Finished painting my first order of Studio Bergstrom's newest starship minis, which can be found on his store site over here:
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Some observations, interspersed with photos:
1) This is by far the most modular range of starship minis I've seen to date. The parts are all available individually at a modest surcharge compared to the "stock" configurations, and the "bits" page
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is well-illustrated and includes notes on what fits with what. There are literally millions of variations on the models you can build with these parts, and that's before you start thing about grafting on extra turrets from the Auran and Zaurak ranges or kitbashing from your own stock of parts.
2) Despite the fragile appearance of the ships (all those fins, usually such a disaster for storage and transport) the models are rock-solid once assembled. The tab-and-slot system used for everything works remarkably well. No miscast slots, good tolerances on everything. Every tab has the same width, so even on the shorter slots used on the upper rear of the carrier and dreadnought hulls, you could easily trim a longer tab to fit, opening up even more options for assembling the capital ships. The fins are thick enough that the should never bend in normal usage.
3) As usual for Studio Bergstrom, there's virtually no prep work required before assembly and painting. The models come with the mold lines already filed down, and there's no mold release agent to clean off. Top marks for quality control.
4) The single, solitary quibble I have is the dreadnought hull. It lacks a hole for a flight post, which will need to be drilled out. The center of gravity is probably somewhere slightly ahead of where I mounted mine (and is therefore blocked by a fin) but the difference isn't enough to make balancing it on a mid-sized base an issue. Might not be quite stable enough on a 1" plastic domed hex base, but a washer or Call To Arms large base (which is what I used, with a roofing nail for a post) works fine. This is a very minor point, as it takes all of a minute to drill a suitable hole with a cheap Dremel tool.
5) Compared to GZG's Full Thrust range, or Brigade Models' similarly-sized figures, these tend to be a bit large for their stated classes. The corvette is probably the worst offender, as it's easily a destroyer or heavy destroyer in GZG terms (seen with NSL heavy destroyer).
The Gryphon destroyers are closer to medium/heavy cruiser sized hulls (seen with NSL heavy destroyer).
Cruisers are heavy/battlecruiser sized (seen below with NSL escort cruiser).
The battlecruiser is a closer match, although you could also call it a battleship easily enough (seen with NSL battlecruiser).
The dreadnought is a real brute of a model, and could be a battledreadnought or superdreadnought in GZG scale (seen with NSL battledreadnought).
You can also vary the size and look of any given base hull quite a bit by using larger or smaller fins, attaching varying numbers of cargo pods, and mounting different prows.
The large-ish sizes mean this range will work pretty well as stable mates for Firestorm Armada and Galactic Knights miniatures. According to Shadow Weaver, there are more ships and parts in the works, including some smaller designs to cater to "fleet action" players and a battleship hull that bridges the (rather large) size gap between the current battlecruiser and dreadnought designs.
Myself, I'd like to see a few more prow and bridge options (especially for the bigger ships) including a "giant cannon" prow range for people who like more pronounced spinal mounts. The "pelican" prows have a Klingon style prow tube that can serve for that, but I'd prefer a big, obvious gun barrel option for aesthetic reasons. Other ideas that would be interesting:
-A set of fins with gun barrels along one edge, or a set of "fin gun" parts that could be stuck onto the existing ones.
-Some straight fins, with little or no cant to them, to add even more variety. Maybe a set of fins with engine nacelles on them, for a bit of Trek feel.
-More hulls with more fin slots, especially on the upper surfaces. Fins are great, and the key to customizing your ships, but it's hard to mount one if there's no slot for it. Being able to build X-Wing or "Tall Ship" (lots of vertical fins top and bottom) configurations would be a nice addition. Slots are easy to fill if you don't want to use them all, but almost impossible to add.
All in all, this range is an excellent addition to the market, and has tremendous expansion potential. Well cast, reasonably priced, easy to customize through simple part swaps. A+ all around.
