FASA Starfleet Intelligence Ship (Bladeship)

[Alternate Google Drive location here: <https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wi7NCdC8uOfNfRkNqp9nRhg5MfmAQTFJ?usp=drive_link>]

Note: I’ve created a Patreon to support my modelling projects. If you’ve found my work useful, have the means, and would like to support my efforts, please give it a look. I will continue to release my designs for free on Cults 3D and Thingiverse, but Patreon members will get early access and in progress updates on my new projects, and it will serve as a central location for announcements. Thanks for reading!

Returning to FASA designs, this kit supports an obscure design that has recently been the topic of much conversation in the obscure corners of the Internet where FASA Trek fans congregate.

The USS Claymore, presumably a Starfleet intelligence ship, was featured prominently on the front and back covers of the FASA Trek RPG supplement “Star Fleet – Intelligence Manual”. However, it was neither referenced in the book, given game stats, nor included in any other products. These two views are the only official information we have on it.

According to David Deitrick, the original artist, his “Bladeship” concept was intended to be much more fleshed out in the supplement. It ended up getting removed from the contents of the book during development, but the cover art remained.

He describes his intentions for the ship in a blogpost:

> Bladeships were packed full of sensors and receivers for use in reconnaissance and surveillance. It had some weaponry, but it was meant to fight running away (it had two torpedo tubes firing aft but only one firing forward). It was the fastest ship in the ST:RPG universe but couldn’t take a whole lot of damage and had sleath-shields that were the closest thing Starfleet had to a cloaking device…in other words a combined AC-130, submarine and “black helicopter”.

Although never receiving official game stats or description, several fannon sources have done so in the years since, most notably on Bryan Jecko’s fasaststcs.com.

Included Ships

Claymore type bladeship

The USS Claymore, cover girl of the Starfleet Intelligence Manual.

Example kitbashes

In addition to the Claymore type design, I’ve included a number of kitbash models to demonstrate how to reuse these parts to create new ship designs. The Claymore parts are a good match for mixing with many of the other smaller federation ship designs, such as the Oberth and Ranger.

Zip Files

Zip files are included in the following google drive locations:

• claymore-ship-stls.zip – Contains the combined, ready to print, ship files.
• claymore-parts-stls.zip – Contains all of the individual part STL files used to create the combined ship files.
• claymore-blender-files.zip – Contains the source blender files used to generate the parts, as well as files with the parts assembled as used to generate the combined ship files.

Notes on scaling and working with Blender

My target scale for all source files and output STL files is 1:1000, However, I generally recommend 1:2500 or smaller given the detail level of the model. Although these files have not been extensively tested through printing, they are intended to be resized to match common modelling and miniatures scales.

Target scale - Scale STL files to: - Notes

• 1/3900 - 0.25641026 - FASA miniature scale
• 1/3788 - 0.26399155 - ADB Starline 2400 scale
• 1/3125 - 0.32 - ADB Starline 2500 scale
• 1/2500 - 0.4 - The Trek modelers "Golden scale"
• 1/1600 - 0.625 - TOS 3-Ship Set scale
• 1/1400 - 0.714285714 - Common resin model scale
• 1/650 - 1.538461538 - Modelling scale
• 1/537 - 1.862197393 - Common scale for TMP models
• 1/350 - 2.857142857 - Large scale

Blender

Blender is free, which to be honest was the primary factor in my decision to learn it. There are many fine video and text tutorials available online if you're interested in learning more. For a basic tutorial on moving and joining objects in Blender(which should be the minimum you need to know when working with these parts), see this instructables tutorial.

You can use File -&gt; Import -&gt; Stl (.stl) and File -&gt; Export -&gt; Stl (.stl) to load or save STL files in blender.

Note: This kit was built using Blender 3.1.

Post-processing STL output

Although all of the STL files included have been tested as valid watertight meshes, joining the parts together and exporting new STL files can introduce small errors that may cause issues with slicing programs. I recommend any STL files you create are checked using a program like Netfabb Basic free edition. Doing a simple "Close All Holes" repair has fixed most of the issues I've run into so far. If you do run into issues with mesh quality, please let me know.

File manifest

Parts

The claymore-parts-stls.zip file contains all of the part STL model files listed below. Note that part files are not meant to be printed on their own, but instead they are meant to be combined to create new ship designs that can then be output as joined files and printed.

Part - Description

• claymore-blade.stl - “Blade” sensor component
• claymore-deflector-housing.stl - Deflector unit and attached hull.
• claymore-nacelle.stl - Warp nacelle including structure at front connecting it with the deflector housing.
• claymore-neck-bottom.stl - Bottom section of neck connecting deflector housing to blade.
• claymore-neck-top.stl - Top section of neck connecting saucer with deflector housing.
• claymore-saucer.stl - Primary saucer hull, containing bridge module.
• claymore-nacelle-alt-bussard.stl - Nacelle variant with TOS style Bussard collector attached.
• claymore-nacelle-alt-standalone.stl - Nacelle variant with no front attachment.
• claymore-blade-thick.stl - Widened alternate part to support smaller prints.
• claymore-neck-bottom-thick.stl - Widened alternate part to support smaller prints.
• claymore-neck-top-thick.stl - Widened alternate part to support smaller prints.

Combined ship STLs

The claymore-ship-stls.zip file provides the printable ships created using the parts included in this kit.

Part - Description

• ship-claymore.stl - Standard Claymore type ship including lower blade.
• ship-claymore-nacelle-only.stl - Claymore type without the blade or lower neck
• ship-claymore-kitbash-dual-nacelles.stl - Kitbash that includes two alternate nacelles with a TOS Bussard collector at the front, mounted to the saucer.
• ship-claymore-kitbash-saladin-style.stl - Kitbash that mounts the alternate Bussard nacelle under the neck, in a similar manner to the Saladin class.
• ship-claymore-kitbash-ranger-nacelles.stl - Kitbash using nacelles and pylons from the Ranger model include in my 2nd FASA Federation Kit.
• ship-claymore-kitbash-oberth-nacelles-alt1.stl - Kitbash that includes Oberth style nacelles mounted to the sides of the saucer.
• ship-claymore-kitbash-oberth-nacelles-alt2.stl - Kitbash that includes Oberth style nacelles mounted using Ranger style pylons.
• ship-claymore-thick.stl - Alternate standard version with wider neck and blade to better support smaller prints.
• ship-claymore-thick-no-blade.stl - Thicker version without the blade. Intended to support scenarios where you want to construct the blade out of alternate materials and attach post print.

Blender files

The claymore-blender-files.zip file contains parts files, containing the STL parts arranged as used in the sample ship designs, and parts source files, containing the raw blender objects used to create the parts.

License

I'm releasing this under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. You're free to distribute and modify these files (even for commercial use), provided you attribute the creator and distribute your contributions under the same license.