> I've got
I picked up some of the Fortress Figures minis from Attactix. EA004 Hover
Missile Tank (10 pcs) and EEA003 Hover APCs (20 pcs), both plastic, for $5
(clearance bin). They are nice, but every one of them has casting goobers at
the rear. The tanks are a bit blobby at the rear of the hover skirt
and the rear of the missiles. The drop-down rear doors on
the APCs are nearly wiped out by blobs and bubbles. These shouldn't be at all
obvious once they're painted, though, especially since I'm painting them in
camo patterns. I plan to use the tanks as artillery (once I get around to
painting them). I'm painting the APCs up in camo now: 6 desert (tan, dark
brown, orange, and black, 6 forest (3 greens, but I'll probably have to do a
bit more than that),
and urban rubble (grey, tan, and black--most came out well).
Hover skirts are black with brown drybrush or brown with black wash (not sure
which I like better).
'Course they were delayed (and "battle damaged" :-) a bit
when the (badly overloaded) shelf they were on collapsed and dumped them,
along with beaucoups other minis and books, on the floor.
So...is Fortress Figures still around? And do they produce any other minis
usable for Dirtside?
- Sam
Fortress Figures has an interesting story. They were a small (2-3
person) outfit in Elwood, Indiana, just 30 mins north of yours truly in
Indianapolis. They had developed a very good (and very secret) way of molding
plastic figs at a higher detail level than most other companies.
Some of their stuff was great, but some was also crap (I really didn't like
the GEVs & the spaceships they did, but that may be more of a design than
production beef). They had been approached by Steve Jackson Games to produce
new Ogre minis, but that was apparently bogged down by problems of production
and other things I'm not privy to. I think it was problems with Ral Partha,
the previous producer of Ogre minis for SJG. But, that's guesswork. They used
space and equipment that belonged to a game store owner in Elwood, IN. The
owner, being of advanced age, fell very ill, and the store began to slide
(next generation didn't want anything to do with it). The owner lost most of
his mental faculties and his power of
attorney, the store reverted to a train/doll/craft store, the molding
equipment was sold, and the space converted to other uses. The developer got
all equipment related to his molding process, and now FF is defunct.
They made some very detailed fantasy figs, and some terrain accessories. It
may still be available in bargain racks around the country.
Qualifier: lots of the above is reliable hearsay, but hearsay nonetheless.
All, some or none of it may be true. They produced the Hover APC, the Hover
Missile Tank (one big rocket) and a small Hover TD (med gun mounted almost
flush along one side of the deck).
Noah
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