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Drone Minis

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:11 pm
by shauneroo
Hi all,

I'm looking to get some drone minis for FC. I think I recall seeing somewhere that someone used model aircraft missiles for this purpose? If so which ones would you recommend?

Also, plasma torpedoes. Anyone have a good mini solution for these?

Thanks in advance.

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:27 pm
by drwibble
I think that Scoutdad posted a previous solution to the drones using 1/300th aircraft ordnance, and plastic pins for the plasmas. Just can't find the thread at the moment...

The only plasma counters I'm aware of are from Rattlehead Games in their Ninja Magic/With Hostile Intent range, which also contains missiles and torpedoes.

I have a bag of plastic missiles that I got in a "travel battleships" game from a Pound Shop which I'm planning to use as drones, very cheap, and the bag has more drones than I ever hope to meet or need to launch!

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:38 pm
by Scoutdad
For Drones, I use C-in-C brand Soviet air-to-air missiles. For a photo of the painted version, see the links in my signature, below:

For Plasma Torps, I use "Plastic Sequin Pins". I found a bag on ebay several years ago. I got 1000 pins for less than a dollar. Unfortunately, I don't think these are produced any longer as no one has been able to find them in recent years. Another (albeit OOP) alternative is the "Fireball spell effect" miniature from KenzerCo's Hackmaster miniatures line. I have about half a dozen packs of these, but like so many other things - they are on my "to do" list.

On a brighter note, SVC has been working with Todd over at Ninja Magic for a while now and plans are to release a SFB/FC specific version of the Drone / Plasma Torp / DefSat / Shuttle / Stinger / Mine miniature... it's just a matter of when?

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:08 pm
by shauneroo
Thanks guys, incredibly helpful as usual.

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 10:45 pm
by atomic
I have set aside all the GW Hunter/Killer missles from my bits box for that purpose.

Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 5:08 am
by Paul B
I believe the With Hostile Intent guy, Todd, is doing up some figs for FedCommander/SFB which includes both drones and plasma torps (and fighters of various races). Though not 100% sure.

Not sure when any product would see the light of day though.

Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 9:10 pm
by John Schneder II
Shauneroo,

We use a flechette mounted to a magnet. It looks a lot like a one-inch long steel arrow. We painted them in different colors, but putting them on a base of some sort would allow you to number them. I got them in bulk from a company named "Cheaper Than Dirt". I had to buy a one pound package. This netted me around 900 of them, far more than I could use. I don't know what shipping would be to where you are.
For plasmas we made a roughly plasma-shaped blob of Sculpy clay. Sculpy is an oven-bake clay: you make what you want out of it, bake it for 15 mins. and its solid. Then we painted them in various colors and numbered them.

Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 9:15 pm
by wedge_hammersteel
JS II, you got a pic of the flechette? If yes, could email me the pic?

I have been looking for something to make drones out of and I couldnt find anything at my local hardware store.

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 3:22 pm
by John Schneder II
Here are two pics of our flechette drone minis, one with them loose (you can see the strip magnet attached to the bottom),

Image

and one with them on one of our 'drone stack' stands.

Image

The stand is made from a normal black plastic base with a piece of metal strip going up allowing us to attach the magnets to it. The shield grid sort of thing you see attached to the drone stack base is for finding the center for range and movement purposes (the black line) and showing the FA arc (the red lines) for tracking purposes.

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 5:35 pm
by shauneroo
They look really good.

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:21 pm
by djdood
Clever use of the magnets.