Derf Tender to the Rescue!

One of the easiest overlooked and least glamorous classes in the old FASA Star Trek game was the Derf Tender.  Much like Chief O'Brien, these ships were the no frills, hard working unsung heroes of Starfleet.  Funtioning as a mobile repair station, the ship capable of doing extensive repairs on deep space buoys as well as other ships and even small stations on site without the necessity of having them towed to a larger starbase.

Obviously this ship already has FASA stats but I wanted to also update it for the new Star Trek Adventures game.  As with the Pioneer class, I thought that the upcoming release of the Ops book would be a good time to introduce this TOS era engineering focused starship.  For the first time, I decided to use official talents not in the core book but instead from the Command Division supplement as they seemed very appropriate to the role that I wanted the ship to fill.  With a high powered tractor beam (backed up by a secondary grappler cable), I imagined this starship being capable of towing at low warp much larger objects up to and including the K series stations.  With a large dedicated engineering staff, it would have the capability to also repair multiple other ships simultaneously as part of a larger fleet.

As always, let me know if there are any issues and thanks for looking here at my custom fan ship sheets.  Normally, I make a single version of the stat sheet but I've decided for this class to instead make two.  CaptShade's art, whose art (link here) I've used for some of my other FASA conversions, graces the classic FASA style sheet below so thanks to him for allowing me to use it.  

PDF Link

 When searching for a more realistic style of art for use on the post's banner image, I found JAFisher44's 3D model pictured above (link here) for this little known class as well.  I decided to make another STA style sheet for the workhorse of Starfleet using his image as well.  The stats are the same on both so the choice on which to use for readers comes down to which style you prefer.

PDF Link

Blazing the Oregon Sector Trail with the Pioneer Class

It's been a while since I converted a Star Trek player ship but a recent flurry of activity in the FASA community made me want to scratch that itch again.  With the release of the Ops book next for the Star Trek Adventures RPG, I decided to release similarly themed ships starting with the Pioneer Class Utility light cruiser.

I'm a big fan of Cryptic Studios' Agents of Yesterday Expansion for Star Trek Online (link here!) and I decided to convert their Pioneer Class cruiser for both the venerable FASA game as well as the current Star Trek Adventures RPG.  Apaskins1991 over on deviantart has a huge gallery of Trek ship art and I was lucky enough to have him let me use his Pioneer class art for my sheets.

There isn't a whole heck of a lot of information about the Pioneer beyond that it's a light utility cruiser with a smaller crew complement than the larger, more famous ships from that era.  I imagined it in my FASA backstory as a light and fast ship able to perform many of the same roles as the larger Constitution but with a still impressive but shorter tour duration (perhaps a 3 year mission instead of the famous 5 year mission of the Connie).  Over on the STA side, I focused the build on more peaceful activity with a relatively even split amongst science, medicine, and engineering with less tactical capability compared with the Constitution class of the same era.

As always, let me know if you find any typos or other issues or just have any general feedback.  For full size versions of the image, just right click and open them in a new window or just download the PDFs if you prefer.

Pioneer Class FASA pdf link

Pioneer Class STA pdf link

Edit: After finding JAFisher44's work (link here) in modelling classic FASA designs in 3D for my follow Derf Class sheet, I was pleasantly surprised to see that he also worked on a Pioneer model as well and was willing to let me use it for my sheet.  For those who prefer 3d model art to the classic orthographic drawings, here is a version of the sheet with that instead.

 Pioneer Class (3D model version) Link

This weekend's attempt at a Winged Hussar Tactical

I worked on a second marine based on my thoughts after seeing my first model close up after finishing it.  I used the other Dark Imperium body but changed up the arms and added other bits as needed to make him a veteran Winged Hussar tactical marine.

I borrowed the head from my spare Ancient as it was the only normal head that I had that wasn't specifically a Lieutenant one with the skull on the forehead.  It was my first attempt at adding the ribbing/fin to the top so, upon extreme close up view, it's a bit crooked.  The right arm and armpit shield/fur were a PITA to pose and I'm not entirely happy with the results as I would have preferred to see the fur more flat on from the front angle.  I also need to relearn the lesson of letting plastic glue dry fully before tinkering with further bits on the same area as I had alot of errors/reposing that I had to do when working on the right arm area because of a lack of patience on my part.  I skipped adding the chest grenades due to the busy marine looking a bit too busy and instead just added a pack on to the hip.  Finally, I wanted to add a chain to the gun as with the other but my test bit looked worse with it due to the stiff angle in front because of the foregrip on the autoboltgun. 

As always, let me know if there is something that I can improve on with this or alternately future figs.  I'm happy with the results of the single wing on these veteran (tactical and sergeant) figs as well as the overall look but there are, as always, definitely things that can improve.