David,
Is the Cave Lion as small as it looks in the photo with the two F5's?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, September 04, 2026 - 08:55 am: Edit

There is an issue with the Cave Lion size which we are investigating.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, September 04, 2026 - 12:55 pm: Edit

I sent David instructions on fixing the cave lion; the outside parts should be the same size as the CA.

By David Jannke (Bigslowtarget) on Friday, September 04, 2026 - 01:33 pm: Edit

**/#&**#%LYRAN COMMAND TRANSMISSION#**&%

The Hydrans have responded to our new unit with archetypical fear and deception. Their briefing dispatches show the Cave Lion as merely 80% of the size of the actual ship. They will be surprised. Lyran admirals can take heart as they will soon deliver the full glorious power of this massive starship directly to Hydran worlds. As usual, continued promotion of the Hydran propaganda is punishable by death.

Glory to the Lyran Star Empire.

**TRANSMISSION TERMINATED**

Star Fleet Models

One Lyran BB (the prototype print) was shipped before the "Hydran propaganda" was discovered. This unit is designated on the Star Fleet Models rolls as a Unique Model and can be traded back to us for a full sized BB or retained as the owner prefers. The scale issue may date all the way back to Shapeways or could have arisen as a file error but the size of the base is correct so the issue was not simple scaling.

All existing and future orders will be shipped with the proper size model.

By Sean Schoonmaker (Schoon) on Friday, September 04, 2026 - 06:24 pm: Edit

Do remember to fix the website picture as well...

By Stewart Frazier (Frazikar3) on Friday, September 04, 2026 - 07:11 pm: Edit

Now, now, that wasn't a 'Cave Lion', it was a 'Cave Panther', showing that the CL is still the CA's companion regardless of the evolution …

By A David Merritt (Adm) on Friday, September 04, 2026 - 08:20 pm: Edit

Now I want to see a BBL based on the Panther.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, September 04, 2026 - 08:35 pm: Edit

Me too, you mean we never did one?

By A David Merritt (Adm) on Friday, September 04, 2026 - 08:52 pm: Edit

The current BBL is a Tiger hull with a smaller center section, than the BB.

For what it is worth, the DNL also uses the Tiger hull, and a smaller center section than the DN.

If both of these could be done with CL hulls, and the respective standard center sections, it would make Lyrans unique on BBL/DNLs.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Friday, September 04, 2026 - 09:31 pm: Edit

Perhaps such a ship might be a Move Cost 1.25 "New Dreadnought" (or "Pocket Dreadnought"): akin to the (non-fast) Seltorian light dreadnought, or the (also non-fast) Romulan OmniHawk modular dreadnought?

For comparison's sake, a Ship Card for the Seltorian DNL can be seen here; while a "combat" variant of the Romulan OMH is presented in Ship Card form here.

All three ships would have the same 40 points of warp power: four 10-box warp engines here, relative to five 8-box engines on the Seltorian or Romulan examples. (So, in this instance, the proposed Lyran ship would not be a "fast" hull either.)

It could have the makings of an interesting hull design for the King-Emperor's Marshals to operate, and/or for the Far Stars Duke to turn to while waiting in line for a "full-sized" (non-fast) dreadnought.

Plus, there's always the potential for a (conjectural?) LDR variant...

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, September 04, 2026 - 10:46 pm: Edit

A three-hull Lyran CL is already in the game (BC and BCH). On the other hand, a "big center hull" CL with four engines is entirely workable. I should have it done by Tuesday. Petrick's BPV will guide us what to call it.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, September 05, 2026 - 12:35 pm: Edit

Speaking of potential "big centre hull" Lyran/LDR variants: how about a four-engine Heavy Military Police ship?

Such a unit might be of more use to the LDR than to the Empire proper. But then, there's still plenty of Orion piracy out there to try and deal with...

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, September 05, 2026 - 12:55 pm: Edit

Another amusing idea.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, September 05, 2026 - 01:30 pm: Edit

Actually, after a bit of double-checking, it turns out that it already exists for the LDR, in the form of the four-engine Fleet Police ship from Module R9.

Indeed, the LDR also has a four-engine Fleet Destroyer in that same product.

Notably, each of the above hulls are "standard" configurations, with no HDW-esque modularity involved. Although the LDR were eventually able to convert two of their fleet destroyers into HDWs,

There do not appear to be Lyran Empire iterations of either hull type to date, however. Perhaps one, or both, of these could be offered at some future point in time?

By David Jannke (Bigslowtarget) on Saturday, September 05, 2026 - 06:01 pm: Edit

Battleship photo updated. Added a D5 in the background too. The Cave Lion had to be scaled by 20.9% to have the outside components be identical to the size of the CA. All components on the ship scaled with it, hex base stayed the same size (12.7mm or 1/2")

By Stewart Frazier (Frazikar3) on Saturday, September 05, 2026 - 07:40 pm: Edit

Between the CL/CA and the BC/DN is the CS/CSH (based on a pure combat version of the JGP, the CSH would have been the DNL equivalent [firepower rather than speed]).

Culling the BB center by a few hull/repair and an odd system or two box with CL outriggers … (or follow the DN center reduction to the BB center) …

By Chuck Strong (Raider) on Sunday, September 06, 2026 - 05:59 pm: Edit

Perhaps a Federation corvette (VT) with an added secondary hull added to become a fleet police ship (VFP): a similar concept as the FF to FFB.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, September 06, 2026 - 07:35 pm: Edit

This topic is about the store and not a place to put random ship proposals.

By David Jannke (Bigslowtarget) on Sunday, September 13, 2026 - 08:38 pm: Edit

ADMIRAL ON DECK - Sir, heavy reinforcements arriving. Transmission codes indicate the Paladin 001 HMS Great Hydraxian, Overlord 002 HMS Penath, and four escorting cruisers. We're a full battlefleet now!

Now available from starfleetmodels.com:

7000 Hydran Fleet Command Collection (contains the Paladin Dreadnought, Overlord Heavy Battlecruiser, Mohawk and Iroquois New Heavy Cruisers, and the Mongol and Tartar Medium Cruisers)

We expect Cycle 3 to end soon with the Borak and some Hydran Support Fleets. Anyone with a discount that expired should feel free to reach out to us - it should include everything in Cycle 3 despite the dates.

Cycle 4 starts soon: Gorn accountants have finally funded fleet building, simulator fleets are coming to real life, and some units from much, much further away seem to be lurking out there.

By Sean Schoonmaker (Schoon) on Monday, September 14, 2026 - 12:46 pm: Edit

More goodies!

About time I placed another order...

By David Jannke (Bigslowtarget) on Wednesday, September 16, 2026 - 11:37 pm: Edit

With the launch of the Borak Core and Builder Fleets (and no, that FF pointing the wrong direction in early photos was totally a tactic, not a mistake) Cycle 3 draws to a close.

Now available at starfleetmodels.com :
7000 Borak Fleet Core Collection
7000 Borak Fleet Builder Collection

That means we get to announce Cycle 4! Coming soon: Gorn Core, a simulator race, and more

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Thursday, September 17, 2026 - 12:23 am: Edit

It appears as if the images for each Borak collection are swapped around, relative to the respective descriptions on each product page.

As in: the product page for the Core Collection currently shows the units (1 CA, 1 CL, 2 DDs, and 2 FFs) listed for the Builder Collection, and vice versa.

-----

Also, are the megaphaser turrets on these ships provided as separate pieces on the sprues, or are they of a single piece to the base hulls in question?

I don't recall what the situation was on Shapeways 1.0 at 7000 scale, but I somewhat remember that turreted 3788 and 3125 scale Borak ship types were offered with separate turret pieces on their respective sprues.

But then, if the 7000 scale is simply too small for such a thing to be viable, well and good.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Thursday, September 17, 2026 - 10:05 pm: Edit

What am I missing here?
The Hydran fleet options have a lot of Mongols and Tartars. Where are the Horseman and Travelers? Should probably be in at least two of the fleets, right?

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Friday, September 18, 2026 - 10:10 am: Edit

Mongols and Tartars work fine as Horsemen and Travelers; just don't paint the third heavy weapon (or snip it off, in the case of the Tartar/Traveler).

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, September 18, 2026 - 01:01 pm: Edit

We could maybe do those two but thought nobody wanted them.