Federation Commander

NOTE, I am really refering more to the quality of the castings, then the number of parts involved. the older castings had better quality, but were of course more fragile. I to would be happier with a one piece casting, as long as there is minimal compromise on quality. The above is the edit.

Many people who play this game may have never seen the original Castings for SFB miniatures. But the old timers will remember them. Some of them had a over abundance of small parts. But when assembled, looked great. (but broke easy if not assembled properly.)

The Specific example I am referring to is the Klingon D7 Miniature.

Now, the original casting was beautiful. Nice clean lines, and decent details.

However, some people didn’t like that it was cast in 4 separate pieces.

So a NEW one-piece casting was created. Now most people probably wouldn’t notice the difference between the two, at least until you put one of each side-by-side. It is only then that most would even notice exactly how terrible the newer casting is in comparison.

But for those of us who have several of the original castings, its obvious, even without comparing the two side by side.

Now the majority of the new figures I’ve seen are pretty good. But there are a few (like the new D7 and some of the romulan hawks) that are just terrible. And I was wondering if anyone else feels that the quality of some of the castings has gone down. As a result of
The change from multi-piece to one-piece castings.

What do you think?

New castings... by a long shot.

While I have many (200+) of the old castings, just thinking about trying to assemble (and then re-assemble after it gets dropped during play) the old 14-piece Kzinti SCS is enough to send me into tremors.

I have some of the old castings and the new. I prefer the 1 piece Klingon/Kzin ships because if you looked at the old ones wrong the engines fell off. I like the old Gorn ships better than the new ones, but the advantage of parts not falling off is a plus.

This won't matter much with the ISC, Andro, and Rom Warbirds since they've always been one piece castings. Some of the Hydran ships are 1 piece, I think I have one that one engine was glued on.

That would be the Hydran Ranger Heavy Cruiser.

I love the new Feds and give me pewter over lead anytime. if a nacelle didn't drop off in transit to the club you spent half the night realigning them.

But it was easy to find a "saucer only" miniature to replace the "whole" Federation ship when it came time to drop the warp engines adn utilize sublight disengagement...

I never had a problem with parts falling off, as long as I sprung for the "good quality" cement at the hobby shop instead of the cheap super glue. I have 7 of the old D7s, 2 of the old C8s, and 1 of the old B10s. Since the day I bought them, stripped them and painted them over ten years ago, not a single one of them has ever dropped a part. Even when tipped over on a table.

But I digress,, I Have no problem with a One piece casting. I am simply referring to the Crappy quality of some (and only some) of the current one-piece castings. I mean, the current D7 is so terrible; I am embarrassed to put it on the same table with my older D7s. I just think that the New D7 needs to be improved. (As a one piece of course)

So this poll is really referring to the QUALITY OF THE CASTINGS. (and if you all agree there’s room for improvement.) Not necessarily number of parts involved.

Quality of Castings:

Well then, as with any other miniature company... some are better quality and some are of lesser quality than the old lead castings. Unfortunately, pewter doesn't seem to mold as cleanly and neatly as lead... but it is safer, and since I tend to chew on the minis during those odd moments of stress while deciding how to maneuver or fire, this is a good thing...

Seriously though, I think the quality of the casting is much more dependant on who's working at Reaper that day than on the quality of the mini itself. For example, I have (at last count) 37 Hydran frigates. Of those, 3 have so much flash and are of such bad quality... they went straight to the bitz box. The other 33 are relatively clean and free of defects... so it can't be a mini specific issue.

I think that some of the miniatures could benefit from a bit more detail (witness the new Federation CC saucer), but that would also generate problems. I like to have the large, flat areas to paint as I wish... flames, tiger-stripes, blended color bands, etc. some others like to have every little fiddly bit molded in for them.

But I digress as well. Yes, there is room for improvement... but things are still better now than they were several years ago.

Well, being a Klingon player I have old and new D7s (and FASA and Rawcliffe D7s). I can't tell the difference between the old TFG D7s and the new ADB D7s without looking for the blobs of glue where the old ones are stuck together. I just cannot figure out what gets defined as "terrible". It's actually the same ship, and the new ones are taking from the original masters of the old one.

To be sure, lead casts much nicer than pewter and that is probably 98% of the difference in "quality" of the two. But the wholesalers will not buy lead, and the casting houses won't use lead.

I did talk to Reaper about using zinc or nickle or other metals and basically got told that they won't and can't work. Silver might, if you like paying $45 per D7.

I can tell the difference.

The boom on the new is just not as nice (or accurate) as the old one.

I don't miss that old boom falling off all the time though.

Maybe, someday, the D-7 can get the D-7K treatment like the Fed CC got with the new saucer.

The new D7 boom is thicker so it doesn't bend. Players wanted it that way.

I am not sure what "the Fed CC treatment" would be? Weld lines and such that were not on the original TV version?

Steve Cole wrote: I did talk to Reaper about using zinc or nickle or other metals and basically got told that they won't and can't work. Silver might, if you like paying $45 per D7.

How about an anniversary D7 cast out of 18k gold? I'm sure there's some market for that. Maybe Fed Com jewlery...little Fed CA earrings cast in silver or gold.

I always hated having to re-assemble the Gorn BC (or whatever) half way through a battle when the warp engine fell off. Could be a comment about my ability with miniatures of course....

Single piece has to be the way ahead!

Scoutdad wrote:New castings... by a long shot.

While I have many (200+) of the old castings, just thinking about trying to assemble (and then re-assemble after it gets dropped during play) the old 14-piece Kzinti SCS is enough to send me into tremors.

Kzinti confetti

Actually... it's funnny that you should call it "Kzinti Confetti". One of my recent ebay acquisitions was a collection of hte old style Kzinti ships. The auction listed it as being 2 SCS, 4 CV's, 4 CVEs, 4 CS's, 8 FF's, etc.; sll needing minor repair.

I got a ziplok bag with all the individual pieces from all of the ships dumped in loosely. It looked like an explosion in the ADB warehouse...



I have since sorted them out added missign parts from my kit-bash packs to make full ships and placed them in seperate ziplok bags. I have repaired a couple of them and gotten ready for painting... the others are on the back burner until I get soem other things done.