Spaceship/Starship minis

[infojunky]

All inches to nearest ¹/₁₆"

If a type S is 1" long (at 37.5m overall), 11/16" wide, and about (9m=) 1/4" tall...

A correct merc cruiser is 3/4" diameter, and 7/16" tall.

500KTd Happy Fun Ball is about 120m in diameter. Or just about a 3 radius ³/₁₆" sphere.... so 6 ³/₈" diameter.

And the Gazelle is 1 ¹/₄" long, the same ¹¹/₁₆" wide, , and the same ¹/₄" tall, but that tall all the way, save the last 1/8" or so.

The AHL is 10 ¹³/₁₆" long, 1 ⁵/₈" wide, 1" thick, with a ⁷/₁₆" fin, for overall thickness of 1 ⁷/₁₆".

Just to give an idea about the sizes.

Cool saved me the effort of exactly working them out.

So it give a general idea of sizes, though to be honest the Classic ships based off of the CT deckplan are all the same general length.

I have considered doing a set of them in 1/300th scale for use with 6mm figures. and maybe a bit of macro scale Mayday.....

 

[Patron Zero]

If one searches on the Shapeways website there are several Traveller miniatures, in particular Andrew Boulton's Scout-Courier design can be found there.

 

[Tikon]

Wbat's the deal?

The question then is why does MM make it so hard to get these miniatures? People obviously want them. Hell the simplest thing in the world would be to reauthorize the TNE ships from RAFM. I hear they still have the molds.
Sounds like things are a little bass ackwards at HQ. Or more likely it being a personal project, anything associated with it is jealously defended. And no one else is allowed in. Or if they are, there's miles of licensing red tape to jump through. Ironically it was a handshake agreement which allowed GURPS (and it's tremendous background support) to go forward.
Is it technological ignorance that prevents a Shapeways shop from being set up? Not knowing how to implement it? Ironic for a science fiction franchise. Though if you go over to D20 Entertainment Spinward Traveler, they are selling promotional models of the Far Trader, Scout\Courier, and Gazelle... 16cm long at $75 ($150 assembled & painted)! They'd make a killing if they sold at wargame size.
Or is it not a priority? They managed to kick start a $75 core rulebook. Could a board game also be funded?

 

[Tikon]

Oh Wait

http://d20entertainment.com/spinward-traveller/spinwardstore/

Oh wait. They are selling minis of the Far Trader, Scout, and the Gazelle! $50 for all 3.
Now if they could make the TNE Patrol Cruiser again. That would be awesome.

 

[Hyphen]

The question then is why does MM make it so hard to get these miniatures?

I have a vague memory from years ago of someone (either Marc or Loren) saying that it is difficult to make any sort of money out of miniatures, let alone pay for licencing fees when you're making specific copyrighted miniatures. Let's take a guess and suggest a minimal licence fee of USD$1000 - you'd have to sell many, many miniatures even to break even.

 

[robject]

I have a vague memory from years ago of someone (either Marc or Loren) saying that it is difficult to make any sort of money out of miniatures, let alone pay for licencing fees when you're making specific copyrighted miniatures. Let's take a guess and suggest a minimal licence fee of USD$1000 - you'd have to sell many, many miniatures even to break even.

So what one would need are lite-wargaming rules popular enough to drive miniatures demand outside of the Traveller community, and probably outside of the wargaming community in general.

 

[HG_B]

I have a vague memory from years ago of someone (either Marc or Loren) saying that it is difficult to make any sort of money out of miniatures, let alone pay for licencing fees when you're making specific copyrighted miniatures. Let's take a guess and suggest a minimal licence fee of USD$1000 - you'd have to sell many, many miniatures even to break even.

That' silly. Just license on a per piece basis. It would be Marc who would decide this. If he wants Trav ship mini's available to the fans. All he has to do is say "Okay". If he does not want them available he just does nothing. With 3D printers this is a ZERO brainer.

 

[Tikon]

"With 3D printers this is a ZERO brainer."
Exactly, he could even just license through his own Shapeways store.

 

[aramis]

That' silly. Just license on a per piece basis. It would be Marc who would decide this. If he wants Trav ship mini's available to the fans. All he has to do is say "Okay". If he does not want them available he just does nothing. With 3D printers this is a ZERO brainer.

Exactly, he could even just license through his own Shapeways store.

Actually, the rights may already be entailed within other extant licenses that you may or may not be privy to.

Likewise, for the older ones, the 3d models may not be reissuable by either side due to license agreement issues from the past.

The person to ask would be... Marc's IP Attorney. At standard office rates...

 

[Ulsyus]

So what one would need are lite-wargaming rules popular enough to drive miniatures demand outside of the Traveller community, and probably outside of the wargaming community in general.

Starmada. Simplest set of detailed rules I've come across (I have quite a few) and I was able to ditch their weird movement rules and just run with thrust, displacement, and velocity vectors a-la Mayday, Battle Rider etc.

It even has a Fleet Ops module that dumbs things down so you can use your really really big vessels and not spend the evening just crossing off hull boxes (ah, BBs in Full Thrust, I remember them well...)

 

[Tikon]

License agreements from the past... for properties or companies which no longer exist? Far Future is selling ddeck plans for ships, but mminiatures are another matter? Also Ad Astra was selling Traveler Fleet boxes. They were contemplating selling the other designs. Did cost outweigh interest? (They really should have sold the patrol cruiser as well, they did sell the far trader, scout, and AAzhanti High Lightning. But as the D20 Entertainment link shows, someone is now licensed to sell the scout, trader, and now Gazelle.

 

[aramis]

License agreements from the past... for properties or companies which no longer exist? Far Future is selling ddeck plans for ships, but mminiatures are another matter? Also Ad Astra was selling Traveler Fleet boxes. They were contemplating selling the other designs. Did cost outweigh interest? (They really should have sold the patrol cruiser as well, they did sell the far trader, scout, and AAzhanti High Lightning. But as the D20 Entertainment link shows, someone is now licensed to sell the scout, trader, and now Gazelle.

Marc has several CURRENT licenses that he's not discussed the content of. He's got licenses with Mongoose, with Ken Whitman, and with Greg Lee. And that's just the ones that are publicly acknowledged.

 

[Tikon]

I also just saw that Ad Astra has kept their license. But their products page is still down. I guess while they re organize?

 

[captnchuck]

Ad Astra ship size

What is the length of the Plankwell and Gionetti from them?

 

[Ad Astra News]

What is the length of the Plankwell and Gionetti from them?

Star Ranger kindly posted lengths: http://www.star-ranger.com/Scale.htm#PowrerP

Plankwell 77mm
Gionetti 39mm

The Traveller miniature page is up in the shop: http://www.adastragames.com/products/?category=Traveller

The Gionettis 3-packs are sold out, but they do come in Imperial Fleet Box 1.