"Best Manufacturers for Fleet Scale Starship Miniatures?" Topic

Been a while since I have done any Full Thrust gaming. Out of touch as to who is currently out there producing nice fleet scale miniatures. Aside from GZG and Studio Bergstrom, what other manufacturers are producing miniatures these days?

Ravenstar and Brigade would be the first two that come to mind. And there's a lot on shapeways, why don't you check SCN
star-ranger.com/Home.htm
and check the forum as well as Dean no longer updates the main page because the forum covers it so well. star-ranger.com/forum

Robert

I've got some Bab 5 and Turning Point fleet scale minis, if you're interested. nvdoyle at gmail dot com.

Rather fond of the Turning Point myself.

May I suggest a perusal of Iron Wind Metals? Some of the Aerotech are a bit 'scale-less', and at the same time, have a look at the Galactic Conflict in the Stars figs.

I picked some up, though they're not table ready yet, but smaller than most above for serious 'fleets.'

I usually have a long list, but just not a fount at the moment.

Doug

Brigade Available in the US from ScaleCreep.com

There is still nothing wrong with GZG. Lots of nice fleets.

The various races of the Babylon 5 verse are nice. Lots of variety in the fleet action types. Still available here agents-of-gaming.myshopify.com . Bruce also sells Turning Point, With Hostile Intent, and the Call to Arms minis from the Noble Armada verse.

Slightly larger miniatures are Amarillo Design Bureau (Star Trek) link and perhaps a bit smaller are Starblazer miniatures from starblazersonline.com

As others mention lots of stuff on Shapeways. I personally like Irrational Designs link

Ad Astra has some nice miniatures link

Look at dropfleet commander from hawk.

What do you mean by fleet scale? To me, fleet scale means "really small", like this:

IMHO fleet scale refers to miniatures generally 3 inches or less in length. Using GZG as an example the UNSC dreadnoughts are 4-4.5 inches long. I believe that on SCN they refer to GZG as "squadron scale". Amarillo Design Bureaus Star Trek stuff seems to fit this definition as do Dropfleet Commander and Firestorm Armada by Spartan Games.

Starship miniatures in many instances are scale neutral. You can take what the manufacturer calls a cruiser and use it as a dreadnought, a destroyer as a cruiser, etc. with no problem. The key to this is finding compatible designs for your fleets. GZG is great in this respect because each fleet has so many ship designs.

Here is the rub with any scale definition. The cannon of all the movie inspired ships and some others creates larger and larger ships. The original Star Trek Enterprise is actually quite small next to ships in later series of this show. Of course you have the Star Destroyers of Star Wars fame too which are huge. It is much easier to form consistent scale fleets using the non-movie inspired designs of companies like GZG rather than having the all too familiar Star Destroyer (huge) in scale with your other Star Wars ships.

Want really small ships in scale with one and other check out Microfleets link The bases on these models are about 1/2 inch from flat to flat side.

Actually, Allen57 hit the nail on the head for me, guess I would prefer "Squadron Scale". Played a LOT of Full Thrust in the late 90's-early 00's, want to get back into starship gaming again.

Have a ton of the Star Blazers plastic model kits that I bought from HLJ many years ago, however they are a bit too large and would be a bit fiddly for gaming and storage. Going to sell those off and get some metal fleets instead.

GZG is a sure thing, but was also looking at other manufacturers. Used to have some nice ships from the Noble Armada game, would like to find those again. Also thinking about picking up some ships for a Battlestar Galactica game.

Thanks for all the input, will be checking out the various links.

The one good thing about the StarBlazers minis is that almost all of the minis are in scale with each other,and I think that they're the only ones who can make that claim and back it up maybe with the exception of FASA Star Trek.

If you liked the Noble Armada minis, FASA released a new version of the game along with re-releasing most of the minis so they are available – link

If you want squadron scale you can try Dropfleet Commander (Hawk Wargames), Firestorm Armada (Spartan Games), Agents of Gamings Babylon 5 Wars miniatures, Amarillo Design Bureau, GZG, Ravenstar, Shapeways (Irrational Designs for one), and Brigade Models (UK) all previously mentioned.

Also available are Irregular miniatures, the Star Wars Armada game, Zandris IV, Space Dreadnought 3000, and Cold Navy.

This is a nice link to get you into some Shapeways designers minis.avidelite.com While it says it is fleet scale it will show you a ship on shapeways and you can look at the designers other offerings which may be larger. Actually you can get to most starships on Shapeways by clicking Shop, Miniatures, then SciFi.

Good luck in your search for the perfect fleets.

Old discussion of scales: TMP link
Though I do like "Squadron Scale" for the middle range.

I tend to think of GZG as a bit between; the difference between the largest and smallest is more than SFB ships, which I think are closer to the line of squadron to single ship.

Ignoring the shuttles, and the PFs of which I still have a few unopened blisters…

I do tend to put FA in the same area, though I've used the smallest as they go fairly small as well.

Doug

Virtualscratchbuilder
What do you mean by fleet scale? To me, fleet scale means "really small", like this:

Ok thats amazing. *Vsb, where did you find those (maker). Especially the Miranda/Reliant miniature.
Repectfully, Please.. dont say you built that yourself.

I have a No. of "B5 Fleet Action" miniatures, the "largest' seems to be the EA Omega Destroyer at 2in. & the Minbari 'Sharlin' at 1-1/2in.L x 2in. Ht.
Yrs ago I found Task Force Games did a limited No. (elite series) of ST TOS. The Fed CA. is 1-1/2in.
I have no idea of what the actual 'scale' for either of these are.
However ADB SFB's are listed at 1/3788? IIRC. Most of my TF mini's are half that or less in length, so you can 'gues-stimate' from there.

BTW.. Does Any One know of any one that ever produced Battlestar Galactica ships (TOS prefered) in 'hard' plastic i.e. Zocchi ST style miniatures?
I have seen a cpl great looking ones about 3in., on Shapeways, but most Note; they have a "grainy feel". That makes me leary of getting them.

Repectfully, Please.. dont say you built that yourself.

My handle says it all. They were made to be in scale with the Hallmark DDD ornament. 1/10000

Part time gamer you mentioned Battlestar Galactica minis in hard plastic well I think I have some.

Several years back I acquired some candy toys of Galactica ships,nowadays they're very hard to find and also pretty pricey.

Anyway in the set you got a Battlestar(3 names Galactica,Pegasus and Atlantia),Cylon Baseship,Viper and a Cylon Raider.

From what I can tell the Battlestar is might be 3 inches or so long and it could well be in scale with the Baseship.

As for the Viper and Cylon Raider I don't believe that they're in the same with each other.

Sadly I don't recall the name of the company but they're pre-painted so that's a plus.

They're not well known, but Ad Astra Games has a nice line of miniatures link in addition to the Traveller and Attack Vector lines (and both of those are compatible with fleet-scale).

Virtualscratchbuilder
My handle says it all. They were made to be in scale with the Hallmark DDD ornament. 1/10000

Very Impressive!
"Wood"? That was THE last material I was expecting them to be made of.

Captain Gideon
years back I acquired.. Galactica ships,nowadays they're very hard to find and.. pricey.
..you got a Battlestar(3 names Galactica,Pegasus and Atlantia),Cylon Baseship,..
From what I can tell the Battlestar.. could well be in scale with the Baseship.

Ironic. Yesterday I came across "Toms Spaceship Miniature Index". (NOTE last updated 2008).
It listed that very set, released by Konami in 2005.

I also forgot to mention that in the Titanium series there's the Old Galactica,New Galactica and the New Pegasus.

Yep, I thought of those as well Captain.

I was caring for my father at the time -both- the Konami & Titanium's came out.
So I never even noticed they were available.
I 'stumbled' across the Titanium TOS Galactica while searching Ebay for the heck of it.
It had been OOP by 2-3 yrs then.
But thanks.

There's one other thing I have it was made by Comet and it was a Battlestar and it's 3 inches long and I have more than one.

emmckinney, I support you on pushing Ad Astra Games. Some extremely nice minis from them and their rules are worth the time and money too.

Kallistra: kallistra.co.uk/?page=22

Irregular: link

Valiant: link

Silent Death:http: silent-death.mx/store (my personal choice for some of the best multi-purpose spaceship minis)

Kallistra is another that spans a fair distance, though, again, sticking to the smaller end is 'fleet-scale' appropriate.

I find Irregular to have a bit that's 'cheap-and-cheerful' but especially useful for 'not Star Trek.'

Ah, Valiant….

CW: We'll just agree to disagree. ;->=

Doug

The Valiant Stardate 3000 ships were my first true spaceships I liked the detail and the varaity of ships was pretty good too.

Another possibility are Reviresco on tin-soldier.com

Lacking surface detail, they are nonetheless examples of a kind of elegant retro-design. And, the site has dimensions.

Doug

Captain Gideon
There's one other..it was made by Comet.. a Battlestar and it's 3 inches.."

I'd never heard of that one, so 'googled' it. Really nice detail.

Thinking back to the plastics Konami had released, I think it would have been fun to paint those.
I believe I would have tried a 'reverse painting' idea.
I.e., first a blk wash over the grey plastic to bring out the detail,
'then' 2 or maybe 3 layers of very dry brushing of an 'off' or toned down white.
I think it wouldve turned out pretty well.

The Konami Galactica ships come pre-painted I don't know if some of you knew that.

For BSG you can go to Starfightershipyards.com over 100 different models to choose from

Try AOTRS SHIPYARDS on Shapeways LOTS of ships matched to Full Thrust scale but vary from normal to weird. Full fleet range so you can have anything.

Just in case folk won't look at Iron Wind Metals without links

Battletech/Aerotech(Online Exclusives?)

Warships: link

Jumpships: link

Squadron Packs: link

I really should photo some of these in comparison shots,
Galactic Conflict in the Stars: link

Doug