Traveller Minis!

[G K Zhukov]

Originally posted by kaladorn:

I like true 25mm as it gives lots of size for detail but doesn't look quite so overblown as most 28-30mm stuff.

I too like "real 25mm" scale - it's more in line with the classical sci-fi feel of Traveller. I'll leave 28mm for W40K, VOR, VOID and the like.

Besides, "real 25mm" size would make this hypothetical range compatible with the hardish sci-fi ranges from GZG and Denizen, not to mention the old Grenadier and RAFM sets.

This "big" scale would be suitable for roleplaying and skirmishing on starship deck plans, etc. The range could consist almost entirely of adventurers, marines, mercenaries and aliens, with the occasional air raft/ATV/speeder (small vehicles).

The other scale would be 6mm (1:285 or 1:300), and that should be where armies and military vehicles like grav tanks and APC's appeared. This scale would obviously work for tactical wargaming on a outdoor scenario (i.e. Striker).

But maybe we are all being carried away a little off-topic. I would like to see that 1:1200 starship range first!

 

[Rossoneill]

I still love my old Grenadier Traveller minis especially the Imperial marines in armor.
They help my game come alive

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

Hear Hear, Lord Ross! I liked the Civilain Vacc Suits as well, even though they looked slightly TL7-8. Do you remeber what the guns the Marine models carry are supposed to represent? I always liked that gun design. My only other gripe was that a lot of the civilian models had 70's ⌧star facial hair... well, fortunately only the male ones did...

 

[Jame]

What about doing the ship minis in plastic?

*Already has shields both mental AND physical in place to ward off heresy-screaming mobs making wave-style attacks...*

 

[Piper]

EEEEEEEEK!


Production in plastic is really expensive to set up. Unless you're assured of selling lots and lots of them it would be a risky venture.

For the artistically inclined, there is always the Tonsha Way (link)

 

[Pickles]

Originally posted by Jame:
What about doing the ship minis in plastic?

*Already has shields both mental AND physical in place to ward off screaming mob mave-style attacks of heresy...*

Nothing wrong with plastic for ships or vehicles. Metal ships have a tendency to look a bit chunky. Of course, tooling is much more expensive for injection-moulding plastic.

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Originally posted by Jame:
What about doing the ship minis in plastic?

Once you get over the shock of the sticker price for tooling up the mould your costs decrease with use.
Perhaps we could get a company that is already doing similar work to make them (Games Workshop perhaps?)

 

[Jame]

Why is it more expensive?

 

[Piper]

Injection-moulded plastic requires steel moulds that need to be machined. Lead can be cast in simple flexible moulds like vulcanized rubber or some silicone products. It's easy enough to do at home and very economical for short production runs.

 

[kaladorn]

The kit to have a good resin and white metal casting setup can probably be obtained for $5K (including vaccuum facilities to degass the resin). That's on the high side - you can setup at home for much less. I inquired about the kit to setup styrene plastic moulding. I think it was $50-100K. So, that's a bit of a difference. That's why so few companies do it. Even GW only does it on the parts of their line they expect to sell very large volumes of. They'd be unlikely to do it for Traveller due to a lack of volume (hence wouldn't justify the costs).

At the same time, you can do (even in a small shop) very nice resin or white metal moulds. If you're really good, you can make excellent detail and quality while getting good mould life.

 

[Piper]

Hmmmm ...
I wonder if you could get someone to run a line on their equipment if you provided the moulds?
I'm willing to bet there's enough talent in the deckplan community to produce CAD/CAM files easily.
Any idea what a mould might cost for either system?

 

[kaladorn]

The moulds are in the thousands of dollars each I believe, in the case of styrene. They have to be carved out of metal by some darned expensive gear. Also makes getting it right the first time absolute must.

Moulds for white metal are easy. Make up some slightly oversize masters, get someone who knows his stuff (knows mould lines, how to create the pathways for air to escape, ways to prevent bulging, etc) and create some using RTV. You can mould white metal in RTV. If you know someone with a spin caster, you can make a puck (big black slab with several ships moulded inside it) for the spin-caster using non RTV rubber (vulcanizes, but under heat and pressure I think). Then that becomes a longer-term method as RTV moulds tend to last less long as they wear faster.

Resin can be cast in RTV but the issue with resin is degassing so as to avoid surface pockmarking and critical weaknesses in the model.

The real answer would be to come up with some good masters, get Marc or QLI or someone to sanction production, then get them to someone like David Dunn at DLD productions or Jon Tuffley at GZG or Nic Robson at Eurekaminis (probably lots of others) and convince them to do the moulding and production (maybe the sales/distribution too).

 

[DaveChase]

Need to go to Iron Wind (used to be RalPartha) and talk to them.

They are already doing Aerospace and MechWarrior (metals).
Mike and crew are very good at making miniatures.

Or you can talk with ArmorCast. They do lots of resin castings that work for any type of minitaures.

There is also MondayKnight Productions. They worked with Ground Zero minitures and have produced their own lines in the past.

I would be happy to talk to any of them for you guys.

Dave Chase
Freelancer of what ever I dicide. I.e. no longer employed

 

[PVernon]

Has anyone thought of Eurika's 100 club?

The general idea is that someone suggests a mini and when they get 150 orders they cut the fig.

 

[siefertma2]

Originally posted by PVernon:
Has anyone thought of Eurika's 100 club?

The general idea is that someone suggests a mini and when they get 150 orders they cut the fig.

I think that Eureka recently pulled all their sc-fi Club 100 offerings mainly due to the fears of violating copyright. Through Club 100, Eureka produced "Sci-Fi Egyptians" (i.e. Stargate Jaffa) and "Retro-Powered Armor" (i.e. SF3D/Macshen Kreiger Suits) figures for fans who requested them. However, a few months ago, someone (they initially claimed to be from Mongoose Publishing, but Mongoose denied it) started e-mailing threats to Eureaka and few other mini companies claiming that if they didn't stop making these figs, these "IP vigilantes" would contact the IP owners. As a result, they've all but promised never to produce sci-fi figs anymore.

 

[Rossoneill]

I think your right Mark
I just visited the site and none of the sci fi figures have a price, and a lot of the Fantasy dont either .

 

[BetterThanLife]

Originally posted by Mark A. Siefert:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by PVernon:
Has anyone thought of Eurika's 100 club?

The general idea is that someone suggests a mini and when they get 150 orders they cut the fig.

I think that Eureka recently pulled all their sc-fi Club 100 offerings mainly due to the fears of violating copyright. Through Club 100, Eureka produced "Sci-Fi Egyptians" (i.e. Stargate Jaffa) and "Retro-Powered Armor" (i.e. SF3D/Macshen Kreiger Suits) figures for fans who requested them. However, a few months ago, someone (they initially claimed to be from Mongoose Publishing, but Mongoose denied it) started e-mailing threats to Eureaka and few other mini companies claiming that if they didn't stop making these figs, these "IP vigilantes" would contact the IP owners. As a result, they've all but promised never to produce sci-fi figs anymore. </font>[/QUOTE]I think in this case having the copyright holder, MWM, doing the inquiring for production would make that problem go away.

 

[Lord Iron Wolf]

Just an odd thought of bundling a ship miniature and a crew together. Would it be worthwhile to offer a ship mini and then have 5-6 of the crew together?

Examples:

Scout Courier: Scout personel/Adventures
Free Trader: Independent Traders
Fat Trader: MegaCorp Personel/Bureaucrats/Ship's officers & Crew
Merc Cruizer: Mercenaries
Patrol Cruizer: Navy/Marine Personel
Laboratory Ship: Scientists
Survey Vessel: Scouts
Vargr Corsair: Vargr
Zhodani Destroyer: Zho Marines/Navy
Safari Ship: Big Game Hunters
Yacht: Nobles

That's just off of the top of my head. It would be a good way to have both a ship and opponents/player characters for a scenario.

FWIW,
Lord Iron Wolf

 

[BetterThanLife]

Originally posted by Lord Iron Wolf:
Just an odd thought of bundling a ship miniature and a crew together. Would it be worthwhile to offer a ship mini and then have 5-6 of the crew together?

Examples:

Scout Courier: Scout personel/Adventures
Free Trader: Independent Traders
Fat Trader: MegaCorp Personel/Bureaucrats/Ship's officers & Crew
Merc Cruizer: Mercenaries
Patrol Cruizer: Navy/Marine Personel
Laboratory Ship: Scientists
Survey Vessel: Scouts
Vargr Corsair: Vargr
Zhodani Destroyer: Zho Marines/Navy
Safari Ship: Big Game Hunters
Yacht: Nobles

That's just off of the top of my head. It would be a good way to have both a ship and opponents/player characters for a scenario.

FWIW,
Lord Iron Wolf

I like the bundles, but since we are talking widely disparaging scales, it doesn't sound like ti would work as well as say, air/raft and Scouts. G-Carrier and Mercenaries. A Squad of Marines in Battledress. Marine Combat Armor and Grav APC, etc.

 

[Lord Iron Wolf]

I think with air rafts, g-carriers and other vehicles it would be better to do a resin casting. I can see a bundle at $19.95 but a resin vehicle would have to be seperate to keep costs reasonable.

LIW