Tickets please. . .

While the 50 ton cutter has been called the workhorse of the Imperium the other unsung workhorse is the passenger shuttle.  I had some stuff laying around the house that kind of reminded me of the shuttle shape so I decided to try and make one.  It has no interior so it will be used as a tabletop terrain feature. Here are a few pics of the building of my little spaceship.

The cardboard is called chip board I got from one of those home craft stores.  It is used as backing for pictures in frames.  Much thinner than box cardboard and easier to work with.

I had a candy plastic snack container, cut it in half and superglued it to the cardboard.  I was surprised how well the glue worked.  I used white school glue to fill in where the plastic and cardboard met for a better look.  It took about three applications of glue.

Here I added the tail fins and some support for the nose for the next step.

The white paper is index card stock I glued in place and the nose is from the cap of a stick deodorant I cut to fit.

I cut a piece of chip board to cover the opening in the rear of the ship.

To make it look like there are some control surfaces on the wings I cut some more index card and used a glue stick.

A view of the aft.

A use for pin striping tape.  Just to make it look like there is a windshield.

A view of the mostly finished shuttle.  The white stripe down the side was made using more of the pin striping tape. 

And another view.

For the engine cowling I used one of the caps from a medication I take.  It did require a little alteration.

A picture for scale.  Some old 15mm Martian Metal figures and a Khurasan Super Heavy grav tank.  

I plan on using this in some upcoming convention or two.  I know it's not perfect but I am happy with it.  I did eyeball about how big to make the shuttle.  Compared to the Scout I made years ago I think it looks about the right size.

Deep Strike at Travellercon/USA 2017.

At this years Travellercon/USA I had the pleasure of running a GURPS Traveller Starships game.  Three Imperial patrol cruisers were pitted against three Vargr corsairs.  I trimmed the rules down a bit to make for faster gameplay. 

Early on in the fight.  The patrol cruisers close on the space station in order to retrieve an excape pod.

The ships are fully involved in the fight.  The blue and orange counters were used to mark future positions for our combatants.  

Two patrol cruisers maneuver to the right side of the space station while the third draws fire from several corsairs.

A escape pod leaves the station on a truly random course.  

Despite many hits the solo patrol cruiser hold its own.

The blue patrol cruiser swoops in to pick up the randomly moving escape pod then jumps out system.

The space station explodes due to some horrible accident.  I'm sure that is how the report will read.

I had six ships in the fight with six players.  The total fight took about two hours.  I plan on running another game at the next Travellercon/USA but with more and diverse ships.

I love the smell of new armor.

I have looked for years for a grav tank, any grav tank that comes close to the Intrepid from the cover of Fire, Fusion and Steel.  Old Crow had something close but all the edges were very sharp no curves.  And then I found Khurasan Minatures Advanced Super Heavy Grav Tank and while not the same shape it at least had the right look.  So I got a few and here they are.

Here is a nice view from the front.  I primed them black then used a burnt sienna to try and match the book cover.  I then used charcoal black on the lower part of the tank with a black wash for contrast.  On the upper portion I used a brown wash.

And now a rear view.

A close up side view.  The Imperial sunburst is from Ad Astra games.  At one time they made/sold them as waterslide transfers.

Not a view your enemy will be happy with.

And now the other side.

Now if I could just find a really small bumper sticker with a Zhodani insult.

And the book that inspired the paint scheme.

The models being resin feel very solid in your hand.  There was a minimal amount that needed to be filed off.  I will be using these at the upcoming NOWS con in September and perhaps at TravellerCon/USA also in September.

Station ahead!

This the Vanguard Station by Ryan Wolfe from his Kickstarter.  It fits right in with the RAFM Traveller starships scale.

It's a 3d printed mini.  Very little cleanup.  It was supplied with an acrylic stand and of course unpainted.

The large red objects are the liquid hydrogen fuel tanks.  Why red?  FLAMMABLE!

This is definitely a welcome addition to my starship collection.

A bottom view showing some of the underside detail.

  I already have plans for this piece.  The Kickstarter also included printable deck plans in both color and black and white available through http://0-hr.com/Shop.  

Dropping off or picking up?

Here are some picture of my latest drop ship.  I did this in a Zhodani color scheme, blue.

Here is a look at the drop ship landed with the rear ramp down.

An aft view.

Tilted on its side to show the open side door with a spacious interior cabin.

Head on view.  It looks quite threatening.

Some friendly Aslan arriving for a day of real estate viewing.

    I like the look of this vehicle.  It has already seen some action, sorry no pictures.  It will be travelling to this years Travellercon/USA.

Giant power suits and a drop ship.

Here are my next few paint projects.  First are four powered armor suits from Battlestations.  They are one piece figures with almost no flash.  I will have to do a little filing on the bases to make them level.  I plan on using these as hostile environment suits in my Traveller mini games.  

Front view.  The second from the left is in powered down position.  

Side view.  

And the rear view.

I also have a drop ship to add to my arsenal.  This is from Clearhorizon Miniatures and is called the Hades Banshee VTOL.  When it arrived I had to decide either closed and flying or doors open and landing gear deployed.  As you can see I choose the landed option.  There was a bit of flash and a degree of filing to deal with.  

Gear down, door open for quick deployment.

Rear ramp down.

Side view with both side doors open.

I hop to have these painted in the near future.  Since my other drop ships are green I was thinking pink, just kidding, no really, just kidding.  A dark blue with some light blue highlighting.  Not really sure just yet.  .  

Fine Young Aslan.

What is an attack force without ground troops to support it.  Just a bunch of fancy vehicles of course.  These Aslan are Leonid Warriors from RAFM's 15mm scifi line.  I painted up four combat squads, 1 command squad and 1 two member fire team.

For units I usually put six figures on individual bases.  The two figure base is a fire team with a hopefully devastating weapon.  Most of the figures are carrying weapons attached to a power pack on their backs.

This is a front view of the command squad.  With a lieutenant and two NCO's.

A view of the back of the command squad.

This would be the other two squads in the Aslan force.  All of these figures have backpacks instead of power packs.

These Aslan have been used at two different conventions, the first was NOWScon in the Cleveland area and the second was at TravellerconUSA in Lancaster.  In both battles the Aslan were on the receiving end of the short stick.  I did not bring my camera to either event so I have no pictures to show.  The figures had little to no flash to clan and were quite easy to paint once I figured out the paint scheme.