Tamsin's Traveller Travels

Hello to anybody who actually finds and reads this. I've been blogging for a long time over on my main Wargaming Girl blog. I've decided to start this as a separate blog where I can post stuff about the Traveller RPG.

I was introduced to Traveller back in the very early 1980s (yes, I am that old), playing a few sessions at the local games club I attended on Sunday afternoons and a couple of short campaigns during lunch breaks at school. Other time pressures came into play as I hit my mid- and late teens, and gaming got set aside. I didn't throw away the bits that I'd bought though, and have continued with my love of Traveller through doing bits like designing ships, subsectors and the like on and off throughout my adult life.

Through my blogging, I came across a few blogs about or including stuff about Traveller and enjoyed reading them, It must have rekindled something and when Humble Bundle had a deal on a few years ago, I bought digital copies of all the classic LBB series (I'd never had the full set).

Not long after, I saw a company called 2nd Dynasty running a crowdfunding campaign to produce a 3D printable 28mm Type S Scout Courier. I was intrigued enough to start following the company, but as I didn't have a 3D printer at the time I didn't back the campaign.

Scroll forward a few months and I'd been actively following progress of their work on all the stretch goals, including the Type J Seeker variant and a regular in the chat on their livestreams. Toward the end of 2021 they ran another campaign, this time to produce a wide range of Traveller ships in 1/270 and "tactical" (designed so the ship sits well on a 1" hex stand - actual scale varying from something like 1/800 to 1/2000) and decided to back it, although I still didn't have a 3D printer. The tier I backed it at included the Type S (including all stretch goals), the Type J and the 30 ton Gig from the Gazelle class Close Escort..

Last May (2022) I finally bought a 3D printer and after a couple of months of getting to grips with it, I set about printing my own 28mm Type S. It took about 6 weeks and 3kg of filament (there were some reprints due to warped corners and print failures). I didn't get around to painting it at the time, as I had a lot of other projects on the go. Since then, I have printed all of the 1/270 scale ships.

Some 1/270 scale ships

Some more

Still more - the Type L Lab Ship has also been printed

28mm Type S Scout Courier

Did I mention it has a playable and detailed interior?

Late last year, they ran a further campaign and it was a biggie - the 200 Ton Beowulf class Free Trader. I backed that campaign as well, but it will be a little while before I press the button and start printing it - it will be a very big project - somewhere around 5kg of filament and probably nearly 3 months of printer time.

I finally got around to painting my 28mm Type S over the last few weeks, along with some small cargo items and some 3D printed figures. The figures were filament printed, so not as good quality as they would be if printed in resin (I don't have a resin printer ... yet), but I found a trick that helps to mostly disguise the layer lines you see on filament prints.

In case you are wondering about the colour scheme, it started off as a joke, but once the orange was weathered down I actually found myself liking it. As for the ship name ("Spirit of Camberwell"), well, that's a bit of a nod to a certain film starring Richard E Grant and Paul McGann.