Freighter convoy is coming. It looks like I misplaced the model.

By Stewart Frazier (Frazikar3) on Saturday, May 02, 2020 - 11:37 pm: Edit

SZ: Standard one large and two small?? Or something exotic, like Jumbo/Heavy with two small (or one large?) …

(Though since its four cargo pods, the heavy would be alone and the jumbo with one small)

By Steven Zamboni (Szamboni) on Sunday, May 03, 2020 - 04:08 pm: Edit

Original request was for 3 small and 1 each large, jumbo, and heavy. They're bulky ships, but fortunately they can be mashed together pretty tight.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, May 04, 2020 - 04:45 am: Edit

Do move forward with that.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Monday, May 04, 2020 - 02:51 pm: Edit

Are the containers hollow in the print to make them light and less material burden/cost?

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Monday, May 04, 2020 - 03:00 pm: Edit

A decision there may/may-not also apply to the tugs.

The pods have never been made hollow in the previous Shapeways scales (3788/3125).

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, May 04, 2020 - 03:12 pm: Edit

It makes them harder to do and often doesn't save anything. Sometimes it does and we have.

By Steven Zamboni (Szamboni) on Monday, May 04, 2020 - 03:21 pm: Edit

I had some that were hollow. There may still be a few in the shop, but I stopped fiddling with hollow models as not worth the trouble.

The last few changes to the pricing formula eliminated most of the discount from hollowing out the ships, as so much more of the cost is locked in by the outside bounding box of the model and not in the mass of the plastic. It was minimal on the 3788's and probably pointless on the 7000's.

There were also issues with drain holes for hollow models, both functionally and cosmetically, along with Shapeways' inability to tell the difference between drain holes and stand holes. Easier for everyone to just go solid.

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Monday, May 04, 2020 - 03:35 pm: Edit

With the rules Shapeways has about hollow items, we stopped even trying to make items hollow. We were able to hide some of the drain holes, but Shapeways now insists on two large ones.

We've had some "engineers" cancel an entire print due to "drain holes" being too small. Luckily I have cultivated contacts in customer service and those folks have been willing to go to bat for me and inform the engineers that since the ship isn't hollow, those are the stand recesses that have printed successfully thousands of times over two years' time. I don't want to muddy the waters with some hollow ships now.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Monday, May 04, 2020 - 09:26 pm: Edit

Cool! Thanks for all the background knowledge :-)

By David Bostwick (Zarquon) on Friday, June 05, 2020 - 10:15 am: Edit

Is there any thought of doing Borak ships on Shapeways?

By Chris Nasipak (Ecs05norway) on Friday, June 05, 2020 - 02:37 pm: Edit

@David Bostwick: I've been working on them on and off, almost have something ready to submit, but it's up to Steve when they actually go on the schedule.

By Art Trotman (Drneuro3) on Friday, June 26, 2020 - 05:31 am: Edit

I would truly love to see the Klingon B9 fast battleship miniature! I think I fell in love with it when I first saw it I think in captains log number 31. And then Steve Cole added the 2400 Siri’s miniature, which was awesome, and then added the ship to my favourite game tied with Sfb, Federation commander. Is this possible to ever happen? I would love to get the miniature in shape ways 1/3125 size in fine detail to use in campaigns of course.

By Art Trotman (Drneuro3) on Friday, June 26, 2020 - 05:33 am: Edit

Sorry 2400 series not Siri-autocorrect error

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Friday, June 26, 2020 - 10:27 pm: Edit

FYI, Art ... you have up to 30 minutes to edit a post.


Garth L. Getgen

By Mark Hutton (Trynda1701) on Saturday, June 27, 2020 - 07:53 pm: Edit

I thought you had an hour to edit a post!

By Aaron Staley (Awwwdrat) on Wednesday, July 01, 2020 - 05:59 pm: Edit

Fed 3788 OCS in smooth fine detail cant be ordered Shapeways says.

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Wednesday, July 01, 2020 - 07:03 pm: Edit

Aaron, that is no longer accurate. An engineer (I suspect someone who is new) thought the model was hollow and that the stand recess was a too-small drainage hole. The production team contacted me, then I contacted customer service as this mistake on the part of Shapeways happens every three months or so. As I have carefully built a good relationship with customer service, they got it sorted out with the production team and it is now available in that material.

By Aaron Staley (Awwwdrat) on Thursday, July 02, 2020 - 08:55 am: Edit

Okeedokee then. I reordered it. We will see what happens.

By David Bostwick (Zarquon) on Friday, July 10, 2020 - 09:46 am: Edit

I had the opportunity to put my omni scale monitor on the table with my 1/3125 ships the other day. Let's just say it didn't look appropriately scary. Is there any chance of getting a 1/3125 scale monitor? I have no idea how big it would be, but the omni scale ship just doesn't look right next to the larger scales ships.

By Steve Stewart (Stevestewart) on Wednesday, July 22, 2020 - 04:59 pm: Edit

For the 7000 series, is there any likelihood to have a Fleet Builder group for old Federation ships? I was thinking something like 1xOCA, 2xCL, 2xDD and one other (a VT perhaps or POL?).

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, July 22, 2020 - 07:28 pm: Edit

We don't want to create zillions of 7000 sets because they take time to create an upload and a lot of sets selling a few of each lose money for sculptors and ADB.

That does seem to be a good selection although one problem is that including the DD means paying extra royalties to FJ on that whole collection when only two of the six ships are FJ. Even so, they aren't much and I will at least discuss it with Jean, if she or I remember by tomorrow. I would probably include the VT not the POL.

By Chris Ross (Chrisross) on Wednesday, July 22, 2020 - 08:02 pm: Edit

Just do a Franz Joseph pack in 1/7000? Then a separate Federation odd hulls set for your own designs.

By Dan Bostwick (Danbostwick) on Wednesday, July 22, 2020 - 08:45 pm: Edit

@DavidBostwick, clearly the problem is that the rest of your ships are too big. You should give up on that 3125 scale and move to 3788.

By Art Trotman (Drneuro3) on Thursday, July 23, 2020 - 05:17 am: Edit

Dan, that is not really a viable option for those of us who not only love 3125 scale but also have invested significant resources and funds into building a 3125 collection. For instance I have been requesting a 3125 scale Klingon B9 fast battleship miniature, despite already purchasing the 2400 series version of this miniature; but since most of my ships are now the larger scale, I don’t often play with the 3788/2400 series miniatures as much, and I’m planning to sell them off to any interested bidder. That shouldn’t be too hard as most of my 2400 series miniatures were painted by two excellent painters, one from Toronto(Canada) and one from Kentucky.
Is there no way to request a bigger scale copy from selected omni scale ships? If not, It might help, David, to remember that monitors are probably not that large anyway as they’re just basically a floating weapons platform with not a lot of other interior boxes to increase its size. -