Dorritos Class and D-10M 3d Models and Stats!

It's been a while since I updated the blog despite making some minor hobby progress in the meantime.  For some reason, I had an urge to throw together some new Star Trek ships for the FASAverse and worked on both an update to a classic Klingon design as well as a retro-take on the newest official Trek hero ship.  Both ships were created using CaptainMojo's parts kits on thingiverse (link here) so special thanks to him for making them available to fans of the classic game!  For the first time on this blog, I'm including the 3D model STL designs in addition to the stat sheets and tokens for those who want to use either ship on the tabletop.

A new Star Trek cartoon came out in the past month and it included a new hero ship that I thought I'd try to retrotrekify (is that a word?) into the FASAverse.  I haven't watched the show but supposedly the ship is a second line support vessel.  Due to the parts that I used to construct a FASA version with the same overall design asthetic, I decided instead to make this a torpedo destroyer instead.

The second ship is a minor update on one of my two favorite FASA designs, the D-10.  I decided to "fix" the minor quibbles that I had with the design including the overly flat/featureless secondary hull by adding gribbly bits to the bottom and putting a proper impulse deck housing ala the D-7 on the top.  I also enlarged the engines and sloped the top of the hull a bit to give it a bit more variation from the front view. 

In the background and rules, I consider this D-10M to be a dedicated command and support variant of the venerable design meant to lead fast moving and cloaked battle groups.  It lacks both the troops characteristically found on Klingon cruisers and research facilities on modern D-10 models, replacing them instead with additional support and command facilities.  Already fairly cavernous due to the hull design, the removal of those facilities as well as external mounting of the impressively powerful impulse engine allows it to fulfill both those roles.  While the offensive armament is unchanged from the most recent model, defensive capabilities are markedly increased with a more efficient variant of the KWE-3 engines and new KSP shielding as well as the installation of the power hungry KCD cloaking device.

For those interested in playing the ship with the FASA rules, here are the fan stats of this pair of vessels as well as printable tokens for use on a hex grid and the 3d models that I put together from CaptainMojo's parts.  Due to my unpleasant experience on thingiverse with my Winged Hussar models being unceremoniously removed without notice/warning, I've decided to host the files here instead.

DORRITOS CLASS 3D MODEL DOWNLOAD LINK 

  D-10M 3D MODEL DOWNLOAD LINK 

State of the Blog Address (2019 in Review)

I have to say that this year passed by quickly!  It's basically a blog tradition that I go over what I did and didn't accomplish over the past 12 months and this year is yet again a bit of a mixed bag.  I'm the traditional hobby front, 2019 wasn't unfortunately much different than the prior year.  I managed to finish what I thought would be my final Winged Hussar (link here) as well as four figs for basically the same rpg character idea.  Why so many?  Well, the character changed as well as my ideas of how to portray him.   The first fig (link here) was printed on shapeways for a previous defunct campaign attempt whereas the others were done at home on my only big hobby project purchase, the Elegoo Mars 3d printer.

I had previously thought I was done with my hussar project but the upcoming release of Master Lazarus for 40k as well as a free 3d model from Artel W might convince me to dip my toes back into that pool later this year.  In the meantime, I've taken a stab at samurai inspired space marines instead with some success (link here) that I have yet to paint as well as a Space Wolf that at least I finished (link here).

Too big...too small...just right!

On the Star Trek front, I made a few entries to my SHIELD UP! house rules section.  While I didn't end up revising my Fasa STSTCS ship manual, I revised the existing D-15 FASA ship (link here) as well as added the Atlas dreadnought to my STA house rules (link here).  I also decided to test out a theory regarding whether you could noticeably improve prepainted heroclix minis with a quick wash and/or drybrush (link here).    Finally, I  came up with some more nuanced rules for playing STA in the Enterprise/NX era of trek (link here).  In that same update, I previewed a 3d version of my old NXL ship design which later got a test print or two (link here) but I never did more with them.  It's not alot but I suppose an optimistic way to look at it would be that I put out at least quarterly trek updates if averaged out for the year.  I don't have any ambitious plans for the trek side of the hobby but I do hope to revisit printing my NXL design now that I'm more experienced with supporting prints as well as coming out with a short Klingon D-7 update for FASA.  I generally need a direct motivation for my hobby work and the lack of any real chance of playing anything trek related locally unfortunately hampers that.

 Cactus Trek!

Ending the recap on a positive note, I was finally able to find a relatively stable rpg group this past year.  While I'm not enamored particularly with the ruleset (review link), it works for me as a player and we've been managing a monthly game since the summer.  It's because of that campaign that I've been focused more on my Krogan miniatures than the others.  I'd love it if we were playing longer than the 3-4 hours per session we average as well as playing every two weeks as originally planned instead of monthly but it's a good group of easy going players and I'm glad to have them.  With that, my yearly TL;DR hobby therapy session post is over and I wish everyone a happy 2020!

 

Another upcoming Krogan RPG character mini!

D-15 Klingon Command Cruiser Refit

It's been a while since I did any Trek content for either the current Star Trek Adventures RPG or the classic FASA tabletop game so I figured I'd put up something for both hopefully this week starting with FASA (age before beauty!).

A while back, I put up a FASA STSTCS sheet for my Klingon D-15 cruiser write up (link here) where I used a future 1701C era design that had a retro feel from Star Trek Online.  The prolific trek fan artist Atolm posted his take on some of the highly incongruous Klingon designs shown in Star Trek Discovery (link here) around the same time.   I really liked some of the designs but figured it would end with just that thread and I couldn't adapt those designs for my sheets.  Fortunately, artbraune also liked the designs and decided to commission Sean Tourangeau (the artist who created the Axanar Ares awesome final look) for a set of orthos for many of the ships (link here).  One of the most recent designs he's fleshed out was the Klingon Command Cruiser shown below.  The command cruiser seemed like a great fit for the D-15 with its plasma weapon and later rotary photon torpedo tube launcher due to the enlarged gullet compared with the traditional thin neck on ships like the D-7.

 

Sean Tourangeau's Deviant Art Link

I was fortunate enough that all involved allowed me to adapt the art/design for my blog so I present the revised D-15 Quick Death cruiser for FASA STSTCS.  I've changed a few things both in the story and the stats from my original version to better reflect what Atolm originally created and Sean fleshed out.  As always, right click/open in new window to get the full sized jpeg image or save the pdf linked below instead. 

PDF Link

State of the Blog Address (2018 in review)

Well, another year has gone by and so it's time for another year in review post.  I'll start with what amounted to the majority of progress on my blog... digital hobby publishing.  Starting with Star Trek tabletop gaming, I worked on over a dozen sheets under my SHIELDS UP! house rules (link here) divided up between the current Star Trek Adventures RPG by Modiphius and the classic FASA Starship Combat games.  This is where the bulk of my updates are for 2018 and, while I myself haven't tried any of them out in actual games, some other players have reported using my fan ship designs in their own campaigns.

Additionally, I tried my hand at some very basic programming and developed some custom ships (link here) for the fan made computer game version of the classic FASA game along with a tutorial for getting it all working (link here).  All in all, I'd say that I was significantly more productive in that virtual realm compared with typical tabletop hobby work albeit with almost no difference in the "games played" metric described above (excluding single player missions).

When it comes to actual hands on traditional hobby work, I frankly didn't accomplish much.  In 2018, the only miniatures that I worked on were the painted Winged Hussar pictured in the center below and another converted/built yet to be painted.  I had hoped to finish off a half painted Tau broadside suit conversion I worked on a few years ago but never got around to it. 

I hope to do better next year but realistically I said the same thing last year in my previous review so I won't hold my breath.  While I did visit the local games store a bit more in 2018 for RPG reasons, I only ended up playing a single miniatures game after an RPG session.  That definitely puts a damper on any larger hobby plans leaving me with the occasional conversion project (like my RAFM minis or Winged Hussars).  In the next month, I do plan on painting some of my 3D printed figures as part of the last phase of my review of them.

Next we have a mix of the two categories above in my Shapeways miniatures printing.  I relearned by brute force trial and error how to pose and modify existing models (although actual modelling is still far beyond my grasp) and mostly successfully printed out physical miniatures.  I did hear back from Shapeways about the misprint in my order and am awaiting my reorder of tweaked figures.  I do plan on covering the reprints as well as painting up several of the figures for use as well.  If time and budget allows, I also hope to place another later on in the year for my first ever custom starship miniatures including hopefully a ship or two featured in my SHIELDS UP! house rules.

Finally we have the miscellaneous updates.  In between the above, I've recounted my truthful experience in backing the failed Robotech Tactics miniatures kickstarter (link here), reviewed Artel W's series of boutique 40k themed miniatures (link here) as well as the Star Trek Discovery Season 1 (link here), reviewed the Starfinder RPG and my unsuccessful attempt at starting a local group (link here), and even covered the history of my blog's title (link here).

All in all that makes 26 updates for 2018 or roughly one every two weeks or so on average.  In reality, they came more in fits and spurts with May being a month without any update.  In addition to hopefully doing a bit more hands on painting in 2019, I do also hope to post a bit more regularly or, at a minimum, not completely miss any months on the blog.  As stated above, I do hope to finish off some existing miniatures on my painting table (like my 40k Tau broadside linked here as well as my recent 3D printed figs).  On the digital front, I don't see myself coming out with too many ships but I am considering publishing an updated 2019 edition of my TOS Recognition Manual (link here) if I can come up with a suitable Romulan ship to add to the roster.

I don't know if this type of review is informative to any potential readers but I do feel that it (at least temporarily) helps to focus my efforts for the upcoming months.  Regardless, see you all in a few weeks with my next 3D printing update and thanks again for reading!

SHIELDS UP! Custom Ship files for the STSTCS PC Game

 A few weeks ago, I posted a step by step installation guide for the fan created PC version of the STSTCS miniatures board game by FASA.  Since I've been creating house rules for various fanships for a while, it was only natural that I'd try to add some of them into the game itself.  There were some issues in creating and saving the fan ships but I think I've succeeded in making them.  I've combined the files necessarily along with some simple test scenarios into a single zip file along with a readme.txt file with the instructions on where to copy and paste them.  I'm not a programmer myself so an auotinstalling mod is way beyond my abilities unfortunately.  Since I can't test to see if it'll work on computers other than the one they were created on, I'd appreciate it if anyone who attempts to add them let me know if it works.  Thanks again for reading and enjoy!

SHIELDS UP! Fan Ship Files for the STSTCS PC Game

Attucks Class Attacks! (part 2 FASA version)

 A while back, I came out with a blog post (link here) for the Attucks Class by M. Christopher Freeman for use with the Star Trek Adventures RPG.  Normally, I try to cover new fan ships on my blog for both that current system as well as the classic FASA games but the latter gave me a bit of a problem.  The older FASA game didn't support "fighter" style combat which is the focus of this type of "aircraft carrier in space" style ship.  I decided instead to just cover that specialization in the backstory for the class and have instead stat'ed it up as a frigate in the classic game.  For FASA RPG purposes, the ship still has a large amount of fighter shuttlepods that GMs and players can use but they won't come into play in the tabletop miniatures game.  As always, I've included the full size images below of both the ship sheet and the counters (right click and open them in a new window for the full size) as well as a PDF link.  Thanks and enjoy!

PDF Link

Gaming like it's 1989.. Installing the FASA STSTCS PC Game

I've heard about a fan made FASA STSTCS PC game by Jason Robinson for years but never tracked it down.  Recently, I came across a lengthy thread over on the STSTCSOLDA forum (link here) where some folks had gotten it to work on Windows 10.  With some handy dandy links from Ironnerd and tips from cowboy40 and others, I was able to get it mostly working on my modern PC.  The information is out there in bits and pieces on how to get it to work but I figured I'd try to organize it in one handy dandy spot for those willing to try it.

Just in case it's not obvious, I'm not a computer expert.  I've tested out all the information below on my own computer with no negative effects that I can discern as well as scanned all the linked files with both Malwarebytes and AVAST Antivirus software with nothing detected at the time of writing this.  That said... I recommend you scan the files yourself and proceed at your own risk.

The first step is to download the base game file installer v2.02 as well as the v2.04 patch hosted over on the trekcore website linked here.  There are two additional downloads (a ship counter and romulan pack) but in my installation both were included in the 2.04 patch and are unnecessary.

Unzip the downloaded files and install the v2.02 game making sure to note the file directory that you'll be installing it into.   Next, do the same with the v2.05 patch making sure to specify the same directory as the base game.  The screenshot below shows as a reference the default one that I used.  

If you try running the game now in Windows 10, you'll likely get a "transpicture.ocx" error.  If you do, you'll need to download the transpicture.ocx file at the webpage linked here.  As with the above, make sure to run your virus protection software to make sure that the file hasn't been corrupted in the time between my checking it and your downloading it.  Place the file in your c:\windows\system32 directory as shown below.  (Editor's Note: Possible alternative methods are listed at the end of the post!)

You'll now need to register that ocx file in order for windows to recognize it.  I had to download from Microsoft and install a Visual Basic run time program from the link here.  Again, this is from the Microsoft website but always run a virus check just in case as it is an exe file.

I promise we're getting close!  Next, you'll have to open a command prompt as an administrator by typing "command prompt" in your Windows 10 search bar.  It should be the first result on the top and you need to right then left click on it to "run as Administrator".

That opens up the old DOS style command prompt window and you need to type "regsvr32.exe transpicture.ocx" into it and press enter in order to register the OCX file.  In my case, it defaulted to the same C:\windows\system32 directory listed above where I put the OCX file.  You should get a successful confirmation after doing so if it worked. 

Finally, right then left click on the shortcut for the game on your desktop run the "troubleshoot compatibility" function.  On my computer, it selected running it under Windows 98 Service Pack 3 and the game hasn't fully crashed once.

You can now play the game!  Occasionally, the program will hang after the enemy AI's turn but I've found that the quick fix is to do one or all of the following in this order: press escape, click on tactical if it is showing and the press escape to return back, or press the windows button then reenter the game window and press escape.

I hope this how to guide helps folks rediscover this classic game from the 1980's.  I don't harbor any pretext that it'll be popular with younger gamers as it is a game design relic of its time but hopefully it'll rekindle some interest with folks nostalgic for the original.

10/2022 Edit: Thanks to Dr Kanukie for researching updated methods to installing this as programs that worked for me in 2018 may have changed in the years since.  I haven't tested these out yet myself as I haven't gotten a new computer since so all the usual caveats already noted above apply.  Dr Kanukie got the process to work by for 64bit systems like Windows 10 by putting TransPicture.ocx in SysWOW64 folder instead of the System32 one and using Windows XP SP3 compatibility settings instead of Window 98.

4/2022 Edit:  Sometimes for no explanation Microsoft seems to be changing the availability of certain files.  For now, the microsoft link above for the Msvbvm50.exe as shown in the picture does work.  I myself haven't tested the Visual Basic 6 runtime pack that replaced the original link (here) but hopefully the direct exe file link above will continue to work fine.  If the VB6 link alternative doesn't work, Tycen suggested in the comments below that it's also available at the following: vb6extendedruntime   As always, run virus checks first before installing anything as I haven't tested these last two methods myself.

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

A Dastardly Duo Approaches!

I initially focused on custom hero/player ships for the Star Trek Adventures game as obviously they'd see alot of play if used and the pickings for the TOS/TMP eras were pretty slim in the core book.   Equally slim though were the choices for adversaries in those eras and the subsequent expansions haven't really broadened the choices either outside of the TNG era.  As such, I decided to stat up two of my favorite ships from the classic FASA game for use with Star Trek Adventures.

Luckily for me, Brad Torgersen has a treasure trove of classic FASA ship images on his STSTCSOLDA website that he reworked to modern standards and graciously allowed me to use them.  Here are what I will call my dastardly duo double pack... the D-10 Command Cruiser for the Klingons and the V-7 ECM Cruiser for the Romulans.

PDF Link

I've included a section for breaches on the sheets using the NPC quick damage rules format.  If you prefer using the full player character ship damage rules, just pencil in the first few letters of the system damaged in each box instead of filling it in.  And, just in case anyone out there is playing a "villain" campaign and would like to use either of these as their player character ship, just add 2 points each to the systems and the departments divided up however you want and then choose two additional ship talents.  Once you update those stats (and any dependent ones like shields and weapons for example), you'll have a fully capable player character ship to use for your Romulan or Klingon crews.  As always, let me know if there are any typos that I missed or mistakes in the ship construction and thanks for checking this out. 

Javelin Class Shuttlecraft for FASA

Master modelmaker Bill Krause was busy yet again this year creating another scratch built TOS era Star Trek model for the Wonderfest competition.  His design for a 1/24 scale N-Type Javelin Shuttlecraft took both the Best Scratch Building and Trekcellent Awards for Wonderfest 2018.

 

With a fully detailed interior complete with all the modern amenities expected in such a vessel and multicolor lighting throughout, it's not surprising that he came home with some more awards to add to his trophy case.  The full build process from concept to finished award winning model can be found here at Bill's WIP thread.  As with several previous of his designs, he was kind enough to let me stat his latest design up for tabletop gaming.  I'll eventually revisit the Javelin when some more supplements come out for the Star Trek Adventures detailing shuttlecraft rules but I've already come up with a sheet to use it for the venerable FASA system.  As always, just right click and open the image in a new window for the full size or just click on the link below for the pdf version.  Enjoy!

PDF Link

Granting a Quick Death to Enemies of the Klingon Empire!

It's been a while since I did a non-Federation ship for my SHIELDS UP! house rules and for good reason.  Simply put... most fans choose to create Starfleet fanships and it's alot harder to find Klingon and/or Romulan designs let alone ones whose images I can convert to a FASA art style!  Luckily for me, the Star Trek Online game came out with a TOS era expansion a year or two back which got me to take a closer look at their ships.  While not technically a part of the expansion, the Kamarag cruiser in the base game definitely had a TOS/TMP feel to me and the overall ship style looked like it could easily be converted to a FASA ship sheet design. 

PDF Link

I decided to make it an elite heavy/medium cruiser (depending on the era) with an emphasis on speed and stealth.  I try to incorporate less frequently used gear on my ships so the KWF-1 engine (only used in one ship in the official Recognition Manual) seemed like a good choice along with a 2/3 ratio shield generator for the earlier versions.   Debuting not long before the first Romulan/Klingon technology transfer, the D-15 Quick Death cruiser class incorporated and pioneered the use of torpedoes and cloaking technology in the Klingon Empire.  The B variant is identical to the A except that it adds 2 superstructure and the RPL-1 plasma torpedo and KCC cloaking device. While quickly overshadowed by later D-7 and D-10 upgrades, it got a significant upgrade a decade later which put it midway between the aforementioned ships in terms of total firepower.  With the subsequent C variant, I decided to break with the mould of a single forward photon torpedo launcher and use a dual magazine but single launch tube torpedo on the command pod for some more focused firepower along with higher numbers of medium (instead of heavy) disruptors as well.

For a full size version of the jpeg version of the sheet, just right click and open it in a new window.  The pdf is available for free download at the link above as well.  Special thanks to Crypic Studios for coming up with some cool Trek ships designs for STO and to fasaststcs.com for the sheet template I use.  As always, feel free to comment below and let me know if you find any typos or errors that I missed and I hope you enjoy it!

Let Slip the Ships of War! (Ares Class)

Anyone remember when this ship and its production were the most controversial and divisive topic in Trek fandom?  Ah, the good ol' days of 2016!  :)   It took me a while but I've finally gotten around to stating up the cool looking Ares class from the Prelude to Axanar fan film for both the new Star Trek Adventures RPG by Modiphius as well as the old FASA Starship Combat and RPG game.  There isn't a single complete repository of information about this fan created ship so I've looked around various wikis and the extensive series of Trekyards interviews in order to properly stat up the ship.  Special thanks to CaptShade who has allowed me to use his images on my blog as well as to Sean Tourangeau and Alec Peters for creating the Axanar ship design in the first place.  While I may disagree with how the Axanar team conducted themselves in the years after their initial crowdfunding, I can't deny that I enjoyed the initial fruits of their labor in Prelude.

For balance purposes, the Ares in the FASA rules has "only" six (!) photon torpedo launchers for the Mk I instead of the eight officially listed and I've reclassified it as a frigate built during the Four Year's War given the its role in the Axanar lore as a dedicated warship (instead of an assault cruiser which doesn't exist in Fasa).   Additionally, I've included some small counters for the class to use as needed on a hex board.  The more abstracted and less nitty gritty Star Trek Adventures rules for ship frameworks meant that I could pretty much stat it up without changing anything significant.  Just click on the images below in a new window for full sized versions of the sheets or click on the subsequent PDF links for that format.  As always, feel free to comment below and I hope you all enjoy this tough uncharacteristic warship of the Federation!

Ares FASA pdf

Ares Star Trek Adventures pdf

State of the Blog Address for 2017

It's that time of the (new) year so I'll recap the past year's progress on the blog moreso for myself but hopefully might be useful entertaining or informative for any readers as well.  Looking over the past year, it was more productive than 2016 largely due to digital hobby work as opposed to physical models painted.

I caught the Star Trek bug again back in 2016 and started doing a few FASA style sheets for some of my favorite fanships.  I continued that in 2017 with many more ships as well as some house rules and even counters to use them on the tabletop.  This culminated with my publication of a fan ship pdf collection under my SHIELDS UP! label.  While I definitely needlessly reinvented the wheel by using MSPaint for interior and cover art and Open Office for publishing, I was quite happy with the end result linked below.  I can't thank enough the various artists who let me use their fan created ship art on my sheets as without them I'd have some pretty bland stat lines and nothing else!

After putting out the above supplement for a long dead game from the 1980's, I decided to focus on the exact opposite and publish a few ship stat sheets for the then upcoming Star Trek Adventures RPG from Modiphius games.  Just like with the above FASA sheets, the company and fan artists were kind enough to use their art yet again.  I eventually decided on releasing two four packs of ships that likely would never otherwise see themselves officially written up for the RPG, one set of fan ships and the other of FASA classics.

 With the release of Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition this past summer along with the Primaris marine models, a tiny bit of my 40k interest resurfaced.  Largely due to the horribly unbalanced army construction rules of the previous 6th/7th editions, my interest in the property (models, novels, game rules, etc) dropped down to almost zero during those years.  While I don't have any definitive opinions on the new edition, my first impression is that, while they did address my biggest complaint in returning some semblance of sanity/balance to the construction rules, they also made the game more bland with bucket'o'dice mechanics at the expense of some common sense and variety in the ruleset.  Similarly mixed is my reception to the new Primaris style marines.  Whereas I really like the actual basic intercessor models themselves, I wasn't a fan of their introduction into the backstory of 40k and the likely replacement of "normal" marines both figuratively and literally (in terms of models) down the line.  I'd have strongly preferred introducing them just like every other model kit and fluff development for the past 30 years but there was no doubt that I preferred the more truescaled proportions and poses.  I picked up a few models here and there on ebay and decided to finally start my long awaited Winged Hussar chapter of Space Marines.  With some trial and error, I decided on the paint and modelling scheme on the left below.

 

Yup... my entire 2017 completed physical hobby effort amounted to the two models above along with a third prototype marine.  I do hope to continue to paint a few more with the same scheme (including a larger 54mm Inquisitor scale variant) but it was always meant to be a small project of a few models largely for potential future wargaming or RPG characters rather than a full army.

Additionally, I posted a few other one off updates about topics such as finishing my Heavy Gear Rafm scale force with some head swaps thanks to Ashley from Paint it Pink, tweaking some images to make a bucket filling version of the Primaris Coloring Book from GW, and commenting at length about the closure of several gaming companies (most notably Spartan Games whose line of Halo Fleet Battles miniatures I covered here extensively).

Looking forward to what I hope to accomplish in 2018, I hope that I'll strike a more even balance between virtual hobby work (like house rules) and phsyical ones (painted models).  While I've got several other house rule ideas at various stages (like advanced rules for Star Trek Attack Wing, rules lite intro Shadowrun, and mass battle LRB HG Blitz modifications), I don't have any concrete plans to publish them at this time.  With my slow return to physical painting, I'd like to instead finish a few more models from previous years such as my last remaining Tau Broadside battlesuit, the Logan Grimnar conversion from the Primarch Horus model, as well as a single Deathwatch model which happens to be my first hobby purchase of the new year.  There are some more substantial hobby projects dancing around my head as well (like a small force of Adeptus Custodes for 40k or finishing up my Rafm scale Heavy Gear force) but, in the interest of keeping myself honest, I won't be counting those chickens before they hatch and instead keep my sights a bit lower/more realistic.

Thanks again to my readers for sticking with me for another year and I hope to post some interesting things in the 12 months to come!

SHIELDS UP! FASA Framework Four Pack for Star Trek Adventures RPG

On the heels of my TOS Fanship framework pack, I decided to incorporate a few of the more unique (and some of my favorite) designs from the classic FASA RPG for use with the new licensed game by Modiphius.  Obviously these are my own personal takes using Captshade's expansive collection of classic FASA artwork so completely unofficial but hopefully based on the letter and/or spirit of the old FASA rules. 

 

PDF link

I used elements from Modiphius' TOS sheet along with some from the classic FASA ones as well.  Thanks to Modiphius for allowing me to modify their sheets for posting on my blog, CaptShade for the permission to use his artwork, and FASASTSTCS.com for the Fasa style templates.  Thanks for looking and enjoy!  As always, comments/questions/criticisms are welcome.