"Fighters "plus" at two scales - sources?" Topic

Okay, I have

5150 Fighter Command (Fighters, of course) – 5150FC

5150 Carrier Command (basically a CVL Capship with fighters and possibly escort(s) – 5150 CC

5150 Star Navy (Capships/Fleets) – 5150SN

I want to start with 5150 FC using fighters/bombers/etc. to start a narrative game as a newbie pilot then proceed to develop the character into a Capship Commander in 5150CC, and possibly into an "Sky Marshall" – my term – for 5150 SN.

What I need/want – at least a set of various models of fighters for 5150 FC and the same looking models in what I will call "fleet scale" (Light/Medium/Heavy Fighters and Bombers/Assault Ships) for 5150 CC.

It's been a while since I sold off most of my GZG starships so I am "out of he loop" on what is manufactured now days.

If you're OK with using background-specific designs, I suspect the easiest solution would be the definitely not star wars stuff from Studio Bergstrom – he has a fighter range about an inch long, and microfighters for fleet games.

There's also Brigade, which does some of their fighters in both scales:

Fleet Scale

Larger Scale

Oh, I didn't know about their larger scale fighters – good call. :-)

Yes, the Bergstrom ones are very nice.

If you want really large minis for dogfighting, you can also consider the Titanium diecast metal, Star Wars, and Battlestar Galactica minis as well.

They look very impressive on the game table, and come prepainted.

I'm using old range of Silent Death plastic fighters from EM4 and old Star Blazers plastic ships from hobby link japan. All of them very cheap, and I think they blend nicely.

They blend brilliantly IMHO, and with the Yen still weak versus the Dollar, even the new Yamato 2199 model kits are a steal.

Those here in the States can get the Silent Death:The Next Millennium plastic fighter sprues direct from our Metal Express online store (follow link below), with the added advantage of all the other metal fighters, shuttles, cargo boats, gunboats, escort vessels, and bulk carrier models that are part of the Silent Death universe.

Oh, and that inventory does include a pretty nice variety of styles of starship designs, from fairly conventional anime styles to very alien looking craft of the ASP Technocracy, to the biotech Night Brood fighter symbiotes.

Well worth a look IMHO (and I freely admit my personal bias!), but in all seriousness, if you don't at least check out what's available right now from HobbyLink Japan in both the classic Space Battleship Yamato (Starblazers) line and the new Yamato 2199 series, you are just plain NUTS!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Mr. Erickson,

To clarify the OP, are the SD miniatures in two different scales so I can use the larger ones for 5150FC and the smaller ones as fighters off Capships for 5150CC?

I don't think so – I think the topic took a "these are neat" diversion from your actual question.

Well, in spite of Leland gnashing teeth, they are available in two, and perhaps three sizes.

Normal SD, cheap up-sized soft 'toys' from China, and there were, and I think still are, a few designs available in resin that are comparatively huge.

However, for your purposes, I feel the SD start at the larger 'fighter' size.

Doug

Some of the Shapeways guys make things in a couple of scales, usually more SW or Wing Commander, IIRC. Star Ranger has a listing of Shapeways shops.

SD looked great (had an Orca and a pair of Piranhas years ago) but I didn't see two scales… Otherwise a nice range of figures…

The largest were limited release resins from ICE, as 3 – 1, supposed to be three times as large. Not seeing them on the Metal Express site, though I thought there was talk of resurrecting.

link

The soft plastic ones seem to be stolen IP, but still show up in cheap import stores. The direct copies of Star Wars are somewhat harder to find.

Seems it would be convenient to be able to call on a Lucasfilm's stable of attorneys.

Doug

I think the topic took a "these are neat" diversion from your actual question.

Guilty. Couldn't resist the eye candy…

Alas, our SD:TNM figures are "1 inch scale" as a rule, in that they'll fit a 1 inch hex (warhounds and bulk cruisers are two hex models, and some of them have a bit more presence as it were).

Regarding the larger toys from China, they are indeed rip-offs copied from our original plastics many years ago. All efforts to get the perps to honor the SD:TNM IP have come to naught, as like Doug says, it is indeed convenient to have high priced corporate law lawyers on retainer for resolving such acts of IP piracy when the perps operate out of a foreign country…

Regarding our resin 3 to 1 scale models, that is something we've had to postpone due to limited resources… for now. We still have a bunch of the masters, and we're not going to stop working on the previous contractor to either cooperate with us to restart production, or return those masters they have in their possession so we may seek out a new contractor to handle the resin casting.

This thread has got me to thinking about the possibility of producing series of fleet scale versions of the SD:TNM fighters starting with our twelve Core Ships…. something we'll explore in more depth in the new year I reckon.

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

That may well be a notion worth pursuing, actually – I definitely found the OP's idea interesting. :-)

I actually ran some SD:TNM at my FLGS over Thanksgiving weekend (using the Fly 'Til You Die scenario from Rules of Warfare) which was very well received even using my limited selection of painted figures – going to hit the paints this weekend and expand the range I have ready to go and run it again this weekend; since quite a few folks are AWOL due to Christmas it's an ideal game and has already attracted quite a bit of interest :)

The ships are also extremely well priced (around the $3 USD mark per ship for most of them from what I can see) and I'm definitely entertaining expanding my fleet in the near future!

Bob,

Excellent. The FTYD scenario from Rules of Warfare aka The Astro Smash is indeed a great way to introduce people to the game. I am also fond of the Wingman Smash variant where players receive two of the same ship at each tier, giving the players twice the opportunities to blast someone into atoms…

I too am painting up some more ships to expand my own squadrons, some Kashmere Commonwealth craft that gave sat too long in a half completed state. I have my beady, evil little compound eyes set on rolling into the new year restarting some monthly or even weekly open games of SD:TNM at the local game stores in my area. It'll also give me an excuse to roll out some of the Yamato kits in their new guises as Warhounds in Terran Space…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Dom,

I've added the OPs idea to my list of things to cover in the near future with an eye to 2015… As we're already on track with developing a fleet action game system using the Metal Express dice mechanics, having some readily recognizable fleet scale fighters would be a very handy indeed…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

I'll have to call off topic again.

Do as I say, mind you. Almost asked a question about Metal Express distribution.

PM incoming, Leland.

Doug

I'd like to know more about what you're asking there as well, Beast – care to share?