Starship Miniatures


General Discussion


Hi,

I'm planing my first SF round and already thinking of bringing it to the next Level. :)

Since I am a 3D Artist I consider to 3D print models for the battle-map (and maybe also to sell them^^).

The official rules say that every ship has the size of one hex (abstract System) and on hex on the official battle-map is 1'' (2.5 cm)

I just wondering if this is really useful if you use miniatures, or if a 1.5'' (3,8cm) or even a 2'' (5 cm) Hex size looks/works better for the game.

Bigger hex would of course allow more details on the minis and also a better size difference of the ships.

What do you guys think? What is the perfect size and would you buy ship miniatures?

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

I would buy ship miniatures, and in fact ninja division is currently on working on officially licensed ones for starfinder not to mention several ships are included in the pawn sets. Because of this and the fact my battlemat already has 1" hexes that's the only size ships I'll be interested in. I would be happy with larger miniatures provided they still are sturdy on the standard hex base


The 1" scale is pretty well established. You'd be making things difficult for yourself to try for anything else, imo.

I'd buy miniatures, but they'd have to be painted. As I understand it, 3D printing isn't up to that quality yet, so I suspect it'll be a few years before this is the kind of thing I'd pay for.


I totally understand your Point with the established 1'' scale. :)
And yes, painted 3D printing isn't that great (or if the Quality is ok it's expensive) at the moment.

I think I will simply build a few 3D models to see the Level of detail you can get on a 1'' ship model.

Will post the picture here ;)


i would absolutely buy ship miniatures. really want a model of the starfish II sized for the map

Dark Archive

With ships, why don't you just make 1.5 inch minis but mount them on a 1 inch base? Best of both worlds


If you're taking orders for specific ships...I'll place an order.

I've been picking up the Star Trek Attack Wing ships. They work quite nicely.

Thanks.

Scarab Sages

If you have a 3D printer, I'm told some have uploaded some fan-made schematics for Star Trek Attack Wing and Star Wars X-wing for free. Sounds like something you could use.

Personally, I have some old Star Trek ship miniatures made by micro machines from way back in the day that I plan to use.


The problem with "specific orders" is, that this ships are mostly trademarks of some companies.
So even I would only charge production cost for it, they could sue me for copyright reasons.

@evilnerf: like the idea, problem then is: did they fit if the ships are next to another? (remember some issue during my battletech time with the timber wolf, direwolf and Behemoth reaching into the next field^^)


I'm not saying 1" is the perfect size, but in my limited experience with Starfinder space combat, it is already possible for ships to pretty easily run off one edge of the map* and that's with 1" hexes. If you made 1.5" or 2" hexes, the ships would run off maps (and possibly the entire table) even faster. While 1" may constrain details, I think it maximizes playability.

The ships aren't to scale with each other, anyway (you'd either have pinpoints for the smallest ship or table-breaking Colossal ships), so the amount of detail is going to really scale up and down with the size of the ship anyhow.

*it's possible to simply reorient the ships (slide them all 8 hexes this way), but it becomes a pain once you have more than 2 ships or some obstacles like asteroids.

Scarab Sages

I've played with 1cm hexes before, just so as to have more movement space on the map before running off the edges. 2" is just for posing - lovely models, but no real use once movement kicks in.

(Both Starfleet Battles & Traveller High Guard have long-range weapons with ranges in excess of 20 units, even if most are used at closer ranges.)


Just tested a few sizes and you are right. 1'' is the best size. So the models would be more stylized and less micro-detailed.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

I would TOTALLY buy some designs, at the very least. I have a 3D printer on the way before long, but no 3D modeling experience.


there are traveller starship minatures available... from the lowly Scout/Courier up to the Plankwell Dreadnought even... sadly no love for the Tigress DN


One might also check the bottom of this page:

Spacecraft

I'm guessing those are still available.

I have a whole boatload of them from my old Silent Death box set, and they are the exact same plastic space-fighters.

Which incidentally fit standard 1" hexes quite well (since Silent Death was hex based).

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