Federation Commander

I haven't had a problem with pieces dropping off these minis just yet, but then my new Klingon minis haven't had much of a playing with at the moment (becaue they're quite new). The Fed ships I would have thought would be some of the next most delicate with the thin warp pylons and all, and I haven't really had problems with them yet, except once when an engine fell off but it turned out that I'd glued it on all wrong as there was paint in the joint... whoops! Hopefully where things are assembled properly, things will hold up - the CAs I made are doing fine despite being handled by the warp engines a lot, and as you can probably imagine are some of the most played-with of all my Feds. I have also had a "wing" piece break off one of my old Kzinti ships, but apart from that these are the only breakages I have had.

They may be slightly better than the old Starline 2200 ones in that polystyrene cement used on polystyrene as intended is pretty strong - when it's done right the most delicate parts are probably the thin plastic pieces. Either way, I get a little anxious when ham-fisted people are handling my models, and like to just make sure they're handled with as much care as possible for a gaming piece. At the end of the day they were built for playing with, so I'll just have to expect the odd breakage and be ready to deal with it when it comes.

I "ruggedizing" my minis as best I can. I end up teaching the game a lot more than I ever thought (since I consider myself still a learner too). After my first ham-handed trainee broke one of my Klinks, I rethought things.

My old multi-piece Klingons get quite a bit of work - I drill and pin the engines, then reinforce the joint with 2-part putty building up the bottom face quite a bit.

I particularly like the C8. The detail on all the minis are great! I also like the green scheme too, makes them a bit more crossover to TMP era, which is cool.

Are those symbols painted on?

Yeah all the symbols and details are painted with a small brush. Unfortunately I haven't got anything like a good enough printer to print my own decals, nor the funds to get one. So for now, I'll stick to the old fashioned way of doing things and use the brush! I think that C8 is my favourite of those Klingon models actually.

In terms of "ruggedising" the miniatures, I think these are probably too small to make it worth drilling holes in them. I'll just have to hope that either they don't break at all, or if they do that I can simply fix them with poly cement...

I still have some of the old 3 piece Klingons and I remember you would look at them funny and the engines would fall off. I like the new one piece ones.

On another note: I liked the old style Gorn better than the one piece they have now. For some reason the way the engines are attached to the ship just doesn't look that good. Maybe if there was an actual gap near the back end of the engines they'd look better. Just my .02.

Tom

I probably just broke your heart then - I just finished modifying my old lead DN, 2 CA's, CL, and a DD to move then engines up to the "modern" location and putty them in. They just got primed on Sunday.

djdood wrote:I probably just broke your heart then - I just finished modifying my old lead DN, 2 CA's, CL, and a DD to move then engines up to the "modern" location and putty them in. They just got primed on Sunday.

I haven't had the time (kitchen remodel) to work on any mini's for months. I'm also lacking in the tools to do that kind of work on my figures plus the talent to not mess them up. As for buying the tools: that money's all in my kitchen.

Tools = cheap (I'm using my wife's Dremel). The edge of an X-acto blade works fine for shoving putty around.
Materials = 10 bucks for a tube of greenstuff putty (which will last me for the rest of my natural life). Steel T-pins; "liberated" from my wife's sewing supplies.
Talent = none present. I just try to look half as good as Thomas, Raper, or Schneder.

djdood wrote:I probably just broke your heart then - I just finished modifying my old lead DN, 2 CA's, CL, and a DD to move then engines up to the "modern" location and putty them in. They just got primed on Sunday.

ACK!!! I would have been willing to trade you 2 for 1 to get more of the old style Gorns.

djdood wrote:Tools = cheap (I'm using my wife's Dremel). The edge of an X-acto blade works fine for shoving putty around.
Materials = 10 bucks for a tube of greenstuff putty (which will last me for the rest of my natural life). Steel T-pins; "liberated" from my wife's sewing supplies.
Talent = none present. I just try to look half as good as Thomas, Raper, or Schneder.

WEll, I don't know about Mike or John, but after 6 monthes of 55 plus hour weeks, getting a kid graduated and into the US Army Basic Training, dealing with all three Grandkids at once, and both a wife and a mother in the hospital - It's pretty **** easy to look better than me!

Check my most recent email to you Tony. There may be relevant news.

djdood wrote:Check my most recent email to you Tony. There may be relevant news.

Hmmm... that's funny. My computer keeps saying, "You've got mail!", but every time I walk out to the street and check - the box is still empty!