Star Trek Runabout

A couple of years back, I was putting together some 28mm STTNG-era crews and I ran across this shuttle pod.

It was from the Action Fleet series and was close enough to scale to work. I also got four STTOS shuttles in the same lot.

It included a pilot (maybe Picard?) and you could open it up to play. It looks like there is a warp core in the cargo area that you can eject (it comes out).

I was looking for another of these shuttle pods and, instead, ran across this runabout. It is much larger and was designed for the 4-inch action-figure range.

You can seat a single pilot in the front and there is a matching seat in the rear compartment.

I don't know what purpose it would serve in a game--maybe an objective? Anyhow, it sat on my shelf for a long time waiting for the right moment.

The cockpit aside, the ship scales pretty well for 28mm figures, when you look at the hatch on the side.

A few months back, I ran across some 3-D printed space-station furniture. So I bought it, pulled the ship apart (involving a ridiculous number of tiny screws) and put in a properly-scale cockpit. This was more involved than it shows in these pictures. I had to remove the old chair, create a proper floor, etc.

There were some extra pieces so I did the same thing in the back area (sorry the photos are bad--tough angles and light). I had the whole ship apart and looked at the dead area in the middle (where some electronics were) and, after some handwringing, decided against doing major surgery on the ship to open this area up.

I also gave the hull a wash to make the plating pop a bit more.

Clearly I'm not a skilled plastic modeller, but this was a fun little project. Now I just need to work this into a game.

Up next: Some more 15mm medievals.