[LONG] Re: [FT]Building Ship Mini's AND Nasty black spidery things

Donald sez:
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I am slowly bashing together some ship minis on my own.
...
I am assembling them from bits and pieces like electrical connectors, beads,
etc.
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Well done! Look EVERYWHERE! Plastruct(sp?), drink lids, etc. along with
special tools, like leather and paper punches, dental tools...

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I know they won't look anywhere as good as the professional stuff...
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My own limited experience is, and this mostly watching others, a few will be
so dreadful you'll have to put them out of YOUR misery, most will be quite
serviceable, and a few will delight all that see them. Cherish these last
ones, as they will give you strength to continue your efforts...

Brendan (the Mad?):
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If you were insane, you could make your capitals 12" long, but you'd have a
problem using 1" scale movement or less.
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This can be mitigated somewhat by putting ships at different heights above the
table. Least then, the collision distance is the ship's radii 'tween it's and
the other ship's post. Biggest ships on top level mean they can overhang
smaller ships.

On the other hand, the bigger the ship, the bigger the base should be...

Donald:
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Sure, I have a football stadium I can use! (Hehehehe...Not really...Just
imagine tho'...)
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As long-time list members will recall, I described an idea using large
size kits, say 30cm and larger Ertl kits, mounted on metre-long polls
based with movement recticle over a small spike, for using in parks.

I've tried several times building such beasts, even a few battle attempts, but
my construction skills are VERY poor. You get great looks and questions,
though, and you DO get good opportunity for being in
fresh air, unusual for most gamers. ;->=

Brendan:
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If I had the money, at Conquest next year, I really wanted to run the full
Battle of Endor using 1' scale as a midnight madness event using the main
convention hall (we're moving to a convention centre next year supposedly) but
we can all dream.
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I was thinking of getting the 16" models (I still spot them very occasionally)
except they sell for about $80 each; when I find them, and they need assembly
& painting...
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It's been mentioned, but Sci-Fi Supply, the people that make Wild Walls,
regularly put on something like this at GenCon. They only have a couple-
three capitals, as the Rebel Frigate is something like a metre and a half, and
the Star Destroyer approximately two metres long.

These don't do much maneuvering, but dozens of MM fighters do most of the fun
stuff.

They basically made large frames covered by their own products; lot of work,
but probably less than the kits you mentioned, actually.

Ian:
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Hello Mr.Beast, Happy to have joined ship.

"I'm assuming you're referring to the B5 Wars range. GZG has an 'organic' ship
line called Sa'Vasku; not exactly Shadow ships, but lovely spiky shapes that
might work for you. You can see some of the ships at:
http://www.geohex.com/ftsssav1.htm "

Yes they ars very good models, I may well end up using them if my
"scratch-building" attempts go down the pan [ which on past evidence is
a
fair bet :-) ]
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As I said to Donald above, don't give up too easily. Another thing that comes
to mind are plastic forks. If you're the brave sort, you might give melting
some of these down. Expect dozens of useless blobs to produce darn few
useful ones, but if you're a trash-bin diver anyway...

Otherwise, you can try cut-paste-carve pieces of forks. Look for forks
that will break rather than bend; harder plastics work better for me. I won't
even attempt to name the plastics. Been bonged too often for my mistakes
in the past. ;->=

The_Beast