Laying of the keel.

I know starships don't really have or require a keel but these are "ships" so why not.  Years ago, actually decades now, I purchased the little book Traders and  Gunboats.  I really liked the Far Trader so I took some graph paper and made a scale floor plan for use in many Traveller adventures.  

From GDW.

A Far Trader deckplan.

Drawn back in the early 80's with pencil then drawn over again with pen.

I always wanted a Far Trader n 3d.  So I have officially begun the process of making one to 15mm scale.  First I copied my old deckplan, then I glued it to a sheet of 1/8" plywood.  This will give me a guide to cutting out the decks and someplace to attach the outer hull to.  

My copy of the deck plans glued to the plywood.

The materials that will be used in construction are s follows:

1 sheet of 1/8" plywood

1 sheet of paper covered foamboard

an undetermined number of 1" x 24" wood strips for interior walls

Wood parts.

The sheet of foamboard.

 The ship has not been named as of yet, no I am not looking for names.  I hope to have it ready by summer.  I am out of my knowledge and comfort zone with certain aspects of this build.  I have never attempted to bend foamboard and not have it crease.  

I am working on other projects such as a 10mm Hittite army and my Cygnar forces for Warmachine.   It may be a little time before I have more on this ship build.

Project done.

I apologize for taking so long to complete this.  But as Jeff Goldblum once said "Life finds a way".  Enough excuses, here is the base done in all it's glory.  I painted it as a corporation might have.  I didn't want a military  paint scheme with one main color and a few shades of the same.

Landing Pad with missile launcher

Another view of the landing pad.

Right to left, communication spire and power plant.

90 degree corridors.

End caps with missile pods.

Single length strait corridors.

Double length strait corridors.

Y or three way corridors.

Upper level hab domes.

Hab domes.

Block house, front view.

Block house, rear view.

One view of the hab base with some visitors.

An overhead view.

Another view.

And now from the other side.

A lower view.

The other side.

    My thoughts on working with this kit.  For the most part a well cast set, not much to clean.  On the power plant there was a spot where two cables blended into one making it difficult to paint it as two cables.  On the missile pods some work with filing to get them to fit into the bases.  I had to drill out the two holes where the antennas had to be inserted.  The biggest problem I had was deciding how to paint it.  

    All in all I like the look of the set, it definitely looks like it belongs in a scifi setting.  The docking connector fits snugly onto the tops of both the lower hab domes and the block house.  I glued the docking connector onto the bottom the both upper hab domes to keep the upper had domes from slipping off when used.  

First project for the year.

 Ion Age Habitation Base.  Now that the weather has finally begun to warm up I can once again use spray primer in the great outdoors.  A few months ago The Ion Age had a sale featuring their Habitation Dome Riser System and I decided to get their Habitation base.

View showing the base in one possible configuration

Same configuration different angle.

An overhead view.  The squares on the table are 1 inch for scale.

One final view.

My first step will be to prime all the pieces flat black.  Right now they are various shades of grey.

The main habitation dome showing the exterior door.

Two sides of the other domes.

The 90 degree corridor sections.

The three way corridors showing the flat areas where they would connect to other sections.

Double length connectors.

Single length connctors.

Upper domes

Left is the bottom of an upper dome to lower dome plate.  Right is landing pad with a space for mounting a missile pod.

End connectors with missile pods.

Another dome to dome connector with a power spire and a com spire.

As this project gets painted I will post more pictures.  I'm not sure if it will have a utilitarian paint scheme or some other.  Feel free to post your thoughts as to a viable paint scheme.