Federation Commander

A little conversion of an F18 to F14.

Great job there.
I've thought about doing something similar, but there's always soooo many conversions to be made.

Maybe someday we'll get rules for these babies in either FedComm or ACTASF (or both!!!!) and then it'll be worth the time spent converting a dozen or so f them.

Very true. This one was an experiment to see if I could do it. I hope carrier and fighter rules come out. It started as a side discussion yesterday morning and then finding out that there are pictures of an F-14 and then I just had to see if I could make one.

I've always loved the look of the F-14 (and the A-10). I understood why the F-18 was picked to be the stock Fed fighter mini (it really was far, far more common), but the F-14 is a sexy beast.

I'm in the same boat as Tony. I figured that if the the fighters ever go official in FedCom (and if the F-14 and A-10 get ported over at all), I would make some minis for them. I'm leaning towards modeling them in CAD and having Todd Boyce 3D print and investment cast them for me - I'd try to ape his style, since he did all the existing fighter minis.

That would be awesome to 3D print them. I'd be all over that. It's taking me about 1/2 hour to mod each F-14 and then a bit more to paint.

I agree. Some very nice conversion work, especially considering the tiny size of the original "ship".

Well, if I go through with it, I'd only be paying to 3D print one. The fidelity needed for things this small means really expensive printing. At that price, it makes more sense to have it printed in wax or some other material that can be melted out of a plaster mold and have a metal master-copy cast.

If you go for it, let me know.
I'm willing to help pony-up some of the development costs.

Think of it as a Kickstarter program for friends.

I'd already been in contact with Todd Boyce, a couple years ago. He just moved and put Ninja Magic on hiatus for a bit. In the meantime, I need to resolve some licensing installation issues with my 3D software (Alibre).

I'm hoping to do a bunch of different things, once all is in order.

What I was leaning towards is paying to do the master copy, up-front, then offering it to ADB for short-run production. Might be more likely to happen (even with a limited market), if the master already exists. If not, I'd just cast a dozen copies for myself in resin.

I'd "pony up" a bit to get F-14's and even some A-10's done if that would help.

It's more a question of free time and software licensing than money, unfortunately. (Todd's quote was actually super-reasonable).

Any rough idea as to how much it would cost to have more types of fighters designed and cast for sale?

Off the top of my head, I'd be interested in:

Fed F14
Fed A10
Fed F15

Klingon Z-2, assuming they look sufficiently different from the Z-Y to be worthwhile?

Kzinti, another type, not familiar with the designations. Assumes they look sufficiently different from the TAAS to be worthwhile.

This assumes that there is sufficient interest from people to make the whole thing worthwhile of course. Having to spend $200-300 for design and a master might not be worthwhile if one may only sell a few dozen copies, etc.

But I do have interest in this project if it ever goes forward.

It would get pretty expensive, by the time it's all said and done. You have to account for my time, Todd Boyce's time and materials, and the investment caster's time and materials. That's just to get one metal master copy made.

A production run would add the mold-makers time and materials to cast up more masters and make a production mold, then a caster's time and costs to make production runs.

If ADB went through with them, I'm pretty sure they would have to be priced higher than the existing fighter minis.

It's why ADB stuck with the mainline fighters. As cool as the Fed superfighters are, only a niche within the niche market would want them.

I'm definitely in that niche and willing to just do them myself if it comes down to it. Once I have something worth showing, then ADB can decide if they want to make a production run out of it. I'm sure they'd want some kind of concrete commitment out of people before spending the money though. They've been burned in the past with folks harping that they wanted something and then the promised sales never materialized.

All good points. Thanks for explaining it all. I suspect this would be a good Kickstarter project.

I guess I'll buy the existing fighter minis, and be happy with that until something better comes along.

A much more likely solution will be that someone will decide there's enough demand to go for it:

Then they will:
Make a master mini that can be cast...
Create a mold (most likely using RTV silicone)...
Cast a few copies (probably 6, but maybe a few more)...
Create another "gang mold" (again, probably in RTV silicone)...
Cast resin copies of the minis using he RTV mold...

And maybe, hopefully not make just enough for themselves, but a few extra to sell (although... just like with our decals, they will need to set up a royalties deal with ADB).

Are you holding your breath yet???