I wanted to try out some Ninja Magic starship basing connectors, so upon our
return from GZG ECC X, Jim Bell and I placed an order.
We wanted a reasonable sample size without spending a ton of money if they
didn't work, so we each got 4x 5 matched connectors, and 4x 10 short
connectors (ship side only). This would let each of us have 20 ship bases and
60 swappable ships.
There was a two to three week delay while our order was prepared; stock was
low at Rattlehead Games, and so Ninja Magic had to restock them.
The order arrived about a week ago, and I promptly picked my share out of the
order and started checking magnet polarities. Both the 'barrel' on the flight
stand and the 'short connector' on the starship have a magnet inside, and all
60 of my connectors matched any of my 20 barrels. (They also have eight teeth
where they meet to prevent rotation and a recommended standard of mounting a
barrel tooth forward and a matching connector gap).
I had to file some mould lines and flash off the barrels and connectors, and
priming the connectors was tricky (I wound up priming the flight stands three
times in order to primer each connector). Still, I'm very happy with the
product.
> Got any pics?
Not yet, but I can try to take some this week.
I'm looking forward to seeing what these look like on some of the smaller
ships. They said they were going to make a connector that wouldn't be so large
compared to the escorts. Is that needed?
andy
---- Original message ----
> Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 09:10:03 -0400
Frigate and smaller would tend to be a bit overwhelmed, and forget about
scouts, but not sure how they could do much smaller...
The_Beast
Andy wrote on 04/17/2007 09:41:40 AM:
> I'm looking forward to seeing what these look like on some
> On Tuesday 17 April 2007 15:41, Andy Skinner wrote:
Which brings me nicely onto the question I was going to post - is there
anywhere which does small (as in, short height) flying bases? The best I've
found are the slot bases[1] which came with the B5 Fleet Action
miniatures - standard sized hexagon bases with half height poles.
I've currently using these for my smaller ships (they don't look quite so
silly, take up less room and are better balanced), but I'm rapidly running
out.
Does anyone else do half-height flight stands? The best alternative
I'm aware of are the Games Workshop rounds bases, which each come with a tall
and short pole. However, I do prefer hexagonal stands for FT.
Does anyone sell anything like the B5 FA stands in the UK? If they're going to
be at Salute, even better...
Now that I cogitate, I suppose instead of disk of teeth, a long, narrow piece
with teeth on the end, and smaller ships could get by with very short 'poles'
going up into the ship's body.
The_Beast
Me, before I had another thought... wrote on 04/17/2007 11:55:57 AM:
> Frigate and smaller would tend to be a bit overwhelmed,
I haven't mounted any ships yet, but I expect them to be fine down to frigate.
Also, for the cost, I'm tempted to only use them for destroyers and up. The
transport hassles and the like are simpler for tiny ships.
> On Tuesday 17 April 2007 15:41, Andy Skinner wrote:
Well, as we cast up metal posts as an alternative to the plastic ones for the
standard hex flight bases, we could quite easily make one at half height if
there was a market for it...... So, who would be interested if we did them?
Jon (GZG)
> Does anyone sell anything like the B5 FA stands in the UK? If they're
> Which brings me nicely onto the question I was going to
Jeff Valent sells those:
http://www.jeffvalentstudios.com/pnuke/index.php?module=PayPalCart&cid=9
(page 2 for the flight posts, which are separate from the hex bases)
I've had reasonable luck with him in the past, though he's not always quick in
turnaround.
Are the posts plastic?
thanks,
> On Tuesday 17 April 2007 19:46, Thomas Pope wrote:
http://www.jeffvalentstudios.com/pnuke/index.php?module=PayPalCart&cid=9
> (page 2 for the flight posts, which are separate from the hex bases)
Thanks, that's just what I'm looking for... except that's in the wrong
country. Any places in the UK?
> Thanks, that's just what I'm looking for... except that's
Not that I know of. I do believe Jeff will ship internationally though.
> Are the posts plastic?
Yep. I've seen metal ones too, but the ones he has are plastic.
Tom
> On Tue, April 17, 2007 19:18, Ground Zero Games wrote:
Obviously, I would :-)
Assuming they're no more than 30p each, I'd be willing to put in an order for
about 100.
> On Tue, April 17, 2007 19:18, Ground Zero Games wrote:
That would be the price, same as the existing ones we do; if a couple more
folks would commit to an interest, it would be worth our while making a mould
for them. What sort of height should we go for? Current "standard" post is
about 25mm excluding pins, should we go for about 15mm or shorter than that?
Jon (GZG)
> --
_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
http://lists.csua.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lI would be
interested in alternate height stands. :-) 15mm height seems
reasonable off the cuff.
Mk
> On 4/18/07, Ground Zero Games <jon@gzg.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday 18 April 2007 10:50, Ground Zero Games wrote:
Obviously we'd want 10mm, 15mm and 20mm versions :-)
The B5 FA ones are ~13mm, plus about 2-3mm of tip, so 15mm sounds
right. The only difference is that the FA ones have a flat base, making the
overall height lower, but I'd be happy with 15mm.
Will they be ready for Saturday? :-)
possible 10mm, great idea these metal posts they last longer than plastics.
jon you may want to start thinking about something for the smaller ships
they tend not to stick too well on the thicker posts.
[quoted original message omitted]
> On Wednesday 18 April 2007 10:50, Ground Zero Games wrote:
Er....no. ;-)
Jon (GZG)
> --
> On Wednesday 18 April 2007 19:20, chris.peachey wrote:
Having measured the GW flight stands, the short ones are 15mm, so 10mm would
offer something which is both less brittle and better for the small models.
I also tend to cut the 15mm stands down to ~10mm anyway for my 6mm scale grav
tanks. These really need clear flat bases though.
But I'd be happy with anything between 10mm and 15mm (preference on the
former).
> Got any pics?
I've mailed Magnus some pictures.
Just a little update.
I took 8 stands, seated ship mounting connectors, and then started mounted
ships. I repeated this until I had about about 20 ships based. Then I started
swapping ships, and discovered two or three of my bases were 'off'. And trying
to remove short connectors from ships, I destroyed three of the 8 bad
connectors.
So now I have one base designated as Master, and I stick the connectors on the
ships by just setting the ship on its back, gluing the connector on as best I
can eyeball it. It's working well, but I still need to
dismantle and rebuild 6-8 of the 20 bases I thought I had assembled.
Still, transporting my big new NAC ships will be much easier with bases
removed.
I think I'll mount cruisers and larger on magnets; the destroyers and frigates
and their bases fit well in the floss organizers I use to transport
miniatures.
Sorry, just to be clear, are you saying there was a problem in the manufacture
of the connectors, or just that you had them twisted a bit.
Haven't tried, ok, had somebody else, mount mine yet, so I'm curious what to
watch out for, ok, warn my fabricator about.
Thanks for the update!
The_Beast
TomM wrote on 04/23/2007 08:10:29 AM:
> I took 8 stands, seated ship mounting connectors, and then started
***snippage***
No, not a manufacturing problem.
I had to twist them to get them off. There's not much left exposed when you
mount them in any of the new NAC bigger than a cruiser, so my
pliers' knurled teeth were crushing the tooth-and-valley of the
connectors.
Also, I popped the magnet out of one of them. Based on the 'snap' I heard, I'd
say these magnets are just super glued into the white metal
tooth-and-valley-and-peg top.
If you need to take a connector off a ship, definitely try 'tricks' like
freezing the mini to make the glue brittle so you don't need to apply so much
force.
If you look closely at the product, you can easily foresee problems correcting
ones that aren't glued on straight. I thought I'd got it right, but instead I
gained experience...