Star Trek-ish ship minis?

[ErikB]

Just last year I stumbled upon a series of Federation-ish starship minis.  For the life of me I cannot remember the name.

There were several series on this website, they were displayed as 3D graphic models with just a few examples in plastic.

The style of the starships was loosely a mix between the most recent movie and the original movies.  There was one with a single warp nacelle, two models with doubles, and one with a triple, as I recall.  There may have been a fifth but I don't remember.

And I think they had pseudo-Klingons, too, but I don't recall.

Does anyone know which site this is?  Has anyone experience with these minis?  The models looked excellent - it's a bummer to have lost the source.

[Witchsmeller]

Are these them?

http://www.shapeways.com/shops/irrationaldesigns?sg4370%5Bpage%5D=2#sg4370

[Cosmotiger]

There's been a number of people designing Star Trek inspired stuff on Shapeways lately.  (So it might be worth a look around there, if the link above is not what you were thinking of).   Might be worth browsing the Starship Combat News forums, too.

[Wolfslord]

http://www.hangar18fasa.com/new_trek_39.html

or

http://wwpd-wargaming-blog.blogspot.com/search/label/Firestorm%20Armada

If you are interested in the latter I can list you all of the manufacturers plus some ebay shops.

[ErikB]

Ah, Shapeways is what I meant but these other ideas are great, too.

Thanks for the responses, folks.

Has anyone ordered from shapeways?  Anyone know if the pseudo-star trek ships look good?

[YPU]

Ah, Shapeways is what I meant but these other ideas are great, too.

Thanks for the responses, folks.

Has anyone ordered from shapeways?  Anyone know if the pseudo-star trek ships look good?

The things I have heard about it did not sound to good I'm afraid, if you do some digging you should be able to find some reviews of people who ordered from them before. The choice of material they have might also be of influence.

[Tomsche]

I got some Shapeways `prints` and they have the same issues as other CAD printers.  The fact that they actually print layer upon layer and build up the minis that way, makes them having a sandy, grainy surface.

Designs on the site are nice, but the quality vs price made me decide not to order any from there tbh.

[Cosmotiger]

I did order a couple of the Xuvaxi ships because I really like the designs, and was curious about the whole computer model/3D printing thing.

There are bits of material that cling to the surface of the models, which will need cleaning off with a tootbrush, and there is a definite grainy texture resulting from the manufacturing process.  To my eye, they are rougher than a plastic model, but comparable to many metal miniatures I have (Certainly no worse than most SFB models).  I have not tried painting them  yet, though.

I haven't made up my mind whether I think they are worth the price or not.  They are right at the edge for me.  If the ones I have turn out well after painting, I would consider another order.

[The_Beast]

I did order a couple of the Xuvaxi ships because I really like the designs, and was curious about the whole computer model/3D printing thing.

Thanks! I'd never heard you might need to brush 'lint'. ;->=

However, I've seen a fair number of discussions on SCN and TMP, and there appears to be a wide difference in the kind of plastic selected, so before anyone else gives this a shot, I'd suggest searching for such info. Haven't tried it myself, but the images of some ships look so rough and bubbly, I was put off.

And just when they almost had me talked into it... ;->=

Looking on eBay, I gather the Konami ships have about reached a glut. Too bad; I picked up a large box directly from Japan. Cheaper than eBay asking, but not enough so to make it worth the bother/expense of running an auction or several.

Doug

[YPU]

From the little digging I have been doing it would seem that you should always select the plastics marked detail, which generally requires you to select the more options function first or something like that.