"What are you guys using for missile salvoes in space games?" Topic

Looking for miniatures to use as missiles for Full Thrust.

Not interested in ADB's wares, Agents of Gaming's minis weren't quite what I wanted, Dream Pod 9's website seem to be malware infested.

I just use a 0.5in x 0.5in counter with an arrow to show which direction the missiles are pointing.

I have nice little missile tokens from Wormhole (by Worldworks Games.) I still think the Verus missile cruisers are seriously overpowered…

Here's another option to consider:
link

I have some of their other products, and am a satisfied customer.

Brigade does some, but I have not seen them in person:
link

I bought a pack of 100+ Nintendo DS styluses from ebay and cut/shape them into different missiles. That may be a bit large for your taste, but I like them.
auction

These torpedo markers for Battlefleet Gothic work pretty well.

link

You might also search ebay for MechWarrior LRM batteries. You can buy them for $1 USD-2 many times. Each has four missiles which can be clipped off. Remove the fins and perhaps shorten them and you have missile for about 50 cents each.

Grab as many cheap ballpoint "click" pens as you can. Unscrew 'em, and pull out the little plastic doohickey that is under the button (sometimes it is the button). It's basically a cylinder with four tiny square "fins" at one end. Apply paint to taste. Voilą! Missile salvo!

I had a custom order done by Litko. I had them take their Mini Missiles -- link -- and carve the mounting holes into 1" clear hex bases. I also had a 12mm square cutout in the bases. So, I have a hex base with a 12mm die set in it, flanked by two of the Mini Missile markers. I ordered both blue and red missiles so I can keep them straight.

Javelin,
Litko makes some great stuff for gaming. But, having custom work had to be 'expensive', compared to just buying what they already stock.

Missile dice – dice.star-ranger.com

I use pipe cleaners (much like the link to the Fight's On store above). I think I got 50 for about £5.00 GBP

Mine haven't seen action, yet, but I'll be going Dean's 'dice' route whenever we get around to using salvo missiles again.

Marker shows location, can be rolled for how many acquire, then left as a counter.

Currently, using original FT rules, so will wait a game without a certain friend who's enthusiasm is restricted to 'long ago' Full Thrust experiences.

If we were using regular missiles, I'd probably dig out my old Silent Death markers.

Doug

"Here's another option to consider:"

Those are just pipe cleaners on flight stands, easy enough to make yourself. The only "special" part is the bar magnet, and you can buy those for less.

Todd Boyce (Ninja Magic) does some very nice missile miniatures, available from AoG: link

Depends on whether you want built-in (table-height) missiles or not. Note that you can select the type or just take a random assortment!

I've also used small plastic wall anchors ("mollies"). Many are very "rocket-like" and have interesting details. They're also cheap (and even cheaper if you buy a bulk package).

Love the smoke trails.

No smoke trails in space.

Are you sure? :)

Dan
They sure look neat though.

Go in shapeways and look up miniature missiles. I found some from I believe the guy's name was bacon hands or bacon fist. I would post pics for you, but it is too much of a pain in the ass.

I will have to ask GZG Jon, if he wants some missile counters CADing up.

Thinking it through, this is my understanding of why there would be no "smoke trails:" As established by Newton's laws of motion, rocket exhaust leaves a rocket nozzle at a given velocity and vector, travelling at that velocity and on that vector unless acted upon by an outside force.
In an atmosphere, exhaust (typically water vapor in a liquid rocket system, and sulfur particles in a solid rocket system) strikes the cooler air outside and water vapor condenses around particulate elements, forming the clouds commonly called contrails; these are a large part of the "smoke trails" associated with missiles. Friction and impact with the air (an outside force) slows the exhaust down and causes these condensed particles to billow. In space, there will be no air to impact with, thus there will be no billowing and no "cloud" or "smoke" effect, the BSG reboot effects team not withstanding. The exhaust particles will merely continue in perfectly straight lines, likely essentially invisible to the naked eye, absent a direct source of light.

I may be in error on some of that, so more knowledgeable folk may want to chime in and correct any misconceptions of mine.

Well, I'm not sure if there are exhaust trails in space or not. However, the rocket exhaust is not a laser beam flowing out the back of the rocket in a coherent stream, as you described, where each particle travels in a straight line parallel to all of the other particles all at exactly the same speed.

The exhaust is a combustion byproduct and combustion is a chaotic process. The particles will be various masses, temperatures and compositions depending upon how completely they combust and will collide with each other and the walls of the exhaust cone causing significant turbulent scattering.

In space, the cooling of the particles will occur much more rapidly than in the atmosphere going from fiery exhaust to icy frozen particles pretty quickly. Those icy particles will probably scatter any ambient light that strikes them pretty well and be further scattered themselves in the process. So, there might well be a visible trail. However, it might not look smoky. Maybe more like a bright flickering trail something like sunlight reflecting off the water. Maybe it would even refract the light into a rainbow effect like unicorn poop.

Yeah. Expanding rainbow trails of unicorn poop. That's what missiles really look like in space.

I have been collecting the little plastic pins that go through a ring on the other end to hold things together. No idea what they are called, but things like pairs of sandals might have them holding the pair together.

I haven't based or painted any of 'em, but have a drawer full.

andy