Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey guys, I need a little help. Is there a source for the "real life" sizes of various imperial ships? I am thinking that this winter's silly ambitious project will be to model a gaming table that is the interior of a ship. A 4x6 table. I figure at 5' per inch that makes for a 240x360 foot scale ship. Alternately, if I push it to 8' long, a 500' long ship.

The reason I ask is partially because I want to get the general "look" right, and I am hoping to have a reference for number of crew, etc. Granted, it doesn't have to be an official class of course, perhaps just some random rogue trader, but I figure something vaguely recognizable would be cooler than not.

Anyone have any ideas?

imperial ships are supposed to be able to carry multipe comlete regiments of guard so you might want to try sections or come up with a reason its so small

Well, my thought wasn't a full scale frigate/battle cruiser for massive troop transporting, but rather a freighter for a rogue trader to ship things in (naughty things). Something small enough to go atmospheric, but also large enough to have a warp drive perhaps.

A transport-ship must have enough space for goods to be reliable and get the money back.
I guess a mid-range trader may be about 100-150 m long. A long range trader would carry more and be 200 m.

But what with BFG? No models of traders to rescale to tabletop?

Even Rogue Trader ships are pretty huge. I mean, Eisenhorn's cutter was, I believe, 80 meters long - 262 feet. And that's pretty small for the 40k universe. As a size comparison, Serenity, from Firefly is 63 meters and a 747 is 70 meters. If you're talking a 360 foot long ship, that's a little over 100 meters (heh, roughly a 40k football field) - that's about the size of the Rebel Troop Transport from Star Wars or a Klingon Bird of Prey.

(All starship scales taken from this cool website here: http://www.merzo.net/)

Why not just make your cool ship table to the scale you want and call it a medium frigate, a light cargo hauler, an out-dated pilgrimmage vessel.... whatever you like?

Remember, in fluff, relatively large ships can land or make near landings. Bulk transports are huge, but for your gaming purposes just make the table "generic transport." If you have the whereiwthal you might have lots of moveable walls aka Space Hulk so you change it up between various sections of the ship.

Death by Monkeys: That is EXACTLY what I was looking for, thanks!

Sour Clams: That is sort of what I am going to end up doing, but I figure if I am going to spend this kind of time and effort I want to make it as reasonably close as possible, such that nutters can look at it and go "Wow, there are the right number of bunks there for the ship's crew" or "Oh nice, it's a -random starship name and number-. Very nice!"
Not necessarily important, but the little things help

I was originally thinking of a Firefly type style with a lower cargohold and then a sperate upper tier. Sketching it out though, it would seem the smaller frieghters from the Armada book would make for convenient styles, with a long contiguous section from front to back, with upper decks in the rear and prow.

Thanks for the info guys, I appreciate the help!