Hey everyone! Sorry for the absence, I had some real life stuff (but more on that later...)



Sadly they are hollow already... I could definitely make some models on a smaller scale, even though the smaller details would have to go!

Starfort you say? How did you know I wanted to do one? But I'm afraid it would definitely not be cheap, being huge and all...


Now, bad news and good news: the bad news is that I missed these last days, due to (unforseeingly) losing half of my job; the mildly good news is that I can do part of the other half at home, so I'll be able to use some saved travel time to work on some 3d models!

Now onto some pictures, to avoid being all doom and gloom!

Let's talk chaos frigates; first here's the gun frigate you've already seen; I've thinned the middle section a little bit, to avoid it looking too stubby:



Now, The torpedo frigate! Since the background says that the falchion is built trying to copy it, I tried to give it a two pronged prow, as welll...



And finally, the lance frigate! I tried to give it a strange looking bridge, to account for the xenos targeting system it's supposed to have...



And now a picture of all the happy friends together!



Now I have a question for you guys: since the shapeways store has been a complete failure, does anyone know of a good resin caster, here in Italy or in southern\central Europe?

Cheers guys!

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How come the store has been a failure? Too expensive? Too thin walls? I'm curious about your experiences.

As for a caster in southern/central Europe, I think there might be a few in Spain. But I think it depends what route you want to take, produce them for yourself, or to sell them. if it's the latter, do you want to be doing the selling and all that yourself?

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Well, I call it a failure in that the models in frosted detail cost too much...


I haven't had any production problem for the moment, it's just that they are not really appealing at the moment!


My idea was to have some copies made for myself and a couple of friends with whom I play, and maybe have some available for some forum mates!

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Hmm, did you hollow out the models? That can really save a lot. My Light Cruiser costed around €70 euros for Strong & Flexible when I originally put it up. After hollowing it out I was at little over €10 (now you get a picture of how 'big' my mark-up is).

I mean, my Light Cruisers are around €30 each for FUD. I think I can bring it down to around €20 each if I sell them in squadrons. If we look at GW prices, counting inflation it would be a little bit more expensive (or maybe even the same, I mean they're sometimes more expensive than FW!).

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I did hollow them out, maybe it's because I put them in large lots, to lower the unti cost... If you add to that the fact that they are a bit wider than normal frigates, they end up a bit pricy!

I just tried to add a "sample" kit of 1 of each frigate, maybe it will be more interesting...

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https://www.shapeways.com/shops/Armand

Well, at slightly less than €6 per model, I don't think there's a real problem. I mean, people are willing to pay €30 for a single space marine model.

I think the failure isn't so much the price, but more that your reach has been rather limited. I mean, you've posted about your ships here and on the Specialist Games forums. Whilst this is the place for your target audience, most of them already have fleets and what not. I would try posting it on lets say DakkaDakka (rumour section) or Warseer (modeling section) and then see what happens.

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Bits Blitz - The place to be for all your bits needs!

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This doesn't apply for escorts, but you might consider for the larger models having a WSF body with FUD surface panels.

Hmm, but then you'd need to sell two separate kits, one for the bodies and another one for the surface panels.

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Bits Blitz - The place to be for all your bits needs!

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Lots of things to ponder! I'll try to share my models on other forums, too, and I'll see what I can do with the mixed material models!

Although, for the larger vessels, I think I could save some material if I were to sacrifice the "modularity" of the vessels, and make the weapons embedde in the hull....

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My shapeways shop!

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/Armand

Hmm, larger vessels would need serious hollowing out. I would guess that for them the casting option would be the best way to go to keep the prices sort of sane. I doubt you could sell entire fleets to keep the price low since most people might only want a single cruiser or maybe a bunch, but not 10 of them at once.

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Bits Blitz - The place to be for all your bits needs!

http://www.shapeways.com/shops/bitsblitz

Oh yeah, and if you're gonna post at Dakka, make sure you do it at the rumours section, doing it in the Specialist Games section means your range will be quite limited since not that many people go there. Everybody goes to the rumours section though...

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Bits Blitz - The place to be for all your bits needs!

http://www.shapeways.com/shops/bitsblitz

Also people that are involved in SpecialistGames type stuff to have a serious collector attitude. That's where they have a mental queue of things to get regardless of price and then they go get a whole pile in one go. Need some ships? Buy the core of an entire fleet. Need some tanks? Go buy half an army. I wouldn't look at this as a failed experiment, mate. It's just the market. Keep filling out the range and keep keeping the stuff visible and you'll see it pick up.

I know that I'm just waiting on clearing out my ships before I go get another 1000 or so points of escorts myself

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Thank you guys, you're helping a lot!

In the meanwhile, I'm in the process of making my "Space Elite" escorts available on the store...


By the way, I tried a little experiment, to see what would happen to the cost of a repulsive if I were to remove all modularity, and basically make it a single piece with separate turrets and antennas: the price dropped by roughly 7 euros, even though now it's somewhat more difficult to clean!

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My shapeways shop!

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/Armand

Hmm, it might also be an idea to make bits/bites/whatever for other gamesystems, think Epic, 40k, etc. Widen up your range and the store could bring in some money. If it helps spread the name a bit, it might also spread to those who might want to buy ships.

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Bits Blitz - The place to be for all your bits needs!

http://www.shapeways.com/shops/bitsblitz

That sounds like a good idea! Now I have to think about some epic bits that are "general" enough to make...

I've already made something, but there's no way for me to be able to sell that

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My shapeways shop!

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/Armand