Federation Commander

I know, PFs (Fast Patrol ships - small, fast, heavily armed 'gunboats') are BoM material, but...

If PF miniatures are to be released, would there be any interest in sculpting 'PF Tender' variants for the various fleets, with docking points/pylons/wings containing recesses for small magnets to allow the model PFs to be attached/removed? Presumably the base hull would be a war cruiser, a D5 for the Klinks, a CW for the Lyrans, a CM for the Kzinti et.c.

They could be suppiled as a complete blister - ship, PF flotilla and magnets (12 per blister - six to be glued onto the ship, one to each PF).

EDIT - Or six magnets and six small pieces of steel.

The small (1mmx3mm disc) magnets I used for my Hydran PFTs cost £0.89 (about USD 1.30) each from a commercial supplier.

I saw your conversion of the Hydran Pegasus and thought it was brilliant.

I do think, however, that it's not a thing all minis-people would want. Some folks obsess on scale-accuracy (which any PF minis would never be able to meet; they'll never been in-scale with the SL2400 ships). Some folks would consider having the PFs actually mounted on the PFT to be fiddly and a hassle.

Personally, I think its better to leave them separate. Craftspeople, such as yourself, can make the conversion if-desired. The "throw paint on it and get it on the gaming table" crowd wouldn't be "burdened" with excess work.

Remember, that portion of the minis-folks are the reason most minis are one-piece now. They must be a big bunch of the buying demographic to drive that big of a change in approach.

Not only that - but the Pegasus is the singular miniature best suited to being treated in that manner. There's no way one could get enough magnets attached to a Tholian PFT to attach 6 PFs... unless you attached the tail end to the valleys between the wings, then you'd look like a porcupine.

Or a starburst...

Still, Dan's Pegasus PFT is a show-piece and deserves a lot of praise. I bet it will get a lot of "shock and awe" the first time it goes on the game table and deploys its gunboats.

No doubt. I remember thinking that same conversion when building the master... but too many projects, too little time.

I'm glad someone did one.

Thanks!

I appreciate the practical issues, and Will's point about the relative scale of the miniatures is well taken.

Still, my Harriers have been on patrol since about 1990, so finally having a tender to dock to must have come as something of a relief

I've got Lyran, Klingon and Kzinti PF flotillas and I guess I'll have to something similar for them at some point.

Are the new PF minis re-casts of the old SL2200 sculpts, or something new? Looking at the astonishing detail on the new shuttle and fighter minis, it would be possible to produce PFs in-scale with the ships...just a thought.

There are not currently any PF minis in the works.

If they were made to be in-scale with the ships, they would be too small to cast, in my opinion. They'd be around 1/4-inch long (maybe less) and that's pretty tough to do (although sensor dishes ganged together on a sprue are even smaller, so who knows).

@Scoutdad; Well, that simplifies matters. Perhaps one day.

@djdood; 1/4 of an inch...would that not make them about the same size as the fighters? Although that in itself would be an issue...

Dan, I want to pass on my congrats as well for the beautifully executed PFTs! Awesome stuff.

I think the approach could be used on larger PFTs and SCSs...thinking mainly about the SCSs like the B-10S, Kzinti SSCS, etc. Never going to really work on FF-based PFTs, but I do think it could be made to work for bigger ones.

Where did you get the small, circular magnets? They are the perfect size for this sort of thing.

@Dan - based on the descriptions and the art Adam Turner did for a recent SFB module, PFs would be even smaller than 1/4-inch at SL2400 scale, some near that, some even shorter. The fighters (I only have the F-18 and Z-Y) are a little bigger (about 3/8-inch).

Teeny tiny little guys.

Not all of the minis are to scale - I suspect your average starbase is meant to be a whole lot bigger relative to the ships it supports than the minis for each would demonstrate.

Plus, aren't the fighters scaled up already?

So, you could have gunboats/MWPs be a little scaled up, and not have too many problems, perhaps.


Oh, and when it comes to in-game use - even if non-BoM FC was out of the picture, it's not beyond the realm of possibility to see gunboats show up in Starmada...

Yes, Gary. However, the point was PFs in-scale with the 1/3788 SL2400 starships, which is most likely not practical.

The old SL2200 PF minis were done at a much larger scale, the new fighters at one larger still, and the bases are indeed done at various scales much-smaller.

Dan, I want to pass on my congrats as well for the beautifully executed PFTs! Awesome stuff.

Thanks!

Where did you get the small, circular magnets? They are the perfect size for this sort of thing.

I mail ordered them from Maplin - their website is http://www.maplin.co.uk/. It's a UK based company, but they ship worldwide.

I take the point about the relative scales, but I'll still do similar conversions for my other PFs, if only to keep them together. One of my Lyran PFs went astray during a house move some years ago...are there any Lyran ships with just *one* mech-link? (Or three?).

For tabletop use, the final step will be small flight stands consisting of a flat base with an upright flat-topped steel bolt for the magnet on the underside of the PF to attach to.

I have some of the fighter and shuttle minis, but I'm pondering on how to get hold of flight bases small enough to place three (or six, three friendly and three hostile) in one map hex.

I've heard of some flight-bases that are appropriate for the fighters (scoutdad was the source on that, I think).

I haven't made my mind up yet, but it's likely that I will use the plastic base from standard ADB stands, drill holes near the corners, and use brass rods to mount my fighters in the holes. I'm intending have the rod glued into the fighter, but not the base, so I can "make change" as the count in-hex changes.