Federation Commander

Leanna wrote: I have put the Kzinti and Gorn Mongoose ships on the online store. We have 4-5 of each of the Gorns and about 7 of each Kzinti.

Kzintis: http://store.starfleetstore.com/merchan ... _Code=17-9

Gorns: http://store.starfleetstore.com/merchan ... Code=17-10

SVC adds: We have no Kzinti NCAs. All of them were defective due to a master mold issue. One phaser is missing, replaced by some kind of scar or scrape or divot or something.

Yeah! Kzintis!

Order placed !!!

We've been doing some work on the shopping cart. We started with the Gorn Starline 2500 minis. Take a look, read the descriptions, and find the new piece of SFU lore hidden in one description. Oh, and the Gorn destroyers are back in stock! (Most of the other Gorn ships remain in stock.)

http://store.starfleetstore.com/merchan ... Code=17-10

Cool pics of the Destroyers. Just one thing, isn't the scale meant to say 1/3125 instead of 1/3200?

Any Kzinti NCA's in the pipeline?

We got 16 of them and they were ALL defective (missing phasers, a problem with the master and the mold, not the production).

Apparently every Kzinti NCA ever shipped was defective. Look at the front/side corners and compare to a CM looking for phaser bumps. You won't find them on the NCA. If you have a non-defective NCA I want to know about it; if you have a defective one, demand a replacement. I have ordered the non-phaser molds and masters destroyed and new CGI prototypes made with the correct phasers.

Yep, mine are missing the phasers, otherwise it looks ok.

Are you all selling the Kzinti NCA rejects?

The missing phasers are an annoyance, to be sure, but not something folks who've been in the hobby for a while can't fix (with a brass pin or a dot of glue).

If something were going to get changed on the otherwise excellent Starline 2500 Kzintis, I'd wish it was the drone booms.

I've never seen one that was not bent and fatigued. I've had several that were nearly snapped off, only hanging on by a hair of metal. I can fix them, but it's going to be a royal pain to clamp them back to flat and then custom-fit brass doublers or pins to the underside of every single one.

I'm sure they're fine, when molded and when shipped in-bulk.

The issue shows up once they are bagged and then shipped in largely empty boxes.

That empty space leaves them free to slide around. Given how much shaking, turning, and banging boxes undergo during shipping, the poor minis get quite a ride and the booms take most of the impacts. Since they're so thin, they just can't take it.

Concur.
I've replaced the missing phasers on my NCAs - that's easy.

But the super-thin booms... another story altogether.
Several have been broken - requested replacement three months ago, but no response from Mongoose to date.
Several others were fatigued and required reinforcement.
Several more were bent nearly double and required extra TLC to straighten without causing fatal damage.

If anything was to be changed on the Kzinti - I'd rather see the drone booms thickened, even if it created a piece not in scale with the rest of the mini.
That, or modify the packing process to prevent damage during shipment.

I recently got a Kzinti fleet box from Mongoose, and 7 of 16 ships were seriously damaged and required replacement.

If they'd just use bubblewrap ziplock bags, it'd probably be just fine. Penny pinching, pound foolish.

The minis that arrived in clamshell packaging, even Kzints, are fine. Just not the loose ones that take a beating in the boxes.

I was wondering if the NCA was missing some phasers, but that's easy enough to correct that I am not going to ask for replacements.

Agreed about the clamshells. Those take a bit of a beating, but can't get moving as much as those in boxes and are in much better shape.

My suggestion for a permanent "fix", that would not change the profile of the minis when viewed from above is to change the geometry of the "booms" from rectangular to triangular (with one side presenting its flat face on the upper surface and the "point" on the bottom), or adding a triangular stiffening bead to the bottom.

Well, let's see....

1. You two guys (Will and el'Tomas) are five-star master modellers. What's easy for you is not so easy for most.

2. Easy or not, shouldn't have to do it at all. Especially when I caught it in the first round, told them to fix it, and was ASSURED that it had BEEN fixed and that no defective NCAs had EVER been shipped to the public. Turns out, the guy who ran the old facility didn't tell his boss the truth.

3. Yeah, the drone-booms are BAD with a capital BAAAAAD and need to be stronger. Same can be said of the Klingon bridge-booms.

Yes. The Klingon booms tend to be bent up too.

They could benefit from some additional diameter. Really, though, if they just got rid of that "notch" where the boom joins the bridge "bulb", that would get rid of the weak spot where they all get kinked.

I know that was pointed out when the ships were still just renders - shame that it didn't get changed.