Federation Commander

Since the default Shapeways photos don't always show ships in their best light, I'd thought I'd follow Will's lead and start posting renders of the ships we're sending to the store.

We'll start with the Tholian Patrol Corvette. (Copper doesn't show up well because of the reflections, so these are rendered in not-copper.)

Tholian Scout (based on the PC hull)



I originally modeled this with round dishes, but the masses wanted more hexes.

Tholian Black Widow

Tholian Destroyer

Tholian "C" Cruiser made from welding two PC hulls together.

Kzinti Frigate, shortly before being lost in combat



This mini had always been on the small side, with an interior volume matching one of the tiny Tholian ships. The body of the Shapeways version ship has been buffed up considerably, but its length was held at the size of the previous miniatures.

Zamboni wrote:shortly before being lost in combat

Someone hand me a towel so I can wipe the Diet Mountain Dew off my monitor.

Small Auxiliary Cruiser

An attempt to increase warship production by retasking freighter shipwards, these ships matched military pods with regular freighter engines. More weapons in the bow meant moving the command and control facilities back into the pod itself.

WYN Auxiliary Cruiser

In contrast to the purpose-built Auxiliary Cruisers used by many raves, the WYN converted theirs from cargo ships. This models shows the reinforced "crossbars" to support the weapon platforms and the external turbolifts used by the crew to bypass the cargo pods.

Tholian New Heavy Cruiser



This ship was originally described as a CW with extra disruptors in a belly pack, which makes for an slightly boring miniature. Flipping the mini upside down helped a little, and then someone mentioned an asterisk...

Zamboni wrote:Tholian New Heavy Cruiser
Flipping the mini upside down helped a little, and then someone mentioned an asterisk...

That was me... And I think it turned out awesome.

Ugly as sin.

Which is actually a *good* thing. It is an inherently ugly ship. It should also look ugly. Very well done!

mjwest wrote:Ugly as sin...

then let's sell some to the Fralli!!!

I've been particularly happy with the amount of detail you've managed to get into the Tholians, particularly the diamond grilles on the wings and the "gutter" grilles between the wing roots.

Having them clean and consistent across the entire Tholian fleet for the first time is a boon.

Having multi-hull Tholians that haven't distorted in the mold is also going to be great.

Warpage was one thing I was worried about when we got to the larger conglomerations like the battleship. I've made a few fanciful designs that have all printed straight - and stayed that way.

Kzinti booms were another concern, but so far they look good.