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Miniatures from the past

L

Loki

SOC-12
Whatever happened to RAFM Company, Inc. of Canada? I was rummaging through a pile of old papers at home and stumbled across a small sheet advertisement of theirs for 15mm metal Traveller & Striker figures to use in the game.

They listed an Adventures set, The Military set, Ship’s Crew set, Citizens set, Aliens set (including Vargr, Aslan, and Droyne), all with small pictures of the 20 figures in each. There were also some 11 Striker sets listed from TL 6 - 8, up to TL 14 – 15, with Vargr & Aslan mercenary sets, a Security unit, a Boarding party and a Terrorist or Guerilla set.

What great memories! Granted the figures were lead and would have to be re-done with pewter but what detail!

The line of figures was carried by RAL Partha of Canada, GHQ in the USA, Citadel Miniatures US, INC, and Martian Metals (US). GDW was also on this sheet listing the entire series of rules and adventures sets, the Striker rules, these 15mm figures and the Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society publication.

I wonder what happened to those dies? Anyone? :D
 
I have no idea what happened to the dies, But I can tell you that Citadel miniatures is now making figures for WarHammer, and WarHammer40,000. I know Ral Partha is making miniatures for every game BUT Traveller....GHQ is making figures for micro-armour and other miniatures wargames........Oh yes, And martian Metals is no more...... :(
 
RAFM is still around (url - www.rafm.com but they are not making any of their Traveller stuff at the moment. Since they have just expanded their Space 1889 line and put it back in production for some of us sickies there may be hope for their Traveller stuff as well.


Ral Patha is also gone but some of the the molds are being produced by someone. No Traveller though. Citadel is Games Workshop.
 
The RAFM link in here on the board doesn't seem to work somehow. The company does exist, or at least they have a website, at www.rafm.com, but I can't say anything more without research. Maybe I'll give them an e-mail about the Traveller line, and see if they have any plans for a 25mm line.
 
Good luck Jame, I sent a couple e-mails way back when they were doing limited on demand Space 1889 castings for those fans. I wanted info on what it would take from the Traveller community to get equal treatment. I'd post the replies below but nobody likes big blank spaces in a post :mad:

I think our best hope now is TRAVELLERmini.org but I've not seen an update for a bit. There is also a thread in The Fleet section here if you missed it.
 
Originally posted by far-trader:
I think our best hope now is TRAVELLERmini.org but I've not seen an update for a bit. There is also a thread in The Fleet section here if you missed it.
Click to expand...
Give the Travellermini guys a bit of slack, they are working with Marc on obtaining license. They can't do much without it. Once they have it I imagine you'll see more from them.

Me, I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with!

Hunter
 
Originally posted by hunter:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by far-trader:
I think our best hope now is TRAVELLERmini.org but I've not seen an update for a bit. There is also a thread in The Fleet section here if you missed it.
Click to expand...
Give the Travellermini guys a bit of slack, they are working with Marc on obtaining license. They can't do much without it. Once they have it I imagine you'll see more from them.

Me, I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with!

Hunter </font>[/QUOTE]Absolutely, I didn't mean to imply any pressure, after all I'm not just a (potential) customer I'm a contributor. Though I got the idea from the last update that the license was a done deal. Guess I interpreted wrong, or I was reading between the lines


Partly too I wanted to put in a plug for TRAVELLERmini
file_23.gif
 
Yes Jame, good luck. These 100 castings would really be nice to have. And, far-trader, the TRAVELLERmini.org site for now is aimed at producing just spaceships, isn’t it?

The http://www.travellertrader.com/gdw.shtml site has some miniature pewter ships listed. I’m not sure if they are still in stock but it’s one possibility.

It would be interesting to know if Traveller players here are looking for miniature ship models to use in their campaigns for interstellar encounters or are seeking miniature figures (15mm, 25mm, 28mm whatever) to use in their (land based; shipboard, space station or asteroid(?) based) campaigns.

I guess the various board game markers from many sci-fi games could be used for any of these environments but finding a good Aslan or Vargr cardboard counter is a bit hard. Of course, I did spot a couple of the old Traveller miniatures in a local hobby shop. The bubble pack contained a Hiver and ???? Can’t remember if it was a vessel or a robot. Guess I need to go back there and take a look.

At http://www.travellertrader.com/gdw/classic.shtml the game STRIKER listed for sale might have some cardboard silhouettes of individuals that could be used for various aspects of the campaign (e.g. boarding actions, landside “dungeon delving”, etc.). Gotta dig my copy out tonight to see what it offers.

At http://www.travellertrader.com/scifi.shtml there are some Judges Guild: Laser Tank sets of 33 miniatures to be used with the Striker game. Also listed is the SJG: Cardboard Heroes Set 17 (Miniatures, sci-fi player characters, designed with GURPS in mind). I’m not familiar with either of these items but I do have two sets of the cardboard heroes that came with the Cutter and the Far Trader(?) deck plan sets so I guess I’ll drag them out and look them over as well.

There were even a few 15mm ‘Mech” game bubble packs I spotted in that store that might work out for a Traveller-based game.

As for the Stargrunt figures are they available here in the states? I think I’ve only seen them listed in the UK-based shops, and I have yet to see what one of them even looks like.

I’ve got to get out more!
:D
 
Originally posted by Loki:
Yes Jame, good luck. These 100 castings would really be nice to have. And, far-trader, the TRAVELLERmini.org site for now is aimed at producing just spaceships, isn’t it?

<snip>
Click to expand...
Yep that was the original mandate but there were so many calls for character figs that is also in the works. Not sure if that was in the thread here or an e-mail. I think I should have posted the Lone Star version of the announcement, its chunkier :D Oh and in case you were wondering, donations have met the goal so there is nothing more but to wait, patiently


Also Bishop Odo mentions an Australian outfit that will custom cast after sufficient demand. Though I'd prefer a genuine licensed Traveller(tm) product this might be an option.
 
eM-4-Miniatures has some pre-painted minis that are usable for Traveller. We use the Glory Seekers street gang for our PCs, and Glory Seekers SWAT team for NPC security guards, response teams, etc.

The Star Travelers Aliens set is pretty comical, but could be used in a pinch.
 
RAFM doesn't have the liscense to produce Traveller Miniatures anymore. A few years ago I asked the man who currently owns RAFM and that was his answer. I think I've seen a few remaining packs of miniatures at the following website: www.sentrybox.com Look under RAFM 25mm science fiction. It starts at the scout/courier

Ral Partha is now called Iron Wind Metals and they are working to restoring their old lines and new stuff. www.ironwindmetals.com and they are going slowly to rebuild themselves. I think the biggest problem we have with SF miniatures is the numbers of Fantasy RPGers out there compared to SciFi RPGers out there.

LIW
 
Whoops! You folks are supposed to catch my (all too frequent) errors. Apparently the STRIKER game doesn't have any cardboard counters after all. It's rules cover the use of 15mm miniatures, not cardboard counters. It's STRIKER that has some cardboard markers. I think some of the older large spaceship deck plans also come with the punch-out cardboard counters (at least I think so because I came across some Aslan counters lying loose in a box of older JTAS material). Of course I was wrong about STRIKER (the brain cells are falling like flies) so I'm not 100% certain about those old ship plans.

Also, thanks for the info on the RAFM miniatures. I hope someone will pick up the license to bring back those original 100+ figures. :D
 
Originally posted by Loki:
Whoops! You folks are supposed to catch my (all too frequent) errors. Apparently the STRIKER game doesn't have any cardboard counters after all. It's rules cover the use of 15mm miniatures, not cardboard counters. It's STRIKER that has some cardboard markers. ... Of course I was wrong about STRIKER (the brain cells are falling like flies) so I'm not 100% certain about those old ship plans.
Click to expand...
I have no idea which game the third STRIKER refers to, but I am quite sure the second mention should be SNAPHOT. It was the Snapshot and Azhanti High Lightening games that had the cardboard counters. Striker had no counters.

Those other deckplans (i.e. from FASA) included cardboard counters for use with Snapshot (or AHL) rules.
 
Thanks daryen. See I told ya that you have to watch me closely. I did mean SNAPSHOT. :D

My mind said "SNAPSHOT". When I proofed my post I swear I saw "SNAPSHOT" but some little bugger crept in and typed STRIKER instead. I have just got to clean out my storeroom and get this stuff better organized.

I did uncover two copies of FIFTH FRONTIER WAR I had purchased and then set up on a sheet of metal and used the magnetic counter holders (all the rage in those days) to deploy the opposing forces.

I just uncovered my GDW game BELTSTRIKE with 12 pre-generated character cards and a complete map of the Koenig's Rock mining facility in the Bowman Belt located in District 268. I found my copy of GDW's TARSUS, World Beyond the Frontier, which also contains 12 pre-generated character cards and a copy of GDW's ASTEROID, complete with punch-out cardboard figures. Darn, I had forgotten just how many Traveller-themed games GDW put out.
 
Well, I haven't gotten to email Ral Partha yet
, but I can say that I have handled some of the original Traveller minis. Yay, oh yay.
 
Speaking of Laserburn figs I saw in one of the English wargaming mags a few months back an advertisment saying that they were back in production
. A few months would be Oct, Nov? :confused: not sure since I get them a month after their publication date.
 
tentrav - they're all yours. For now, I've settled for several of the Foundry figures (I have yet to paint them). The advertisement I came across with pictures of the 100 old Traveller miniatures has spoiled me.

I want them! I want them!
file_21.gif


Those ebay figs look a little thick. You may be right about their source. Years ago I knew a guy who bought hundreds of Napoleonic metal figs and made his own molds. He cast many a figurine and painted them himself. He's passed on now but I wonder what happened to those figurines. He was a good painter and the appearance of his armies on the gameboard was always very colorful.

Laz figures might be coming back? I'll have to keep an eye out for that. Thanks!
 
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