Wanted: Resin or Plastic Spaceship Models

[zorg]

Hey all,

I'm a bit unhappy with my collection of metal spaceships. They're heavy and tend to fall over, they like to break from the flight base, and they're fiddly to fix. So I've been thinking about getting some resin or plastic spaceships. I know about the em4 models, but there are probably more options than that.

What other choices are there? I'm located in Germany, so a Europe based shop would of course be best.

Thanks!

[Bergil]

https://www.google.co.uk/shopping/product/13937801226449383334?q=little+plastic+spaceship+toys&client=firefox-b-ab&biw=1536&bih=731&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.&bvm=bv.150475504,d.ZGg&tch=1&ech=1&psi=LWzTWL7JCpT0gAbsr66IDA.1490250787463.29&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiVv_bNgezSAhWJAsAKHfufB5kQ8gII-wMwBg

https://www.google.co.uk/shopping/product/12443440962970868729?q=toy+spaceship&client=firefox-b-ab&biw=1536&bih=731&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.&bvm=bv.150475504,d.ZGg&tch=1&ech=1&psi=LWzTWL7JCpT0gAbsr66IDA.1490250787463.33&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj0sY_kgezSAhVrLcAKHSr-Duo4JBDyAgj6BTAi

Don't know if the following are made of plastic, but I assume so;

http://shop.spartangames.co.uk/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1820

[Daeothar]

What exactly are you looking for? Do you want fighters or capital ships?

If the former, try FFG's X-Wing; they've got a boat load of fighters and many of the later waves are not instantly recognisable as Star Wars (no X-Wings or Y-Wings anymore; they're all pretty obscure ships nowadays).

And if they're too expensive for your taste (which is understandable), you could try to get ships from Wizards of the Coast. they're bendy plastics, but they're also cheap as chips. They do/did Star trek ships as well btw.

Then there are those bags of plastic ships in assorted designs originally intended for toy-vending machines. You can buy them per the 100 on Ebay or form China. A bit bendy and not all designs are equally nice, but hey; cheap!

The Silent Death minis you know from EM4.

For capital ships, the market is much bigger. I could heartily recommend the newly released Dropfleet Commander by Hawk Wargames; they've got some really, really nice plastic ships with plenty of options.

And then there are those games like Full Thrust, Firestorm: Armada, Battlefleet Gothic.

But there are also board games with suitable ships, such as Twilight Imperium or Noble Armada.

Another great source, are the cheap small scale japanses kits you can get through Hobby Link Japan. They're all based on Anime series like Star Blazers and Battleship Yamato and there are some nice designs in there.

[Major_Gilbear]

Dropfleet Commander has a miniature range that's nearly all plastic, with the big battleships being resin.

Firestorm Armada ships are mostly resin, with a few metal add-on parts like weapon turrets.

There there are Star Wars and Star Trek miniatures of various types - from Clix to X-Wing. Your best bet for getting these cheap is eBay, as many players buy the bigger sets and sell the models they don't want cheaply. Both of these feature all-plastic models, and come pre-painted too.

Shapeways also have a lot of user-made ships for sale in a variety of printed plastics. These tend to be expensive though!

Then you have the option of various boardgames that either come with ship models, or which have ship model packs that you can use to upgrade the base game with. Eclipse has the Ship Pack One (sold all over Europe, but the link I gave you shows what you actually get instead of just the box cover), and Twilight Imperium which has over 200 ship pieces. In the case of Twilight Imperium, you can probably email or call FFG directly and ask if they can just sell you the models on their own without the game - they are famous for their excellent customer service, and I'm sure they'll help you out.

Finally, you can just convert or scratch-build your own ships from plastic bits. Back when GW still made their spaceship game (Battlefleet Gothic, which had plastic ships, and which are now super-expensive to buy on ebay), several of the later faction's fleets were made from chopping up plastic parts and re-gluing them to make cool-looking ships. Typically, this was normal fro Dark Eldar and Tyranids, but I think you could buy Dark Eldar or Eldar jetbikes cheaply enough (Gangs of Comorragh for example is a good starting point) and convert them into some really nice-looking sleek ships.

Hope that helps!  

[zorg]

Wow, that's certainly a lot of options! Awesome, thanks a lot!

I'm looking both for capships and fighters, as I'll be using the models for Starmada and Starfire. Cheap is better than expensive, of course.

[zorg]

Interesting options.

The Hobbylink Japan store does have reasonably priced, pretty unique ships (and mecha, of course!). I'm afraid they're too big for my 1"-hexgrid, though. Most of the ships appear to be about 20ish cm long, or more. I might still get a few just for collecting.

The Firestorm ships are pretty, but also pricey.

The Dropfleet ships are awesome, and fairly priced, especially the smaller ships. It's a pity they appear to only come in three size classes. Even so, this looks like the most likely option. I was already sorely tempted when I saw the range in Essen last year.

I checked ebay and amazon for vending machine type ships and found a few. They're definitely cheap Too tacky, though. Still a good idea.

Thx again. I'll post pics when I have assembled two fleets.

[Daeothar]

...The Hobbylink Japan store does have reasonably priced, pretty unique ships (and mecha, of course!). I'm afraid they're too big for my 1"-hexgrid, though. Most of the ships appear to be about 20ish cm long, or more...

Those certainly are nice. But I was actually referring to those of a smaller scale (and price) that are about 10cm or so... 

[soldado]

I have some of these I use for Fullthrust games.



from here

http://www.fate-amenable-to-change.co.uk/hiigaran/hiigaran.html

nice models, very well cast

[zorg]

Those certainly are nice. But I was actually referring to those of a smaller scale (and price) that are about 10cm or so... 

Seems I need to check again!

@soldado: Awesome! Want! (Damn, it's easy to trigger me...)

[Jagannath]

I've got a pile of Battleshio Yamato ships for sale. Could probably be made closer to fuller scale with a bit of conversion. 

You're right though - a multi part plastic sprue space ship kit would be so good.

[Hobby Services]

I've got a pile of Battleshio Yamato ships for sale. Could probably be made closer to fuller scale with a bit of conversion.  

You're right though - a multi part plastic sprue space ship kit would be so good.

Dropfleet Commander's range includes an excellent generic space station "toolkit" box, which can be assembled in literally millions of different ways.  Their starship sprues also tend to leave you with a lot of leftover bits, always helpful for kitbashing.

I've only scratched the surface of what you can do with this amazing boxed set on the thread over here:

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=96458.0

[Connectamabob]

There's also RavenSar Studios:
http://www.ravenstarstudio.com/
http://www.ravenstarstudio.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html

[The_Baron]

Halo Fleet Battles may be worth a look as well, I quite like their human models