Some have asked: what scale is xyz to pqrstuv?
Here, we delve deeper into why 1:5000/1:4848.48* is my preferred baseline for STAW and similar tabletop games.
It just works. Its big without being too big like 1:1000 or 1:2500 can be. It lets you field massive starships and, with a slight upscaling, it lets you fit the small shuttlecraft and fighters easily.
It is also storage and transport friendly.

I also feel more of whats available out there scales well to these two ships, the Hallmark Warbird and Eaglemoss/Shapeways Valdore. The Dragohawk (available from many makers out there) sits nice. The other types sit well. Once I locate a Griffin and a Raptor, they'll sit well next to it and be in scale with the akira class and nebula class.

Here's a specific comparison;
Eaglemoss Valdore to Hallmark Warbird to Furuta D.

Above: What I said before, but somehow a tetrahedron snuck into frame. I feel they scale well. Thanks to Si's Soldiers for the idea - I would never have become involved in STAW if I had never found your blog. I would be keen to hear your thoughts on scale and in particular, romulans.

Above: Valdore Type is a wider but sleeker craft that is not as long as a standard warbird. This craft scales well to Shapeways Sovereigns and to the Furuta Ent E.

So, here's a little more to the scale debate;
what do you feel? Where should scale be?
Should I 'upscale' the borg geometries? Should I upscale the existing romulan designs?

Cheers!

Tale of the Goofy Monk

Howdy!
There's been a few questions about when the goofy monk will be available, and what options there'll be for the costumes.
I can say that there'll be male and female options, and in terms of costumes we've opted for a monk robe and generic armor variant. This'll be a decent bed for customisation into middle-earth styled project through to sci-fi-esque applications, and hopefully there'll be something for everyone.
They'll be available in a limited run once the rest of the mold has been filled up - only 2 more characters to go over at ExManus Studios or so I'm told. It'll be excellent!

In the meantime, here's how I've styled one of those goofy lizard monks.

 Above: The goofy monk and the murderer that took the character away in a comicbook no less.
Personally, I feel that robot chicken was a better ending.

 Above: The monk's light-broadsword is interchangeable, and glows blue-violet under blacklight as no suitable ~1.7mm - 3mm translucent rods were sourcable at time of assembly. The figure looks good with clear or yellow/orange IMHO too.

Above: A few good monks for scale. You'll see that the goofy monk scales well to the source material, and that particularly it scales well to the RPG images that were available. The monk stands 2 heads taller than the Plo Koon monk, spot on. Some say its a little too large, but I can't hear them and all agree that the raw mini has so much detail packed on it (which I hope my paintwork didn't obscure too much). Thanks again for the awesome work to be found at ExManus Studios - those folks really know how to craft awesome sculptures in any sized application first time every time. The customer service cannot be understated - my dealings with them have been thoroughly warm and professional!

Cheers!

Up later,
review of futures resource estimates literature and population estimates:
what is the leeway here? How accurate are we talking, and are things closer to the 70year end of the curve than the 270 year end? (hint, its closer to the 70year end at present).

More Plasticrack Part nth

Apologies for not utilising a handy tag system... I'll tidy that up in the future.
In the meantime, here's another installment of Plasticrack - cybernetic geometry the continuing voyages.
There's even some 'enhanced' imagery.

Above: A hapless Sutherland is ambushed by an Obelisk. "Resistance, as it always has been, is futile." Sutherland fires a fullspread in the rearward arc, hoping to knock out the Obelisk's engines long enough to reach the board edge.

Above: A W.I.P group shot of gen1 techno-geometry, courtesy of a Velleman k8200. That cubeish thing? Its actually a tesseract, with magnets/ferrous materials holding it together. At the time this image was taken, the glues were setting and so an elastic band has to hold them all together to ensure proper drying. The cube is slightly larger than a tactical cube from a popular boardgame presently out there. The idea is that this fusion cube can break up into 'Multi-Vector Assimilation Mode" and there are a few scenarios for it that yours truly has made to compliment it.
The sphere also shown costs about $3.80USD at cost price, a little more for a painted and 'tactical'd' variant as shown. The sphere same size as other spherical things on market.

Above: Sutherland for scale with Obelisk (type 1) and Scout Fusion Tesseract

Above: Scout Fusion Tesseract in its 7 constituent components. Each Pyramid is in terms of gameplay, roughly worth 2 spheres. The scout cube (MM) in terms of gameplay, is slightly weaker than the Interceptor (so, easily dispatched by an oberth and miranda)

Above: Tesseract shown with a pyramid missing (the vehicle can dissassemble and reassemble at will, provided 4 of the pyramids and the core scout cube are above half health...).
Sutherland unfortunately did not escape the pursuing Obelisk; A.Vessel#948-7612 is being salvaged and enhanced at Regional Nexus Node #4598759.

Above: Another group of tetrahedrons for a client;these ones are some of the finest yet (if I do say so myself)! Email or contact me to get yours secured today.
You'll notice the photoetched parts, which were donated from a recent swap meet - so many modelmakers have spare sprue that they'll sell for cents or donate at freebie tables at conventions or swap meets, and sadly many aviation model makers never use their undercarriages or missiles. Luckily, those parts can be used to cybernetic-ify your geometries!

So, thats it for this installment;
many thanks to everyone that's ordered their geometries
- I hope the geometry brings much fun and something different affordably to your game tables!
Thankyou for your concrit and feedback on enhancing the geometry.

I'm flabbergasted at how many nations they've been sent to now - 9 and counting
That tells me that people really like their geometry.
Polychora and irregular shapes, all that sort of stuff. Its great!

I hope to get to a position where I can start to develop lazer printed componentry within the next 5 years - at this time, a pipedream, but one which would be awesome to realise.
Why? It would mean better resolution stuff, at negligible cost increase, and importantly...
CURVED GEOMETRY = )  (oval shaped saucer-y geometries)
at present, it is very difficult to produce nice-finished curved geometry at home with the k8200 and other systems. 

It would also mean I would be able to bring POP bases to market much more effectively, enhancing recycling and the final finish of many multi-media models. That alone makes lazer printing and in-home lazer cutter parts worth looking into.

Reflections on the futures debate

Hi there,

time to delve into the other stuff that this blog exists for; reflections on the ongoing futures debate.

If someone considers the literature, they find the division between boomers and gloomers.

some of that consideration and reflection is distilled and paraphrased here - I encourage readers to conduct their own thorough research into this area and to form their own standpoint and views thereafter.

The boomers *cough Simon reagan-nomics cough* believe approximately in 'progress' (whatever that ill-defined concept might be); that via decoupling, and exponential scalability/knockon effects, technology can outpace the various rates of decline caused due to overconsumption and overpopulation forces on society.

to varying extents, there is the belief of either infinite resources, or of scalable resources to the point where supply/demand is less a consideration in the short to medium term.

The gloomers are more cautious however,  being pragmatic

and believe that preventative measures might be taken to avoid any Seneca style collapses.

Bartlett outlines much of the facts of the matter, more eloquently than yours truly.

Coutts (of the exponentialist fame) also reflects eloquently and more importantly, objectively - a great resource for the reader to consider while conducting their research.

So,

what are the odds?

what does it all matter?

and as Monckton pointedly asks - what's the point, especially if some of these cycles are beyond controlling or altering in meaningful ways?

This hinges on our resource estimates, on our efficiency and on how our innovation might work.  

To the resources, we are shifting towards offshore and LNG, due to micron-limits and ERoEI considerations established elsewhere. There exists the potential for a peak oil scenario, inclusive of LNG and offshore reserves. This concept also applies to other resources, such as fissionable/fuseable materials...

So, as many have noted, the Green Revolution hinged on hydrocarbons to make fertiliser and countermeasures to ensure high efficiency of crop yield.  As those resources decline, it becomes difficult to manufacture in the same methods...

The estimates for resource futures are highly pliable, and contingent on demand from the populace...

suffice to say, the calculations when run and based on x amount of global barrels per day... can vary from as low as 70odd years of GLOBAL reserves, to as far out as 270years, or more (if consumption patterns changed significantly within the next 10 years)...

There are also many assumptions; notably that certain resources cannot be synthesised in commercially viable manners or quantities (such as fertilisers from electrolysis at this time).

This is also a point of contention... as in a digital economy in which solar methods (chiefly thermal solar plants etc), microwave collectors and catalytic converters are more abundant, and we follow more of an Asimov path (yeast farmed and exponentially growing foodstuffs, anyone?), it may be possible that resource depletion timeframes extend to the thousands of years ballpark.

Hydrogen fuels, if increased and made the norm, would contribute to this extended resource depletion timeframe. The critical resources would shift to fissionable materials and super-heavy metals. This is where astro-mining might make sense. We are presently at a point where this may be the only way to get sufficient quantities of rare-earths at high enough grades.

There are limits to how many people could exist on earth; how much material could be arranged as people before the planet broke up... that number is extremely high, and would equate to a large number of people per cubic metre - I don't think we'd ever get to those densities... we have to ensure that we don't, because we would see fewer and fewer other species in the food web/nature web and environmental cycle. Fewer species mean less diversity and lowered resilience to extinction events - this is especially important given that we are the only source of life thus far known in the universe.

So, to conserve, or not to conserve... that is the question!

Bottomline,

Conserve (just in case the risky alternative of progress doesn't pan out).

Centrist style. Conserve, if only to protect the only source of life we yet know.

But don't impede genuine science where possible. 

Its a delicate balancing act that we'll have to walk to get this to work... it can be done though. I'm convinced that history swerves to favor the longshot and marginal outcome - time and again, those who argue the sky was falling were proved wrong, only due to changing variables and that swerve of history (that they didn't account for).

We don't want a full Borg-like technocracy - where people are only valued in so much as they are contributing to knowledge while they are contributing to knowledge. That feels too much like eugenics, and we all saw how well that panned out... psh. (genetic bottlenecking is not such a good thing).

Flipside of the coin, we don't want luddite levels of ultra-extremeist conservatism that frustrate progress to the point of making a self-fulfilling prophecy .

What do you think?

Do you feel that resources are becoming increasingly scarce?

Do you feel that humanity will somehow "swerve away from the cliff" and progress up the Kardashev scale? Why?

Do you think that cosmopolitanism and an effacing monoculture are an integral part of that "swerve away from the cliff?" I would argue an imposed, effacing, monoculture leads towards and not away from the cliff... whereas if a monoculture/standardised culture is another identity people hold alongside their traditional identities, then there is a chance forward. In that case though, I wouldn't call that so much 'cosmopolitanism' as 'global humanism'. 

What truly is "progress"? Epistemologically speaking... what can progress be as a theory of knowledge (hint, dialectic here...)

Catch you next time!

Customisers Log, Supplemental 3

Hi there!
Stardate: unknown. New geometries from old foes have been encountered - the computer says they're polychora or some stuff, made from elements that are far beyond our periodic table or projected to be abundant within the multiverse... it is unclear how electrical interactions occur with this exotic matter...

Above: concept of a scout tesseract - scaled to the MM 'scout' Cube, the vessel is comprised of 7 component ships - a scout cube core and 6 square-based trapezium pyramids. The final vessel will be 140mm^3, and will be able to assemble or disassemble into separate ships. Preliminary test prints suffered warping at 10% fill, though this is the only way (short of slot and tab constructing the things from corflute) to cost effectively and time-effectively print the thing! each pyramid takes ~30mins to print, assuming the print doesn't suffer. Also, each pyramid must be broken up into 3-5 parts, due to the larger area to print for the k8200. The final product though will be hollow and perfect to internally light.

Above: Concept of a 85mm dia sphere. This doesn't feel 'authentic' as it isn't made of 'chocolate orange' style segments - rather, it is made of 1-3mm circular segments, to assist with printing on the repetier. test printing of the 55mm dia sphere was excellent! It is similar to the clix scale one, though nearest to the top, the printer seemed to 'spaz' and consequently, there is significant hollowing near the top - this is perfect for lighting and for battledamage or augmenting. At ~ 1.60 USD per home-made sphere (inclusive of glue), this is much more agreeable than the ~$19USD asking price so often found elsewhere, for a figure that isn't even scaled properly! The eaglemoss sphere is nice, though ultimately I'd like to make a larger one similar to the craft seen briefly in STVOY's endgame finale.
The smaller clix sphere scale could pass as a scout sphere, as it's slightly larger than the tetrahedron or scout.

The obelisk (type 1) is by far my favorite borg vehicle to date - it just looks right, y'know? The recycling of plastic parts has also been fun as part of the build.

Attempts to build non-derelict feds have been difficult with the k8200 or the makerbot;
looking at more experienced professionals, it would be very difficult to achieve the desired result with present in-home printers. Luckily shapeways and a couple Rapid Prototype machines are around... and I''m happy with the borg geometry that you can make in-home.

I'll post pictures of the tesseract as it is completed. I'm thinking of trying different glow for the tesseract rather than the yellowish green. The trick to getting that certain colour is to start with a primer applied in sections, then build on that with a white gloss undercoat (allow all that to dry completely), then apply a mid pantone yellow, and while that yellow is wet, drybrush with a hearty lime green or darkangels pantone green. The gloss white beneath makes that green glow!
depending on how you made your geometry, you then can do highlight drybrushing of certain components with shades of black and grey.

Due to the mismatch of filament (1.75mm in a 3mm hotend) AND the nature of the beast anyway, the print will lead to lines: ordinarily this would mean gaps and non-watertight-ness, though for borg geometry this is EXCELLENT as it's all the nooks and crannies to shove styrene parts and corflute wherever you like so as to make each vehicle independent! 1/48-1/116th scale kit parts work best I've found, especially boat and aircraft parts - you can often find used sheets at model shows for free or cheap. You can also then embellish with pipecleaners and twist-tie parts, assorted plasticard and corflute, tubing and drinking straws.
When you drybrush it all after its been properly undercoated, it has a great feeling of authenticity and texture - thats because you're using similar methods as the pros did when they initially made the actual studio scale models all those years ago! = )
you can even emulate the paint pattern of the MM cubes if you like; it looks nice, as does trying to capture the STO paint feel. Lighting your geometry may pose weight logistical problems, and or fire hazards... thats for you to fathom and risk heh.

The goals after this latest bunch are:
borg assimilator, (from ST:Armada, this thing is huge and nasty). Test desktop prints have suggested slot and tab superstructure may be more the way to go...
borg cylinder command ship, polypipe with detail parts , alt. version caps from aerosols with lollypop stick connectors and printed parts and styrene for gaps... (really borgy feel).
borg tactical cube (3mm thick 3D printed panels that slot n tab together),
borg cube (corflute type), preferably in 1;4848 --- I'm slowly snowballing this together on the backburner as i do the other projects; getting just the right parts together has been fun. Now I just need the right display base for the weight of this thing... I'm thinking POP parts that way this thing can hinge around on 3 socketed arms.
borg interplexing beacon,
borg asteroids and
borg nexus/unimatrix. (since there's a ds9 for STAW, why not borg installations?).


issue 31 of Eaglemoss will be ordered to take care of the romulan shortfall;
I already have 4 garage kit rommies, and 5 hallmark warbirds, so they're set after 3 of the issue 31s turn up. I do have a garage kit of a valdore, and a shapeways printed one: not satisfied with either of those.

Customiser's Log, Supplemental 2

Howdy!
I've been doing Lorentzian shtuff and futures bouncing while learning new skillsets, hence the picturey delays. What follows are mostly recycled, but they're V1 or V2 stage.

Here's the fleet staples. Note the homebrewed oberth at 'true scale' compared to the behemoth-oberth class...
Theres a charger perimeter defence scout, a TOS-Oberth medical freighter, and a mobile repair tender (limited to warp 5). Also present is USS Incursion from Studio Bergstrom; I love that thing!

 A closeup of some neato crafts; I love the federation models speedboat shuttle.

 STVOY all over again. the micromachine cube is actually the core of a Borg Tesseract. The borg scout/interceptor, the borg tetrahedron, borg obelisk type 1, and the beginnings of a tactical cube/intermediate cube.

 Voyager is chased by a routine borg patrol: on this occasion, an interceptor and an obelisk.

 The romulans! A hallmark warbird and a kitbashed friend approach! Its from the lost era: brownie points if you can spot the components in this kitbash. The neck/beak is 3D Printed.

 As ostentatious as it is, I say Prometheus is ~850m L, and a warbird is ~900...

 I was inspired by the AST variation of the Griffin class romulan: that was a smashing scratchbuild that this present project can't hold a candle to... All Scale Trek is an awesome and inspirational place for all!

 Sideview! This mighta given the game away!

 Here we have direct from the workshop, the preliminary test fit of my re-imagining of USS Premonition - it was too tiny in Armada, and I didn't like the phaser-handle dolphin hump, so consider this v1. It will require liquid greenstuff and putty to smooth and finish, but it'll only cost ~$30USD to have made in materials by the end of it - a bargain from my bitsbox!

Prometheus and her sister-from-another-universe ship, the Uss Premonition. Thadius Demming is a welcome guest aboard Premonition on an earlier temporal incursion prior to Armada...

Here we are then;
until next time.
Next time I hope to have the Assimilator painted and share-able. A cube nearly done, with another Warp one to share, and maybe a factory-direct eaglemoss...
Hopefully I can work out a trade as well: I have a bunch of Fleet Captains Klingons leftover who'er looking for a new home... PM me over at Bloomilk or AST for more details!
TTFN, Kobayashimaru.

*the shapes contained within this log are of a non-profit private consumption geometric study nature, no challenges intended, white rabbits. No give backsies. The other shapes are there as handy scale.

Boldly Customising Where So Many Have/Are Before... 1

Howdy!

Welcome to the trek inspired segment of the miniatures waffles to be found here.

I'm a huge fan of the FASA and Clix games (Fleet Captains is a lot of fun, especially as accompaniment to Decipher's awesome card game!), and of course of Armada, Bridge Commander, Academy, Star Trek Online (some parts) and Legacy (and the more recent Mod for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion --- when will you guys port it for the Original Sins? If you know of a star trek mod for the original sins of a solar empire?) 

Unfortunately, there is a problem of scale. As so often it would seem when it comes to trek stuff...

Taking an 800-900m Ent E, a 600-700m Ent D, a 580m Ent C, a 3000-8000m Borg Cube, a 600-1200m Rom Warbird, a 600m Sphere, a 170m Defiant as our rough landmarks,

and computing those, comparatively analysing with the Furuta, Konami, Clix and Fasa Offerings, we see that at the tabletop scale...

you get a ratio of roughly between 1:4800 and 1:4880, and more often than not, the data points suggest a tabletop ratio approaching 1:4848.48* (I'm not making it up, run the math on your favorite ships and compare them to the tabletop options, its happened for many of the ships).

This is a nice scale for ships larger than an Oberth, or 130m. Anything smaller than that though, needs to be upscaled a little like STO craft (not the ridiculous amounts seen with clix or micromachines). So, I cheat and upscale craft like the speedboat shuttle, which is between 8 and 15m long, and use the Federation Models 4mm long speedboats.

Borg Cubes scaled to 1:4848.48* will be about 60-70cm long, so to game effectively, will need 12-16" worth of table/play space. This size is convenient for storage and display purposes, and is slightly larger than the existing large sized kits (and will be larger than the awesome Federation Models Borg Cube Kit).

Speaking of which... Federation Models Spacedock 001 is PERFECT for 1:4848.48* scale! its perhaps a fraction too small if compared with Furuta or truescale 1:4848.48 Ent D, but only marginally.

onto some pics!

 Above (left to right clockwise): My 3D Velleman has a problem, it seems to print out borg, ready to assimilate straight from the printbed!...

 Borg Scout Cube (micromachines, in 1:4848.48*, this'd be a ~150-190m^3 ship), Soon to be Coffee Filter Borg-Interplexing Beacon, Furuta Ent E --- ain't she a beauty?!

 Above: the same gang from earlier, but closer up. I'm working on a couple newer borg designs, such as the obelisk, interceptor, assimilator, cylinder (my own type and one reminiscent of STO's nasty super ship), Octahedron proper scaled, and Spheres! Oh, and a couple Borg Cubes: one patterned similarly to B6R7's awesome project, some more Federation Models Cubes, and scratchbuilds...

 Above: for scale testing, here's stock fleet captains Voyager (not to happy with the detail on that clix), Furuta Ent E, and a nebula class. I have a boatload of fleetcaptain spares, because when people found out they didn't have to paint them, they turned in their old fleetcaptains pieces to the LGS, where 2 years later, I bought them for considerably less than you see on the aftermarket. If you think the nebula looks a little small, that's cause she is, as Si' Soldiers blog discusses elsewhere on the interwebs. Conversely, the Furuta Nebula is a fraction too big, but they work together I think.

Above (left to right clockwise): a romulan outpost kitbashed from the bits box, sans fins etc, Stock Voyager trying to find its way home, a cannon from SWMinis doing double duty as a doomsday cannon or a space station, and in the foreground, a Federation station.outpost.

-----

The home printer doesn't have that nice scintilated lazer 3D printed finish, and the parts aren't as 'durable' for the handson tabletop gamers. That said, it makes mighty fine borg! 

To print minis requires callibration every few prints, and constant maintenance - it will ultimately require a 1.75 or .45mm hot end, though at the moment I'm getting solid prints out of the 3mm hot end with 1.75mm filament PLA combo --- I check the head and disassemble every 2 prints, and despite some concern from elsewhere, once you have a funnel on the receiver and control the flow rate and ensure there are no obstructions, you can get decent non-porous prints from straight out of the box! 

The printer also does double/triple duty as a lazer etcher/cutter and as a router holder for the dremmel.

So, apologies to the fans of the other Star Trek factions, but as I only RPG/game as Romulans, Federation or Borg; those will be the only major customs I make (or would be interested in trading for). If you're after ferengi, klingy, cardassiany, 8472y or other factions... you'll have to check out HCrealms or All Scale Trek.

On a final, and unrelated subject:

can anyone out there help a fellow gamer out?

I'm chasing POP cardholders/poseable sign holders, to be adapted for wedding tables and as stands for... signs. If you're in North America or Asia, and have access to POP sign holders nearby and can help, send an email my way and we can work stuff out! 

If you're additionally on other forums, I can certainly recommend you for +1 following successful trade, and am a respected trader elsewhere on WotC, Star Trek.com, Bloomilk and elsewhere.

Your support in this matter helps me to make more customs, and the ripples means we can run tournaments and more people can enjoy what the hobby has to offer! = )

Thanks, and any suggestions for future customs will be taken on board! 

leave a link to the images as a comment, or better yet, share your sketches/prototypes and leave it with me.

Some more Miniatures Waffle 5

Howdy!
Another break from reflecting on some of the other issues facing us,
to take a moment to appreciate some miniatures.

Did you know that Chess-like games, with miniatures, have been around since Gobekli Tepe times, and older elsewhere? The figures were originally carved from stone and composites, such as clays and muds. Some of those artifacts also contain fragments of hair and skin etc... very interesting features of these ancient minis! It must have taken/take much skill to make such fine art and figures, and this is one of those common touchstones that humanity has: all cultures on earth have made miniature study figures or game figures. Its a fine tradition!
On the larger end of the scale, you've got of course some statues from Ashoka's temple building rush, the terracota soldiers, Egyptian warrior figurines, and the Easter Island heads (which some have speculated might have been a bit like Risk Tokens in addition to being culturally significant 'tiki'/totems). People like their minis!

In a more recent addition, well at least I feel strongly that this is the level of awesome being made,
I requested a goofy lizard space monk replete with space wrench from ExManus Studios, along with an optional extra "I'll fix you!" attitude:
and this is what I got;

 As an outraged customer, I have the right to complain here:
this figure's attitude is too loud, the costume is too accurate, the wrench head is sold separately, oh and the heads are swappable...  (ie, I can get different heads and slot them in snug with ferrous materials so this base mechanic model can be from a bunch of species... how crazy is that?!)

Seriously now though, all satire/joke-age aside: This is one extremely fine lizard goofball that ExManus has made: ExManus Studios has done a fantastic job and I can't wait to get a lick of paint on this thing and start gaming. You can bet your bottom dollar that we wont see this in Imperial Assault or in SWCommand figures, I can tell you that now. Too bad if you wanted a space lizard...
This'll be a good token for my local RPG game of space checkers: "King Me"
I'll say when this is on the table for the first time heh.
The king fixer monk will be on the field, and will probably team up with Paratus (I understand Paratus was apprenticed to this monk, might explain the loopyness of paratus).
If not paratus, then this guy'll be an independent character as per SW40K v3 rules... which is good: it'll make him a sitting duck (if he is goofy enough not to cling to cover) for a CIS strafing run!

Now, on account of someone dropping and completely shattering their Cannon camera,
(butterfingers was yours truly)
We'll have to wait for the upcoming pepakura series, (pepakura dagger, dianoga and morningstars a/b/c anyone? papercraft trifighter too)
the "how to customise" guide and the next update batch of figures. That, and real world will probably gum up the works for the short term (its not a wrench in the works level of mayhem... yet hehe).

Enjoy, and I'll see you next time!

PS: I have some new stuff to ramble about exponentials/variable compounding rates perspectives,
some very funny gaffes in a few places about rates of expansion, and then several cross-comparisons for sources... Al Bartlett said it best about humble rates of modest exponentials... those lectures are dearly treasured, as are Williams's reflections on that in actors masterclasses.

Miniatures Waffle 4

Hi there!

In this installment, we look into the world of pepakura/papercraft and minis making in general.
I can do google hangouts and waffles if youd prefer that way: its always fun to shoot the breeze sometimes about stuff and ideas bounce, and I sure could use a hand or two on some printer troubleshooting!
I prefer to tinker in the 1/48 scale range, though I've worked on all sorts of projects.
you'd be surprised just how many packaging items can be useful for making miniatures! The tops from Ramune (lemonade) bottles are excellent for many engine cowlings and turrets, as they come already in the correct diameter and pre-drilled in the correct wall thickness for magnetisation!

Above: Remember the v1 papercraft dagger kit and limited run of MDF/Cardboard kit i did for it back in the day? Some like that '80s boxy chic' styling...

Above: A visualisation of "DAGGER FIGHTER KIT" in acrylic, 1:48th, mk 3. Its bigger, nastier, and angled-y. Did I mention its in 1/48th? MDF+Cardboard and Pepakura/papercraft variants to follow.
 The canopy is inspired in part by shotglasses in plastic, and in part by the turn dials from WizKids Heroclix: those also make handy shotglasses! (clean your heroclix turndials before trying to drink from them, drink responsibly, and don't mix drinking/customising games/playing games... also, don't eat food or drink in your customising/miniatures/electronics lab!)
This kit will be in acrylic pieces and in 3D printed parts: The entire frame could be made in the printer, but it is cheaper to break the assembly down into parts and have them made and folded in acrylic elsewhere. For scale, this thing is roughly the same length and width as the droid fighter mentioned later. Roughly.

Above: The tools of the custom trade: this is a lite set that I tinker with, or that others in the 'factory' can help with: the kids like to help out, and or the nephews and so on; they like making little bead-craft ants and such, so its not much of a stretch to get them working on satelites and droids in 1:48th! This is inspired by Russian and Indian project gamer blogs: check out some of the awesome composite miniatures coming out of Russia and India atm! They're ultra cheap, ultra high quality: then there are MDF kits and the like coming out, as well as indie vacuformed stuff, they're awesome!
From left: wires (1/16, 1/20" florist and also twist-ties from bread/elsewhere), plastic tubing (hard lollypop sticks - 30c the bag at the $1 shop, ear cleaners!- once you've cleaned your ears, you can siphon the centre of the tube for use in projects ranging from microelectronics to bead/arts and crafts (though Audiclean spray may kill the ear cleaner).
Then we have selected 'waste packaging' which all too often either goes to recycle or worse, to landfill! We can make minis from them as-is, and prevent the need for any transport to recycle or landfill! These are from various products. The clear round disks are coffee filters from coffee maker machines: these are ubiquitous and make perfect raygun parts or space stations/satelites --- makes you think that the packaging designers might have custom-misers in mind when they make their packaging huh? And of course, $1 pliers/multi-tool from China, and a custom tradeshow screw driver that I've turned into a 'shiv' on the anglegrinder: the 'shiv' is handy for all sorts of stuff, from de-icing the fridge to working with minis.
This whole 'lite' customising kit is around $15USD tops, and you can easily make 100+ minis, more if you can source plastic packaging waste from local businesses. That means you can save more money and get tools and better paints and basing materials, or potentially aftermarket official parts for your miniature maker-y.

Above: to left, an old warnout figure from WotC (heat warped from direct sunlight and has 'plastic cancer'), to right, the beginnings of v3 Ptype DDroid: it has spinning blasters and 4 legs. The curvy back part is being prototyped for printing, as are gun parts and leg parts, but Ive found in past versions I've made, that the ribbed (can we say that without the laughing?) ring from milkbottles etc makes okay curvy back part stuff. Watch this space: I think a decent v5 variant of this p-type will not be far off, and then there'll be recipes. 

 Above: To Left, some weird floaty plant thing with a bot pal from WotC to right for scale.

 Above: The same floaty plant thing. The floaty bit is made from aquarium toys picked up at local yard sales: I tend to go to yard sales and buy things for ridiculous prices (its a win-win: i get neat stuff, they get a helping hand on their move). At the moment, I've taken to making furniture bauhaus style from stuff at yardsales, like broken speakers or old broken electronics: they make for really interesting coffeetables or desks/bedside tables, and any profit ratio that might be there helps put food on the table!

 Above: At long last, a v1 (in universe, this would be between RotS and ANH) T4 Turretbot squares off against a keldor rookie. The eyes are freehand decals made from high gloss 140GSM paper, then marker-pen'd and sealed. You

 Above: from this angle you can see the 'welds' where a v2 head has been attached: the actual printed v1 model which will be closer to the actual figure seen in Jedee Power Battles, will be moveable and twistable etc: I learned a lot from Gundam bubblegum kit models heh! Those designers are awesome btw, even if the gum was always off and the trading cards warped heh.

 Above: A front-on view: note the acrylic support stand as part of the base structure: thats only for this prototype: the printed legs will be sturdy enough to support their own weight. The printed legs will also snap together and thus be pivotable etc, and there will be internals for magnets/ferrous materials, so as this figure can be fully interchangeable and adaptable (ie, so as I send parts and you can choose to assemble them in whatever resemblancy configurations you wish). I'm working on alternate turrets for this guy, in conjunction with v3 of the SW40K conversion rules I've worked on and off for the past 5years - that seems a very popular project.

 Above: a Hasbro droid fighter "ACE" in 1/48th scale, on a 'POP freestanding stand': this particular one was sourced from Darice and is 8" tall: these stands are AWESOME as flightstands, and are a fraction of the cost of other alternatives, and look much better than if you were to just lazer etch or 3D print yourself. Did I mention they come premade/preassembled?!? All you need to do if you want is to alter the rods and increase the amount of knuckles or lengths. You can even mix'n'match with a MDF or cutnetched acrylic base and then put a rod/rods onto that: for example, in my SW40K adapted rules, as a Heavy Support AND Fast Attack Choice, you can take 1 wing of 3 fighters, or 1 ace fighter: the wing stand will be a Hexagonal etched base with 3 rods (each with 3 knuckles each),
whereas the ace base will be a smaller trapezoid with a telescoping and magnetic base instead.
Support your local retailer suppliers and local plastics companies, or buy these handy items from closing down sales etc. They are awesome, and I must thank the Macross/Gundam forums and the SW 3&3/4" forums for the tipoff on these ideas!

Alrighty, well, we'll leave that waffle there for the moment,
next time I think we'll cover futures in this hobby, some tips for magnetisation of ferrous materials/incorporating ferrous materials into your projects, and hopefully by then these printers'll be more printy and less "I don't like it when the software talks to me like that'-y.
Thanks and bye-bye.

PS.
Goodbye, that bicentennial man, Robin Williams. You were a gift and will always be remembered as one extraordinary fellow. I won't forget your reflections or your standup, which with Bill Hicks and George Carlin, told the truth that was stranger than fiction. Your song work, particularly "How Do I Feel" from Toys, that speaks eternal. Nor that awesome moment with Koko.
Deepest sympathies to the family and loved ones, what a guy!

Waffling on Anderson Futures... 1

Hi there!

This will continue the tv related stuff, and I can't be suppressed here on my own blog as had happened in the past on the Fanderson's website... (cool people mostly, but Fans will be fans).

The topic here is musings on a subject that is dear to the heart... Gerry Anderson's fantastic vision of 'The Thunderbirds'. I don't own them, but they've been around so long... I just wish they'd been adapted into a large scale cinema 'ultimate' project, or had received "The New Adventures of Captain Scarlet" treatment and gone digital. The 2015 WETA project holds a lot of promise then...

There'd been a string of adaptations, which frankly, didn't fair too well out there in the community:

(the 2004 thing, prior fan projects and adaptations, and potentially counting chickens before they've hatched, the 2015 show might well suffer from that same curse).

Thats why we're musing here, we're waffling about a potential 3D/FFVII:AC style variant of the show

- if we could have anything and anyone from anywhen involved in a 'live action' TV/Cinema adaptation of that iconic show, how would we do it? (how could we take a leaf from JJ Abrams or Joss Whedon's book while we're at it? While staying faithful to the interpretation and perhaps spirit of the original we all know so well...).

So, with that all in mind... and yeah, I have written a few fandom-ish episodes (4 to be precise); I'd probably get a whole load of more writers in on the project hehe.

In my canon, Captain Scarlet and Thunderbirds universes are set in the same common 'Anderson-verse' -- though things like Stingray and UFO or Supercar are set in some other alternate verses...

There may be a slight crossover in this canon with the 'Fallout-verse', that post-apocalyptic-esque styled 'verse that is set in the near future, and which as I've waffled elsewhere and elsewhen about, is likely also the same universe that ST:TOS is supposed to be set in also...

It's gritty, its edgey-er. But not overthetop grim or depressing, nor are there incessant explosions or throwaway characters/lovestory arcs...

The Thunderbirds would have to have been on the radar for some time, and its likely a stolen project/subcontracted massive project: International Rescue must be something like Anonymous, a huge organisation world-wide... over a very long period of time.

 Some disaster happened; maybe global warming, maybe overpopulation etc... and the consequences of those are panning out... in come Thunderbirds, to try and mitigate some of this, as a supra-national organisation.

As with Abrams masterstroke in ST reboot, we want to do a slow reveal to make 'the old new again'. We want to start with vehicles that aren't quite what we know or the full number or completeness... but they morph into the characters and vehicles and ness that we know.

Also, Toshiba's model of Tracy Island, while we're on it, is the Canonical Tracy Island. They made a model for a display in Tokyo: that thing was so massive and so cool! It looked very Derek Meddings!

(same dude that worked on SFX for Thunderbirds and Superman, just imagine if he and Ralph Macquarie and John Eaves and Doug Chiang & Ryan Church and Mike Okuda all teamed up together, possibly with Da Vinci, to work on a project...)

So,  with all that in mind... if you're still reading this and keeping up, you've got some willpower!

Lets get into the fun bit, casting waffleage!

The beauty of 3D is that we can hybridise people! We can make people that resemble hybrids of multiple people all into the one 'character'. We can take people from anywhere and anywhen (unknowingly from futures though). I feel that a little bit of the original supermarionettes would still make it through to the final 'character', but I'd also like some real-world actors to stand in for the roles, possibly with other Voice Actors to do impressions.

So;

Geoff Tracy: Michael Keaton*, Liam Cunningham, Liam Neeson, Kenneth Welsh*

Brains: Brian Cranston*, Robert Downey Jr (as an aside, Brian is an anagram of Brain-s, so he was made to have the part).

Scott: Johnny Depp, Ioan Gruffudd*

Virgil: Ben Affleck, Billy Zane*

Alan: Ryan Reynolds, Channing Tatum, Jake Gyllenhaal*

Gordon: Keanu Reeves, Matthew McConaughey, Chris O'Donnell (no clear favorites here)

John: Freddy Prinze Jr, Neil Patrick Harris, Tobey Macguire*, Nathan Fillion,

Kirano: Temura Morrison, Ken Watanabe, Jay Laga'aia

Tintin: Faustina "Fuzzy" Agolley, Connie Mitchell, Betina Bush

Hood: Ben Kingsley (reprising his role) or Jamie Farr

Mister X (the dude that is Hood's Boss): Hugo Weaving?

Penelope: Helen Miren/Gwyneth Paltrow

Parker: Sylvester McCoy (possibly with Joe Pesci in there), David Suchet + the supermarionette...

Alrighty,

so thats 'the dream team'.

Mark Mitchell would make a guest star/recurring part of his choice (good, bad, whatever),

Jamie Farr would also make a guest star or recurring part.

The Kransky Sisters would make a guest appearance (a rescue set in Beaudesert or Esk...).

David Strassman would also be pretty neat to have make a cameo... (with an actual thunderbird marionette, or is that too much?)

There you go...

We will have to see how the WETA variant in 2015 pans out though, and it does look Clone Warsy in terms of feel and budget... so it's sure to be big budget and explosion/action filled for real!

What are your thoughts on the 2015 Thunderbirds situation? What would you rearrange with the dream team cast list? better yet; what's your dream team list?

Star Trek fanboy observation 1

Hi there!
This is a brief aside on ST:TNG.
I've not been a fan of the character of Wesley (huge fan of Will Wheaton, he's hilarious on his Youtube/webpresence and has a good eye as a director/producer, just not a fan of the character in ST:TNG, and was happy when he ran away with the Space Apache's)
I don't know if other fans of ST:TNG have had similar ideas for a comicbook/episode of the show, but to my knowledge at time of writing nothing similar has yet been made.
I humbly offer for your enjoyment a 'what if', a universe that never had Wesley in it... but also in which Data doesn't die in Nemesis (a fair trade, I think).


So,
here's what happened in one of the ST:Multiverses...
At the end of Encounter at Farpoint, the first episode...
there is a little postscript scene,
Picard asks Q for a favor, because Q is somewhat impressed with what Picard managed to do (and there are several other junctures where Q could offer Picard a free wish to be rid of Wesley).

Picard asks Q to 'take care of the boy'. Q can read minds, so there's a thousand yard stare and a through zoom (sorta like Weird Al in "Aluminum Foil" where he's 'cracked the code'... except with a John DeLancie laughing maniacally).
Q then quite pleasantly begrudgingly agrees to take care of the boy alright, you won't even know he's gone...
Q snaps his fingers, and screen flashes white.
When Q's gone, Picard can't remember what he was doing, then remembers that he was looking for his datapad on the desk...

(Q has abducted Wesley to the mirror universe, and effaced Wesley's existence from the 'prime-verse'. No one remembers him or will know he's gone, it's like he was never even there.)
MEANWHILE.

Wesley finds himself banfed to an empty arena, in the mirror universe, someplace...
Q appears and tells Wesley he's in a mirror pocket universe as punishment for having offended Picard/being an obstacle between Picard and Beverly. Q also reiterates that there's no way for Wesley to escape this mirror universe, and that no-one will ever know he was ever alive in the prime universe...

Q pauses, then remembers to tell Wesley that he's about to meet his mirror universe self, and that the two of them should get along great! Have fun! and Q banfs away.

Mirror Universe Wesley and Prime-Verse Wesley then duel to the death. There are many combatants initially, and so its more like a Roman Circus, until the last two standing are Prime-verse Wesley and Alternate Wesley. The two battle in scenes reminiscent of Spock V Kirk... until simul-death, and so there was NEVER a Wesley Crusher, in either the Prime-Verse Universe OR the Mirror Universe.

Thanks Q! 

(NB: Will Wheaton, or fans of Wesley Crusher, if you're reading this,
its the character itself I dislike in the show. I've seen similar rants against Neelix, comparing Neelix to Deanna Troi or to Jar Jar Binks... Will Wheaton the actor acted and portrayed a great character with a great range of emotion and verisimilitude, I just didn't like the character when taken in context of the airtime that character had vs other characters development and arcs. I also didn't like that Data dies in Nemesis; Data oughta become a Professor as seen in the last episode of the show (which was also a Q episode).

Magnet Waffle 4

I think we mighta skipped a waffle... that, or it was censored... = )

So, we'll be talking about interlocking magnetic fields, monopoles, superconductors, orbits, variable geometry, nitinol wires and mylar/ionic levitators...

so...

I'm thinking I'd like to see science and fashion team up. Renaissance part 2, really part of an Nth renaissance that the universe must undergo all the time...
Anyway, I'd like to see variable geometry clothing, without the need for inflatible apparatus.
Something like the fabrics out of Batman - that 'memory fabric' cape he has, that lets him fly around as a glider, etc...
I'd like to see sneakers/clothes like Zuit from My Favorite Martian or Marty McFly's sneakers from Back to the Future... clothes that can assemble themselves, perhaps which are also like those spray on clothes, and which perhaps are also a non-newtonian liquid (actually, they're nanites as small as we can make them: your clothes can become part of your furniture... eventually, post a singularity, the line between us and inanimate objects will ironically once again become blurred...)

I'm thinking things like Silicene, Graphene, new monomers and synthetics... combined with nitinol (and other cool wires, including semi-soluable and non-newtonian wiring)... they can all be combined into 'power science clothing'. Why do scientists have to wear the stereotypical white labcoat? why can't scientists wear eerie fashion? not just the cool digital watches and working pip-boys we see today, not the LED/LCD belts and hats... not the memory fabric and light-up translucent/semiconducting tshirts... but clothes that make themselves etc...

eventually, if boston robotics, google and MIT keep doing what they're doing, you'll wind up with exoskeletons too (see 'thermo-nuclear iron man: is thorium what powers his suit?'). Turns out, Iron Man and HALO's Master Chief Suits mightn't be too far fetched, compared with Terminator's T2000 or Terminatrix...

The point is, much as with my idea with a magnetic ball within a pliable outer ball for producing current... I'd like to experiment and see if I can make some variable geometry clothing.

What do you think?
what science + fashion ideas do you have, that you'd like to see made or that make you think 'hmm, why hasn't this been done before?'

how would you achieve variable geometry clothing?
how would you replicate Zuit specifically, from my favorite martian? (the rings that do not touch in any way... except for magnetically that is... to the zuit-suit) - being able to suspend tools from coveralls would be a phenomenally awesome utility! and to selectively repel or attract dropped screws/bolts or nuts.

Miniatures Waffle, 3

Here we are again,
waffling this time on miniatures! The googlechats/facetime waffling sessions on philosophy and whatnot will be uploaded elsewhen further down the line, probably by other participants to that conversation (which was really fun to have been a part of).

Okay, so here are some minis projects (im not sure if I've shared these elsewhere before);

 Above: Serra Keto (female model from Wargames Factory conversion; those guys produce some of the finest minis this side of alderaan!)

 Above: various turrets, bonus points if you can identify all the components.

 Above: Upper Battledamaged MagnaGuard (ala EP 3 the game etc), to right, CW series probe droid.

 Above: gen1 magnetised Astromechs (sans R1G5/R3G5 or Ergesh in Astromech); the heads and torsos are interchangeable, and shortantly there shall be more custom robot parts courtesy of yours truly and several former-manus studios and other minis makers worldwide.Neodymium is worse than the plastics/glues/paints we use, so I try to use magnetised paperclips where possible: just enough pull to hold the parts together. Gen3 Magnetised Robots sit flush and are countersunk: no gaping holes as seen in Gen1.

 Above: Anti-starfighter/vehicle Roller Droid (A-S/V-RD), Tri-Pot Droid, and a stock B1 battledroid for scale. (the ASVRD is still WIP: legs or no legs? is it too 'up'?)

 Above: DD and to its right, a walking mode variant. the flash obliterated much of the detail, as the figure is made from hot glue and many clear parts...

 Above: DD and to its right, a 4legged variant of the DD: I never got why they didnt do that in the universe, to distinguish between alleged variants of DD... the mass produced DD's had 4 legs, and were slightly fatter/flimsier looking, and didn't have those popout guards near the center ball... but they did roll, fast!

 Above: DD again, and to its right, the turret section of a T4 Turret Droid. Curse my slow mind, noticing the patterns of the original image and finally putting 2 and 2 together to figure out where they might have had inspiration from: a box of model-kit parts, spluh!

 Above: DD and an oldie but a goldie, super heavy weapons droid. Its an old republic/Sep heavy weapon, partially powered by sith energies...

 Above: Cin Drallig and his protege, Serra Ketto. She looks less fuzzy and goofy in real life: I sneezed while taking this picture.

 Above: Serra Keto, in the Xena-esque "I-eeeeyaheeeeee" shrill warcry pose...

 Above: Side view of the master swordsman and his final apprentice.

 Above: Sora Bulq v2 Redux (so, that'd make it v4, right?) and a one-armed sith lady from the separatists/as a zombie piece to compliment Surf's stat-cards.

 Above: Zabrak Jedi Journeyman (journeyman is apparently the gender-neuter term in-universe), a near-human Jedi Librarian from eons ago, and Siri Tachi (formerly an orphaned and partially melted Mara Jade from a closing down sale...).

 Above: Foul Moudamma v2 (v3 in the pipeline, either 3D extruded or custom figured sculpted...), Female Talz Jedi Weapons Master (she's got a 'boomerang U-type blade', she's a lightsaber thrower for certs) and a stock B1 for scale.

 Above: a revisit of a few oldies: a dark cultist/gray jedi (ironically, with amber blade?), an 'Iron Knight of Illum' jedi archivist/chronicler WIP, and a stock B1... for scale.

 Above: Hobby Dragon's 1mm tube makes perfect lightsaber materials, as do 1/16th acrylic rounds.
Here we see a jedi battlemaster (jar kai), a Wandering Jedi Protector (with purple blade) and a Gran Jedi General (Jar Kai)

 Above: better in real life, but the light when this was taken was overpowering... Halsey, Jedi Knight (made from a RotS jedi knight figure)

Above: Yaddle (a Yoda GM conversion), Yoda ala Epic Duels, and a B1 for scale, though size matters not for this dynamic duo.

Thats all for this round folks, next round, there'll be some more vehicle schematics for miniatures, and some 3D printing Nitinol clothes that FLAP THEMSELVES. I'm working on clothes that zip/unzip themselves, powered by Raspberry Pi or Arduino/other SD card reading solutions...
(they'll be simple fabric solutions initially, then i'll go for replicating jellyfish etc, then I'll go for variable geometry garments!)