No more 2nd Dynasty Traveller ships?

Brianw

Mongoose
I dont think I’m spilling secrets here, the exchange happened in the comments section of their latest (non-Traveller) ship crowd funder on MMF. There I asked them to consider doing the Harrier-class Commerce Raider as their next Traveller ship since it would be great for the Pirates of Drinax campaign. They said they lost money doing the Beowulf and that the only other Traveller ship they’re even considering is the Modular Cutter maybe later this year.

It’s a shame, they do beautiful work, but if they can’t/won’t, I hope someone else picks up the license and continues. They also did some miniatures, but they weren’t their strong suit (I think they may have outsourced them?) and there wasn’t a huge variety, especially of the alien species.
 
That's a shame. A Harrier would have been useful by so many campaigns. I would think they'd make money on that one, but I really have no idea of the economics involved.
 
Well, we could still do the interior layout using their modular interior tiles, but I sure would love to have the entire ship.
 
There's a long discussion of this on their Discord - these ships in 28mm are very large and complex models that take a great deal of time to create and the number of people backing them is too small to justify the time required for something like a 200-400 ton ship. If we want to encourage them to do more larger ships, more people need to back these campaigns - the economics are really as simple as that.

The Modular Cutter and similar small ships are ideal subjects - about the right size, infinitely expandable with different types of module, and much more likely to be useful on the tabletop.

I backed the Beowulf and the Scout, but have not printed the Beowulf yet - with the scout, I'm printing it in 15mm scale as I have a lot of Sci Fi minis in that scale. I'll probably also print the Gig and the Rampart-class fighter they've released.

If you play any tabletop sci fi games, the 1:270 scale minis are not only great for showing your players what a ship looks like, but also are the right size for 6mm wargames - roughly the same scale as Battletech and quite common in Sci Fi table top wargames. I'm assembling a 6mm mercenary company using GZG 6mm minis and vehicles, the 2nd Dynasty Broadsword ship and I'm waiting for the Modular Cutter to finish the unit.
 
I would love if they did some more of the 1:270 and tactical scale ships, including the Kinunir, Chrysanthemum and a bunch of other non Imperium ships.
Oh, and character minis too.
 
I printed the beowulf from their kickstarts and boy is it a project.

It took 2 weeks to print on my two large format FDM printers.

I couldn't even fathom trying to print it on a hobbyist size printer.
 
The small ships should be much better for that, and frankly more useful in play. I printed the Scout Courier, but scaled to work with my 15mm minis rather than the 28mm size. Really looking forward to getting hold of the Modular Cutter.
 
The small ships should be much better for that, and frankly more useful in play. I printed the Scout Courier, but scaled to work with my 15mm minis rather than the 28mm size. Really looking forward to getting hold of the Modular Cutter.
I did the same (15mm Type-J next to 28mm Gig)
 

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The small ships should be much better for that, and frankly more useful in play. I printed the Scout Courier, but scaled to work with my 15mm minis rather than the 28mm size. Really looking forward to getting hold of the Modular Cutter.
How was the scaling, in terms of playability and production time? I am considering doing this myself (hobby printer).
 
How was the scaling, in terms of playability and production time? I am considering doing this myself (hobby printer).

Playability is OK - a little tight, and depends how the minis are based (I bought transparent, circular 15mm bases. It's not like I'm using it as a battle-board - it's more a really fancy deck plan for the crew.

The biggest issue is some of the really fine pieces are hard to do and very delicate on an FDM printer - a few walls were damaged, for example.

2nd Dynasty produced special 15mm scaled STLs for the scout, that had new walls with the doors integrated and closed, which helps a lot. I used some special parts such as the snub nose and winglets, which i simply scaled down myself in the slicer before printing. I'm afraid I don't remember the print time - there are so many parts I just didn;t keep track of it all.

j
 
I would love to see more of the Traveller "fleet" in the 1/300 and Tactical scales. The big 25mm models are certainly sexy, but of less use to me.
 
Hi guys, @fieryphoenix22 tagged this on my discord and thought I would come and say hi. Good feedback in general, always appreciated. I don't want to tread on any toes at Mongoose, and to reiterate, our Traveller license is official but from Far Future Enterprises in general and covers the Classic Traveller and T5 brands. Personally, I prefer the Megatraveller art, and that's where I try to draw inspiration from.

If you guys have any specific questions, I am happy to answer them. We have the Traveller license through 2024, but as was implicated, we've been unable to make it work at the scale at which we sell (we are extremely niche). We intend to test out a limited run print run on the 20 ton launch we recently designed for the upcoming small craft campaign. This is to see if there is a wider audience.
2023-08-24 20.59.35.jpg
Edit: Print time on the 20-ton launch is just a few days. It's a two build-plate print and weighs 450 grams. I am impressed that someone printed the Beowulf in 2 weeks, I estimated about 7 on a single Prusa. I never quite know how long it takes because we prototype as we go.
 
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