"who makes plastic spaceships?" Topic

I'm looking for plastic spaceships to use for a Full thrust game.

I have 11 children (aged 3 to 14) and parents playing in a campaign where they start off in a small ship and as they successfully complete missions get promoted and of course take command of a larger ship.

The parents are concerned about lead and without getting into the safety debate, I would like to know if there are suppliers of plastic spaceships that I can point the families to.

Games workshop makes some very nice plastic spaceships. Unless they raised the price they are 2 for 15 bucks, which isn't bad considering the quality.

All of the ships are of approximately the same size however so you may need to find something else for the smaller or bigger ones.

Try Holistic Designs. They make a box of plastic miniatures for their Noble Armada game.

holistic-design.com/NA/BasicSets.htm#SlipsLine

I believe it is EM-4 that is selling the plastic ships that came in the Silent Death New Milennium boxed set. I think 48 ships of 12 different types for fairly cheap.

Yes.

em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Science_Fiction.html

scroll to the bottom.

You could always go super cheap and use wall anchors. They look remarkably like spaceships, and come in varying sizes. (I'm building a fleet from 'em!) If you want funky-looking-but-otherwise-useless fins, most wall anchors have a nice horizontal slit through which you can stick custom cut cardboard or plastic wings or pylons.

I'm also building ships out of craft beads stuck along a thin metal rod. They make great near-future reaction-drive type vessels (which would likely be cylindrical). You can get a big bag of cheap plastic beads in a wide array of shapes for about $3 at any craft store, and let the kids build their own ships!

Another idea for more exotic vessels would be to check places like "Oriental Traders", dollar stores, or other party supply outfits for cheap plastic spaceships (like party favor bags, etc.)

Of course, you might let the parents know that most miniature manufacturers today use lead-free pewter alloys, not lead.

I'll second Parzival. Also, primed and painted ships wouldn't be dangerous to handle even if they were pure lead. Come to think of it, there's probably more of a toxin hazard from the solvents in the primer and sealer than in cleaning and handling a lead mini.

The old galoob micromachines made several from star wars, star trek, babylon 5, aliens, predator, and thier own designs. You can find them in antique malls and collectible stores fairly cheap if loose 25 cents to a dollar a lot more expensive if still in the package. I use quiet a few of them in my full thrust fleet

While not 'plastic', there are some lines of resin minis you could use. To most people they feel light enough that 'plastic' is a good enough description.

DLD Productions makes a bunch of ships including the Vin'Grun fleet:

dldproductions.com/spcbsdpg.html

Force XXI Miniatures makes 4 different fleets of resin space ships:

midiowa.com/colsten/StarShips.html

Quite a while ago, I bought two boxes of Star Trek ships from a discount store; Target, Wal-Mart, Cosco...don't remember. Each box had about 15 different ships for around 8 dollars or so. I son't know if these are still available but it might be worth it to check out your local discount and toy stores.

The Noble Armada 'Ships of the Line' box is good value for money and they come in different sizes - perfect for your promotion idea.

The eM4 ones are nice too but they are strictly speaking fighters and have large cockpits.

To be specific, I got my SOTL box as a Crazy Special from Milsim Australia.

Thanks,

Milsims will get a telephone call and the other web sites may get an order

We carry the EM-4 spaceships as well as the flying bases.

If you're in the US we're probably cheaper due to postage costs.

Bob

www.tindictator.com

Use legos. Simple, cheap, and fast.
I've seen some nice things done with them at conventions.

Check Ebay for Micro Machines spaceships. I get them for about a buck apiece.

Here's a good source of plans and ideas for building Lego spaceships:

link

Some of the ships from DP9's Jovain Chronicles are plastic. Namely the Jovian carrier and destroyer, and the CEGA battleship and destroyer.

I think that the DP9 ships are resin and not plastic.

Shalom,

Maksim-Smelchak.

Also, remember that many miniatures manufacturers nowadays use lead-free "white metal" alloys - so just because a miniature is *metal* doesn't mean that it contains *lead*.

Regards,

Oerjan

you could always find at any garage sale the Milton Bradly Star Wars Monopoly game and use the plastic hotels that are Imperial Star destroyers and the YT-1300 frieghter. there are 13 of each in there and there are plastic cubes with fighters on them cheap fast fleets

try modifying the crap out of modern/wwII naval models, and use the halves of bombs from 1/72 or 1/48 model plane accessory kits. this has worked and is still working for me. they look great, are very militaristic, and are downright intimidating to see (especially en masse).

there's something about a fleet of u-boat looking models that travel through space that gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Funny about the lead fears when certain plastics can be almost as dangerous when ingested. But it would take a lot of both to really cause problems.

teutonic,

Got any pics? Those sound interesting.

teutonic: "there's something about a fleet of u-boat looking models that travel through space that gives me a warm fuzzy feeling."

Y'know, whenever I say things like that, people assume it's the lead-in to a Phalon joke. :)

That said, you're right, bomb and missile bits from aircraft models are a great place to derive ships from. IIRC it's Tamiya that has several "ordnance" kits available that consist of nothing but bombs and missiles, just waiting to be converted.

Rich

If you want lots of ships CHEAP, try this (imported from another thread):

American Science and Surplus has ships from the old Buck Rogers Battle for the 25th Century game here:

link

The prices are also REALLY right:
27785 BR FIGHTER PLANES, (96) $1.00/EACH 27786 BR GUN PODS, (14) $0.75/EACH 30331 BR SPACE SHUTTLES, (24) $1.00/EACH 30332 BR WAR BIRDS, (36) $1.00/EACH
While somewhat simplistic models, the ships are very cheap, and paint up reasonably well. They make good cannon-fodder level escort ships for your big Full Thrust games, or for those of you who are into modelling big space stations, etc., they make an excellent source of very small ships to fly around, land, take off, etc.
These are very small and simple pieces. They range, IIRC, between about 1/2" and 1" long.
Also, the "gun pod" is a nice looking piece that could double as a satellite (sp?) or a gun emplacement to stick on something else.

If you wanted to use them with the BFG ships others have suggested, they would be small fighters, scouts and similar. However, they make a nice economical alternative at one to four cents apiece.

There are lots of plastic kits around based on Japanese anime. Have a look at Hobby Japan.

Converted subs!? That would be nice! Reminds me of The Course of Empire with refited nuclear submarines prawling the depths of space and fighting the enemy in the photosphere of the sun!

Not that you want to hear this, but it is MUCH more likely that the "sharpness" of the ships is the dangerous part of them. But you get that with lead free AND plastic. I also prefer lead free, but with a 3 year-old, they would be MUCH safer locking up the lead ships (there is also the flashing and filings, and those are serious, but disposable) than leaving plastic ones sitting around. My 2 cents. Also, many resins are shown to be cancer-causing. The filings/shavings can be ingested and inhaled and are not inert.

Got any pics, teutonic?

Hello!?

I take it that you doesn't have any pics then!

Teutonic! You could at least answer my questions!