For $3-$4 (plus shipping) you can get anywhere from (literally) 240 shuttles to (literally) 960 (!!) fighters.
Or gun turrets or war birds.
They're game pieces from TSR's Buck Rogers board game in the 80s/90s and about a half inch each.
I have no idea what I would do with over a 1000 plastic space ships, but wow. If I ever wanted to make a space game these would be a great way to start.
They're also all over ebay in smaller sets if you want them.
I went about three times already to the Amazon stuff, always convincing myself I don't need them...but the image of a flock like arranging of space ships with wire is spinning in my mind...maybe my last ounces of self preservation will evaporate after your review
Viktor von Domm wrote: I went about three times already to the Amazon stuff, always convincing myself I don't need them...but the image of a flock like arranging of space ships with wire is spinning in my mind...maybe my last ounces of self preservation will evaporate after your review
ebay yielded some additional info on the Rhode Island Novelty Co (Rinco) ships.
Apparently they've been kicking around in one incarnation or another since the 70s.
This auction has handy information that the designs changed in 2012 and 'other sites' show the old ones.
Viktor von Domm wrote: I went about three times already to the Amazon stuff, always convincing myself I don't need them...but the image of a flock like arranging of space ships with wire is spinning in my mind...maybe my last ounces of self preservation will evaporate after your review
ebay yielded some additional info on the Rhode Island Novelty Co (Rinco) ships.
Apparently they've been kicking around in one incarnation or another since the 70s.
This auction has handy information that the designs changed in 2012 and 'other sites' show the old ones.
Unfortunately all his images are watermarked 2007... maybe an error, maybe not.
Not a fan of the insectoid ships and the open topped speeder one is useless. But still for $7
Oh and I like the line that the Chinese have a loose definition of 'a gross' sometimes 144, sometimes 140...
There's a classic business management story about a Canadian company that orders 100,000 electronic assemblies from a Japanese manufacturer, specifying a failure rate of 1%.
The Canadians duly receive 101,000 assemblies, with 1,000 of them packed separately. In the separate consignment they find a note that politely explains that although the Japanese QA staff don't understand why you would want faulty components, since these have been requested, they have been separated for convenience.
These appear to be the old Silent Death fighters, these molds have apparently have been passed around like a $2 who...
a $2 dollar...
(ahem) a $2 Wonka bar.
I've seen them at EM4 and a couple of other places.
They're hard plastic and come painted, but they're a bit too fightery to pass for capital ships and too curvey for 40k. Plus you only get 12 for your $6, instead of like 1000.
As it turns out, I can actually ID several of the ships in this assortment. The second from the left is the Liabe, from Message From Space. The delta winged ship that's fourth from the left is the Comet Fire, also from Message From Space. The very last ship, the open cockpit one, that's the Starcrow from the anime Starzinger. All three are most likely either shrunken copies of the die-cast toys that Popy/Bandai made or they're possibly recasts of some small eraser type toys of those ships. Either way, they're definitely knock-offs of Japanese toys.
#1 and #4 (curvey one with with prominent engines on wings and the one with the mandibles) are both from Silent Death.
So yeah, it's clearly some enterprising soul getting a hold of any molds he can and cranking them out.
While I was looking for info I found what looked like a bubble gum machine display of some of these ships from the 70s. But I didn't save it so now I can't find it.
Now I really want to play a game of Silent Death. One of the best fighter games ever.
Thanks Dakka!
Edit:
And for those wondering about what the ships are in SD:
From the top left
Teal Hawk
Spirit Rider
Talon
--
Lance Electra
Salamander
Pit Viper
--
Thunderbird (my favorite light fighter)
Hellbender
--
Blizzard
Night Hawk (fear the splatguns!)
Galactic Knights is apparently the latest incarantion of a 70s era space ship fleet game originally called Star Fleet Wars (a name which is about one sylable from a lawsuit).
Trying to decide which of these 2 looks better with my Space Fleet models...
$3 for the little dudes but only goes up to $20 for the 'Super Galactic Dreadnaughts.
The ships in the multicolored 144 are hard plastic They're not quite as high quality casts as the EM4/SilentDeath spacehips (some of which they are copies of), but they're more than suitable. I particularly like the dual engined slightly rectangular ship which looks pretty cool and the flying saucer which I will be using to greeble some of my 28mm buildings. Most of the sculpts are usefull, but there is an open-topped airspeeder that is kind of weak
http://www.amazon.com/Pack-144-Space-Ships-Assortment/dp/B004N6V4KC/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1462398433&sr=8-9&keywords=spaceships Verdict: Highly Recommended. When painted these would definitely serve well as wargaming models. I haven't tried yet, but their hard plastic is could probalby be cut and glued for custom ships.
The pack of 72 Bronze, silver and blue ships are a bit smaller, but roughly compatible. They are soft, somewhat bendable plastic and a bit more 1950s'ish, but there's a couple of varieties in there that I really like that would look good painted up.
http://www.amazon.com/US-Toy-Cruisers-Vehicle-Assorted/dp/B00362MR1E/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1462398433&sr=8-4&keywords=spaceships Verdict: Somewhat Recommended with sever reservations. They're a bit bendy and probably can't be easily converted or glued, but if you want some retro-looking game models, they could serve. I tried to paint some with spray paint and they became permanently sticky. You're pretty much limited to acrylic brush-on primer with these guys.
One other point. The 144 are probably a bit large, but the ships in the 72 pack are almost small enough to serve as board game pieces. However, if you want to go that way then the Buck Rogers ships from American Science are probably a better bet.
They're hardly expensive, but if anyone is potentially interested in these and willing to cover shipping I'll send them some samples.
I should have paid more attention to this thread. If I had I wouldn't have bought the 72.
As for the Amazon spaceships, the sculpts are just like the ones in the pics you posted 2 days ago though a bit more variance in casting quality. Not bad, but they're not as good as the Silent Death ships from EM4. I suspect the ones in the pictures are the best examples they had.
The colors are a bit more varied. I've got Red, orange, yellow, green, sky blue, pink. Also, just a couple darker blue.
I haven't tried gluing any, but I primed some with white spray and they came out good. I'm not sure what I'm going to use them for, but the primed ones just became my 5 year old son's first (half) painted miniatures!
I see.
I didn't realize that. At their brick and mortar store they sell them by the individual bag rather than by 10 bags. Maybe I should go down and get some more gun pods...
Looks like the Buck rogers character figs are sold out, but that's no biggies since they were pretty weak. I've got some here and they'll also probably be painting fodder for my kid.
Kid_Kyoto wrote: Apparently they also used ot have a stock of fantasy figures from an old TSR board game but I can find them.
Yep, they used to have plastic 28mm'ish figs from the "Dragon Strike" game. There were quite a few different sculpts made for the game, but I only only ever recall seeing the teal and grey ones which were all bad guys. I sold mine a while back shortly before I decided to go with Battlemasters Chaos warriors as the core of my KoW army, but I might still have 4 of the stone Golems.
I think they sold out years ago and it looks like the only folks offering them now are resellers on ebay charging 10 times as much. Still, It might be worth calling both store locations and seeing if they have any on the shelves that they'd be willing to ship you. IIRC, they were only around 35 cents each or less. They weren't great figs, but weren't too far behind the ex-grenadier EM4 Fantasy plastics.
2 similar products from Rhode Island Novelty, planes this time but may be of use for some games. Both come in bags of 1 gross (144 units) for like $3~$5.
Same company as the 144 space ships and the airplanes.
Not sure if these are included in one of the other sets I linked to but for now I don't think I'll be ordering. Not with a few 100 ships on the way already.
Interesting to see the origin of those ships. The one I had as a kid was also metalic looking and now that I think of it probably did come from a vending machine. Thanks for finding that!
Good to see the new plastic ship kit. Even at the higher price, I might try it out sometime. I'd be curious to know the size.
OK so I got my Rinco ships in and here's some initial thoughts.
TL/DR-They're $6 for 144 ships. If you play and of the small scale science fiction games like X-Wing, Star Trek Attack Wing, Battlefleet Gothic, Epic, Drop Zone Commander, whatever, chances are you will find a use for some of these as civilian ships, terrain, wrecks, or even as part of your fleet. I haven't tried cutting or gluing them yet (give me a day or two) but it looks like something will work. And again, for $6...
Long Form
Spoiler:
It's an impressive package, 7" square weighing a pound or more.
Makes for a big pile too
They feel a bit waxy like toy soldiers, I doubt model cement will work on them. We'll see.
My bag came with 2 miscasts.
You get 8 types of ship in several colors
Looking at them from a design perspective I see 3 factions, the curvy advanced ships, the boxy ships and the 2 saucer looking ones
The open topped speeder is the runt of the litter with a hollow bottom with no details
The 3 ships from Silent Death are all winners, some have bad casts and are a bit twisted but over all they're a superior design and details.
The two from Message from Space are no slouches however. The boxy one especially will work great for 40k or X-wing.
The half saucer is a bit thin, some them are warped, but I can buy it as a some sort of swift scout ship or early Federation ship.
And the saucer is iconic, it's the biggest of the 8 and well, it's a saucer. Either you need one or you don't.
Glad I got them, they really make me feel like a kid when I'd study my toys and make up whole background for them.
And yes, i will be writing a 1-2 page rule set using these and the Buck Rogers ships on order.
Pew! Pew! Pew! I'm play testing!
I'll be back in a day or two with word on how well they can be converted or painted.
Nice Review. Except for the difference in colors, they look exactly like the ones I got.
For rules, here's a couple free options.
I think they'd be a great choice for Full Thrust. It's not a simple rules lite game, but rather a classic full fledged space combat game that still holds up well today.
I recommend the "cross dimensions" fan variant which nicely ties the original and supplements and fixes a few things.
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~laranzu/fullthrust/rules/ It has rules for fighters as well which would give you a use for all the tiny buck rogers fighter models.
The Panzer 8 rules series of 2 page rulesets has a Space variant. I've only played the sci-fi ground version, but I like it quite a bit. I may give the space version a shot with my kid. The panzer 8 rulesets tend to be great for getting alot of units on the table with minimal fuss and since you've got 144 ships...
http://panzer8.weebly.com/rules.html
Star Crashers by Sean Patten of Necromundicon is another simple game that I may try with my son.
http://www.ironhands.com/starcrashers.htm I've not tried any of his rulesets, but they look quite clever and he's got one of the best guides ever to making your own spaceships from assorted junk and toys.
http://www.ironhands.com/starcrashmodels.htm
Just did a google search and it looks like there are quite alot of folks who have done their own homebrew space rulesets.
If they're anything like the EM4 ships (which they appear to be, but god damn do I wish EM4 had the saucers too) then they're hard plastic, not too awful to cut but prone to snapping, paintable and glueable, but I haven't tried with liquid poly yet
If the bag's a pound, I'm guessing shipping to the UK is going to be extortionate, right?
Same company as the 144 space ships and the airplanes.
Not sure if these are included in one of the other sets I linked to but for now I don't think I'll be ordering. Not with a few 100 ships on the way already.
I just checked the questions section of that listing. The seller says they're 5" long and a buyer estimates around 3". That would suggest that maybe these are in the realm of 10mm or even bigger! Suddenly $15 doesn't seem quite so bad.
Long story short, DO NOT get these if you're planning elaborate conversions or kit bashing. Unless you like a lot of extra work just to get glue to hold. They're also a bit brittle to cut.
I'm no engineering mentat so I'm afraid I can't tell you what plastic they're made of but it ain't styrene, this @#$% laughs at plastic cement. Laughs!
Superglue worked but I had to distress the surface with a file to get anything to hold. The outside feels waxy.
With some work I was able to get a passable Federation type ship out of parts from 3 ships.
Size wise each ship is bigger than a 28mm model.
They'll be OK to decortate some terrain or vehicles but not really as parts of models. The saucer and half saucer would make good flying platforms though. Cut up they can also help fill out rubble piles.
Trimmed down the boxy ship should work in BFG as a transport or something. The Silent Death ships and saucers could also make for Tau force.
Does anyone know if this stuff will take paint or spray primer? Or will spray paint melt them? I'll experiment this weekend and see.
Well, I think since there is car primers and even primers for Styrofoam out there in the market, you will find something that will stick to it. When all fails paint on primer by brush from the hardeware store...
The federation ship looks convincing enough, and in the last pic the yellow one reminds me of a power pack from ghost busters...with its wings it could work as an IG jump pack even...
Does anyone know if this stuff will take paint or spray primer? Or will spray paint melt them? I'll experiment this weekend and see.
Mine took Krylon spray primer just fine. May need a bit of cleanup of flash and around the ejection ports, but they've got more than enough detail on them to take a decent paintjob.
Nice work on that "not-Trek" ship. Maybe you can use the half saucers and some wings to make some "not-romulans" to fight them? What sort of numbers of each ship did you get?
I think these sorts of things are usually polyethylene and you need a specialty plastic glue to really glue them well. I have a loctite set which has a "primer" to go with the superglue, and it held some pretty crummy plastic together.
If they are like toy soldiers, then you might try PVA glue and/or gesso as primers, but Krylon Fusion should also work. (Might be hard to source if you are still in India, unless someone can put it in the diplo bag for you?)
If you want more recognizable ships there's a Star Trek board game coming out with 200 miniatures. War Store has/will have it for $70. Costier than gumball machine ships but still less than I spent this month on 25 year old Space Fleet models
lasgunpacker wrote: Nice work on that "not-Trek" ship. Maybe you can use the half saucers and some wings to make some "not-romulans" to fight them? What sort of numbers of each ship did you get?
I think these sorts of things are usually polyethylene and you need a specialty plastic glue to really glue them well. I have a loctite set which has a "primer" to go with the superglue, and it held some pretty crummy plastic together.
If they are like toy soldiers, then you might try PVA glue and/or gesso as primers, but Krylon Fusion should also work. (Might be hard to source if you are still in India, unless someone can put it in the diplo bag for you?)
Overseas I use car primers. Spray paint is apparently very hard to ship and I've never seen miniature primers outside of the US/UK/Japan. Even in Beijing which had a good modeling community spray paint was the one thing we could not find.
Numbers wise it feels like an even split. I've not taken inventory or even confirmed I got my full 144 but again for $6...
And I stand by my earlier thought they're worth it for almost anyone doing space games or 15mm or less sci fi. If nothing else cut them up for wreckage terrain.
I had some of those ships as a kid, one of many dollar store buys. Great to see them again... and great to know they're still just as cheap.
Now I could make rules for them, or just leech off of, say Star Wars X-Wing...
I have those rules.
Just wanted to add that in addition to the silent death ships, EM4 also sells the hexagonal flying bases. 15 bases for 1gbp!
http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/MINIAATURES_BASES.html They're a bit small for many of the larger currently produced sci-fi ship ranges like firestorm armada, but they'd be perfect for these toy plastic spaceships.
My buddy has some of these and I don't recall the exact size (around 1 inch maybe) but there's a common size of steel washer that will fit right in side the bases if you want to magnetize them. I've not done magnetic basing and storage, but it's a cheap and easy way to protect light fiddly models like small plastic spaceships.
I'm not completely sure, but I seem to recall that the flight stands also fit perfectly into the tray of the Em4 "Mech" hexagon bases.
Not that it's necessary, but it does give it a very nice look and the strait sides of the base make a good place to write unit info. Or you could leave them loose and mark each side of the base differently so you can rotate the hex to indicate the status of the ship.
Regarding rules...
I was just reading through the panzer 8 space battle rules and they require a hex sheet. I may still give them a try, but I'm now leaning more toward Star Crashers which is hex-less and uses measuring sticks.
lasgunpacker wrote: Nice work on that "not-Trek" ship. Maybe you can use the half saucers and some wings to make some "not-romulans" to fight them? What sort of numbers of each ship did you get?
I checked last night, the numbers range from 14 to 28 of each ship. I ended up with 145 + 2 miscasts so things are good in that respect.
Happy to say after the disappointment with glue, painting went totally fine.
Primer went on with no fuss, no damage to the model and after that painting was fast and easy.
Sorry about the yellow paint against the yellow background, wasn't thinking.
These are basic, basic jobs but it shows how good these dime story ships can look.
The Silent Death Ships (blue and yellow) of course are the stand outs but even the sausers and the anime ones look pretty good. I really love the boxy ship.
In conclusion, if you play any sort of 15mm, 10mm, 5mm sci fi or space combat game these are worth your time. They can be part of your force, they can be civilians/objects, they can dress up terrain, they be cut up for derbies. The only thing can't do is glue them for kitbashes.
But for $5, why not?
Also got my 1000+ Buck Rogers ships today.
Big lot, really big. Much lower detail than the Rinco ships but even cheaper. I really like the shuttles and gun pods. Look for a fuller review in a few days.
Oh I have to share this
made in Hong Kong! When was the last time you saw a toy made in Hong Kong? how long have these been sitting in a warehouse?
Originally I thought that Science Surplus must have gotten the molds and be keeping these in production ala EM4 or Rinco ships but no, I would bet these have been sitting in a TSR and now an American Science Surplus warehouse longer than some people here have been alive!
I've been going to American Science and Surplus since I was a kid (one of their stores is near where I grew up). I don't recall seeing them when I was super young, but I think they've been selling these bags of figures since the late 90's and maybe earlier. They actually used to have a few other gaming things including RPG modules for Star Trek and a few others and the Dragon Strike figs we discussed earlier.
They used to have more interesting surplus toys too, but you don't see as much of that anymore. I bought Diesel Engines from the Hot Wheels train system (circa 80's I think) when I was a kid. They had a tons of them loose in a box.
I'm not a plastic engineer, but the buck rogers stuff definitely feels like polypropylene. As you say, it's the stuff toy soldiers are made of.
Luckily these days that's not a barrier to painting if you use Krylon Fusion or a similar plastic-specific paint. Krylon's Camo line isn't called "fusion" but it works well, comes in a range of useful flat colors and does have a small logo saying "made with fusion tech".
I'm not sure what plastic the 144 spaceships are made of. They felt like styrene and they primed up well witih basic spray paint, but based on the difficulty with gluing they probably aren't.
Decided that I want to try out the Panzer 8 hex-based game, but I didn't have a space Hex map...
I bought a roll of this "Gaming Paper" hex paper:
http://www.miniaturemarket.com/ggp0302.html It's cheap and big (30 inches x12 feet) but it's basically hex-print gift-wrap so it's pretty thin and not really suitable for re-use on it's own. So, I've glued (spray adhesive) it down to the backside of a second hand Axis and Allies board which measures aprox 33"x20".
Just finished flicking it with a bit of white gesso to make a subtle star background and it looks pretty good. When it dries I'll varnish it and snap a picture or two for you all.
Not a bad deal for less than $10 (7.65 shipped + a $2 resale shop boardgame) invested and I've still got over 10 feet of paper left so I may make a few more for some of my club members.
I also dug out my EM4 spaceship bases. They're almost exactly sized for 1 inch hexes (maybe 1mm over) and they look like they'll work well with the 144 ships and/or the Buck Rogers stuff.
I also broke down and bought these:
Kid_Kyoto wrote: Also found some more science fictiony planes on Amazon but SUPER PRICEY! $15 for 72!
Same company as the 144 space ships and the airplanes.
Not sure if these are included in one of the other sets I linked to but for now I don't think I'll be ordering. Not with a few 100 ships on the way already.
I couldn't find it listed at the Rhode Island website and if they are close to N scale and are discontinued I know I'd kick myself later if I didn't buy them. I may basecoat a few and try and get some of my money back at the next FLGS auction.
I only opened 1 bag of each and each $3~$4 set comes with 10 bags!
The sculpts are pretty basic. The turrets are fine, the shuttles are good (and even have a nice retro feel) but the fighters and warbirds are under detailed.
But again, several 100 for $3.
Now I don't know what I will do with a few thousand little fighters, shuttles etc. But for less than the cost of a dinner with the family I'm sure I'll find a use for some of them someday.
Fighters come in at about 3/4 of an inch and the bag I opened had 90 (so i should have around 900)
Turrets are about waist high to a model and come 14 to a bag (140 total)
Looks like they'd be great for 28mm terrain too.
Warbirds are a bit bigger, not quite an inch but really lacking in detail, they're almost abstract representations of a space ship.
The shuttles are the other winner, just over an inch long, nice detail for a small game piece and I love the retro 'War Rocket Ajax' style.
Next Black Friday, keep an eye out for deals on Eclipse: Spaceship 1. I got one a year ago, and it comes with a lot of fun spaceships to fit your retro look, as well as some 90's brick ships and some vaguely Star Trekish ships. Twilight Imperium expansions sometimes hit some sweet low prices.
If you want some underdetailed little ships and tanks, I have some leftover from the old Ronin plastic range. I believe they are 1/250 or so.
Galactic Knights is apparently the latest incarantion of a 70s era space ship fleet game originally called Star Fleet Wars (a name which is about one sylable from a lawsuit).
Spoiler:
Trying to decide which of these 2 looks better with my Space Fleet models...
$3 for the little dudes but only goes up to $20 for the 'Super Galactic Dreadnaughts.
I played this game, with these very minis, back in, oh, 1980-1981.
We called it Dice in Space. You needed many many ships to play. We ended up using pennies for extra spaceships and wire nuts for missiles. Good grief it became tedious in a hurry...Ah, good times.
Long story short, DO NOT get these if you're planning elaborate conversions or kit bashing. Unless you like a lot of extra work just to get glue to hold. They're also a bit brittle to cut.
I'm no engineering mentat so I'm afraid I can't tell you what plastic they're made of but it ain't styrene, this @#$% laughs at plastic cement. Laughs!
Spoiler:
Superglue worked but I had to distress the surface with a file to get anything to hold. The outside feels waxy.
Sounds like polyethylene, like in milk jugs.
Great thread. Totally exalted. Whatever that does.
THanks for sharing that and for the link to Star Crashers, I didn't realize it was by the Iron Hands guy, he's one of the old masters of scratch building!
Interesting to hear your 5 year old could play, Kyoto Secunda and her clone sister Kyoto Secunda Prime are 3 now...
Thanks for the BatRep. That looks like something I could play with my six-year old. He doesn't do well with games more complex than Carcassone or Dreadball, so it seems pretty close to prefect for him. Plus he would probably enjoy pushing around a lot of tiny spaceships.
Kid_Kyoto wrote:
THanks for sharing that and for the link to Star Crashers, I didn't realize it was by the Iron Hands guy, he's one of the old masters of scratch building!
Interesting to hear your 5 year old could play, Kyoto Secunda and her clone sister Kyoto Secunda Prime are 3 now...
You're very welcome. He really is one of the masters. Virtually everything I know about toybashing and terrain making draws a line to Sean Patten. I don't know how your kids would do. My daughter is 3 and she's definitely not ready yet, but I was reading when I was 3 and probably could have played this, so there's a pretty wide range of 3-year-old abilities.
JoshInJapan wrote:Thanks for the BatRep. That looks like something I could play with my six-year old. He doesn't do well with games more complex than Carcassone or Dreadball, so it seems pretty close to prefect for him. Plus he would probably enjoy pushing around a lot of tiny spaceships.
It's definitely easier than Dreadball and probably a bit less than Carcassone. We only used two ship types and as I mentioned above I simplified the actions. However, he did so well that I think I'll add a couple of ship types and restore the original 2-action rules. It was great for having him count and compare numbers on the dice. Also he's a bit "active" so having to concentrate on moving the correct number of hexes where they are nearly all identical seemed to be good for him as well.
I think this will be the first of many games with him.
Some progress today, the Buck Rogers ships I am happy to say take model cement!
So I got some quick experiments done.
First up they fit fine on 20mm bases which will make moving and tracking them much easier.
Second off a small sacrifice of a few of the 1000 ships got me both torpedo volleys and a mine field.
A Xeno vessel swerves to avoid the mines, only to be targeted by torpedos.
(Wingless fighters and the noses from the warbirds if it's not stunningly obvious)
The minefield needs work, I think I'm on the right path but not just yet. Maybe just moving to a round base?
So the Buck Rogers ships still get my highest recommendation. Now to see how they take paint.
The US Toy ships arrived and alas are as disappointing I was told.
The good news is I got some great variety more than 20 different designs among the 72 ships. So if you need ship counters this is a good buy. They're each about an inch and a half. Most are variations on delta wing planes but there's a few whimsical ones in there.
The bad news.
They're bendy rubber and there's no way they'd take paint or glue.
So if you just need ships and will never paint them great, but for me I think the Buck Rogers and Rinco ships are the better buy.
I still have 2 more shipments incoming (when I go nuts for something I go nuts) the Chinese and EM4 versions of the Silent Death ships. We shall see how they go.
Oh and my Space Fleet, uh, fleet got a new flagship. The =I=SS Heart of Nova Yeboracum.
Nova of course meaning new, and Yeboracum being a corruption of Eboracum, the Roman name for York.
Thus the fourth wall breaking I heart NY across her sides...
And while at first glance this might seem to be an Imperial Super Star Destroyer closer examination will show the intense conversion work that went into integrating this ship with the detailed iconography of the Warhammer 40k universe. For example I added a skull, with wings! And an angel!
The thing is 5" long and has been sitting in a box for 6 years so I think it counts for this thread.
Same company as the 144 space ships and the airplanes.
Not sure if these are included in one of the other sets I linked to but for now I don't think I'll be ordering. Not with a few 100 ships on the way already.
Well I did order and got them today. Pretty big, I'd say 5" justifying the higher price tag but hollow on the bottom.
Very light on detail.
Not bad, but not great, I like the smaller ships better.
Well I did order and got them today. Pretty big, I'd say 5" justifying the higher price tag but hollow on the bottom.
Very light on detail.
Not bad, but not great, I like the smaller ships better.
I'll write something more thorough in a few days.
Mine arrived yesterday and I agree with your observations. What detail is there is good and should be easily paintable, but there's some wide bare swaths that cry out for a bit of drawn-on panel lines. Some of them should work great for 10mm, especially the Osprey'ish VTOL, but some of them are larger and are probably better suited for 15 or even 20mm.
Mostly incompatible with the smaller ships, but I could see them being very useful for larger scale gamers and at about 20 cents each, they're quite a bargain. If one wanted to run a larger scale game of Starcrashers, the pulp adventure feel of the ships could be a pretty good match for the rules.
I think if you put the mines on a round base and put some of the individual mines on a short rod of some kind to create a "floating" look, they'd look pretty good.
I agree. It's more work, but mines, torpedoes and fighters all tend to look great multi-based on rods.
In other news I just gave six of the 5" Ultraman ships a heavy scrubbing with dish soap. When they're totally dry I'll have my first go at priming them.
Looks like any mat is going to be costy especially with shipping, would it be better to go to a print shop and have them mount them on a 4x4 foam core?
Foam Core might be a good option, but perhaps having it printed out directly on some sort of signage would be the best option.
Sintra, Gatorboard, or just a vinyl canvas might be sturdier than foamcore. I'm not sure what they would cost, it might just be cheaper to use a pre-made gamingn mat.
I saw a pretty good star mat done with black felt and various colors of paint flicked onto it.
Another option for cheap fleets, Metal Express has the same plastic sprue as EM4 for $5 about the same as EM4 but US shipping. They also have 100s of metal ships and some of the worst pictures I've ever seen...
I mean 90% of the models have these line illustrations with no photo and nothing to illustrate scale
Even the plastic ships have no picture I found one from a 3rd party.
I got the Rinco large airplanes and while they're lower detail than the other set they still have uses.
First off they are big, easily usable in a 10mm game, some even in 15mm. They can dress up terrain, plant one on a landing pad or cut some up as derbies for a rescue mission. They can also be pressed into service as transports or even fighters and bombers if you're looking for a budget option for Dropzone Commander or other large scale game.
The planes vary from 3~4" long and since they seem to be taken from different Ultraman shows over the decades are like a musueum of fictional aircraft.
They're underdetailed and hollow on the bottom, that at least can be corrected with green stuff or plasticard.
Starting with Supersonic Red you get a streamlined Jet Age looking transport plane that could easily serve as a civilian luxury jet or shuttle for any sort of air, space or ground war game. Whether you're meeting with that defector in West Germany or headed for trade negotiations on Naboo it will get you where you need to go.
The orange VTOL can be a military or civilian Osprey type vehicle. Just the thing to dress up an office tower or base for when the Japcorp Execs have a meeting with Aztechnology or when the black ops team needs a ride to hunt that xeno morph.
This green one can be a plausible bomber or ground attack plane.
While this purple one has the look of a high tech fighter.
The blue one is not as plausible but could still work too.
The green box is smaller so maybe better for 5mm but makes for a nice troop ship or cargo shuttle. Heck it's almost a perfect match for the RT era thunderhawk. Still not sure which end is the front...
If you're looking to play fleet scale some of these might still work, especially if you're not too proud. And if you are proud, well why are you reading a thread on dime store space ships anyway?
As for their intended use as toys all I can say they kept my girls entertained for part of an 8-hour flight which is easily worth $15 right there.
Still need to try priming and painting them and gluing them, so I'll be back with more info.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Edit-additional comment from Kyoto Secunda "Now mommy airplane and baby airplane have fun on the slide.
Thanks for that comparison. I was debating whether to pick up the US Toy company ones. Looks like they're not much bigger than the Rinco versions so I think I'll pass.
Nice to see though that for the last one they don't have the ejection points on the top of the wings the way the Rinco ship does
I just primed a few EM4 ships yesterday and the detail and casting is much better than either of the others. No surprise there.
Just need some civilian targets to shoot at and don't care what you get? Order the Bag-O-Targets (tm) - 20 random freighters from the Fleet Action line (minimum 2 of each type: freighter, fast freighter, tanker, bulk freighter, and ore barge)! A handful of merchant vessels waiting to die! (Note: The quantities you receive may differ from those in the photo, but you'll get at least 2 of each of the 5 types, as explained above.)
Definitely worth a look. There are quite a lot of good Babylon 5 space combat games floating about out there.
A Call To Arms is good for bigger games, although Mongoose went through two editions and countless erratas 'tweaking' it to get things balanced (2nd edition + Powers & Principalities is close)
Babylon 5 wars is insanely detailed - which is great for two cruisers beating up on each other but not for 'big' games.
The Earthforce Sourcebook (essentially Full Thrust) is a nice balance between the two.
I'm watching my way through Babylon 5 again at the moment.
Damn. Really want to get in a few games again.
Kid_Kyoto wrote: Another low cost option are the great Imex Chemical Plant sprues.
Banged out two space stations this weekend.
That's brilliant! I have been sitting on a pile of those, unable to motivate myself enough to overcome the hassle of assembling them. I may have to revisit that particular Box Of Shame
Also, a buddy over at Lead Adventure had purchased the earlier version of the 144 ships that had a couple of different designs. He sent me a few of each and I'll post them up soon.
Maybe, Remember that all the pipes are half sections as well. $24 would probably get you enough to use them for occasional greebling as I do, but if you want to make a big installation, it may require significantly more.
Vanguard has picked up some of the 'I can't believe it's not Epic' lines like Defeat in Detail and Onslaught as well as a small line of gothic space ships, suitable for a battle fleet.
Costier than dime store space ships but cheaper than 3rd hand used Gothic and Epic models on ebay.
Some nice 6mm stuff too for truly epic games.
Also some 6mm scale turrets suitable for scratch building ships.
Which is fine since I stole them from Ironhands.com (as Elif pointed out)
I found a way to stretch the bitz even farther, will post pictures tonight.
To be fair, you've definitely put your own spin on the idea. Really liking what I'm seeing so far.
I may have to glue a couple of the buck rogers ships to my space station to give it a sense of scale.
Modular Space stations for Dropfleet Commander US$50~60, coming in November.
Modular Space Station Pack Information
This incredible multi-part hard plastic set is a fully modular custom space station building kit - a first for tabletop gaming! It can be assembled in a virtually infinite number of ways in a massive variety of forms, shapes and sizes to fit your imagination.
All eight cruiser-sized space stations in the image gallery can be built from a single set, but these are just examples. A much larger number of smaller stations could be constructed; alternatively, players could use the entire set to build one massive orbital dock! If you wanted to create something truly gargantuan, multiple sets can also be combined.
Every one of its many and varied parts is sumptuously detailed. Superstructure, towers, communication dishes, gantries, cooling vanes, gun turrets, laser weapons and missile pods are all part of the kit, giving the builder an unrivalled degree of creative options.
Space stations are integral to many scenarios in Dropfleet Commander - highly appropriate for the game's orbital combat setting!
This box contains 4 hard plastic space station sprues - to date the largest sprue Hawk Wargames has produced. Each sprue includes 51 different components and 71 in total - that's a staggering 284 parts in this one set, not including the bases!
Average size of example space stations shown is 90x90x60mm.
NOTE: This kit is provided with 6 large and 8 small Dropfleet flight stands, designed to track in-game status without the use of tokens.
Please Note: Miniatures are supplied unpainted and some assembly will be required.
Amazon Canada is just the worst. I'll have to buy a few bags to make the shipping worth it...
Or other ships as well, didn't need that many but it is what it is I suppose.
ulgurstasta wrote: Has anyone tried using those dime-store ships for Epic? They seem to fit size-wise.
Depends what you're using them for. I'd say the smaller HIPS ones from EM4 or Metal Express will work better as most epic fliers, the dime store ones would be good as terrain or larger ships.
I got the Drop Fleet space station set and it's fantastic for space stations, satellites or just grubbings for ships or other 5mm or under conversions.
At $50 a bit costy but you'll get a lot of use out of them.
I also got into cheap Space Cruiser Yamato ships from Bandai, at $5~$10 a pop (even cheaper if you happen to be in Japan) they're a great resource.
Available on Amazon too.
They're about to become my Tau fleet, along with the Silent Death plastics.
<sigh> Between packing up all my Silent Death minis for the move, and reading up at that site, now I really want to get a game if it in. One of the best fighter games out there IMHO.
