1/600 Space Fighters

[YPU]

No, but I see why you ask. No they really were the plastic silent death ships., I did a deep dive on it a couple of years ago, but for the life of me can't remember the name now.

Edit: 10 seconds later and I remember.




https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/122842/exodus-proxima-centauri

[Daeothar]

That's it!

I knew it was an over-complicated boardgame that will take an entire weekend to complete; I just misremembered the name. Old age and all that... 

[Kelly_]

Hmmm.  Wasn't Galactic Emperor was it?  Usually described (accurately) as Twilight Imperium Light, used ship minis that showed up in at least one other game (whose name is eluding me).

The other one you are thinking of for that set of 3 ships was the Eminent Domain family of games.  They were only used as generic tokens for the first game, and did not receive different rules until the expansions came out.


https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/68425/eminent-domain

Not twilight imperium but another astronomic phenomenon named game, might have been "Eclipse: New Dawn for the Galaxy"

The Eclipse line also used that group of ships as well as at least one other that I cannot remember right now.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Cripes, I didn't realize that Exodus: Proxima Centauri one had even come out.  I recall seeing teasers for it and thinking I needed to take  a look at it based on the obvious SD ships on the cover art, but the FLGS never got it in and I assumed it was another unreleased no-show game.

[YPU]

Cripes, I didn't realize that Exodus: Proxima Centauri one had even come out.  I recall seeing teasers for it and thinking I needed to take  a look at it based on the obvious SD ships on the cover art, but the FLGS never got it in and I assumed it was another unreleased no-show game.

I first encountered in the display of a boardgame store, when I had just painted the ships depicted on the cover earlier that week. Very tripy experience as I knew the models were silent death, which exodus clearly wasnt.
I know I discussed it with the current owner of Metal Express when one of my own designs was taken into the Silent Death canon (just a bit proud of that) and IIRC the Exodus guys did pay to use those ships, because it was economic than getting new sculpts done and produced in plastic (fair enough). Those larger PVC copies were made by the Chinese company who were contracted to produce the silent death plastics, either directly or trough back channels. Metal Express has been playing whack a mole with the big stores selling them trough ebay and amazon, but its like fighting a hydra. Does make me feel for a small iconic company who are perpetually paying for the mistake of getting some models produced in plastic so they could make their game more affordable to get in to 

[The_Beast]

Okay, totally missed Exodus Proxima Centauri. Thanks for the warnings, but  I fear my completest fetish will cause me to buy. It IS a curse...

At some point, I thought the story was that EM4 had the SD injection moulds, and waiting to make runs would explain inconsistent supply.

Are we ticking off board games with kewl ships? Can I point out Buck Rogers in the 25th Century? Ton of soft plastic ships, three designs, one looking like Star Frontiers Sathar, and a board I played around with for a system campaign system.

Really, only sounds like a redundant phrase.

Rich, I used to run into Black Widow Pilot on fora regularly, seemed a great guy. Pass on a howdy.

Doug

[YPU]

At some point, I thought the story was that EM4 had the SD injection moulds, and waiting to make runs would explain inconsistent supply.

I believe that is still true, either the moulds or the rights and the moulds are at a production company, but the upscaled knockoffs (usually in brightly colored soft vinyl, easy to spot) are clearly made from a copy of that mould which was scaled up a bit as well. Various ways that can be done but not really relevant anyhow, The knock offs have their own production moulds either way, regardless of who holds the official ones.

[The_Beast]

Thanks, YPU, but I got that.

My words were wandering just like my thoughts.

Doug

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Are we ticking off board games with kewl ships? Can I point out Buck Rogers in the 25th Century? Ton of soft plastic ships, three designs, one looking like Star Frontiers Sathar, and a board I played around with for a system campaign system.

Those weren't really all that soft plastic by board game standards, and took paint okay without flexing concerns - much better than early Bones, for ex.  You could still find bags of those figs for sale dirt cheap as recently as 2010, usually in uniform lots (eg have 50-100 battlers or gennie troopers), both as bagged toys and as generic playing pieces for DIY board games.  They may still be around for all I know, but its been about 15 years since I split a bag of those nifty defense satellites with a group of locals.

Also worth noting that the game itself is surprisingly good.  Kind of wish I'd grabbed a couple of spares when it was sitting in toy store discount bins at ten bucks a piece back in the 90s.   

Rich, I used to run into Black Widow Pilot on for a regularly, seemed a great guy. Pass on a howdy.

I agree with your assessment of BWP, but I haven't seen or heard from in years now, and mostly only "knew" him through the SCN forums (I assume you're the same The Beast that crops up there every now and then).  Time was he'd crop up any time Silent Death got mentioned, but that's been over a decade now.  I might have an old email for him, I'll see if it still works next time I'm catching up on my correspondence.

[The_Beast]

Dopey moi, I thought he was involved directly with Metal Express.

Some fans' excitement can confuse the simpler of us.

Doug

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Code: [Select]

Dopey moi, I thought he was involved directly with Metal Express.

I think he is, given that AFAIK he's the "Lee Erickson" that does almost all their front page posts, the most recent of which was in June of this year.  But I'm not, just a casual booster for the game - in much the same way I try to boost for Jon at GZG and Scott at Four Color Studios and other smaller companies that I'm fond of.

So you could probably reach him through MX's contact info.

[Grimmnar]

Doug/Beast,

I will let BWP know. I am in regular communication with him. Though Facebook has been messing with him for the past 2 weeks so he has been  in the void because of it.

Grimm

[The_Beast]

There are no 'pirated chinese knock-offs' of the silent death ships -

Hi, Rick. Perfectly understandable as I said before, but moving and something akin to reorganizing, and I came up with this:



A bit bigger than the original, softer plastic, maybe vinyl? Painted bright silver and gold.

Doug

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Yep, that's the ones I remember.  Same packaging, even.