A while back I posted the task that Curt set me for the Director's Chair studio:
"Tamsin, I've noticed your marked bemusement at our Turnip28 efforts, so I think it's only fair that you be properly inducted into the madness. To break you in gently, let's see you paint a 28mm vehicle to look like a root vegetable."
“Here you go, Curt, a spaceship painted like a carrot!”
Curt (for it is he): “Unless I’m very much mistaken, albeit
that does indeed somewhat resemble a carrot - the orange body and the green end, that is most certainly not a 28mm vehicle!”
“OK, you’ve got me bang to rights. Now, what have we here…”
Curt: “Again, it looks somewhat carrotlike, but I’m pretty sure that
isn’t a 28mm vehicle either!
“Cor, blimey, guv’nor – you’re a right stickler for these
things. OK, there is a 28mm vehicle painted to look a bit carrot-like, but you’ll
have to wait until a lot later in the post to see it. In the meantime, here are some more pics of the two smaller scale ships.”
"Tactical" Scale (roughly 1:800 for this model)
Right folks, it’s now time to grab a tea or coffee (other
beverages are available), sit down and prepare for a really, really, really
long post with lots of photos…Got your drink? Sitting comfortably? The let me tell you a little* tale....
* come on, you all know that my tales in this sort of post are anything but little *smirk*
Forboldn Highport, Cargo Dock Alpha/38
Anataliya: “Hey, Kaylee, what you got there?”
Kaylee: “Hey Anataliya, just some filters for “Spirit of Camberwell”, an old Type S out of Boughene in Dock 37. Note says I can’t miss it – it stands out a mile.”
Anataliya: “Mon D’Rian Shipping?”
Kaylee: “Doesn’t say, but I doubt they’d be running a Type S – their crates wouldn’t fit in the hold on one of those.”
Anataliya: “Speaking of Mon D’Rian Shipping – why is that crate still out there?”
Kaylee: “What I hear, it was sent to Tukera, but they refused to take it in. Ship it came in on wouldn’t take it back, said seeing it in their hold gave them headaches.”
Doc: “Excuse me, but did I hear you say there’s a ship bound for Boughene?”
Anataliya: “Sorry, it’s from there but I don’t know where it’s heading from here. You could ask their engineer I guess – he’s over there talking to Grechen.”
Doc: “Thank you, I will.”
Doc: “Hello, I understand you are the engineer on a ship from Boughene. Would you happen to be heading back there from here?”
Calvin: “Yup, that’s right, and we are. Why d’ya ask?”
Doc: “I was just wondering if you take passengers? If so, my companion and I would wish to travel with you – Boughene is on our list of planets to visit.”
Calvin: “Maybe, depends on if the Cap has already arranged passengers – not much space on a Type S, the cabins are pretty basic and not much room for luggage.”
Doc: “Basic is fine with us, and we have very little luggage. Could you enquire of your Captain if passage would be possible for us?”
Calvin: “Tell you what, why don’t you come with me and you can ask her yourself. Ship’s only a dock over. Don’t be alarmed when you see the Spirit – she’s only scruffy because we’ve been out to Shionty.”
Doc: “Hmmm…a ship heading home to Boughene after visiting Shionty. This is indeed auspicious.”
Calvin: “Huh? Whatever.”
Forboldn Highport, Cargo Dock Alpha/37
Calvin: “Hey, Cap, these two are looking to get passage to Boughene. D’ya get any other passengers here?”
Asha: “Hi, hi! You’re in luck, we haven’t got any other passengers from here. By the by, my name’s Asha.”
Doc: “Greetings, Captain Asha. My name is Doctor Mofe-Etaru Tuk’sawange, but you can simply call me “Doc”, and this is my companion, Nat.”
Asha: “Well, Doc and Nat, I should warn you that we’re not going the short route to Boughene – got a schedule taking in Roup, Whanga, Efate and Menorb. That’s 5 jumps, 8 weeks at least, 11 if we get held up, 12 if the delays are really bad.”
Doc: “That won’t be a problem. Efate? Will the stopover there be long enough for us to do some sightseeing?”
Asha: “Possibly, if we aren’t having to make up for lost time.”
Doc: “Then I shall hope for no delays. I have a desire to see the Ancients site there. Shionty, Boughene and Efate…this is most auspicious.”
Asha: “Errm, yes, well, we will do what we can to oblige. Now…the money thing. We’ve got two cabins with double bunks. You can either take both, or share one which would be a bit cheaper. So, two people for five jumps, that will be 80k, 60k if you’re sharing.”
Doc: “We’re quite happy to share a cabin, I will arrange the payment. When does the ship depart?”
Asha: “Tomorrow, 1400 – be here 4 hours ahead so that we can get you settled in and any luggage stowed away.”
Doc: “Excellent! We will see you tomorrow at 1000.”
Asha: “Good. Oh, just in case of any changes to the schedule, how do I contact you?”
Doc: “We are mostly to be found in or around Cargo Dock Alpha/38. If you don’t see us, leave a message with Anataliya or Grechen.”
Aboard the Spirit of Camberwell, in the crew commons:
Asha “Okay, guys. We’ve got two passengers going all the way to Boughene and a half-hold of cargo. All set for departure tomorrow at 1400?”
Marshall: “Flight plan is set – ready to go.”
Jade: “Jump is computed, we’ll come out near the gas giant for refuelling on the way into Roup.”
Calvin: “Ship’s fuelled up, drives and plant are A-OK, just need to put in the new filters that Kaylee brought over. That’s going to be about an hour, won’t affect the schedule. Need to check the fuel purifiers if we’re going to be wild refuelling at the other end, but I can do that while we’re outbound.”
Jade: “Passengers?”
Asha: “yup, two of them. An older guy, very polite, some kind of Doctor – dunno if that’s medical or academic, and his companion, a rather quiet girl name of Nat. Didn’t get a good look at her – she kept her hood up all the time.”
Jade: “Quiet girl called Nat, kept her hood up all the time? Was she wearing red boots?”
Asha: “She was. You sound like you know her.”
Jade: “I hope you haven’t taken payment, because if she’s who I think she is, you do not want her anywhere near this ship. You do not want her in the same subsector.”
Asha: “But she seemed so quiet.”
Jade: “Captain, you know how you refer to me as trouble with a capital T? Well, she is trouble with a capital T, R, O, U, B, L and E!”
So, who is the mysterious Nat? Does she ever take her hood down? Does that backpack go everywhere with her? And how exactly does Jade know her? What is so “auspicious” about a ship that has visited Shionty returning home to Boughene via Efate? Answers to be revealed…some day!
Story Time is over, now for the meat of the post. You've caught glimpses of some of the things that make up this entry, but there's a lot more that you haven't seen.
Backdrop
Having decided to do this entry as a bit of a tale, I wanted a suitable backdrop for the photos. For the walls and floor, I resized and 3D printed a load of floor tile files I found on Thingiverse and glued them onto foamcore (printing took a bit over 3 days almost non-stop, a couple of hours cleaning up the tiles, a couple of hours gluing them on, some swearing from superglue sticking tiles to fingers incidents…). The bits and pieces on the walls were also 3D printed from files found on Thingiverse apart from the signboards – those were from a 3D file that I knocked up. the snack and drinks machines were also found on Thingiverse.
Have you spotted the two deliberate mistakes in the backdrop? Answers on a postcard to…
The decals on the ship, cargo and the backdrop (you didn’t seriously think that I hand-painted those signs did you?) were home made. Let’s just say that with the large ones, there was much swearing involved in their application. And a hasty reprint. What I probably should have done for those was to print them on gloss photo paper and glue them onto the boards, but no – I’m an idiot.
"Hmmm, all that work for 10 points? Maybe I should have done a MartinC and made some huge F.O! hills? I've got plenty of foam...darn it! No time for that now!"
Cargo
These crates are 3D prints, the files coming from 2nd Dynasty (assorted cargo elements that "fit" the Traveller universe was one of the stretch goals).The items are 1"x1"x1" or 1"x1"x2".. All told, this lot come out to exactly 36 cubic inches, that's 1/6 of a terrain cube. Let's call it 3 points.
Figures
Anataliya, Kaylee and Grechen |
Some alien eggs! Some have hatched! Two alien offspring? |
A third alien! Errr, there were four hatched eggs... |
Marshall, Jade, Calvin, Asha, Doc, Nat; seated and in repose |
I've painted their backs as well, so full points for these! |
Is that ship's badge a root vegetable? |
The figures were filament printed (I don’t have a
resin printer) at 0.1mm layer height with a 0.4mm nozzle. I tried a trick I
came across recently – Sorastro was using matt Mod Podge to fill gaps on a
model, I’d tried that on the Wally squad figures I painted a few weeks ago and
thought the same trick could be applied to smooth out the layer lines. The
figures each got two coats – it seems to have done the trick for the most part.
Kaylee, Anataliya and Grechen were freebies for members of 2nd Dynasty's “Tribe” on My Mini Factory – I’m not sure if they are available for purchase from their shop.
Marshall, Jade, Asha, Doc and Nat are from their Scout Crew pack. Calvin was added during their Kickstarter campaign last year for the 28mm scale 200 Ton Beowulf Class Free Trader.
The aliens are "Starspawn Lampreys" from 2nd Dynasty's recent crowdfunding campaign on My Mini factory for another 28mm ship - the Odyssey (the campaign ended on Wednesday afternoon).
Scoring of this lot is easy:
27 x 28mm foot @ 5 = 135 points
Kaylee's cart and two small crates - 2 points seems fair.
12 "Lamprey" eggs and 3 Lampreys - 1 point each? = 15 points
Subtotal = 152 points
Since starting this task, I've seriously been considering running these characters as a solo Traveller RPG campaign. Which led me to write some brief bios of the cast of this post:
The Crew
Jade – 31 years old, 3 terms in the IISS mainly as an X-Boat
pilot/navigator. Much stronger and tougher than she looks. How she became a
crack shot with pretty much any weapon she gets hold of and where she got her
martial arts skills from is a bit of a mystery. Partner of Asha.
Calvin – 43 years old, 6 terms in the IISS. One of the best
ship’s engineers in the business. Born and raised on a high-G world, so he’s
short, strong and tough as old boots. Afficionado of old Terran films.
Marshall – 37 years old, 4 terms in the IISS. Since
mustering out, he’s been taking short-run pilot/navigator jobs throughout the
Spinward Marches sector.
The Passengers
Nat – about 32 years old, maybe? Very quiet, never seen
without her hood up. Jade seems to know her, somehow…
Forboldn Highport Dock Staff
Anataliya, Grechen and Kaylee – in their late twenties,
early thirties; general dock labourers.
And now for the thing that you've all been waiting ever so patiently for...
but first, a brief interlude...
Boughene Scout Base Docks, Eighteen Months Ago
Asha has just mustered out of the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service after 16 years in the Field Branch, mostly on survey and exploration duties. She has been put on the Reserve List and granted use of an old Type S Scout Courier; both she and the ship subject to call-up at any time. She has gathered a crew – her partner, Jade, who up until the last year had been working on the X-Boat network, before finally transferring to the survey section, where they met; Calvin, an engineer who was on the same Donosev survey vessel for the last six years and mustered out at the same time; and Marshall, a pilot who mustered out 3 years ago and has been taking short-run contracts on various ships since then.
Asha: “So, here it is – our ship!”
Marshall: “Did you pick those colours?”
Jade: “It looks like a flipping carrot!”
Asha: “No, that’s how the last crew had it painted. We can change the scheme later, when we’ve got some money in the kitty. So, what about a name for her?”
Calvin: “how about “Spirit of Camberwell”?”
(all): “What?”
Calvin: “It’s a reference to an old Terran comedy film. “I invented it in Camberwell, and it looks like a carrot.” Well, just a suggestion.”
Marshall: “Better than my idea.”
Jade: “Quirky, I doubt anybody in the whole Spinward Marches apart from Calvin would even know what it means, so they’ll have to ask us – free drinks! I’m for it.”
Asha: “Really? No other suggestions?”
(all): “No!”
Asha: “Fine! “Spirit of Camberwell” it is, then. I’ll get the registration done and some new signage.”
Score the ship as 1000 points and be done with it, Curt - you know it makes sense! |
Go on, Curt, listen to that voice whispering in your ear and score it as 1000 points! |
Cargo ramp hinges down |
Rear landing gear bay doors |
About 6 weeks and 3kg of filament later (I had to reprint a few parts due to warping of thin sharp corners) and it was done.
You know it makes sense, Curt; just do it! |
Power Plant room and missile storage rack |
Go on, go on, go on, go on! Go on, go on, go on! Do it and the pain will be over! |
Looking down into the main drives room |
I'm clearly hoping that subliminal messaging works! |
Top view of the main deck |
Main drives room |
Air Raft hangar/garage |
Aft airlock |
Crash couches |
Another view of the Jump Drives |
Heading into the living spaces - the crew commons/galley |
The tables and chairs can fold up against the wall to make it more open. |
Stateroom with double bunk and fresher |
1000 points for the ship is nothing really, in the great scheme of things. |
Same arrangement in each stateroom, but the fore ones are cramped |
Communal fresher |
1000 points is a nice round number, after all... |
Life support plant |
The bridge - two chair variants, up and reclined |
Pilot and navigator stations |
More screens on the rear wall |
The main drives floor is removable |
The glow effect came out rather well |
10 x 10 x 10 = 1000 |
Just think - awarding a straight 1000 will avoid a nasty headache from calculating points. |
Looking down into the cargo hold. |
Underside view |
The landing gear retract and can be locked in place when extended. |
You know it makes perfect sense to give me 1000 points for the ship. |
Ship name |
Ship registration and name |
Ship registration |
Original stateroom inserts, plus some machine shop bits from the Beowulf campaign. |
Lockers and alternative bits for the crew commons/galley |
Air raft and grav bikes |
It's a convertible! |
You really, really, really want to give me 1000 points for the ship. |
You do, you do, you do, you do! |
Just look at her - she's got to be worth 1000 points and no calculation headache. |
I understand that adding tufts is obligatory for Turnip28 *lol* |
Almost forgot - my final studio tour map:
- Stored volume = 2975/72 = 41 vehicles @ 20 = 820 points
- Enclosed volume = 495.8/72 = 6.9 vehicles @ 20 = 138 points
- Interior volume = 277/72 = 3.85 vehicles @ 20 = 77 points
Er.. spectacular. Really epic submission and a new bench mark
ReplyDeleteThanks! Getting it finished and the post written took me almost to the wire! :)
DeleteWow! You've certainly outdone yourself here Tamsin. Absolutely fantastic work all round.
ReplyDeleteCheers, m'dear! I think it's clear now why all my other entries were smaller than normal. :)
DeleteAnd I thought I was mad… beautiful work Tamsin.
ReplyDeleteThanks! You are mad, but I'm more mad! :)
DeleteI heard rumours of this and so have been waiting all challenge for this post. Well worth the wait, excellent work Tamsin. My concern for you now would be storing the thing!
ReplyDeleteCheers! Rumours? In my pre-Challenge post I showed it. Unless the rumours were about how it would look painted... :)
DeleteBloody hell! What more can I say, its just astonishingly good and so full of detail.
ReplyDeleteThanks! It was a beast of a job to get everything painted in time. :)
DeleteCongrats on finishing a whole space sci-fi world - an amazing place for some skirmish games. I also like the spaceship colour and the cargo bay accessories and all are amazing.
ReplyDeleteCheers JezT
Cheers! Technically, I've only created a small corner of a starport. ;)
DeleteI'm actually glad that I did weather it up so heavily - the unweathered orange would have been far too lurid. :)
This is amazing!
ReplyDeleteAnd when is the next story installment of the Spirit of Camberwell?
Thank you! :)
DeleteNo plans just yet for any further Spirit of Camberwell stories.
Wow, that project is sensational. The colours, the weathering and sheer scope are all tremendous. What a highlight of the challenge.
ReplyDeleteCheers! There's nothing quite like project creep - it was originally just going to be the ship and the air raft and/or grav bikes, but...
DeleteHalf you challenge's points in one post.. has that been done before? Great work all around, and with all the backstories being added.. wonderful! Am guessing you will now have fun using it for campaigns and finishing up the rest of the hanger bay there? But what will you do to top this next year? :D
ReplyDeleteThanks! :)
DeleteI'm pretty sure it has been done before... *looks at Ray*... and the ship alone was always going to be a big bunch of points and come at the end. As for expanding the hangar, I might do another, but not in the way I did this one - gluing all those tiles on was a time-consuming PITA (there are about 600 of them!).
That is just stonking amazing, Tamsin! A whole crew in 4 states for adventuring. A workable ship in many scales with gaming material abound, a freaking spaceport to house said monstrosity and crew! Scads of cover and stagedressing for skirmish and RPG! Such a scandalous, quirky color scheme and weathered to such an excellent state! ......
ReplyDeleteI'm not impressed until you do Red Dwarf and crew! 😀
Cheers! :)
DeleteThe weathering wasn't planned, but I'm glad I did it - the orange would have been far too nauseatingly lurid without it.
Wow, what stunning work! Love the crew, the ship, its interior, the vending machines... especially the vending machines! What a stonking entry all round, well done Tamsin!!
ReplyDeleteThanks! The vending machines were fun to paint. :)
DeleteA hobby tour-de-force...incredible stuff Tamsin, congratulations!
ReplyDeleteCheers! It very nearly broke me, getting it finished in time! :)
DeleteTamsin, that is an absolutely phenomenal submission, and an excellent story. It very much has that space opera vibe, the orange works incredibly well, and is a phenomenal points bomb.
ReplyDeleteWell done and a superb capstone.
Thanks! I had to submit at least one points bomb, and this was it! :)
Delete@ Curt - thank you! I know the exterior colour scheme started off as a joke, but once the lurid orange is weathered down it actually looks rather good. I'm actually tempted to repaint the aft "cap" orange. :)
ReplyDelete700 points including the 195 for the non-main-event pieces? That makes 505 points for the ship - my attempt at subliminal messaging was 50.5% successful! ;)
As I said, it was just my gut notion on the work as a whole. Again, a wonderful and impressive piece of work, Tamsin.
DeleteThis is a fantastic entry! Great work on all the different elements. There's so much detail inside the Scout Ship.
ReplyDeleteI played Traveler in high school. My character was an ex-mercenary grenadier. We tooled around in a ship another player, a noblewoman, earned. I imagine you'll have a lot of fun playing with, in, and around these models.
Cheers! There really is a lot of detail on the interior which makes painting it a fairly long job. :)
DeleteI played some Traveller back in the 80s, and kept on reading the rules, designing ships and stuff ever since, even though I wasn't playing. It was mostly nostalgia that made me back the campaigns for the ships.
Absolutely brilliant, Tamsin! The concept, the story, the building, the painting, the stunning detail, the accessories.. What a fabulous project! And including the miniature versions: hilarious! Well done qualifies for “understatement of the year”, but still: very well done!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Despite all the frustrations getting it finished [I've come to hate home-made decals!] it was overall a very rewarding project to paint. :)
DeleteThe rust-orange looks great on the ship, well done on this behemoth, Tamsin! And this project just continues to give, you still have some items to paint. And may be weather those smaller ships to match the big one? :)
ReplyDeleteCheers! I'll be leaving the smaller ships as they are - the 28mm version only looks so beat up because it's visited Shionty and will get cleaned up and repainted when it gets back to Boughene. Well, that's my excuse! :)
DeleteI don't know where to start... it has taken me a lot of time to read the post and watch all the photos. What a great project. I cannot remark more the concept, the level of the painting, the story and overall the stunning attention to detail. Hope to see some action with those models in your personal blog over the next months
ReplyDeleteAnd finally, many thankd for taking care of my submissions each Tuesday. It's been a lot of fun being part of the Tuesday terrors exclusive club this year
Thank you! It was a big project and I very nearly didn't get it finished in time. :)
DeleteIt was a great pleasure to be your Tuesday minion.
Absolutely stonking brilliant. 20 points for that vehicle!
ReplyDeleteCheers! :)
DeleteYup, 20 points for the vehicle, and then 485 bonus points because Curt is so generous! :)
Wow, amazing stuff Tamsin.
ReplyDeleteThank you! :)
DeleteBreathtaking bit of nostalgia! When I hear Regina, I still think of the spinward marches and my paper 25mm S class scout ship, wonderful detail and execution!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
I'm glad to have provided some nostalgia for you! :)
DeleteWhat an amazing project, Tamsin. I am gobsmacked! I love all the detail, and the multiple variants/poses of all the figures. Saying, "Well done," doesn't seem sufficient. :^)
ReplyDeleteThank you! There is a 5th pose ("Zero G") for those figures, but I didn't paint those. :)
DeleteStellar! all i can say!
ReplyDeleteInterstellar, even! ;)
DeleteThanks! :)