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Glad to see you working on these again!

Thanks! I kinda missed these. The main challenge with these ships is now to go overkill with the details and see how to keep the costs as low as possible. However, casting might be a better solution...

Almost done!

Left side:


Right side:


Back thrusters:


Head on the front:


Bottom:


Top:


Some final details need to be added to the head and engines, then I need to keep on scraping tiny bits off it to make it look more wear and tear.

I would love to do some test prints soon to see how the details will look, a lot of it is very small, meaning it might be totally visible.

The more I look at this ship, the less I'm inclined to sell it through Shapeways. I might put it up there in the beginning, just to make it available, but in the end I just want to print this fellow property and see it cast. These make nice little buggers for the Legion ships to shoot at!

Oooo want. For Ork ships it might be nice to have a modular scheme rather than a single design. Prow, Engines, and weapons to add to a basic hull shape would be excellent. Even if not if you cast it up I'm buying some.

Hmm, modular would work for something larger, lets say a cruiser sized ship. This one is around 4cm, could try to make it modular...hmm...I'm tempted now...

Version 2.0 I guess!


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Placed the model next to a Legion ship to give it a sense of scale. Ideally the ship would have been 50% smaller, but as a model that simply wouldn't work. But for the artwork that might not pose such a problem. The picture posted here has the ships in 'model sizes', not 'artwork scale'.



I'll consider this ship done for now. I've tried hollowing it out, but it's impossible because the model is such a mess on the inside, trying to add multiple of them in a single .stl file has failed as well because the file would become too big.

At the moment it's too costly to sell them individually through Shapeways, printing costs alone are around €20 per ship, too expensive for a mere escort ship.

Plan now is to make a new version of the ship, make it hollow and multipart (separate head, main hull and a few weapon systems), and then see if I can get it printed at a better place after which I'll try to have it cast.

Just started on version 2.0. As you can see the design has changed somewhat. The head has been replaced for an array of weapons. To also link it a bit more to the rest of the setting I've also included some Legion ship styled guns in the mix.



It's still a very early WIP, most of the body still needs to be added, more weapons, etc. Not sure yet what will happen with the previous version of the ship, but the plan is to have 3-5 variants of this little fellow which could then be printed and cast. Since the models are quite small (3.5 - 4 cm long max) I'm tempted to keep them single piece. It wouldn't be too hard to cut them up and mix the components together.

But first I'd need to get this fellow finished...


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Another step closer...



I've added some extra guns (still not enough!), as well as a torpedo launcher on the top, kinda like how certain submarines have it I guess. Now it's adding more details and such to it. At the moment the ship lacks any 'damaged' parts like the previous one had. I might look into that a bit, would love to make some of its interiors more visible.

Still not enough guns...




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Don't they look cute together?



Note that they're both still WIP, the one in the background almost done, the other one need a bit more work.

The main challenge will be how to cast these things once they're printed, seems like quite a nightmare to do so. Any tips regarding that?

After some thinking I quickly put this together:



As you can see an early WIP of scrapyard ship, version 3.0. Already keeping in mind the casting process, there should be no undercuts or anything in this model.

Furthermore...


It's modular! The way I see it at the moment is that the ship will consist of three main component parts: prow, bulk, and thrusters. Then these main components are also split in smaller parts. As you can see the bulk has separate sides. I'm planning on making a few variants of those side components, thereby allowing you various types of weaponsystems aboard. Also keep in mind that each side component has a left and right version.

Ok, back to work!

Awesome work!

I'm tempted on finishing the two old Ork ships (two posts back) and put them on Shapeways or something...

But first things first, finishing scrapyard raider 3.0!

In the meanwhile, I've been continuing to work on the ship's hull. The more I look at it, the more I'm getting flashbacks to my old city designs I used to do, but perhaps that's not such an odd idea. At this scale I would imagine these ships to be gigantic shantytowns of a sorts.

Considering the castability of my models, I never even considered this for my original Legion ship, assuming if it could be printed, it could be cast, not considering all the undercuts.

So now I have this awesome ship design, but it might be a challenge to cast easily. Which means it's tweaking time! Since the first print I've slightly updated the design, and now this process will continue. Undercuts and such will be removed, whilst maintaining the model's original aesthetic. Let the challenge begin!

In the meantime I made a scale picture of the Legion ships I've got so far:


And yes, that little fellow is the latest addition to the Legion family...

I think the Legion are my favorite of your ship building projects. Though those Imperial light cruisers are good too.

I think it's also because of the whole reasoning/thinking process behind those ships. The Imperial ships were made relatively quickly, purely in mind to please the BFG market. The Legion ships are something more than that, kinda my personal baby.


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Ok...here a more detailed shot of the escort!



It's almost finished. Still need to tweak the prow a little bit and add some final details, then it's time for a Frosted Ultra Detail test print.

Legion battlegroup (will come up with a more corporate, less war sounding title)



As you can see the escort is finished (for now), which means I'll be making some test prints at Shapeways in the coming days.

Look what Malika just ordered to test print...

In the meantime I've continued working on the scrapyard ship:


The basic shape is ready I think, currently the model is around 43mm long. Still pondering if I should resize it to around 50-60mm. Now all I need to do is add the details to match the bulk and side panels, and fix those parts that Shapeways believes to be 'too thin to print'.


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With all the weapons and such the ship stands at around 49mm long, slightly bigger than an escort, not big enough to be a cruiser. I tried stretching the model a bit to make it about 75mm long, which gives it this amazing battleship look, would make a great cruiser (after a lot of modifications), so that might be in the pipelines as well.

The idea behind these ships is that they're made of scrap, but are constantly morphing, evolving, and assimilating, it's also why I want the Legion turret on the front, it's basically a part the ship incorporated into itself after destroying a Legion cruiser.

Background is slowly starting to sort of flesh itself out. I imagine this Terramorph faction to have carved its own little empire. The Terramorphs have assimilated all mater around them, incorporating it onto their own bodies, ships, etc. But they're running out of new matter and technologies, which is why they've started attacking Legion outposts, assimilating new technologies onto their existing bodies.

It's basically Transformers meets the Borg, meets Orky technology, meets Tetsuo the Iron Man, and a bit of undead in there...

A game could easily be set up, a few Legion cruisers and escorts against a group of these raiders and perhaps some variants.

I've been adding more details to the prow, I think it's almost finished, just a few tiny tweaks and then its ready. After that it's adding detail to the back of the ship, and finishing up the details on the rest of the hull. Shouldn't be too hard I think.

Look what arrived at my doorstep...





First of all, apologies for the bad quality photos. I'm not that great a photographer, and I should perhaps have the models primed/painted to do them true just since this see-through stuff makes the lighting very annoying.

I must say that the quality of the FUD print isn't as bad as I expected! I really thought it was going to be a lot worse. However, this doesn't mean that it's suitable for casting, there are still visible print lines and there are some tiny inaccuracies in the prints here and there (which weren't on the model).

Looking at the model I'm quite happy how it turned out, some of the smallest details on the ship are around 0.15mm and even they are pretty visible. I wonder how they would look lie with a layer of paint...

That must be so satisfying.

For the Legion from what you were saying you want a corporate vibe. Venture with it's East India Company vibe makes sense.

It is pretty cool to see my designs in the flesh, I got so excited when my package arrived, kinda like a little kid waiting for his/her Christmas presents!

As for the East India Company, that's a real good idea! I totally forgot about those. And then combine it with some hyper capitalism and 'abstracted language', been kinda pondering about it over here.

For extreme hyper capitalism something from the Opium Wars might be appropriate as well. I'd also consider looking at the early explorers which were generally merchant ventures as well. People like Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh and Vasca de Gama were all merchants in the main. Another interesting idea to play around with would be the conflict in West Africa between the Slavers and the British in the 1830's and 40's after the trade was banned but before American abolition. Also if you want to look at hyper capitalism the period of the Industrial Revolution is well worth a look. The conflict between Reformers and Exploitionists over things like the introduction of anti child labour bills would also provide a fun level of conflict. As a writer David Weber has explored a lot of these issues with a far more grey eye as has Eric Flint. Also for conflict their should be a middle ground between state control and absolute laissez faire industrialism something like 19th century liberalism would give a nice twist. By Liberalism I mean the idea that both state and individual have responsibilities to each other rather than the PC stuff that gets attached to it now a days.

Thing with these old theories is that there's still a separation between the state and companies/capital. If we loo at neoliberalism today we see that whilst it preaches for 'less government', it's at the same time turning the state as a tool of service to the market/economy. For some that's good, for others bad (which is a political discussion that we might not want to have on this forum).

I imagine that the Legion has pulled this to the next level, there is no separation between state and corporate life, it's one and the same, giving it an almost feudal character.

I really love the links to the whole explorers and colonialism. For a while I've been pondering about the possibility of a space ship game in which it's mainly 'Legion vs Legion', not that much a civil war like the Horus Heresy is, but more 'localized', I guess kinda akin to the wars of independence in the Americas. Note that in Latin America (and the US too I would imagine) the local elites weren't that much interested in 'national liberation' or anything, they just wished they no longer had to give up their profits to the crown in Europe (be it Spain, England or France), also certain slave abolishment laws didn't sit well with the leaders in the Americas. So, wars of independence.

To pull this back to the Legion, I could imagine colonies (here probably called 'subsidiaries') trying to form their own coalitions/conglomerates and seek to become independent from the mother company (the main Legion conglomerate).

By the way, here an update on the Orky like ships, check the prow weapon variant on the bottom ship. Note that it's still WIP:

Really liking these. The new prows great as one of the things which can be irritating with Gothic is easy recognition of ship types. Particularly with the Imperial and Chaos vessels. To my mind however that's obviously a torpedo/launch bay bow which will make life easier. Equally one of the ways Gothic is superior to Firestorm Armada is you have plenty of variants of the same size. I like having several different cruiser types with varying capabilities.

Your comments about a localised squabble between similar factions is definitely reminding me of the Renaissance conflict between the Dutch and the British as well. It's also got a bit of the Badab war background going on. Funnily enough it's also definitely the area the Honor Harrington series David Webers been writing is going on. What your saying definitely sounds like what he's talking about with the Solarian League conflict. I'm certainly getting a Mesan Alliance vibe about the Legion.

I've been reading into Firestorm Armada, but I noticed it doesn't have such an extensive background as 40k, and discussion about it isn't that encouraged, which kinda bums me out. Some of their models are really nice, but I miss the modularity that BFG has. I think it's one of the reason why it still stands on a higher level than most other space ship miniatures. That and BFG had some of the best models GW ever produced.

With the Badab War I feel it a bit of a shame they moved Huron into Chaos' arms, the whole idea of the struggle being a lot more economic in nature is so much more interesting from the usual cultist/heretic thing we see a lot in 40k.

Noticed you joined up on the TFM forums, looking forward to continue our Legion discussion there as well.

Thanks looking forward to it to. Background is a generational thing 40k has almost a quarter of a century behind it now and is fairly concrete. It's also primarily discussed by fans and in the black library not by GW. Spartan Games hasn't got to that stage yet and their still fleshing out that means for a while they have to be more rigid. I've always felt it's a bit much to expect anything to start with 40k's level of background. The only 2 game settings to come close are the Iron Kingdoms and Aarklash.

I know it's a generational thing, but even the original Rogue Trader book was filled with it. It's true that it takes time to develop further, so I'm quite curious to see where Spartan Games will be taking their universe.

In the meantime I've been playing a bit with the image of the ships. That, and I've been fixing some tiny thin wall parts here and there:




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Been playing a bit with SketchUp's colours...



For some reason I imagine the Legion's basic colour scheme to be grey, the blue is just a very...well, trendy futuristic colour I guess!

I'm imagining the basic game/battles to be some form of internal strife, it's the Legion fighting itself. The Legion originally started off as the Roman Empire, but eventually becoming the British Empire. I would imagine this strife, or at least the main campaign/storyline for the space ship game to be along the lines of either a colonial war or a war between equalized powers.

The colonial war would be very much like the wars of independence throughout the Americas. The colonies didn't really seek independence because they wanted everybody to live in freedom (Haiti probably being the big exception), their resistance has been very economic/political in nature, especially in Latin America, meaning they wanted to get more power and profit, not longer interested in sending it off to the distant throne in the old continent. In case of the Legion these would be more 'distant' colonies (subsidiary worlds) that seen great autonomy, forming their own alliances. Of course the Legion as whole isn't so happy about this idea and starts sending in their fleet to teach these secessionists a lesson.

The war between 'equal powers' would be akin to two colonial powers fighting amongst themselves for domination. Kinda like the British versus the French I guess. Perhaps some sort of 'small Psidemic' occurred, leaving vast parts of the Legion empire separated, it basically cut the empire in two factions, both believing themselves to be the true Legion. They try to establish new colonies and outdo the other one. It could also be more of a Cold War scenario in which both these factions try to fight a proxy war, akin to the Soviets and Americans. But then with elements of the French/British wars (got to love naval war).

All very possible scenarios of course. I would imagine that symbolically these factions be white (pearl) and black (obsidian), each a different aspect of the Legion, together being Legion grey. Oh well...food for thought!

I started with a little experiment:


Let me know what you think.

I'm also planning on making the 'gaps' between the blocks of the ship (between prow and launch bays, between launch bays and engine, etc) a bit deeper, thereby also lessening the singular block feel.

Its not a bad look, and I like the other concept you appear to be trying, making the "central" section more raised.