Spaceship Miniatures
You may be wondering where you could get some model spaceships...
You can of course, make your own or print off some cardboard counters for a start.
There are a number of Miniatures producers who include a range of spaceships. These are usually white metal or resin castings, sold by mail order from their shop and are ready to paint and play.
As this list is getting longer I have reordered it in alphabet order by Producer. Links to other producers will be added in due course.
Please contact me if you have any recommendations.
I have not attempted to list 3D Printing. There are a lot of very talented people out there designing miniature Spaceships and other gaming items for you to print at home. Brendan Weir has compiled a list of STL designs for spaceships. I expect this will get much longer:
17th April 2023 - Added Magister Militum, added link to Brendan's STL designers, updated Iliada Game Studios link.
4th April 2023 - Added Irregular Miniatures, Khurasan Miniatures and Monday Knights Productions. Edited Plastic Soldier Company.
Some Miniatures producers that I am aware of include the following:
Alternative Armies - Fleet Scale (UK)
Alternative Armies took on the range of miniatures and rules originally produced by Table Top Games. They have given permission for us to make Encounter One available again and are really good people.
While they don't as yet produce spaceship miniatures (except flying saucers) they do have a small range of Fleet Scale Mecha that may do rather nicely as Fighters or Drones.
Brigade Models (UK)
Another UK Company with a long history of SF Miniatures is Brigade Games. They have a great range of space fleets in 1/3000 scale. If you fancy trying some Victorian SF they do a quite wonderful range of Aerial Steam Gunboats in their Imperial Skies range too.
Ground Zero Games (UK)
Jon Tuffley of Ground Zero Games has been on the front line of SF miniatures producers for years. As well as miniatures he also publishes some great sets of rules for SF games. Rumour has it that Ground Zero have access to wormhole technology for their delivery service.
Iliada Game Studios (Turkey)
A new player on the scene, Iliada produce spacecraft models in laser-cut mdf and acrylic. The material allows for some very interesting designs. These will need some assembly.
They also have a range of lovely Airship designs suitable for Victorian / Steam Punk vessels.
Their acrylic flight stand looks like it was designed for Encounter One.
Iron Wind Metals - Battletech and Wolf Star Shipyard (USA)
Iron Wind Metals stock the Aerospace ships from the Battletech range. As well as their Mech-Scale space fighters, they also stock Micro-Scale Starships, Space-Stations and Drop-ships. White-metal miniatures. Some of their Micro Scale ships are very attractive.
Iron Wind Metals also has the Wolf Star Shipyards range, which are Battlestar Galactica inspired. These are big, heavy models but very impressive.
Irregular Miniatures (UK)
Irregular Miniatures produce a vast array of miniatures across every scale, genre and historical period, including SciFi and Fantasy. Their minis are cast in white metal and are pretty good value. They have several ranges of Spaceships from bio-organic 'squids in space' to credible Star Fleet wessals. Also, they have a couple of ranges of Steam Punk Victorian SF Aeronaught ships. Well worth a look.
Kalistra Ltd - Space Dreadnought 3000 (UK)
Kalistra have a useful range of lead-free pewter 1/3000 spaceships. They cover seven distinct races plus merchants and space stations. Their ships include flight stands and their fleet packs are especially good value.
Khurasan Miniatures - Spaceships (USA)
Khurasan produce two small fleets of white metal spaceship miniatures, Human Federal Space Navy and Reptilian Garn Confederation as well as a Kaiju class World Devouring Space Whale and a single large ship for the Pelagic Dominate.
Magister Militum (UK)
Magister Militum supply a huge range of whitemetal miniatures across periods and scales. They include a small range of spaceship models:
Metal Express - Silent Death (USA)
Silent Death is a popular Star Fighter game. It has been around for quite a while and gone through various editions and publishers. Their models aren't all Star fighters, and even the ones that are don't always look it. Miniatures are white-metal and may come with a flight stand?
I have a few of them in my fleet:
Monday Knight Productions - Galactic Knights (USA)
Monday Knights produce the Galactic Knights range of spaceships miniatures originally produced by Superior Models. These comprise of five fleets of ships from fighter swarms up to massive Super Dreadnoughts. These miniatures have been around for a long time, but don't let that put you off. They are gloriously detailed with a surfeit of greebles and very distinct styles for each race.
Most of these are cast in white-metal/pewter, thankfully the largest ships are available in resin at a reduced cost and weight!
Plastic Soldier Company (UK)
The Plastic Soldier Company have a range of expansion sets for their Red Alert boardgameincluding plastic spaceship minis. They sometimes offer a grab bag of 50 assorted plastic space ships. At £10 per bag these are an absolute bargain but not always available.https://www.theplasticsoldiercompany.co.uk/shop/boardgames/
Ral Partha Europe - Noble Armada (UK)
Five factions intended for the Noble Armada game. These are white-metal miniatures with flight stands. Many sets include two or more ships. Their smaller Escort class ships and Fighters look especially nice.http://www.ralparthaeurope.co.uk/shop/noble-armada-c-167/
Ral Partha Europe also stock the Battletech range for sale in Europe. See Iron Wind Metals for North America.
http://www.ralparthaeurope.co.uk/shop/battletech-c-1/miniatures-c-1_3/aerotech-c-1_3_12/
Ravenstar Studios (USA)
While I have not bought any of their ships yet, I have had my eyes on their Horrids Xeno Fleet for reinforcements for my Novans. They have several extensive ranges of resin ships and are well worth a look through. Sometimes they have sales and special offers which makes them more tempting.
Studio Bergstrom (USA)
A huge range covering dozens of different races and settings in various scales. Some of their ships may look familiar, so grab them before they get shut down by the big bad Mouse. If you can't find something to suit your spaceship needs here then you may just have to make your own!
Table Top Combat - Dropfleet Commander (UK)
One of the newer ranges with their own rules and campaign. They cover several factions, Human, Post-human and Aliens. They come as a kit of plastic or resin miniatures that allows quite a variety in the way you construct them. Many of their sets include several ships. They also do Starter Fleets that give you a load of different ships.
"painfully lovely (albeit rather large)range"
Valiant Enterprises Ltd - Stardate 3000 (USA)
Valiant Enterprises have been around for a very long time. I have some of their models in my fleet from when we first started. Despite their age, these are still good models. They have two fleets for human Federation and Alien. Some of their larger ships could be good for Aurigans in Encounter One.
Vanguard Miniatures - Battlegroup Helios (UK)
A new (to me) company producing a smart range of resin and white-metal spaceships miniatures. These may be intended for Battle Fleet Gothic, but they are equally suited to Encounter One. They even produce a range of Novan ships! Their pack of small Civilian ships could find a multitude of uses.
One other nice thing about the Dropfleet Commander range is the sheer number of spare parts you wind up with after building the ships as intended, leaving you lots of material for your bits box as well as the potential for kitbashing loads of your own starship designs. You can see quite a lot of examples of what you can do with their plastics over on my blog under the Dropfleet Commander tag here:
ReplyDeletehttps://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/search/label/Dropfleet%20Commander