Federation F14

[Bill Stec]

I look forward to seeing that, but no, I am not holding my breath.

[djdood]

I think a likely scenario would be something similar to how the old resin Juggernaut minis were done. Someone makes them and casts them up, then ADB either buys and sells them outright, or sells them as some kind of consignment. I'm pretty sure ADB would want to keep the sales centralized.

[Steve Cole]

There are lots of reasons why things don't happen, the biggest being that there are too many things wanting to happen and what seems simple is often ridiculously complicated. In this case, however, it may well be that we'd run into the question of how many we would sell.

But tell you what, somebody get me a cost figure to do a metal "original" of a fighter, and I'll run the budget numbers and see what can happen. (The way this works, we'd have to have about six or eight new fighters or PFs or assorted similar sized things and then do a master mold, use the master mold to make masters, use the masters to create a production mold,and so forth.

You do run into some fairly annoying cost numbers. For example, each production mold is $50 which doesn't sound like much until you figure that you might sell maybe 50 packs of each fighter, adding a dollar a pack to the cost. If I could convince Bruce to make one mold that ran say three each of six different PFs it would save me five molds, but it means I have to buy one set of bad-seling Tholian PFs for every set of hot selling Klingon G1s. You get to the point that I'd have 90% of the Tholian PFs leftover, and money belongs in the bank in the form of cash, not on the shelf in the form of scrap metal nobody wants.

It's a fairly complex thing, but we can make it happen. Somebody has to do the 3d CGI (I think Todd did the last ones and I doubt his royalty on them paid him as much as he deserved for them). But at least now I know how many fighter packs I can sell and I can figure things out.

So, seriously, go get me a number. This many dollars gets me to a cleaned up metal fighter/PF that I can use to create a master mold. I've got the calculator and Leanna has the checkbook and if I can make it work, I'll do it.

[Bill Stec]

Would it be worth considering selling the new fighters as part of a pack, say 6 of each F14, A10, F15? This way you could set up a large mold that say 3 -4 of each type at a time, (or whatever works best), saving you on molds?

Call it "Federation Advanced Fighter Pack" or something. 6 of each fighter type, perhaps, or 12 each if you wanted to get ambitious.

That way you won't end up selling tons of say, F14s, a moderate amount of F15s, and only a few A10s.

Klingons, Kzinti, say one fighter design for each Empire?

Don't know about Gorns/Roms/ISC.

I may go set up a poll over at Mongoose asking what fighters people would want to see. I don't see any way to set up one here. But before I do that, I will need pictures of each fighter type under consideration to post there so people know what they look like.

Finding such is no easy task, especially since I don't have all the Captain's Logs.

[Gimp]

Multiple type packs are nice for the players who want all of them, but cause problems for the players who only want to field one type, or more of one type than the others, or are on a limited budget, and can't afford a horde of fighters every time they want to buy a few.

It will work for some players, and be cheaper on production because a mold could be set to cast a set number of packs, but can be more expensive long term because fewer packs get sold due to players that don't want to buy fighters they don't want.

Worth considering, but it gives a lot to consider.

[Dal Downing]

Bill when you click on the "Creat a New Topic" button. It opens a window that is the same as a Reply to this Topic boxes except at the bottom of the Windoe under the Thick Blue bar is a section with 3 fields in it.

Poll question ___________
Poll option ____________
Run poll for ____ days.

Now with that being said it is my person opinion that disccussion of what new 2400 minis are being made or should be made should be kept on ADB sites. When the Joint Venture moves to the point that ACTASF needs Fighters mathew will have them added to the 2500 series as part of the JV so we do not need to bother him with distractions prior to that point.

Besides is just the polite thing to do to not promote a rival product on someone elses Bulletin Boards.

Also it is only my opion but, I am strongly opposed to adding a second Strike Fighter of any kind to any empire before the Attack Fighters (A10, ZD etc.) get done.

[Dal Downing]

Would it be worth considering selling the new fighters as part of a pack, say 6 of each F14, A10, F15? This way you could set up a large mold that say 3 -4 of each type at a time, (or whatever works best), saving you on molds?

I am sure whoever is producing these minis is probably doing it as a spin cast mold. If so simply making a larger mold may not work but, thinking on this I wonder if they can make a spin cast mold with a indexing gate so you could "shut-off" certain cavities. Or even design them so you could insert a dummy plug in the spru track.

[Bill Stec]

Bill when you click on the "Creat a New Topic" button. It opens a window that is the same as a Reply to this Topic boxes except at the bottom of the Windoe under the Thick Blue bar is a section with 3 fields in it.

Poll question ___________
Poll option ____________
Run poll for ____ days.

Now with that being said it is my person opinion that disccussion of what new 2400 minis are being made or should be made should be kept on ADB sites. When the Joint Venture moves to the point that ACTASF needs Fighters mathew will have them added to the 2500 series as part of the JV so we do not need to bother him with distractions prior to that point.

Besides is just the polite thing to do to not promote a rival product on someone elses Bulletin Boards.

Also it is only my opion but, I am strongly opposed to adding a second Strike Fighter of any kind to any empire before the Attack Fighters (A10, ZD etc.) get done.

Dal,

Thank you, I never noticed the option to do a poll.

I tend to agree that discussion of Starline 2400 minis ought to be kept here or the BBS. Since I now know how to do a poll here, then I will keep it here or the BBS.

Hopefully everyone will know what the fighter(s) are supposed to look like, as I have been having a hard time finding art for all of them.

[Steve Cole]

Matthew and I agreed long long long ago that if fighters and PFs ever go to ACTASF the 2400 fighters and PFs will be the only minis done for fighters and PFs and the 2500 players can use them.

[Scoutdad]

Matthew and I agreed long long long ago that if fighters and PFs ever go to ACTASF the 2400 fighters and PFs will be the only minis done for fighters and PFs and the 2500 players can use them.

That actually works quite well for me, because:
1) I already have a ton of the 2400 fighters.
2) The detail level is as good as anything Sandrine / Mongoose have produced to date.
3) The quality of the casting far exceeds that of mongoose's best 2500 miniatures.

[djdood]

Agreed. The SL2400 fighters and shuttles meet any definition of modern standards for detail and quality. I love mine.

[Scoutdad]

Agreed. The SL2400 fighters and shuttles meet any definition of modern standards for detail and quality. I love mine.

I'm just really, really fond of mine!

[Bill Stec]

I can't wait until mine get here so I can get them on the game table.

[Bill Stec]

I am wondering something. I recall that many years ago, ADB used to sell PF miniatures. They haven't been on the product lineup since my return to the SFU in about 2006 (had a lack of interest in gaming since about '95 til 2006). What happened to them?

I ran a poll of what people would want for fighters, and here's the results so far:


Fed F14 x 9
Fed A10 x 4
Fed F15 x 4
Klingon Z-D x 1
Kzinti DAS x 1
ISC Fighers x 5
Gorn G12 x 1

Out of about 18 people voting, comments in the thread, and Facebook mentions. 210 views of the poll, figure 175-200 people at least looked at it, maybe 10% voted. Admittedly, this is for a poll that has only been up 5 days, and I expect that there are more people who don't visit the BBS frequently.

Even if each of those votes for a fighter represents a 12-pack purchased, does this show enough interest in the concept? Or do you, Steve, think that there might be enough interest out there on the part of people who didn't see the poll but who might buy anyways? I'm just the data-gatherer here.

I can see though, that even if we went with the concept of an superiority fighter and assault fighter for each Empire, the Klingons and Kzinti don't seem to generate much interest. I guess people could customize a regular Z-Y miniature to what they think a disruptor armed version ought to look like. Certainly doesn't seem to indicate enough interest to have some cast so far. Same with the G-12, though I don't know what that is supposed to look like.

[Steve Cole]

I plan to do PFs but the old ones won't really work and the new ones are only one of many projects I don't have time to do. What with only 24 hours in a day, there just is never time for every deserving idea.