Gary, I'll tkae your word on it RE: resin. I've only built two resin kits.

The shipping weight of a shuttle in scale with the figures is going to be significant if it's done in metal...
"Sir, would you like a handcart for your Admin Shuttle minature?"

By Martin Read (Amethyst_Cat) on Friday, April 08, 2005 - 04:52 am: Edit

6x3x2... That's bigger than an Empire Steam Tank. Ouch.

By Chris Mannall (Cmannall) on Friday, April 08, 2005 - 05:34 am: Edit

Gary Plana said: "IMHO, there is no way anyone can make a 25mm resin model in a profitable manner. The quality would be so low that the reject rate would be astronomical."

Games Workshop's resin arm, Forgeworld, have been knocking out resin kits for quite a while now - and have recently released a range of infantry. Although the kits do need a bit of work (sanding at the very least), they seem to have made a business out of it. Although I haven't bought much of it (just some parts with which to customize the odd tank or two), I haven't heard that there's a particularly high reject rate (although it could just be that they've been good at stopping the dodgier castings from reaching customers).

To be honest though, from what I've heard, the thing that tends to put some people off isn't the quality or the amount of work involved, it's the prices. Not that some of the larger items would be any cheaper in metal, obviously.

Check out their website to have a look at their range.

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Friday, April 08, 2005 - 10:59 am: Edit

The GW website says the minis are being made by hand, so that would explain how they get better quality.

But I suspect those minis are not being made in England, which would allow them to spend more time finishing them in the factory. I doubt if ADB could afford to do that, even if they had a good resin casting company down in Mexico they could work with.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 09, 2005 - 12:27 am: Edit

This is the current plan for an august release.

PACK ONE: FEDERATION OFFICERS
Human male with phaser and communicator
Andorian male with phaser and datapad
Vulcan female with tricorder and phaser

PACK TWO: KLINGON OFFICERS
Klingon male with disruptor carbine
Klingon female with dagger
Dunkar male with tricorder

PACK THREE: ROMULAN OFFICERS
Romulan male with plasma pistol
Romulan female doing something cool
Romulan male with scientific instrument

PACK FOUR: ALIENS
Gorn officer with rifle
Tholian officer with alien device
Orion slave girl dancing with chiffon veil

Preliminary plans for the follow up release are
PACK FIVE: KZINTIS
PACK SIX; LYRANS
in October.

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Saturday, April 09, 2005 - 12:46 am: Edit

Well, the Alien pack is going to be popular.

By David Keyser (Riov_Tafv) on Saturday, April 09, 2005 - 01:56 am: Edit

Yep, everyone will want that Tholian. Yeah, that's the ticket.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Saturday, April 09, 2005 - 03:18 am: Edit

SVC: I guess you'll be needing my THolian art sooner than later.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 09, 2005 - 08:47 am: Edit

Yes, the sculptor wants it. He has a plan for Tholians and I'll see if I like your plan or his better. Or they may be the same plan (no legs, float on force field).

By Nick G. Blank (Nickgb) on Saturday, April 09, 2005 - 10:13 am: Edit

Since PD is now no longer "prime team only", and supports merchants, smugglers, civilians, etc.. You might want to do (as one of the earlier packs) some non-military figures that could be used for a variety of roles. (guys out of uniform without military equipment).

Even if the players are military, these would be useful for NPC encounters and such.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 09, 2005 - 10:33 am: Edit

Of course we will. We have plans for about 200 individual figures over a five year period.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Saturday, April 09, 2005 - 01:57 pm: Edit

I don't know about the Alien pack. The Romulan pack could be pretty popular, too, depending on what "doing something cool" means.

Those Romulans sure do seem to like mixing business with pleasure ...

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 09, 2005 - 07:15 pm: Edit

Leanna would like it to be absolutely clear that we will not sell individual figures PERIOD. You can buy the blister pack of three or the crew box of whatever is in it but you cannot buy just the orion slave girl.

Also, I did some original research and came up with a price. Everybody who has seen that price says it is too low compared to other figures on the market.

By Matthew Pulido (Talison) on Saturday, April 09, 2005 - 07:28 pm: Edit

Looks good to me. What are the Feds going to have for symbols on the left breast of thier shirt? The standard Enterprise arrowhead?

Really interested in seeing the Gorn and Andorian.

By Andy Palmer (Andypalmer) on Saturday, April 09, 2005 - 07:56 pm: Edit

SVC. The "no separate minis" is fine as long as you sell 5-figure blister packs of marines (HQ, BP, HWS, CDO, COMENG) - anything else would be ... frustrating.

By David Kass (Dkass) on Saturday, April 09, 2005 - 09:00 pm: Edit

Given they aren't going to be sold singly, a slightly lower price might be good. I know that when I bought minis for RPGing as a player I didn't like multi-packs at all since I just wanted the mini corresponding to my character to paint. On a number of occasions, I bought a particular mini because I could get it single over one that perhaps better represented the character (in my mind), but only came as part of a group. Being able to get a "bargan" on three (versus buying them singly) might have made me re-evaluate which way to go.

Now that I have a regular job, this is less of an issue (but instead I don't really have time left for RPGing...).

By F. Douglas Wall (Knarf) on Monday, April 11, 2005 - 03:11 am: Edit

Matt: I don't know if the minis are going to be big enough to make that detail noticeable. If so, they might out of simplicity, but most of the PD art that I've seen implies that each ship has their own uniform icon, so it's not guaranteed.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Monday, April 18, 2005 - 03:51 pm: Edit

Cool!

Is it likely that we'll see figures for the likes of Veltressai, Pronhoulites, Korlivar etc before the year's end, or in 2006 (or at all)?

Gary

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, April 18, 2005 - 04:06 pm: Edit

Gary C: It just depends on sales. If we make a profit, we'll do more of them and will get to the ISC races in 2006. If we don't make money, we won't do any more.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Monday, April 18, 2005 - 04:28 pm: Edit

Sounds fair enough, let's hope the line does well!

Gary

By Tyler Wiltzen (Tyler) on Saturday, October 08, 2005 - 02:52 pm: Edit

I don't know if this has been suggested, but i will anyways. I would make a pack for a standard boarding party and the various types.(commando, Hvy weapons, Etc)

By Tyler Wiltzen (Tyler) on Saturday, October 08, 2005 - 02:53 pm: Edit

I don't know if this has been suggested, but i will anyways. I would make a pack for a standard boarding party and the various types.(commando, Hvy weapons, Etc)

By Mark A. Siefert (Siefert) on Sunday, October 09, 2005 - 06:00 pm: Edit

Will there be varients of the various figures? Will there just be ONE male, human, federation officer, or will there be others?

By Scott Alan Woodard (Ogma) on Monday, October 10, 2005 - 01:48 pm: Edit

Any news on these figs??? The list of releases from April says an "august" release...

~S

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, October 10, 2005 - 01:56 pm: Edit

As has been posted before, the sculptor for the project has spent several months in the hospital fighting for his life, which means he hasn't even started. For a variety of reasons, we do not plan to fire and replace him.