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Author Archive Ben (2nd Dynasty)

Get a free Delta Shuttle Pod 3D-Printable Ship

We are in our final days of sign-up for our upcoming Transport Delta 2400-Series FronTier, launching on Tuesday, the 6th of February, 2024. If you sign up to be reminded when the campaign goes live, you’ll get immediate access to a free Delta Shuttle Pod!

The Shuttle Pod prints entirely support free on an FDM printer. It features our new cockpit design based on the old Transport Delta 1700-Series. It can either replace the forward airlock on the upcoming Delta 2400-series or be used in lieu of the 1700 cockpit.

The Delta Shuttle Pod shown in the lower right corner compared to the Delta 2400-Series

Speaking of which, if you haven’t picked up the 1700-series, it will be offered in this upcoming campaign. The Shuttle Pod design was fun to work on and prints in a matter of hours. It looks good painted or unpainted, ready to use in your game. The cockpit lid is easily removed to access the detailed interior during play. Of course, the design is in our standard 28mm scale (~1:60).

Don’t miss out on a free item! Get notified by February 5th at the latest to take advantage of this offer, with no commitment required. Follow the link on the image below to get yours today!

Free Transport Delta Update!

The very end of the year sees the much needed update of our classic space opera design, the Transport Delta. This ship, originally conceived in 2019 for our Starship III Kickstarter. Using the design language of a galaxy far, far away, is very popular with our customers.

Despite this popularity, the Delta is a design that I (Ben) have been a bit embarrassed about. As far as construction goes, to me, the Delta always felt a little rushed. In addtion, the design certainly was not up to our modern standards of quality, detail and printability.

Enter the Delta 1700-Series:

The 1700-Series represents a modernisation of the Transport Delta to our 2023 standards. This all started when we partnered with Kathy Millatt Modelling during her Corrix Lava Moon Kickstarter. As a part of the campaign, Kathy produced a 35mm upscaled Transport Delta. We offered the Delta as an optional add-on.

I made some quality of life changes to the Delta to fix the worst issues as she printed the ship, primarily focusing on reducing reliance on supports and addressing the engine issues. In addtiion, whilst revisiting this old design, I felt there were additional areas that I could improve upon. I told Kathy that I would be adding a few refinements for her customers and a free update for mine.

What followed was a feature creep that Chris Roberts would be proud of. In the end, I spent around a month updating the design, and not just for printability.

Changes

Changes include:

  • Increased printability of the ship – it can now be printed almost entirely support free!
  • Redesigned the entire interior of the ship, including all new support-free models
  • Revamped the forward cargo bays, including new grate-like interior floors
  • We reinforced the cockpit neck, adding two additional clip holes so it should now no longer droop
  • Added 6mm metal support rod channels if you want to reinforce the hull with additional supports
  • Modified the ventral hull to have a turret port as standard with airlock hatch
  • Updated the side turret models to our new Standard MK23 Turret
  • Added a new rear ramp based on the Odyssey extendable ramp with a new ramp cowl
  • Reworked the engines to become modular and they also no longer require removal if you want to take the top off
  • Added basic lighting support
  • Fully detailed assembly manual

Despite the amount of work I spent updating the Delta, the update is completely free. This applies to all past customers who backed or purchased a Delta. The update can be found in your existing downloads for the ship.

In the future, to help offset the costs of the update, which includes over 95% new or updated pieces, we are launching the 2400-series in February, on My Mini Factory Frontiers. This will include a brand new interior layout and additional updates of our classic design.

Stay tuned for more information on that, and in the meantime, enjoy our brand new Delta update wherever you got your Delta from.

Get an Awesome Official Traveller G-Carrier on Kickstarter

We made a G-Carrier! Free with this month’s tribe, or an All-In Pledge or above on our latest Kickstarter for Official Traveller Small Craft. This is based on an old Megatraveller design that we interpreted from a side illustration.

The vehicle has room for two crew and 12 marines. It prints easily and features:

  • A clamshell rear hatch
  • An openable top hatch
  • A posable turret
  • Folding seats

This was a fun project to design, and took about five days to get on the printer from concept to delivery. It was a team effort, with Ben leading the design and John refining for printing.

Get your G-Carrier today by either joining our Kickstarter, making a Late Pledge, or subscribing to Tribes in October 2023.

Designing the Small Craft of the Third Imperium

While we have spent the last three years bringing the Type S Scout/Courier, Type J Seeker, and the mighty Type A(L) Free Trader Beowulf into 28mm and a plethora of vessels as Starship Miniatures, we have thus far neglected the true backbone of the Third Imperium – Small Craft.

While the larger hero ships of the Traveller RPG universe most often steal the show, it is the craft under 100 tons that are the most ubiquitous vessels and keep the Empire running locally. Whether transporting passengers, crew, cargo or fuel, or acting as custom vessels or life boats, small craft service much larger vessels that cannot enter an atmosphere and for the smallest commercial endeavours.

For our 2023 Traveller campaign, we are tackling 3D printable small craft. The Kickstarter will go live in late September or early October (sign up here to be notified), and for the first time will feature a limited print run of our Launch.

Classic Problems

Whenever we make a new Traveller product, there are a multitude of things to consider. In fact, being somewhat faithful to the original designs is something we try to aspire towards and is incredibly time-consuming, often adding months to the design process.

However, with the Small Craft, we had to make some creative choices that long time Traveller fans will appreciate. We had to take into consideration the following factors:

  • Our Traveller license from Far Future Enterprises covers Classic Traveller and Traveller5 materials; most other editions are either defunct (and un-licensable), or owned by Mongoose
  • Traveller designs vary greatly from edition to edition in appearance and layout creating a wide variety of expectations with fans
  • Most Traveller deck plans have many errors in them compared to the game rules
  • Almost all Traveller deck plans do not work in a three-dimensional space
  • We need to keep our production costs within budget
  • The modular cutter is meant to dock in a 6-metre-wide berth
  • Make small craft designs aesthetically pleasing

Issue #1: Incongruency

Every edition of Traveller has its own look and feel, and chief of all, its own deck plans and layouts. We learned early on, designing the Type S, that there are incredible challenges converting 2D deck plans into a 3D model that looks the part. Compromises always need to be made, so we started with those from the beginning.

Initially, we only conceived of creating the modular cutter. It has dozens of variants, is small enough to avoid the months-long print times for the 100 ton plus ships, and seemed useful enough for fans to print and use on the tabletop. However, after consulting with our Traveller gurus, it was pointed out that the small craft all had a similar shape.

None of the ships above have the correct tonnage – since volume of a cylinder does not seem to be taken into account, but even counting squares, the Cutter here is 40 tons, the Launch 14 tons, the Pinnace 34 tons, and the Ship’s Boat 25 tons.
Early art of the cutter looks longer than the deck plans. Incongruencies in the design are clear from an early stage; designed to fit into the Broadsword, and in the image to the right, you can see it is not quite the same diameter as the one from the deck plan at the top left.
Images from the A7 Broadsword booklet from 1982, featuring the Mercenary Cruiser and Modular Cutter; note the mistake in the deck plans only just begins with putting in Pinnaces rather than Cutters as mentioned in the text…

Early Traveller has most small craft with a 4.5 metre interior diameter, with the exception of the Cutter with a 6 metre interior diameter, plus or minus a little, as of all craft in all editions of Traveller, this one is shown with the most inconsistency from edition to edition.

There are arguments of the exact volume of a dTon is equivalent to anywhere between 12.5 and 14.5 cubic metres, but the rules state that two squares are equivalent to one dTon. Looking at the deck plans above, it is immediately obvious that the deck plans are often off by a lot as far as tonnage was concerned. Which is a very frustrating issue for a designer like me who likes to be as accurate as possible. But what do you do when nothing matches up?

Picking the Diameter

The Modular Cutter was always designed to fit into the Mercenary Cruiser, and this creates problems – namely that because of the thin walls of Traveller Deck Plans, there is no reasonable way a cutter could actually be 6 metres in diameter on the inside and fit inside a housing with the same width.

This is even more problematic in 3D where parts need to be designed to a certain minimum thickness – we already had to invent a brand new clip to make the walls thinner. Add the deck plans vs. tonnage inconsistencies in and you have a serious headache, even with the relatively simple cylindrical form.

From left to right: outer hull 6 metres, inner hull 6 metres, inner hull 6 metres (alt floor level), inner hull 4.5 metres

We tested a variety of options regarding hull diameter; what size did it have to be to fit standard cargo (ignoring the wasted space), exactly how much volume would a section have, and where should the floors be? Floors are a massive incongruency in all editions of Traveller, but especially GURPS Traveller, where there is simply not enough room for the interiors designed in the deck plans. Fortunately, we are only dealing with a single level with small craft, and older editions, so after some initial exploration of larger widths, we settled on 4.5 metre interior radius for both our modular cutter and our small craft:

  • Small Craft were more numerous in design
  • The Modular Cutter deck plans we had access to were wrong anyway, and the original art looked longer than presented, so we could simply stretch the Cutter to make it longer
  • We need to reuse components to cut down on production time
  • The 4.5 metre diameter can fit standard cargo with a recessed floor level
  • A 4.5 metre diameter by 1.5 metre (three squares by 1 square) section just so happens to be almost exactly 29 cubic metres in volume – or 2 displacement tons! Each inch of ship at scale would be equivalent to 2 dTons, nice and easy, and above all, more accurate to the rules!

Design Process

On the left side, test widths for the hull sections, on the right, the Modular Cutter, Launch and Pinnace
The original deck plan had the cab up front followed by the cargo modules, but the art looks reversed.
The Launch in the foreground with the Cutter nose, before it was updated; the Cutter now has the cargo section closer the front.
The Cutter cab is a bit more cramped. My original idea was to have a two-seater, with access to a sleeping unit under the dash. I imagine the Cutter as a Big Rig.
Cutter engine explorations
A cutaway of the revised airlock. The door that slides up is something I think we executed well, and allows the small craft to dock with another ship without the door becoming an issue.
Beyond the airlock, I put some thought into the landing gear and gangway/ramp. The ramp extends. The landing gear are removable, the covers can close.
The first prototype of the control module, testing the airlock door, folding ramp, and landing gear as proof of concept. Ignore the highly dangerous missile rack the print is resting on for balance! Lessons learned: wider ramp, slightly thicker airlock door.
Almost done here! Almost no failures or issues to fix, it all came together nicely! The final parts are wating on the print bed at work!
The Pinnace with its wings retracted. The original design had horizontal stabilisers, but they looked… ahem… trash. So I added angled vertical stabilisers instead.
The Pinnace from the front, wings extended
The Pinnace cockpit was designed to fit a crew of 4. In the final version, partially because the original design needed lengthening, and partially to make it feel more like a commercial airliner.
One of the hallmarks of Traveller is the Iris door. Only problem is, Iris valves require double the space to open inside the wall. I solved this by removing the airlock partition and making both squares the airlock. This also makes it work better with the tonnage in certain versions of Traveller.
A slicer image of the parts for the airlock, landing gear and ramp
A cutaway of the cargo area – standard floor height for cargo, garage door, and lower cargo area like on a commercial flight.
The engine room
A cutaway of the power plant
The final prototype version of the Launch. 20 tons and faithful to Classic Traveller design with a more accurate deck plans, a closer compatibility with MGT2 and something that will feel comfortable to all Traveller fans

Towards the Future

By keeping each design to a standard diameter, we can make ship parts relatively interchangeable. We imagine Cutters to be the equivalent of space big rigs, and other ships to be more like commercial airliners. You could swap out cab/cockpit designs, going for the semi-spherical Cutter cab, or the more stretched look of the Launch and Pinnace. We can even introduce more original designs, providing variety with engine sections and other content.

We are in full production at the moment, but the Launch is fully prototyped. Stay tuned for more updates as we progress and implement our new designs.

Small Craft

In September (tentatively) we are offering our next official Traveller licensed Kickstarter, the Small Craft campaign. We are introducing some of the smaller, more practical craft from the Traveller universe at 28mm scale.

For the very first time, we are working with options to provide the 20 ton Launch, the smallest of the small craft, as a physical print for Traveller fans without a 3D printer. While this will still be an FDM print, with FDM print quality, we believe we can offer a decent price.

At the moment, we have a sign up page open to collect backer interest in the campaign. We’d love it if you save the date.

Maelstrom Final Hours!

Operation Maelstrom is coming to a close! We have over 300 backers and almost 20K funded in this mini Kickstarter campaign. Don’t miss out on the best prices! If you are late, enjoy the late pledge over at MyMiniFactory.com

Operation Maelstrom

On the 14th of June, 2nd Dynasty returns to Kickstarter with Operation Maelstrom, a campaign introducing eight new Aerospace Vehicles to our line up, along with a host of accessories, including a terrestrial outpost, pilots, ground crew, and accessories.

This campaign will feature several vehicles that have only had a premiere on Tribes over the last few months, including the ASF-09 Firefly, the Spidercrab, the Stinger and the Gaeru Barth.

However, brand new variants based on these platforms are also featured, including the Pirate Breaching Pod, that adds a gnarly sawtooth to the Spidercrab, the Hornet interceptor, a new take on the Stinger for civilian police units, the Astrofire variant of the Firefly for those who are looking for a more venomous silhouette, and the Gaeru Zalg, which is an alien design with a massive converging beam cannon mounted underneath the fuselage.

Of course, to take care of our loyal Tribes backers, there will be a Tribes Only all-in pledge with a hefty discount for the All-In pledge so you are not double-paying for these vehicles and get maximum benefits.

Get in early today and register to be notified when the campaign goes live on June 14th!

Starfighters and Turrets

This is a working title, but we are now in production of our next Frontier, Starfighters III. As the name implies, we will be doing a new set of semi-modular starfighters, but also the accoutrements you might expect in an air field or hangar environment. Boarding ladders, fuel tanks, ancillary vehicles, landing pads and modular defences.

In addition, we have revamped the original turret from Scout Ship Beta, adding a space for a gunner, a narrower profile, and frame detail, all in a print friendly manner. This is going to be called the MK23 standard turret, and will be a free update in the future.

Odyssey Launched Today!

At 15:00 local time today, Odyssey launched, our brand new massive starship based on the Chimera original concept. The ship is multi-level, boasts a small hangar, a duct system spanning the entire ship, a massive cluster of engines, and an enormous multi-level bubble bridge.

The first 48 hours, the All In pledge, which includes over $105 of items for $60, is even further reduced to celebrate 2nd Dynasty Day.

Check out the Odyssey here.

2nd Dynasty Day!

Tomorrow, Wednesday, the 22nd of February, 2023, is 2nd Dynasty Day! We are having a special 50% off flash sale for 24 hours only,

Use the code: 2ndDynastyDay2023 to get 50% off all store items for one day only on our MyMiniFactory Store!