Is anyone else excited by the prospects of new Star Trek kits, more new Star Wars from FineModels and anything new from Polar Lights?
Yes, I can wait to see the new Trek kits available in the local shops. I have the Fine Molds X-Wing, and will get some of the newer Star Wars kits too.
RobG
It still dumbfounds me that FSM has not given any coverage to the Fine Molds Star Wars kits. The X-Wing has been out for a year, and the TIE and Jedi Starfighter have are six and three months old respectively- no reviews, no write-ups, no gallery pics, zilch.
The X-wing alone is probably the best injection styrene sci-fi kit that’s been released in quite a while- for FSM to ignore this kit and this remarkable little company is a cryin’ shame.
Also looking forward to Fine Molds Slave One, Bandai’s Enterprise-A and the Polar Lights NX-01 and “The Homer”.
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Originally posted by calculon
It still dumbfounds me that FSM has not given any coverage to the Fine Molds Star Wars kits. The X-Wing has been out for a year, and the TIE and Jedi Starfighter have are six and three months old respectively- no reviews, no write-ups, no gallery pics, zilch.
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Have you put together any of the kits you mentioned? If you’ve put some together and have a couple of pictures, maybe you could share your experiences with the rest of us. [:)]
…or if you start another thread for Fine Molds Star Wars kits, we could assemble a list of links where people can find writeups.
For example:
Building the Fine Molds X-Wing
http://www.starshipmodeler.com/starwars/ph_fmx.htmBTW, I couldn’t find their website, do you know if they have one?
I’ve built the X-Wing, am in-progress with the TIE and have the Jedi Starfighter waiting in my stash. All those brick-red panel decals on the Jedi Starfighter (two sheets worth)…much fear I sense in me.
I’m not dejected because I can’t find info on the kits, which is available on-line from sites like Starship Modeler. I’m dejected because these are excellent kits, and deserve the attention of a published FSM write-up. The Fine Molds models have none of the “usual suspect” problems that a lot of the older sci-fi kits (AMT/ERTL SW and Trek) are infamous for.
Fine Molds has a site, but it’s in Japanese.
http://www.sala.or.jp/~fm/
I have all three kits, and they are some of the finest I’ve seen. However, I haven’t started any of them yet because I don’t think I can do them justice… yet.
Anybody know of a possible release date for the Slave 1 yet?
YodaMan
With regards to FineScales coverage or lack there of of the Fine Molds Star Wars kits. They have been lacking on almost all Sci-Fi coverage. Other than some recent coverage of the Gundam kits, there has been very little info for us. We need to take matters into our own hands and send them some articles, pictures for the Gallery, reviews, etc. If you have built the X-Wing, take a picture and send it in. I think that Jedi Starfighter would make a great article on applying all (and I do mean all) of those decals. Take some in progress photos and write up how you build it. Let’s show FineScale that the SciFi community is alive and kicking. I have some ideas that I will be working on and will see if I can get them in print. If nothing else, write a letter or send them an email and proclaim your interest. Phew! I feel like an Ambassador in the Senate. Time to get off my soapbox and build a model.
I would also like to see something mentioned in FSM. I model all sorts of things but I love SCI-FI models. I have a AMT/ERTL Enterprise-A but I have not built it because I have ruined other kits with not having much experience and no one to go to for hands on teaching, it sits in the closet. I must be slow because I never heard of Fine Molds. Who is selling them?
I too have seen no coverage in FSM of sci-fi. I asked this question in another site and the armor builders got all mad, thats when I realized that FSM does mostly military coverage. Whats up with that?
FSM has done Sci-Fi in the past. I have seen some good articles when it does appear. But it’s not often. I think most FSM readers are more ‘real world’ modelers. Two excellent sites are www.starshipmodeler.com and www.culttvman.com. I can think of no better sites with forums on the subject.
I went to CULTTVMAN.COM a couple of times and for and Enterprise-A model by AMT/ERTL the asking price was about $100.00. I do not know about you people but for a kit that originally sold for about $30.00 that is just way too much. Since then I have found a bunch of Star Trek models from AMT at swap meet and other types of shows for $10.00 to $15.00 dollars. In my opinion, look around before order through the CULTTVMAN.COM website. That’s just my opinion.
I didn’t mean for purchasing as much as I meant for information on new kits,construction techinques and the ‘readers’ galleries.
The prices of out of production kits vary greatly from vendor to vendor. I’ve seen the Enterprise D go for nearly $100.00 on E-bay (and bought at that price) while I got one at a National Liquidator’s store for $2.99. Looking back, I should have bought all that they had and then sell them on ebay. [}:)]
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Originally posted by SNOOPY
I went to CULTTVMAN.COM a couple of times and for and Enterprise-A model by AMT/ERTL the asking price was about $100.00. I do not know about you people but for a kit that originally sold for about $30.00 that is just way too much. Since then I have found a bunch of Star Trek models from AMT at swap meet and other types of shows for $10.00 to $15.00 dollars. In my opinion, look around before order through the CULTTVMAN.COM website. That’s just my opinion.
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It’s a bit unfair to blame Culttvman for simply charging what the market will bear for an out-of production collectible kit. Models like the Ent-A and Ent-E consistently sell for at least $100 on Ebay everyday. Federation Models, the largest on-line retailer of starship models, prices along those lines as well.
Face it, once a kit goes out-of-production, (this goes for ALL kits, not just sci-fi) there’s no law that says the seller has to sell it for the original retail price. You’re paying a premium price for the convenience of NOT having to hunt through garage sales, toy liquidators, swap meets, hobbyshops and model show dealer tables.
Got both the Tie fighter and X-wing. Both look like great kits,but there still sitting in the to do pile. Also can’t wait to see the new Enterprises. Would be nice to see a better line of Thunderbird kits. Pappy
I’m also surprised at how little coverage is given to sci-fi in FSM. Love the magazine and all the modeling tips I’ve learned. I also love sci-fi models though and it seems like it could provide a lot more variety than just WWII and modern weapons.
Would love to see some coverage of all the fantastic Macross models that have been recently released by Hasegawa.
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Originally posted by grayson72
Would love to see some coverage of all the fantastic Macross models that have been recently released by Hasegawa.
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Damn skippy! [:D] Heck, I’d even volunteer to review the ones I have for FSM. [^]
I don’t mean to sound mean, but the Sci-Fi genre is a fairly small one in the modelling community. It happens to be my primary area, but I realize I’m part of a minority.
More Sci-Fi kits are coming out, though. And more SF modelers are coming together online. I suspect you’ll see more coverage of SF as the community grows.
At least most of the techniques discussed in FSM are applicable to science fiction subjects.
However, I would like to see some workbench reviews of sci-fi subjects, as well as of figure kits (since they have articles on them and whatnot - sure I researched my Panzer II kit, but who makes the best 1/35 crew figures?)
I’m curious, does anyone have the 1/48th scale Y-Wing fighter from Scale Model Technologies? I was going to order the kit, but missed the cut-off date this month. The photos of the unpainted resin model look great, just wondering how it assembles. If they produce another run of kits, I’m seriously considering jumping all over one.
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Originally posted by calculon
It still dumbfounds me that FSM has not given any coverage to the Fine Molds Star Wars kits. The X-Wing has been out for a year, and the TIE and Jedi Starfighter have are six and three months old respectively- no reviews, no write-ups, no gallery pics, zilch.
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Umm, guess you missed this?