We’ve been a bit quiet this week – that’s for a couple of reasons, firstly and mainly because we’re still working flat out trying to clear the order backlog caused by the anniversary sale weekend (two months’ worth of orders in two days !). We’ve also been doing a little bit of work on the website – I realised that whenever we have a bit of news like a release or other announcement, I’m effectively doing the work twice – once on the blog, and again on the website front page. So after a bit of googling followed by some HTML jiggery-pokery, WordPress setting changes, plugin installations and PHP coding, the front page of the main website has changed so that the news list is generated from the blog’s RSS feed. The RSS link on the front page now links to the blog’s feed as well. This means that a) I only have to make one post, and b) the website front page is more up-to-date and carries more stories. Go me !
The forum has also had an upgrade to the latest version of the PHPBB software. I was able to port over all of the old posts and topics, so we haven’t lost anything. From a user point of view it’s pretty much the same, but it’s easier for me to keep updated and also more secure. Go me again !
Now for something a bit more exciting … We’ve had lots of interest in the progress of the Royal Navy spaceships and this week we got back a prototype print of one of the ships – the Town class light cruiser. This was just a test to check the proportions, level of detail etc (no matter how long you stare at a 3D model on-screen, it never looks quite the same when you get a physical model in you hands). So it’s done in a lower-detail material than the final production print will be, and is missing the gun turrets (these will be printed separately and attached after the hull has been cleaned up). Anyway, overall we’re pretty pleased with it – the level of detail good, the panel detail has come out well and the ridged ‘skeleton’ looks excellent. The only changes we’ll make will be too the engines, which are too shallow and not well enough defined – other than that we’re good to go and will be ordering the production prints in the next few days.
Please release these so I can give you more of my money.
Any chance on telling us when we can expect the whole fleet/fleets deals on the shop?
Probably a month or so, give or take. We’re aiming to release at Salute on April 20th. The masters have been ordered and will be with us early next week, so we should have enough time.
Wow, thanks for the reply! I’am just waiting to see them so I can order alltogether with the SAC ships in one big row.
Hmmm… 6mm Indonesians, Royal Navy starships, or feed the children… I hate having to make decisions like this.
Surely they’re old enough to fend for themselves ? Send them out at dawn and let them back in the house when it gets dark …
That only works for cats – children tend to try and sneak back in.
Really loving these ships! I like the turrets too – do you intend to cast them seperately, or as part of the ships?
The largest turrets (ie the 2-3 on the capital ships) will be separate, and we should be able to sell them in packs. It also gives us the option of different turret types (eg a missile one). The medium and smaller turrets will be part of the model.
Nice idea – Especially for rules that don’t use huge turret weapons 🙂
Frankly, I’m thinking the larger turrets might bring the chance to use the Plasma Cannon weapons originally thought up for FT. Missile turrets are handy as well as an option though.