"Studio Bergstrom- Start to Finish..." Topic

So, after the TMP post we saw earlier (( TMP link )), I decided to send out a test purchase just to see how good these Studio Bergstrom ships actually were.

I purchase was made on Saturday and I received my product on Tuesday. Very quick turn around.

I purchased 2 of the Cobra mk 2.5s ((aka Viper mkII)), two Triple Revenger Interceptors ((aka TIE Defenders)) and two Zylon Marauders ((aka Old Skool Raiders)). There was a mix up with the order and I got the Tantor fighters ((aka New Skool Raiders)) instead. I quick email to Andrew and everything was fixed and I have the Marauders on the way.

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This is the product straight form the packaging. As you can see, as was my first impression, these figures come with astonishing little flash and casting defects. Very clean and sharp models.
In fact, I was flaberghasted at the quality of these figures for their size and price. It's nothing short of awesome.

For those interested in size…
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This is the Cobra matched up against a Reaper CAV Harpy Gunship. The Reaper fig is considerably bigger, saddly… Which leaves me with my ONLY gripe about this figures.
GAWD, I wish they were bigger!!!!!
I would gladdly pay twice or three times the price for these figures if they were some 50% or more larger with the same casting quality.

So, in my excitement… As Sci-Fi Channel is doing a BSG Marathon right now in leu of the upcoming Season 4 on Friday… I decided to do a quick paint job of one of the Cobras I got.

I started by doing a quick cleaning of the model. Didn't really need it as it was virtually free of flash and mold lines.
I based it on a GW small flight base. I was thinking of basing them 2 to a base… to emulate a pair of wingmen… and then do the raiders in groups of three… But, I don't know if any fighter rules accept that form of basing, so, I simply based this one singly.
((Heh, not like I'm not gonna buy another 20 of them from Berstrom later. :-P))

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This is the fighter based and primed.
A note about primer. I'm a BIG fan of GW's overpriced black primer. Ever since they moved away from that, I've been desperately searching for a adequite replacement. Lots of folks on the Privateer Boards recommended Dupli-Color Sandable Primers… And, for a long time, I've resisted this recommendation. Even though I bought a can a long time ago, I still refused to give it a try.
However, my need for Black Primer compelled me to give this the ol college try and boy howdy am I impressed with it!
It goes on clean, smooth and matte. Dries fast and is quite easy to work with.
It's a bit shiney here only because of the camera flash.

Why black? Because I like black lining my figures, and priming it black helps me do that. Black lining easily gives a sense of depth and detail to the model which I enjoy.

I stove to do a cannon paint job on this guy, so, I found this pictorial resource on the web:
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For the white, I didn't want to just paint white straight away… I like highlighting so, I wanted to start with an off-white or light gray and then highlight up to white.

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I started with Vallejo Stonewall gray over a light coat of brush on white primer. It's a small mini, so, I don't wanna do too many coats as it'll gunk up quick.
So, one quick coat of white primer lets me get the light gray over black quickly and efficiently.

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I then highlight with Ghost Gray and then Skull White. You can barely see the highlight here because of the flash, saddly.

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I then add the red striping and nose art with Bloody Red
then with light tapping of some black I added some lettering… at that scale you won't actually see any letter or number, just dots… so, that's what I did.

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I did a very light coat of gunmetal gray over the engines and added Magic Blue, then Electric Blue and finally a dot of Skull White to do the Thrusters.

Finally, I finished with a couple of coats of Testors Dullcoat to seal it up and there you go!

All done in about 3 hours.

All in all, I rate the Studio Berstrom Experience at a good solid 9. I would give him a ten, but, yeah, I want bigger Vipers, so… Andrew, if you want me to give you a ten… better get me a bigger fighter! :-P

Great work, Andrew!!!
Cheers!
Mike

Nice stuff, and good work. Thanks for sharing the pics

Yep- I love the Bergstrom minis… My BSG fleets:

Colonial:
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Viper close-ups:
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Cylon:
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Great stuff… I use modified FT rules playing BSG

I placed and ordered last week as well and recieved great service also.

Ed

"Yep- I love the Bergstrom minis… My BSG fleets"

Very pretty!

I'm still kicking myself for getting rid of my Babylon 5 Wars Starfuries because they are just the right size compared to these Bergstrom stuff.

And… of all the cross overs I could imagine with BSG, a BSG/Babylon 5 Cross over was both a realistic and visually appealing scenario.

Now with Mongoose going T's Up with regard to B5W, looks like I may not get Starfuries in that size anymore at all. :-(

Cheers!

I picked up both the Orginal BSG ships and fighters and the new stuff. I am using Soulmage's first version of his BSG rules based on ACTA. Very cool. Razor showed the older ships so now I can happily use them both (which I was already going to do but you know).

:-)

Still need to paint mine.

Thanks,

John

Forgot to mention that I liked your guys pics. Very nice. Gives me some inspiration. I also simply LOVE dealing with Drew. Great ships, great service and GREAT prices!

Thanks,

John

Well I gotta tell ya… I have colonial fleets composed of 3 battlestars, 6 Raptors, and around 60 Vipers.

I just about had a breakdown handpainting all those fracking red stripes on the old school Vipers!

Mike, take a look at agentsofgaming.com/oshop.htm

There may be some remaining large-scale fighter minis there. Failing that, try this auction: auction (looks like the contents of the 2nd edition boxed game).

I'm using Bergstrom's capital ships. Then getting the smaller fighters from GZG. Haven't found something to use yet for Raptor in the small scale. anyone finds something drop me a message. Thanky