Free Trader Beowulf

The bulk of 2022 went into the design of the officially licensed 28mm-scale Free Trader Beowulf. She is our biggest ship to date, an iconic ship from the earliest editions of the Traveller Role-Playing Game.

MyMiniFactory

The Beowulf STL files are released at MyMiniFactory . You can also find the 1:270 scaled and the tactical Starship Miniature Beowulf in our store. The PDFs are not going to premiere until the new year.

Kickstarter

The Free Trader Beowulf premiered on Kickstarter on October 24th, 2022, and ended at midnight on November 18th, 2022. In addition to the fully detailed, 28-mm scale STL files, we are also for the first time, provided 2D deck plans for print and VTT for all those Traveller fans out there that lack a 3D printer.

Some Snippets from the Work Progress

Work in Progress

The Beowulf’s hull is now complete, with lighting testing also implemented. We are moving onto the painting phase now, while a few last details, such as doors, furniture and sensor systems are printed.

But it has been a long road to get here.

Feature Complete

I made a video to celebrate the feature complete status of the ship. At this point in time, all of the ship is modelled, although there are a few features I am looking to improve. See the interior and exterior over the course of four minutes of touring in the video below.

Painting Begins

This week, we are fine tuning a few elements of the print and laying a base coat on the model. Our pitch video is going to have a filmed scene with the Beowulf launching from a space station/starport. Albin is currently sanding, getting the outer hull ready for a base coat, while Hannes tried out his brand new iPhone camera to take a few shots while the top was off, looking down into the lit cargo bay.

Topdown view with half of Deck A shown and the cargo bay below

The engine block, lighting demonstration

Painting will probably take about two weeks, and is being done in house.

The paint scheme we are looking to emulate is based on this classic design, with a combination of greyish blue, a red stripe, and white dorsal tone.

We probably will make the end result look a bit dirtier and used, making the ship feel at home in the outskirts of the Traveller known space, or the outer rim of the Star Wars galaxy (or any other generic science fiction/fantasy universe).

Painted Results

The exterior was painted first, using airbrush

Painting started with the outside of the ship, with a combination of over the shelf paints and custom mixes. The design chosen was from a classic paint scheme advised by Marc Miller himself.

The exterior was completed with weathering to provide a used look to the Beowulf. It was completed by adding a few decals to add scale and detail.

The interior of the ship took much longer, with only a base colour being applied after a base coat. The three decks are quite detailed, and even just doing this took several weeks.

The bridge on Deck B, with the Crew Commons behind it

Finally, we applied a basic wash.

Filming

Filming was delayed until the last minute, taking place on the Friday just before launch. Poor Hannes had to put the film together over the weekend, completing it just five hours before launch.