"What do you want to see in a 15mm sci-fi vehicle???" Topic

Hi Everybody,

I am seriously considering setting up a 15mm sci-fi company primarily aimed at developing 15mm sci-fi vehicles for your table top and possibly some infantry (although I think the infantry is well catered for currently apart from alien hordes perhepas) but I cant say too much right now. However, what kind of things would you guys like to see in your 15mm sci-fi vehicles? Do you want more near future/low tech stuff or hard high tech/far future sci-fi vehicles etc?

High tech. Grav drives, energy weapons, shield generators, reactive armour, AI, the works. Aliens definitely a bonus.

The words "sculpted by John Bear Ross" go a long way with me.

The words "sculpted by Jon Tuffley" go a long way with me.

The words "sculpted in 28mm" go a long way with me ;)…

Support vehicles. Heavy transports – something that could carry a unit of light mecha/heavy power armour. Comms/command vehicles.

We have loads of APCs and Tanks on the way from various manufacturers but it's the other military vehicles that give an army a bit of colour and character.

Oh and more civilian vehicles like the ones Khurasan released recently – how about a civilian grav bus/coach? Or some vehicles that could be used at a spaceport, like fuel tankers or cargo carriers. Non military may be as useful and as marketable as military vehicles.

There's not many 15mm scale vehicles that I would buy if it said "sculpted in 28mm". Those have a tendancy to be 28mm scale.

Sculpting is not really applicable here as the primary focus will be on AFV development to begin with for which I will do the model making/development.

@Blackfang: How would you like to see the AI portrayed on a vehicle?

Sculpting is not really applicable here as the primary focus will be on AFV development to begin with for which I will do the model making/development.

So you're doing the sculpting then. When we say "sculpting" we mean "produce the master model".

Weird war stuff,Walkers,highteched tanks,Fallout inspired vehicles,infantry etc.

15mm Weird war stuff is frequently asked in Weird war forums but since only manufacturer of walkers and infatry (Dream pod 9) is overpriced people will love to see more of these

Hard high tech puh-leuhze!

@Margard: We? Again, I cant say too much at the moment but there may not be a need for a master. Hence no sculpting! But its in the initial stages of investigation and feasibility (costs).

"@Margard: We? "

McWong73, Insomniac, me.

I cant say too much at the moment but there may not be a need for a master.

OK, so you're going to use a CAD system and get them 3D printed? I'd still call creating a 3D master in a CAD system "sculpting" though.

The next question is: Would you be prepared to pay a little extra for a highly detailed model? Say £10.00 GBP for a light grav tank or £25.00 GBP for a platoon? Or would that be too much to ask?

@ Margard: Not 3d printed but that is the second option if costs are too high.

The next question is: Would you be prepared to pay a little extra for a highly detailed model? Say £10.00 GBP GBP for a light grav tank or £25.00 GBP GBP for a platoon? Or would that be too much to ask?

GZG's tanks sell for about that price, so shouldn't be a problem.

I think we need to get back to the original question rather than trying to work out how someone is going to produce his new product. Let's just be happy that someone wants to add his creativity to the hobby.

Regarding cost: The more expensive the model the harder it is to justify the spend, but then if it's a great design money will not be an option.

I like tracked and wheeled vehicles more than hover and grav-ones, I am a near-future guy.

I'd like to see lots of light recon and scout vehicles like the trikes and quads from the Westwood RTS DUNE and Command and Conquer games!

Like these but in 15mm

link

Alien-looking vehicles. We already have a nice, large selection of human near and far future AFVs.

Dropships and gunships. We lack dropships and gunships and small-ish one man VTOL fighters.

I second the dropship and gunship suggestion. Not that great a selection of VTOLs yet.

1st off, Civilian Vehicles…. Cars, trucks, bikes, etc… etc… Offroad especially. Some strap on weapons and armor would be nice too… High Tech especially. For the Military, patrol vehicles, light recon etc.. etc… Things that really make sense directly supporting Infantry.

Grav Skimmer, Wheeled, Tracked, Walker suspensions in that order.

Price wise 10 pounds is on the high end for most models. Figure in the 4 to 6 pound range. Or really try to keep it under $10. USD

I will second Moqwama's vote we currently have nothing that looks like those trikes.

I am looking for niche vehicles, nobody makes a flamethrower tank for example.

If you decide to make an AFV please make a generic hull that can be modded into an APC, AFV, MBT or just about any specialty armored vehicle. The kit should also have armor upgrades and cupola options. Engineering upgrades would be cool.

Put me in as another person wanting alien-looking vehicles. Between Ground Zero, Combat Wombat, Old Crow, and a couple of other outfits there are massive numbers of AFVs (wheeled, tracked, hover, and grav) out there, but precious few vehicles that look alien.

If you do Grav vehicles, maybe try to stay away from the "floating tank" aesthetic? The vest majority of grav vehicles I've seen are just tanks with "grav pods" mounted on a flight stand. Realistically, I think a grav tank would be designed more like a vehicle armored helicopter -- a gunship, basically :)

Another idea I am looking for is something along the lines of a generic 40K low tech orc battle wagon that can have infinite modifications so no two vehicle look alike.

The first vehicle I was going to look at developing was a common hull chassis that is effectively an APC and you then buy upgrade kits for it that are easily interchangeable. The first vehicle, is effectively conceived along with many upgrade options and how they look. It is intially going to be either wheeled or tracked with a grav upgrade kit. The company I want to start (pending costs) would mimic a real life future defence company. So you would have TUSK and NBC upgrades along with assault engineer versions and long range operational versions as well as a mobile bunker version and an aerial interception and tank hunter version as well as command & control version. This would then be supported with light/scout/reconaissance vehicles including buggy's, and air support as well. Also military support vehicles for scenarios. So pretty much you guys all see the holes in the market that I see. I drew sci-fi vehicles from a young age whenever I could even before I saw Star Wars and the like. And at the moment I have so many ideas for different near and far future vehicles that if I dont get this going, Im going to go crazy.

"if I dont get this going, Im going to go crazy"

then go ahead, stay sane and make us all poorer for your efforts!

:D

What needs to be made are "vehicle families". For instance something like the United States Army's Stryker, where you have a base model then that is supplemented with mission/function specific variants i.e. IFV, Command, Ambulance, Mobile Protected Gun System, Engineer, et. al.
This would be great with near future, far future or alien vehicles. GZG does this to some extent but it wouldn't hurt to have more manufacturers do that too.

The first vehicle I was going to look at developing was a common hull chassis that is effectively an APC

Sounds great! Make sure you provide it with several different mobility options: Wheeled, tracked, grav, hover and high-mobility wheeled (big fat tyres). Maybe even a walker version?

Just saw your previous post(I'm a slow typer)-that's basically what I want to see- you make something like that and you've got your first customer

Light ATV buggys with spider legs, like the ones from Borderlands. Light 2 or 4-man hopper style aerodyne vehicles. VTOL gunships that look like they might fly (AV series from Cyberpunk2020). Civilian vehicles, like the colonist vehicles from Alien, or futuristic cargo handling equipment for a spaceport.

If you are going to make a basic hull with several variants then maybe try to design them so we can use the bits for converting anything from an old deodorant container to a matchbox car easily.

Oh and make them available separately.

@CorSecEng: That was the plan- to have them as separate upgrade kits, separate tureret versions, armour and mobility upgrades so that the kits themselves can be used for conversions as well so people dont have to spend ages making their own one off conversions and then continue to have to do so.

Another vote for Dropships/Gunships.

i'd like to see more Hard near future sci fi looking at equipment 20 – 30 years in the future as opposed to lots more anti grav tanks etc.

Add on resin extras at reasonable cost would also be a good idea, eg gun turrets, ECM pods, Engine pods, landing pads/ feet etc to detail existing models would have a largish potential market.

Cheers j

Also been mentioned, but can we have egineering add ons, eg mine plough etc, cheers

On a more detail-oriented note, could we please have some vehicles whose hatches will actually fit the figs they're supposed to be carrying? I know tanks hatches always look smaller than you'd expect and APCs are stuffed full like clown cars, but a few scifi APC/IFV designs with nice big hatches that could actually accomodate bulky power armored troops would be nice. Power armor can't contort and squeeze as well as a human in fatigues can, and they can't fit through the same kind of hatches.

Similarly, alien vehicles will look a lot more alien if their hatches (and crew compartments) are shaped and sized for generic 6' tall humanoids. Limits their usefulness to people (and therefore sales) but it's an important part of the aesthetics.

Also been mentioned, but can we have egineering add ons, eg mine plough etc, cheers

Add "exterior carrying racks for deployable combat drones" to the list, would you? I can easily see advanced AI-driven combots replacing (or at least supplementing) conventional infantry for providing close support for vehicles, and being able to carry your own complement of them would be very scifi to me.

@Chief Lackey Rich: All of your suggestions would be included in variant/upgrade options including a drone carrier/launcher. Also sizeable carrying compartments and hatches are one of my own preferences as well as a believable power armour APC.

Engineering assault vehicle would include dozer blades, demolition 'gun', mine launcher and flame throwers. TUSK version might include a poison gas discharger defence system. As well as incoming missile intervention systems, smoke/phosphorous grenade launchers, camo netting rails, spaced re-active armour, applique armour, stowage bins, stowage, additional fuel tanks, ammunition storage extension, etc etc.

What would you guys think to a shaped hull blank with no detail, probably made from resin and you can then choose from a series of detailed hull 'top' plates, 'side' detailed plates and drive option kits, as well as armour/weapon add ons and turrets and other options/kits?

Lots more Civilian Vehicles.
link

Quads and gators , small civilian utility vehicles . Small dune buggies , would be the most common vehicles .

I like high tech far future stuff, the current market seems to put out only current or really near future stuff. There can only be so many MBT's you take the tracks off and call it a grav tank. Everybody does that.

Let's get imaginative. How about some hard angles or soft bubble curvy type designs. What about tentacles? Could be for manipulation, sensors (like antenna) or melee electro weapons. Get rid of tracks and wheels. If aliens are advanced enough to fight on other planets, they probably don't rely on ground locomotion.

But if were going with the status quo, I'd like to see some 1-man aero-fighters, buggys & vehicles that actually fit a squad of men.

Edit: Civilian & utility vehicles too

What would you guys think to a shaped hull blank with no detail, probably made from resin and you can then choose from a series of detailed hull 'top' plates, 'side' detailed plates and drive option kits, as well as armour/weapon add ons and turrets and other options/kits?

Too much visible interlocking component design leads to bad fits, finished models that still look like "Baby's First Plasticard Project", and even more of the slab-sided neo-military look we have so much of now. Slabs are also subject to casting flaws that confound even the pros.

If you really want to go for pluggable components, do chassis/control, drive, and payload.

@Blackfang: How would you like to see the AI portrayed on a vehicle?

No cockpit, no crew access hatches. Loads of sensors.

Maybe take a look at some Star Wars and Ghost in the Shell droid stuff.

Like the Battle LA flying drones.

Near future and post/apoc buggies, trikes, and the like.

Weird war II type walkers, and vehicles. (think Gear Krieg)

That's my two credits

Mecha!

I love mecha I do.

I love the AT 43 Russian stuff, it has a fantastic retro Russian 50'S feel to it, sadly in 28mm, so if anybody was to do something similar in 15mm I'd buy loads.

also something along these lines would be great

link

Here's some images of the russian 50's aesthetic I'd love to see, thinking of the early bug like Russian space programe.

link

Would love to see this style in 15mm, as far as I know, nobody's doing anything like it at the moment.

Cheers Jon

I'd quite like to see some more mechs and walkers that tend towards the hard sci-fi end of the spectrum. More like the APU's from Matrix Revolutions than Gundam

Worm

So you guys want everything!?

As far as I can tell, drop ships, engineering vehicles, civillian vehicles, mecha, and buggy's are required? Not much then!?

I'm sure we can think of some more if you give us a chance

Worm