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.
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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.
