From: Nyrath the nearly wise <nyrath@c...>
Date: Sun, 14 Jun 1998 21:11:47 -0400
Subject: AOG B5 starship minatures
I'm gearing up to play EFSB in style, by using miniatures. Alas, the only B5 miniatures come from one source, Agents Of Gaming. I applaud AOG for creating a B5 game, and making available an accurate set of miniatures. Having said that, I must confess that I am a trifle disappointed with the quality of said miniatures. Perhaps the quality will improve.... (and a read through of the B5 Wars rules just sent me further into the EFSB camp, with the clean simplicity of Full Thrust shining through) The Minbari Sharlin cruiser was typical, requiring lots of work with a needle file to make the pieces fit, and some research to figure out *where* the pieces fit, as they did not see fit to include a diagram with assembly instruction. (I found one for that specific miniature on the AOG website, but none for the others). As I didn't have a ghost of a hope of making the parts fit closely enough to use cyanoacrylate "super-glue", I resorted to my old stand-by: PC-7 expoxy paste. Stuff takes forever to dry, but the resulting bond is often stronger than the metal. And because it is a paste, it fills in quite nicely. Because I dispaired of ever painting any Minbari ship with all the nice tones of the real thing, I just gave it a coat of primer, and slathered it with Testors gloss enamel "Sapphire" (a deep-blue metalflake color). It actually turned out quite handsome! The EarthForce Omega was a real pain. The fit on the two halves of the rotating section were warped, and required major filing to make fit. I happened to have a piece of metal rod the same diameter as the hole in the rotating section. I used a Dremel motor tool to drill holes in the fore and aft sections for the rod, and assembled the rotating section around it. Now I can spin the rotating section like the propeller on a toy plane! The model is on two stands, and is very tippy. I glued the stands to a small retangle of wood I got at the local craft store, and drew in the EFSB firing arcs on the base, with a center dot indicating the position of the ship. A 12-sided base would have been nicer, but I haven't figured out an easy way to manufacture those. (i.e., one that doesn't require a lot of effort on my part...) The base and stands were painted flat black. The ship proper was given a coat of engine grey. For fun, I painted the exhaust ports with a florescent orange, the launch bay florescent orange and yellow, and yellow on the tip of the forward boom. As per the photos, the rows of dots down the side were painted red, as was the grills on the shaft of the rotating section. I made an attempt at painting the EA logo, but ended up with a blot. I also attempted to write in "AGAMENON" with a Rapidograph technical drawing pen, but again it didn't work too well. The Centauri Primus had a main hull in two sections. Again major league filing was needed to make them fit. No assembly diagram but it was reasonably obvious what when where. After puzzling over several photos for color scheme, I gave up and painted it brass, with gold trim and copper turrents. (gold on the long bars and the forward turrent mounds, copper on the turrents and tail machinery) And florescent orange in the exhaust and the launch bay. It looks very nice! Actually, it wouldn't look out of place in a Flash Gordon cartoon, not surprisingly if you've ever noticed the resemblance between Centauri guards and imperial troops on the planet Mongo. It too got its two stands glued to a small piece of wood. The EF Hyperion didn't have too many pieces, but the spine of the ship was bent. AOG's web site appologizes and has helpful hints on how to bend it into place. But they don't mention soaking the ship in hot water to heat it up first. This ship is also tippy, and has its stablility improved by