Cheaper minis?

pinecone · Post by **pinecone** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:52 pm

I like pictures of minis people put on the fourms, and wish I had my own. However, they are slightly on the expensive side, and you also have to get paint/brushes and ect. Besides that, I'm not a goosd painter anyway. So I thought it might be nice if one of two things were made for people like me who are cheap and inadequet painters:

1. Cheaper plastic pre-painted minis. I'd get these if they were around $2-3 apiece. or...

2. An origami book for making paper minis.

These are probably considered silly ideas, but I'd buy them if ever made.

(Note to moderator: I didn't know whether to put this here or in the minis section. I'm fine if you want to move it there.)

pneumonic81 · Post by **pneumonic81** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 8:20 pm

Micro Machines came out with some descnt quality minis that happen to fit the map, but that was several years ago. You may still be able to find them on ebay, but they were limited to only a few fed ships.

I think in order to make a series of painted plastic minis similar to the micro machines, there would need to be a huge amount manufactured, or the price would be rather high.

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 8:22 pm

pinecone, over on the "other" board - there has been a few discussions of hte pre-painted plastic miniatures.

enough people asked about them that SVC went to the time and trouble to get quotes form several manaufacturers. The best deal he found was froma Chinese company and the minimum production run was in the 10's of thousands of dollars for just 6 ships.
Klingon Border alone had 16 ships (so figure 3 times the minimum cost) - add in 16 ships each for KA, RB, RA, TA, DK and 8 for BA and you're looking at a cost of 17 times the minimum print run... that's up into the 100's of thousands of dollars!!!

I don't think we'll be seeing pre-painted plastic ships from ADB anytime soon.

As for the paper origami - I'm not sure you could fold paper small enough to make usable ships for FC. I have; however, seen several home-built minis using just sheet plastic and tubing.
Try you're hand at making a few out of plastic stock. Some of them will be harder than others (almost any Federation ship / Gorn ships / etc.) due to the compound curves involved. But some of them (Lyrans / Orions / Tholians / Kzinit) are basically a lot of flat panels stuck together.
You'd be surprised what you can do with a little effort.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 8:23 pm

Lots of people use cheap toys for minis.

I use old Galoob MicroMachines stuck on the cheap plastic mini stands as my "demo" minis.

There are always lots of these up on eBay.

They look pretty decent, and if some jerk walks away with one, I'm not out the money/time/effort that I put into my "real" minis.

You could also just print out the top-view art for the ships (like the stuff Vanguard posts on this board), hit it with some pens for color, and mount that to a paper-stand. There are games like Wormhole that use only paper minis.

pinecone · Post by **pinecone** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 8:33 pm

Actually, I just tried using Card paper and tape and made a pathetic but usable CA mini. Mabey i can use it in my rematch with that D5W...

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:17 pm

pinecone: see this After Action Report for some photos of some home-built Fed Comm minis.

pinecone · Post by **pinecone** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:14 pm

Already saw that, but thanks anyway. That's what inspired me to try my own minis.

Dal Downing · Post by **Dal Downing** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 5:50 am

Pinecone since you are a Big Fed Player have you looked at the Federation Fleet Box #2 (Zocchi plastic) It is ADB# 0201 and list for $24.95 and includes 5 Ships + 2 pods. They are Plastic so they are pretty easy to assemble and all you really need to do is take a can of 3 Dollar WalMart Spray paint to them to make them all a uniform color.

One of these days I will learn how to post Links on these boards.

On a final Note I am curious why this was put in the Fed Com News Section and not in the Miniture Discussion area or the General Disccsusion Area which is probably a better place for it.

pinecone · Post by **pinecone** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 12:39 pm

Dal Downing wrote:Pinecone since you are a Big Fed Player have you looked at the Federation Fleet Box #2 (Zocchi plastic) It is ADB# 0201 and list for $24.95 and includes 5 Ships + 2 pods. They are Plastic so they are pretty easy to assemble and all you really need to do is take a can of 3 Dollar WalMart Spray paint to them to make them all a uniform color.

One of these days I will learn how to post Links on these boards.

On a final Note I am curious why this was put in the Fed Com News Section and not in the Miniture Discussion area or the General Disccsusion Area which is probably a better place for it.

I have seen that, but it's only five ships.

Copy and paste links into the post

I put this here because if it was made it would be "news" for Federation Commander.

willhc · Post by **willhc** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:45 pm

Your best bet is to include someone in your group that has taken the time, effort and money for the minis. They'll want to use them (I mean who wouldn't?) and you get to as well!

pinecone · Post by **pinecone** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:52 pm

I don't know anyone in my area who plays FC other than my dad, and I was the one who bought the game.

malleman · Post by **malleman** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 5:13 pm

Pinecone,

If you are interested in making paper starships there was a book put out by Pocket Books called Star Trek Paper Universe. It is by Andrew Pang and was published in 2000. You may still be able to find one at a bookstore. The book gives instructions on how to make over 16 different origami ships (mostly Fed). Let me know if you need more information on this.

Try doing what Willhc suggested. Maybe you can convince your dad to go in half with you, or find a freind to drag in with you

.

Good luck on your quest

jpat · Post by **jpat** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 2:37 am

The Starline minis are expensive relative to paper chits but probably not relative to other games with minis. Whereas a set of five ships lists for about $35, Battletech lances (four 'Mechs) are around as much or even a bit more. No doubt, the minis are an expensive way to go, but you can spend more on other games, too.

I've basically gone back to chits for play; it's just easier to haul around a bunch of GMT-style counter trays than to mess with minis, even though I've got the KB sets painted and mounted. (About half of them mismounted, but that's another story ...)

I wouldn't worry about not being such a great painter. My wife did my FedCom minis and did her usual excellent job, but it took a long time and was rather patience trying (though the stickers were the worst part for her). I painted my own lance of Battletech mechs, and they came out OK, plus it was kind of fun, too, except for some of the missile tubes that look like crap. And I'm legally blind, so you're probably already ahead of me.

willhc · Post by **willhc** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:12 am

Having our game today we found that with a good number of ships you need both. Once things got crowded up we had to switch from minis to counters. Was often a little confusing as ships seemed to disappear when we changed to counters. The minis just make things so much nice to view the battle.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:47 am

There's a certain element of happy that comes from finishing a mini, and then using it to threaten another player's mini later that week

I particularly liked that both of the Fed cruisers I've finished in the last month got table-time today.