Be careful what you wish for.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Thursday, May 02, 2019 - 03:29 pm: Edit

ADB Releases Ships in May 2019!

On May 1, 2019, ADB released a total of 59 new items to its shop on Shapeways.

The Federation gets the Light Tactical Transport and Fast Cruiser in both the "regular" and "Fed Classic" (smooth body) versions.

Not to be outdone, the Klingons get their D5H Light Tactical Transport. The D5HK Light Tactical Transport has the Aztecked designs on the wings.

The Romulans gain their FlameHawk Mauler and their FlameHawk+ Mauler. The "+" indicates it is a late-war "Cranked Arrow" design in the style of the Starline 2500 Romulan ships.

The Gorns gain their Megalosaurus-S Large Scout. This is available in both the regular and refitted versions.

The Tholians gain their Neo-Tholian Heavy Dreadnought and Neo-Tholian Heavy Command Cruiser.

To counter those Tholians, the Seltorians gain their Light Dreadnought.

The Hydrans get their large and small freighters. The Large Freighter comes in two different styles, built by different guilds. They also gain their Buffalo Scout.

The Lyrans and their wayward county of the Lyran Democratic Republic get their small and large freighters. (The LDR's freighters are identical to the Lyran freighters.) They also gain their Jaguar-E Escort War Cruiser.

The Orions get their Double Raider Cruiser.

The Inter-Stellar Concordium gets its Fleet Tug.

The Andromedans continue to expand quickly. They get their Courier Scout, Eel Scout, and Terminator Mauler. They also get their Satellite Base, so necessary for their Rapid Transit Network.

The Frax get their War Destroyer Carrier.

The Vudar gain their Heavy War Destroyer.

The Omega Octant is well represented. The Ymatrians get their Battleaxe Battlecruiser, the Iridani gain their Sloop, and the Sigvirions receive their Command Cruiser.

Check all these out here: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/amarillo-design-bureau-inc
Don't forget to follow us: https://www.shapeways.com/designer/adbinc

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, May 04, 2019 - 02:04 pm: Edit

I thought you might like to see this. We're trying to find ways to lower costs and one way is to "flatten the bounding box" by spruing the ship. That way, you need almost no support material and the cost drops.



Sadly, it's an art not a science. Just how to re-jigger any given ship is different from most others and we're having to "guess, try, guess again" on what formula they are using. We're working from a list of vague "it seems like they're counting this and measuring that" theories.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Saturday, May 04, 2019 - 03:02 pm: Edit

This really amounts to almost a full re-start on the research and testing for the product line and will take some time to get right.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, May 04, 2019 - 03:23 pm: Edit

Even worse, the target we are trying to hit is moving constantly. When they (SW) figure it out, we will find a solution within the new framework. But until then it's just a few experimental guesses by sculptors who have time to play around. No ADB decision has been made on anything.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Saturday, May 04, 2019 - 11:03 pm: Edit

Garth, if we add multi-part ships, we will almost certainly keep the one-piece ship. Some ships are being hit with material cost and we may be able to reduce the price by making "fat" parts hollow, if we can find a spot to drain wax from the ship. I don't know, but I suspect that some drains can be added to sprued parts via the tabs and slots that the parts will have.

For Versatile Plastic, no real price changes have happened since October. On some ships you will see a new material choice that is cheaper than Fine Detail Plastic. It isn't as smooth as that material either, but it is better than Versatile Plastic.That give folks another option.