Miniature

Neuroranger's picture
Neuroranger
April 1, 2016 - 6:21pm
This project may be useful for people who want to use miniatures in their games of SF.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/9742092/project-simian-x

Simian Ultra X project
Damon
Comments:

jedion357's picture
jedion357
April 4, 2016 - 1:05am
Oh baby, am I in for this! Backing this. 

Right now it's 11 days left to the campaign and $1,374 short of the first stretch goal. That's only 22.9 more $60 backers and they'll do a plasmoid exterminator miniature. Anyone else? Come on you know you want to. At $60 you're getting 15 Miniatures at $4 each which is market price plus all the extras. 

I for one am looking forward to the simian in the space suite with head or helmet option. 
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
April 4, 2016 - 1:20am
Ok only 7 more $60 backers needed till this is funded. Anyone? We have to have a few more backers around here. 

Maybe you don't go in for Miniatures? Bet you could spare $5 to support this great endeavor. Let's see if we can't help get this project funded.

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

iggy's picture
iggy
April 5, 2016 - 12:39pm
Make that 4.95 more $60 backers to fund and 22.62 to get the stretch goal of $5,500 and the reward of the plasmoid exterminator.
-iggy

jedion357's picture
jedion357
April 5, 2016 - 7:50pm
Funded!
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

iggy's picture
iggy
April 5, 2016 - 10:51pm
Now just over $400 to go to hit the $5,500 stretch goal and we all get a plasmoid.
-iggy

iggy's picture
iggy
April 11, 2016 - 10:36am
Ok, $124 to go with 4 days left for everyone to get a free dralasite figure.   This is a great opportunity.   They have posted photos of all the extre figures now in the updates or messages.   There is a vrusk like figure and the female yazirian looks really cool.  Other cool yazirians are the commander figure and the one wielding some kind of sonic/laser sword and a pistol.  Check out the project!
-iggy

iggy's picture
iggy
April 16, 2016 - 9:49pm
The project finished over $6,000 and pleased the team.  They have now mentioned the possibility of a near future project involving evil mutant earthworms.   If anyone sees that kickstarter happen, please post it here.
-iggy

iggy's picture
iggy
April 16, 2016 - 9:50pm
BTW, do morats have an analog in SF?
-iggy

jedion357's picture
jedion357
April 19, 2016 - 5:21pm
Morats? Not sure what these are, vihm?

And a big whoo-hooo on a successful kickstarter and looking forward to evil mutant earthworms!


I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
April 19, 2016 - 5:24pm
You know, the figure in the middle of the above pic looks like he's wearing a diaper, apparently Bobo isn't ship trained yet!
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

iggy's picture
iggy
August 11, 2016 - 8:54pm
I just got these in the mail today.Smile
Simian Ultra X Full Set

The detail is really good.  I'm happy with what I got.  They shipped on July 26 and got here August 11, 16 days from the UK to Utah.

I think the three Morats are now officially Vihm in my collection.  I guess that means the Vihm are now part of my campaign universe.

Notice they added wings to the poor yazirian who was previously missing wing flaps.  I like him better this way.  The yazirian in the space suit is going to serve as Cletus from my Alex Stone article about voidlings.  Cletus has since moved to the crew of a dralsite captain named Burbel.  Burbel traded ship engines straight across with Captain Thomas South of the Solar Wind and Cletus insisted on staying with his engines.

The vrusk is in more pieces than I expected.  What is the best way to glue metal figurs together?  I haven't had much success glueing metal minis together in the past.
-iggy

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 12, 2016 - 1:01am
I like ZapAGap green label super glue it's designed to be "gap filling" which means it's thicker and less runny and less likely to run everywhere getting on everything especially your fingers. It's also formulated for metal minis. (Gale Force 9 also produces a product of similar performance that I don't mind using its not my favorite as GF9 is trying to be a one stop shopping for mini supplies while ZapAGap just does glue).

I totally understand the issue of difficulty with gluing minis. The trick is getting the glue to set. I'd need to double check the label but I believe ZapAGap sets good in 30 secs. Holding everything in place for the set time gets a better set. 

There is a spray catalyst that will cause the glue to set instantly but I never use it. I've seen it work I just felt I never needed it. 

Finally, In multi part models the manufacturers usually design into the parts sockets and tabs for putting the pieces together. In theory super glue should work just fine in this joint. Although it should it doesnt always. Whether because the socket joint is poorly designed or the set wasn't good (too much movement of the parts while glue was setting). For this reason I love to drill and pin everything. Pin vice drill using a drill bit the diameter of paperclip wire (small paper clip not the large one). One occasion I had a model with two really fine parts and I resorted to sewing pins and the smaller drill bit. Pieces that are drilled and pinned NEVER come apart. Sometimes it's necessary to file a rounded part flat with a small file to give yourself a good platform to drill on.

My process is to drill into the smaller piece deep enough that the paper clip wire won't have any wobble. I judge this by eye so I'm guessing when I say 4mm or more. A long piece of wire gets glued in trim it to 1/4 inch. 

Test fit the piece with the wire pin into its socket noting where the pin hits the bottom of the socket, this is the spit where you'll drill. You can even make a mark in the soft metal sometime with the pin. Drill, test fit, trim the pin shorter to fit then glue. 

One big caution: trimmed wire tends to rocket away when cutting with wire cutters, be sure small children are not around and wire is angled away from eyes. 

If gluing to a base I have a larger file I use to make sure the bottom of the mini is good and flat for good surface area contact. 


http://www.walmart.com/ip/Zap-A-Gap-Super-Strong-Glue-Bonds-Almost-Anything/30407613
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 12, 2016 - 1:24am
@iggy: I was studying the pic you posted. Hard to tell but the vrusk legs may be to thin to drill. If so use the end of the leg piece as the pin and drill the socket hole a little deeper to get a better fit. Dry fit everything before gluing.

BTW, how does the dralasite figure look?
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

iggy's picture
iggy
August 12, 2016 - 3:06pm
The dralasite is blobby and the feet are rounded with sprews at the tip forming pins where the metal was injected and escaped out another leg.  There is a slight parting line across the top of the head.  I'll file the feet flat and buf the head to remove the line.  Most of the detail of the figure is hidden without paint to bring out the skin texture and eye spots.  I can imagine dralasites are boring figures to sculpt.

I also just noticed that I only got 16 bases.  I'll be putting the dralasite and vrusk on custom bases I guess.
-iggy

JCab747's picture
JCab747
August 12, 2016 - 3:31pm
iggy wrote:
...  I can imagine dralasites are boring figures to sculpt...


Say it isn't so! Poor Drals.
Joe Cabadas

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 13, 2016 - 5:42am
Ok I got home to Maine and my minis are not here yet. Very disappointing.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

iggy's picture
iggy
August 31, 2019 - 4:44pm
So it was posted to Facebook (shudder) that Reaper sculpted a yazirian and a dralasite.  So I wen to their site and purchased one of each.  Here is the link:  https://www.reapermini.com/miniatures/chronoscope  See sku 50346 and 50347.  I ended up buying seven figures total to get the free shipping and they put in a free plastic mini (good quality).  Here is the picture I posted to Facebook of the two Reaper minis next to the TSR yazirians and our favorite TSR dralasite mini.  I also included one of the Simian X yazirians from this thread as well next to the Reaper one.
Yazirian minis size comparison

The Reaper yazirian is a bit to large for my taste but the world is taking all minis to these sizes.  The dralasite is a moster too.  I do not like the tail on the yazirian.  It is poking over his right elbow.  I may carve this out.  I can rationalize the dralasites large size by its space suit adding the bulk.  I think this yazirian is wearing a space suit too.
-iggy

JCab747's picture
JCab747
September 1, 2019 - 8:11am
Nice!
Joe Cabadas