I’ve spent the past several work sessions buried neck deep in research and planning, and I’ve also been reorganizing and revising my plans to better deal with all of the various ideas that keep popping up.
Spaceport Updates
I added a new set to the spaceport project page for the structures, but it’s not active yet. I don’t want to start taking money for that just yet–I’d prefer to hash out the basics with all of you first, after we wrap up the vehicle set. So it’s up on the page, but not active.
I cleaned up the spaceport vehicle set’s description to reflect how things have actually been turning out. The trucks in particular crossed off several now-redundant entries on the original list, so those were consolidated into truck bed modules. Likewise, the van has mutated from a simple people carrier into a modular jack-of-all-trades. I also fixed some terminology (replaced “passenger bus” with “mobile lounge”, for example).
Hangar Bay
I also revisited my master list to determine what to do with the military versions of many of the above options. These items have been spun off into a hangar bay set, and I’ve also added the Apsara and Haflinger to that project to start the ball rolling. Work on the hangar bay won’t actually start (or resume, if we want to get technical about it) until I’ve completed the spaceport set, so both of the hangar bay sets are also currently inactive.
You can see the hangar bay project page here: Project: Hangar Bay
Outside the spaceport
Lately, we’ve been talking about zorty trains and spacey stagecoaches, and discussing the rest of the world that the spaceport is located on. I am still in the research and brainstorming phase, so there’s no project page yet, but I’ll also be fleshing out the rest of the frontier planet. I’ll be starting with the towns on the outskirts of the spaceport after wrapping up the spaceport and hangar bay sets.
Still here in hospital…getting better tho…and itching to get back building badly
I had a bunch of stuff ready to photo just before, and with the new plans from you, my plans are expanding too 
…This is going to be so fun
Oh, dear. Get well and stay well!
As for the plans, I definitely have enough stuff on the list to keep you guys busy for a while yet.
Speaking of which, I ought to go into more detail in my next post, since there’s actually quite a lot behind this semi-new direction.
I just thought I’d chime in and say I think it would be pretty cool to have some [more] agri-camp type stuffs (fences!) and also a seaport set (docks, piers, lighthouses, dinghies and ships in power and sail, etc.)
Well, I’m open to those ideas if there’s enough interest out there.
I read somewhere recently that something like 95% of the goods (by tonnage) that cross national borders today do so in ships. Which beats the Hell out of trains, trucks and airplanes. Maybe in a universe where there’s cheap space travel (and cheap point-to-point suborbital flights) things would be different, but my bet is that ships are still going to matter for a long, long time.
That said, real ships are way too big to represent usefully in 28mm scale! Which doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be interested in what you’d come up with, though.
I agree, and I wouldn’t really want to model anything larger than maybe a 100-foot yacht, a cutter, or a fishing boat myself. What appeals to me more are smaller vessels that players could charter, own, steal, or whatever.
I just read “Better To Beg Forgiveness” by Michael Z. Williamson a few days ago, which is a military SF novel set on a planet that had backslid into Third World poverty, and the protagonists had to charter a boat to get from one continent to another in order to reach the spaceport. I liked the idea of that sort of scenario being part of a roleplaying session or a wargame, and that was why Paraplegic Racehorse’s idea appealed to me personally.
That said, something like a big container ship or oil tanker would be useful for a modern crawl game. Especially if you go out the box a little bit and go for a setting like something out of Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter novels. In the first one in particular (Monster Hunter International), an abandoned freighter is one of the story locations. I also recall there being a hostage rescue mission set on an oil tanker in Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear. Ships of that size would definitely have to be done as a modular scenery set simply because of how huge the real things are.
I Love the idea of a multi interface transport hub….something always seemed to echo for me between a spaceport setting and a seaport…thumbs up for sure here..
@chris you could have put a spoiler alert on your last post. I’ve just started reading that after downloading it from baen last night! (it’s in their free ebook library by the way i’f anyone else is interested!)
I could see you designing some ace brown water naval vessels.
And don’t forget “the usual suspects” the end game for that was on a small tramp steamer or the opening scene to the last crusade.
not scifi but adaptable.
That would be neat to have a modular ship or two just for a crawl game. Protect the ship from mercenaries and pirates and such! Tho something tells me that would be one big set with all the ship pieces and props lol. Still neat idea!
It’s probably a very niche market but what about smaller scale wargame. Something along the lines of Bulldogs Away! (Missile engagements between Fast Patrol Boats). But futuristic. Railguns, laser close in weapons… Near future brown water stuff…
If you wants a bit of container ship flavor for 28mm scale, you could try using these: http://www.toposolitario.com/workshop/container_recortable.html
About one and a half dozen makes a nice storage facility corner for our Infinity game sessions.
Magpiestear: Sorry, it was just the first example of a conventional harbor in a SF setting that came to mind, and I tried to keep it as nonspecific as possible.
Northernheathen/uptrainfan89: That too, and yes, it’d be a ginormous set.
The Chimp Helmsman: I’ve always loved small watercraft and brown water actions. I had a semi-serious idea a while back in the way of a zorty small-scale naval surface game, so I’m glad there’s somebody else out there who likes that idea.
Maik Schmidt: Yep, those will work great. I also love the sheer simplicity of the IKUBE buildings he did. I wish TOPO had more spare time to work on new stuff.
I could see some nautical elements being added to the Spaceport Structures set that would give it it double purpose. Many of the same elements in a freight handling spaceport are going to be found in a seaport. Really wouldn’t have to add much – some piles of chain and rope, and some large cleats (I think they have a different name once they get large enough to hold a ship, but I can’t recall what it is) would be enough to give a nautical feel.
But speaking of ships, I could see a whole set being devoted to the deck and superstructure of a ship. Most cargo ships in use these days are around 90-100 feet wide (sized for the Panama Canal), which is about 2′ wide at 28mm scale. Meaning a 2×4″ game board could represent a decent portion of a cargo ship deck for a shipboard battle, while a 4×8 game table could let you portray a small cargo ship, and some associated craft to the side, like tugboats.
But that’s a separate set for another time.