3DThe FASA Project (TNG)

BolianAdmiral · July 20

So... unbelievably, I've recently had a streak of very good luck, regarding the TNG-era FASA designs... I've gotten access to orthos for CG models of the Decker, Royal Sovereign, and Wellington, and I have a modeler lined up to model both the M'Benga and Moscow in CG. I currently have someone prepping the Royal Sovereign to be 3D printed for me. So...

I've decided that, armed with these new orthos, I'm going to try to recreate the pages of the FASA TNG Officer's Manual, but now with consistent orthos for the ships, as well as updated stats that make much more sense. I'm also going to be using this thread to post WIP photos of my 3D printed Royal Sovereign build, as well as any other TNG FASA builds, as I fully intend to print all the ships. The Wellington might be a challenge, because I know someone who has access to the files, but it's the Wellington that was on Shapeways, and now that Shapeways is going out of business, IDK if he'd be able to print me a copy or not. We'll see when the time comes.

Here is a preview WIP of the breakdown for the Royal Sovereign print that the printer sent me. The final product (assembled) will be 25" long. FASA says the Royal Sovereign is 625 meters long (one of the few accurately scaled FASA ships, IMO), which puts my printed kit at 1/984 scale.

I may or may not just end up transferring or merging all the stuff from the Decker thread here, we'll see. But I do plan to have this thread here be multimedia... physical modeling, 2D line art, text, and hopefully a few LCARS and/or Okudagraphics. As with the Decker thread, this will be a long-lived thread, as real life and other issues that take up my time, as well as the demands of the time of the modelers who create the CG ships for me and the printers who print them, will no doubt mean there will be sometimes lengthy intervals without updates. But they will come. Stay tuned.

- BolianAdmiral

evil_genius_180 · July 20

It's interesting seeing a 3D model being designed for 3D printing. As modelers who don't print stuff, we don't have to worry about parts having things like thickness and glue edges, as well as keys to put the pieces together. I find it really fascinating to see how it is coming together.

I'm really looking forward to seeing your work on the FASA book. I've seen some of the stuff from those, but never any of the complete books.

StarCruiser · July 20

My only problem with this is that most of the designs in that book were terrible.

You pretty much have to redesign from scratch to get them to look good.

BolianAdmiral · July 20

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

It's interesting seeing a 3D model being designed for 3D printing. As modelers who don't print stuff, we don't have to worry about parts having things like thickness and glue edges, as well as keys to put the pieces together. I find it really fascinating to see how it is coming together.

I'm really looking forward to seeing your work on the FASA book. I've seen some of the stuff from those, but never any of the complete books.

Thanks. Regarding the 3D print… most of the time, whoever is prepping the files just has to simply slice the model into pieces. But I had requested that the model be hollow, mostly to cut down on both material and cost, so the printer is hollowing out the sections of hull (except for the nacelles). He still has to hollow out the secondary hull and split it into two pieces, so it will be a 9-piece kit when delivered.

Brandenberg · July 20

Someone give me the history of FASA and what "FASA" stands for. I see the term here and there and have been made aware of ships that are part of whatever FASA is but have never really understood it.

Yeah it is going to be interesting to observe what goes into making parts for a model to be printed 3D. I know they did that with the Razor Crest from the Mandalorian.

BolianAdmiral · July 20

Brandenberg wrote: »

Someone give me the history of FASA and what "FASA" stands for. I see the term here and there and have been made aware of ships that are part of whatever FASA is but have never really understood it.

Yeah it is going to be interesting to observe what goes into making parts for a model to be printed 3D. I know they did that with the Razor Crest from the Mandalorian.

According to Wikipedia, the acronym stands for "Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration". Most fans are most familiar with FASA via their TOS and TMP-era designs, which have become fan favorites, such as the Loknar, Larson, Klingon D-10, and Orion Wanderer, etc. The folks who appreciate, let alone love the TNG-era designs are a vastly tiny minority, lol. I might just be the biggest fan of their TNG work.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FASA

evil_genius_180 · July 20

Heh, now you have me thinking of FASA stuff. I've done some of the TOS stuff before, and some designs that weren't exact FASA designs, but definitely inspired by them. I did a ship that's based on a cross between the Surya and Coventry, but with some of my own stuff mixed in. Coincidentally, I was just looking at my file for the rebuild I started in Blender last year and thinking about working on it some more. Now that you brought up FASA, which was obviously the inspiration for it, I think I definitely need to get back to work on it.

Brandenberg · July 20

So FASA started before TNG and was really board or role playing games. I guess there were little ships that played on the board? People liked the ships I guess and so they are remembered fondly. Interesting that Microsoft bought it and then shut everything down in 2007. The company was started with $350 capital. Not bad for eventually selling it to Microsoft.

Pheylan · July 20

Brandenberg wrote: »

I guess there were little ships that played on the board?

They had whole fleets of miniature die cast ships from every major race! I was just getting ready to start buying them when the entire series was cancelled. Lesson learned.....When you see something you want GET IT! It might not be there tomorrow!

BolianAdmiral · July 21

I’m kind of glad I don’t have the pewter miniatures… from what I’ve seen, many of them have warped pylons, etc. I do have resin kits for the Loknar and Larson in 1/1000 scale. I’m glad that in this day and age, I have access to the technology to get any FASA ship I want, printed at pretty much any size I want.

BolianAdmiral · July 21

I figured I'd share this... this is one of the references that Gidian Plebuch, the original modeler of the CG Royal Sovereign sent me, along with a photo of his own personal print of the ship. Again, this isn't MY print of the ship, its HIS. But mine will be the same size, as the one pictured here is also 25" in length.

Brandenberg · July 21

So the long ship. A carrier? Any special purpose in the design?

BolianAdmiral · July 21

The book describes it as a battlecruiser. As for special purpose… all I can offer is that FASA just wanted a next-gen battlecruiser to go alongside the Galaxy-Class and other TNG-era ships.

http://fasaststcs.com/index.php/thefleets/united-federation-of-planets/star-fleet/royal-sovereign-class-xvii-battlecruiser/

evil_genius_180 · July 21

With the Enterprise being a ship of exploration and having a more luxurious interior, it makes sense that an actual battleship would trim down a lot of the bulk to be sleeker. With the smaller saucer and longer secondary hull, it looks like it could be a successor to the Excelsior.

Brandenberg · July 22

The curved underbelly appeals to me.

publiusr · July 22

More:
https://www.ststcsolda.space/federation/sovereign_royal/sovereign_royal.html

BolianAdmiral wrote: »

The folks who appreciate, let alone love the TNG-era designs are a vastly tiny minority, lol. I might just be the biggest fan of their TNG work.

I love them as well—especially Decker.

You might want to make different versions.

I don’t think anyone has a good Klingon Academy Yamato print available…

This is the best representation so far—not just an Ariel saucer—not blocky:

BolianAdmiral · July 22

I don’t think that Yamato is a FASA design. If it is, I wasn’t aware of it.

BolianAdmiral · July 22

Your posting a YouTube video reminded me of this one… the ONLY YouTube video that I know of so far, featuring a TNG-era FASA ship, the M’Benga-Class. It’s a bit of an odd video, too, because it goes on to focus on COVID-19. Oh, well.

publiusr · July 22

Yamato/Klingon Academy—though a video game— was based on Star Fleet Battles—but it has much more of a “FASA look”

Brandenberg · July 22

Is the video from Star Trek Online?

Ahkyahnan · July 23

BolianAdmiral wrote: »

I might just be the biggest fan of their TNG work.

Perhaps the Second biggest!
Mark

Ahkyahnan · July 23

Brandenberg wrote: »

The curved underbelly appeals to me.

My favorite unique feature of this design as well. It’s always suggested “skimming” across the surface of something to me. This ship flying over a planetary ring as in the opening credits of ST: Voyager could be interesting.
Mark

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3DThe FASA Project (TNG)

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