Tiny Warship Build 1, 2 & 3 — A New Start
This post contains instructions for a tiny Eagle Frigate, a tiny Lola III destroyer, and a tiny Inazuma corvette.
As I’ve stated previously, these last few weeks have been quite hard on me, so it has been difficult to commit to a stable schedule. Thus, I decided I would start posting whenever I could afford it. This also gave me time to think about a few things.
One thing that I wanted to try out for a while was to see if I could make my warship builds even smaller, a bit closer to Aerotech scale (although I am certain I couldn’t make that exact scale as it would be too costly in terms of detail and value per part). This would be a scale of 100 meters per stud, in opposition to the 75 meters per stud that I was using before.
Using the Eagle frigate as an example, it would end up as something like this:
It is easy to see what one loses in detail. However, the new model uses only a fraction of the parts the older one does. Surprisingly enough, I kinda think that the smaller models are also more similar to the actual minis than the larger ones. For another example, here’s the Lola III destroyer:
These models are easier for me to design and are more practical for wargaming purposes, should you want to go that route. Some of the models I made in the old scale are just too big and cumbersome and I cannot imagine them being used in that fashion. Actually, part of my reasoning for this was that when I was playing Orion’s Gate with my kid I realized how awkward it was to move these models around. So, I started to think on how to make them more fun for wargaming.
As I’ve been developing these new builds I became quite enamored of them. They have their charm and I imagine one can build quite the hefty fleet with just a few parts.
On that note, I may even do more fleets for Orion’s Gate and FTL using the new models if I find the time. Actually, as I stick to these systems, I do think that FTL could work well for the Star League and early Succession Wars eras of space warfare, as everyone had more ships to throw around these, while Orion’s Gate is a better fit for the more limited engagements of the later eras. We’ll see if I get to go there.
Using the Eagle again, you can see how it uses only 20 parts plus the base. It is a simple, fun build I think most people can replicate without much issue. The only truly rare part is the beam I use to keep the tail together, but I’ll argue it isn’t truly needed, being more of a concession to sturdiness.
I haven’t yet decided on what to use for the bases, though. Previously, I used a 4x4 base for fighters, a 6x4 base for dropships, a 8x4 for escorts, and a 8x8 for battleships. However, being so small, these models would look silly on a larger base. I should remind you that most BattleTech warships are between 300 and 700 meters long, so between 3 and 7 studs in this new scale. For now, I’ll leave this in the air as I think on something most people could use for their models without much of an issue.
Being bulkier, the Lola III model uses 41 parts, almost twice as many as the Eagle. I do think this one turned out quite cool.
So, I will probably stick to this new scale for now, eschewing the older one for the time being. These have been really fun to work on. Which means that I should probably try to downsize the models I’ve already made in the near future, while I also work on other ships I haven’t made a model for yet, like the Inazuma!
Let me know what you think.
