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)
This ship is 45 mm long - I suggest scoring it as a 6mm vehicle, so 2 points.
1/270 Scale
This ship is 13 cm long, 9 cm wide and 4 cm high. I was going to suggest scoring it as a 15mm vehicle (8 points), but maybe a 20mm vehicle (15 points) might be closer to the mark. I'm happy with whatever you decide.
These two weren't originally going to be part of this submission (heck, they weren't even printed until Thursday!) but I thought it would be fun to include them if I had time to get them painted.
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.
Measurements the short wall is 9" x 12", the long wall is 9" x 16" and the floor is 12" x 16". Adding the thickness of the foamcore backing, the tiles and the various greeblies, plus the machines, let's say 1/4" thick. That comes out to 111 cubic inches, let's call it half a terrain cube, so 10 points for the backdrop.
"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
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| Anataliya, Kaylee and Grechen |
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| Some alien eggs! Some have hatched! Two alien offspring? |
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| A third alien! Errr, there were four hatched eggs... |
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| Marshall, Jade, Calvin, Asha, Doc, Nat; seated and in repose |
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| I've painted their backs as well, so full points for these! |
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| 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
Asha – 35 years old, 4 terms in the IISS. Skilled pilot and
navigator, some electronics and mechanics. Captain of “Spirit of Camberwell”, a
67 year old Type S Scout Courier.
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
“Doc” – Doctor Mofe-Etaru Tuk’sawange. Polite, educated,
cultured, seemingly has access to generous funds. Why does he want to go to
Boughene? Given his apparent means, why is he dossing around in a highport
cargo dock?
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.”
OK, so I couldn't get away with not adding a photo of the main event in the interlude. So sue me!
Before continuing on, it's probably time to get yourself another beverage and perhaps a nice biscuit (that'd be cookie for our US of American cousins) as there are a lot of photos coming your way!
28mm Scale 100 Ton Type S Scout/Courier
This is a 3D printed starship from the Traveller RPG universe. 2nd Dynasty have a licence from Marc Miller (Traveller's creator) to produce and sell STL files for ships, vehicles, figures and accessories based on his versions of the RPG (they'd still be usable with other versions, eg Mongoose Traveller). They use the OpenLOCK system for connecting parts, and their own system for inserts which would be too thin for OpenLOCK.
The Type S was their first ship designed under the licence and stretch goals included the 30 Ton Gig, and the Type J "Seeker" which is an asteroid prospecting/mining ship based on old Type S hulls. That was followed by a campaign to produce a wide range of Traveller ships in 1/270 and "tactical" (what they think will work comfortably on a 1" hex base; actual scales vary from 1:600 to 1:2000ish if memory serves me). More recently, they ran a Kickstarter to produce the 200 Ton Beowulf class Free Trader.
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| Score the ship as 1000 points and be done with it, Curt - you know it makes sense! |
I got the Kickstarter version of the Type S (including all the stretch goals) as part of the campaign for the small scale ships. Before I actually had a 3D printer - it was intended to be my spur to buy one, which I did in May of last year. It was a couple of months before I was ready to attempt such a large project, but I bit the bullet in July.
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| Go on, Curt, listen to that voice whispering in your ear and score it as 1000 points! |
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| Cargo ramp hinges down |
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| 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.
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| You know it makes sense, Curt; just do it! |
The ship is designed to have a playable interior. For those who know the Type S, you'll appreciate that there isn't actually that much of an interior to the ship (a large part of Traveller ships' volumes is taken up by liquid hydrogen fuel).
To facilitate access to the different decks, the "roof" parts are removable.
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| Power Plant room and missile storage rack |
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| Go on, go on, go on, go on! Go on, go on, go on! Do it and the pain will be over! |
Some of the "decks" are removable as well.
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| Looking down into the cargo hold. |
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| Underside view |
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| The landing gear retract and can be locked in place when extended. |
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| You know it makes perfect sense to give me 1000 points for the ship. |
OK, so which idiot forgot to take clear photos of the ship's signage? Probably the same one who went overboard on the weathering and forgot to take any pre-weathering photos...
Luckily, it wasn't too late for me to take some:
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| Ship name |
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| Ship registration and name |
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| Ship registration |
As a quick explanation of the registration, Boughene is a system in the Regina Subsector of the Spinward Marches Sector of the Third Imperium. I chose the subsector as a nod to Curt's current abode. The rest should be pretty obvious, except for the 80 - that's my participant number.
If you look closely at the photos, you will see that some of the 3D printing is a bit rough. It was an early project from when I was still learning - I get much smoother prints now.
There were a few bits I'd painted which didn't make it into the ship for this post:
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Original stateroom inserts, plus some machine shop bits from the Beowulf campaign.
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And a few bits that I ran out of time to paint (now, if only I hadn't farted around making that time consuming for naff all points backdrop...):
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| Lockers and alternative bits for the crew commons/galley |
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| Air raft and grav bikes |
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| It's a convertible! |
Now a few quick photos of everything in this post together:
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| You really, really, really want to give me 1000 points for the ship. |
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| You do, you do, you do, you do! |
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| Just look at her - she's got to be worth 1000 points and no calculation headache. |
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| I understand that adding tufts is obligatory for Turnip28 *lol* |
Almost forgot - my final studio tour map:
OK, now for the conclusion - working out the...
Points Claim.
Let's start with the easy part.
1x"tactical" scale starship (count as 6mm vehicle) @ 2 = 2 points
1 x 1/270 scale starship (count as 15mm vehicle) @ 8 = 8 points
Backdrop = half a terrain cube = 10 points
Assorted cargo = 1/6 of a terrain cube = 3 points
27 x 28mm foot figure @ 5 = 135 points
Kaylee's cart and small crates = 2 points
12 x Lamprey egg and 3 x Lamprey @ 1 = 15 points
1 x studio @ 20 = 20 points
Subtotal = 195 points
Which leaves Curt with the headache - scoring the ship. Technically it is a 28mm vehicle, albeit rather large, so that would be 20 points. On the other hand it could be considered as terrain, in which case a decision needs to be made, based on the dimensions (25” long, 17” wide, 7” tall).
Volume to store – simple – 25 x 17 x 7 = 2975 cu in = 13.75 terrain cubes @ 20 = 275 points
Enclosed volume of ship – it’s essentially a pyramid, so (rear area x length)/3. It’s not a square base, so the area for the calculation is (width x height)/2. That works out nicely as (stored volume)/6 = 495.8 cu in = 2.3 terrain cubes @ 20 = 46 points
Do you want to treat the interior of the ship as an additional terrain piece? If so, the interior volume is 277 cu in = 1.3 terrain cubes = 26 points.
Alternatively, you might follow how Dave’s B52 was scored (as equivalent to 10 vehicles of the same scale). Assume a large 28mm vehicle is maybe 6” x 4” x 3” = 72 cu in:
- 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
Over to you, Curt to make the tough decision on how to score this beast.
It had been customary to include a vote of thanks in my final submission of the Challenge, but it turns out that I completely forgot last year. Time to resurrect it!
I extend my hale and hearty "Votes of Thanks", to:
My fellow Challengers for all your wonderful posts, and for your comments.
Sidney for creating the map of AHPC Studios GmbH which has kept us all so busy.
My fellow Studio Tour Guides, ermmm, Minions for all your hard work getting posts up and for not messing up Miles' Spreadsheet Of Doom (TM) too badly!
To my Tuesday Terrors - what a great and highly productive crew you've been this year!
To our Sponsors for the great prizes that some of us will be receiving.
To Lady Sarah, our heroic limo driver, for being such a good sport, for putting up with us and (not to forget) all your kind and encouraging comments.
And finally, it goes without saying, to Curt, our very own Lord of the Snow, for organising this once again; for recruiting a great team of Minions to look after everyone; for organising the sponsors and for managing the Snowlord's Director's Chair challenges and rewards.
Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!
Oh, and "Toodle-pip!
TamsinP
Senior Studio Tour Guide, signing out.
_________________________
Jayzus. This entry is amazing...
In full disclosure, I knew about this planned project well before the Challenge started, but still, when you see it all assembled, painted and set up, it really is quite impressive. Turnip jokes aside, I quite like the colour. It sort of has that 'Space 1999' vibe about it. And the interiors. Wow. So many freaking interior details. It really is something to take in. I also love the ship registration markings. :)
The scoring is quite simple actually. I'm not one for all this trigonometry/volume/calculus malarky - I'm going from the gut on this one. Unlike most submitted vehicles, it's not just the exterior we're being treated to here, but loads and loads of interior detail as well. I think this is a 700 point entry (including the 195 for the crew).
Again, incredible work Tamsin. Bravo.
- Curt
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