"Can anyone identify this ship?" Topic

God only knows where or when I got this thing. The sculpting is fairly crude, and the underside is hollow, but it's that bright shiny pewter that was briefly in vogue right after the big lead scare back in oh, god, I don't want to think about how long ago that was.

Anyone recognize it?

Pewtercraft Galaktik Taktik figure – not sure which class (probably a superdread or behemoth) but it's one of the Earth Colonies designs. Manufacturer website:

link

Thought they were out of production, but apparently not.

From the site's main page:

Update

As far as I have been able to determine, Pewtercraft is out of business. This website will remain as a reference source, but I havne't been able to contact them in over a year.

Last Modified: July 10, 2003 by Thomas Pope

Alas, they're long gone…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Whoop, so I see. Been on hiatus since 2002-ish, on further research.

As far as I can tell Valiant Enterprises (I think still in Madison, WI) still sells these in their stardate 3000 line.

link

Dan,

any similarities between the Valiant Stardate 3000 line – which IIRC predates the Pewtercraft line by circa 10 years- in entirely superficial. I've owned both Pewtercraft models (which I've since sold off) and Valiant Stardate 3000 ships (which were my first starship minis -ever!- back in the 1970s and which I've been acquiring more recently in small numbers); the Pewtercraft ships are characterized by being usually one piece castings, while the Valiant ships are multi-part kits.

Hope this helps!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Whoop, so I see. Been on hiatus since 2002-ish, on further research.

"That's what you get for missing staff meetings, Doctor!"

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

They are definitely not Valiant, nor sold by them, although they do have a sort of Valiant meets Federation feel to them.

They are definitely not Valiant,

And, yet, that is what I first thought. DEFINITELY need new glasses…

Valiant were my second acquired starship minis in the early 70's, only preceded by Minifigs.

Was it Pewtercraft or Archive that did the sliced periwinkle shell ships?

Doug

Pewtecraft did the shell ships.

The Pewtercraft and Valiant ships (along with the Superior Starfleet Wars line) all used model railroad train parts as a bits for the designs with the saucer on some of the the Valiant and Pewtercraft ships being wheel hubs or the front disk of a steam engine. The Pewtercraft and Valiant line do have a similar design asthetic with more pipes and open spaces but as Leland says, pewterfraft are usually one piece minis where Valiant have lots of pieces.

The Starfleet Wars (Galactic Knights) line while using the same bits, used more of a solid hull base with bits added on for detail instead of bits being the actual hull design theory.

Well look at that. You learn something new every day.

Thanks, Dean; I think of those slightly asymmetrical ships, buried somewhere in the basement, every time I wander through beads-and-stuff sections of chain craft stores. ;->=

Doug

There is a big hobby store in Minneapolis I hit once in a while that has a huge train section and has a wall of train bits so I spent some time last time I was there looking over that wall and did find some bits that I recognize on those lines – which were all created around the same time in the early 70's I believe.

The Archive range is also from about the same time but they don't use any train bits for details but do have a similar feel.

The few Archive I have have little detail at all; could have stood some train pieces.

However, according to Reviresco, when they had lead starships, detail is the responsibility of the painter… ;->=

Doug

Reviresco's starships may not be permanently gone. I emailed him when the pages were first taken down and he said they planned to put them back up eventually, but it was low priority. Still no sign of them months later, so I guess he wasn't kidding.

Knew I should've bought that Ralnai fleet when I had the chance. :)

I'll ping John McEwan about his ships; they're classics in more ways than one IMHO…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

A fine idea, BWP. The more people pester, the more likely they are to make a timely return.

Now, Leland, we've all come to realize it's IMNSHO.

I'll continue to tease about them, but elegance was also an appropriate term. Course, you can get the card kits, Rich.

Wish I could remember the name of the 'micro-armor' rule set and figs they had. I've a never-used land train in the basement. Has a tower on the main 'car' suitable for a WWII battleship.

Wish I'd gotten some of the 'lesser' beasts…

Back on topic, thanks, Rich, for the link; finally went to look, and realized I've have an H Class Behemoth in the basement, somewhere. Woof!

Doug

Edit: Just browsed Starship Combat News for unidentified ship, and amongst the identified, found some Reviresco with a lot more detail than some of my ships.

Have to eat my words!

Beastly Beast,

the 6mm line was the "Days of Empire" series that yours truly cooked up; yes, I designed a number of those insane machines of mass destruction, while Allan Wolf produced the masters.

As for the ships, I just received an e-mail from John who reiterated that he is going to bring them back to the webstore soon (he just hasn't gotten around to it yet). As for my personal accumulation of Reviresco starship minis, I just came across a bag of six (6) Rep-Com Lancer-class destroyers, and had an inspiration for converting them to some handy light fast attack gunboats for Silent Death… waste not, want not… Mwahahahaaaa!!!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

I'll continue to tease about them, but elegance was also an appropriate term. Course, you can get the card kits, Rich.

Useless to me, I'm afraid – I want ships, not 28mm terrain pieces. They're quite large, and my days of playing starship games with cardboard ship ended with the Renegade Legion rules.

Rich, actually, they're 1/72 scale (25mm) scale terrain pieces, but I get your point. I'll keep at John and see if I can't gently nudge him along faster in bringing the ships back to his online shop…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Some threadnomancy… they're baaaack:

link

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Impressive nudging; only a little over a year. ;->=

Now that you've shamed me by bringing back my "Have to eat my words!", I will say my Days of Empire train is only exceeded slightly in my love of strange locomotive delights by a friend's gift to me of a bash attempt at a Squat Landtrain, from 1/35 Maus and three German armored train car kits.

Not a train buff, but LOVE the really weird stuff. I think it goes back to Dr. Zhivago…

Oh, and thanks on the Reverisco craft; nice to know they're more than a eBay option again.

Doug

Edit: It just hit me; I believe that I picked up a pack of Starhawk fighters at the 1980 GenCon for a never-realized BSG game. May predate the purchase of my first Valiants!

I know that it predates, by about two months, my daughter. ;->=