Minairons
The first order was for 15mm hex bases from Minairons. These are made per order, so there was a just a slight delay in getting them to the US from Spain, but was still a relatively short ordering cycle. The bases are as described, priced very affordably, and perfect for my application. They will allow me to individually mount my fighters for Star Fleet Battles. Overall the experience was exceptionally good, and I would highly recommend them.
Toad King Castings
This company was recommended to me after in response to a request for 28mm skulls on TMP. I was looking for some bits to scatter amongst my post-apoc terrain. Toad King Castings offered outstanding service, with easy ordering, spectacular product (all resin castings), and fast shipping. Again, a highly recommended company. I ended up ordering a bag of skulls (which includes quite a variety of different castings), and a pack of bones debris. He also threw in a very nice resin chest with the skulls.
Amarillo Design Bureau
Despite having played Star Fleet Battles since the early 1980s, this is my first order with the current owner of the game system, Amarillo Design Bureau. I ordered a selection of star ships including Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and Kzinti. The ordering process was very smooth, with fantastic comms and exceedingly fast delivery. The models are all metal and were generally very nice, with castings simplified from some of the originals forms from back in the day (particularly nice for the Kzinti ships, which used to have lots of little breakable bits). Most of the castings were quite good, though a couple looked to suffer from some mold ware.
The Federation Frigates, NCL and CVS have particularly nice detailing, and will stand up well with my older plastic Federation castings. The Romulan Destroyer variants are very high quality castings, and the Kzini Cruiser and FF are well detailed and as mentioned above much simpler than the older castings. The Klingon F5s are a different model from the original all those years ago, but similarly sized, and nice models, though the mold had some wear, resulting in some shmootz hanging off of the back of the castings around the impulse engines and shuttle bay area. Nothing catastrophic, but they do require a little attention. The Klingon CVS was probably the only real let-down among the 13 castings, as the upper surfaces of the hull with the shoulder phasers extending to the "wings" were a bit rough, kind of "pebbly". This will require some attention with file and putty, and I may have to re-create the phasers and a little raised detail in the area. Overall though, I am happy with the models, and service was fantastic.
Klingon CVS and F5s
Two of the F5s have been trimmed, the model to
the right still has flash on the rear of the hull.
Federation FFs, NCL (top) and CVS (in pieces).
Kzinti heavy battle Cruiser and Frigate
Romulan Battlehawk and Skyhawk.
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