Ship Figs

I found this web site:

http://www.kallistra.co.uk/

Can anyone comment from experience on the size/quality
of these figures as compared to GZG figs?

> On Thu, Aug 28, 2003 at 12:48:35PM -0700, Brian B wrote:

I've seen their Earth Empire range up close, and I'm not vastly
impressed. There's not much change in style from one ship to the next -
they have more fiddly bits as they get larger, but they're all basically the
same shape (compare the Super Dreadnought and the Destroyers on
http://www.kallistra.co.uk/Earth%20Gallery.html) - so if you don't label
them or give them contrasting paint you'll find it hard to tell them apart.

The stands are about 1/2 to 2/3 the size of the GZG plastic ones, and
the ships are correspondingly smaller. Overbalancing isn't a problem, though;
not only is there no underside detail, but the larger ships are actually
hollow underneath. (This isn't a problem in normal gaming use, of course.)

Being fair, the level of detail is reasonable, and I haven't spotted much in
the way of mould lines. I don't think they're a patch on the GZG ships, but
they are a bit cheaper.

I've got some of the Kaylon ships, it's a bit of a problem telling the
difference between certain ships. Light Cruiser/Cruiser/Heavy Cruiser
etc.

However they paint up nicely and are different from the GZG ships so come in
handy when you want a minor empire (In my case Davidians, but that's a
different story).

One thing I do like is the fighter bases which do look good on the table.

Kev

[quoted original message omitted]

> Kevin Haynes wrote:

I own some of the Altaran fleet, but they haven't been painted yet. They are
nice ships. They look like they have Kinetic guns and a plasma bolt launcher.

Note: The Light Cruiser and Heavy Cruiser during WWII were exactly the same
hull at times. The only difference was the mission and therefore the number
and size of guns. The CL's were wastly better at AA defence because of the ROF
of the smaller guns. Bigger is not always better.

If you are cutting diamonds, sledgehammers are not the tool of choice.

> I found this web site:

Size-wise, they are similar. The Base ships are Superdreadnought size
and as they get smaller, they are close but sometimes a size class off from a
comparable GZG mini.

Quality, I have some old ones from when this line was produced by Pendraken,
so I can't comment on current casting quality, but design-wise, they are
OK if you like the style. There is no detail on the bottom of the ship and
they don't have the panel lines like the GZG minis. The detail they do have is
usually in the form of bits added here and there.

As was stated before, most ships in a fleet follow a very similar shape, they
just change in size and the number of bits on each.

Personally I have painted up the Altaran fleet and posted pics and stats
online:
http://www.star-ranger.com/Stuff/Altaran.htm
I like their agressive look and I get good comments from most people who see
this fleet. I gave them the background of a distant Kra'Vak clan.

I have the Quellaris fleet painted but no pics yet. I do like how you can
easily pick out the guns on the Space Dreadnought 3000 line and highlight them
if you wish.

Plus I have the Tallascian fleet yet to paint and an Earth Empire Base Ship. I
plan to fill out the Earth Empire fleet someday since you can never have
enough massive triangular, star destroyer influenced ships in your collection.

Thanks to Roger, Kevin, Dean, and anyone else who responded. It gave me a good
idea of what the figs are like, and somehting to consider when refitting my
fleet. :-)