There are two obvious exceptions. First, the Battleship miniature in the top left is way, way too small relative to the other miniatures (as I've pointed out before) -- it's even smaller than the Sathar Heavy Cruiser immediately below it. Second, the Freighter in the top right is much smaller than the book image -- but this is more easily explained by a wide variation in possible hull sizes for those ships (see text in lower left for details; miniature would be HS 5, while page profile is HS 15).
Obviously, it's the shrunk-down Battleship that really irritates me here. What to do?
Probably due to the cost of producing the mini's. To make the battle ship full scale, would have doubled the cost and they wouldn't have been able to offer it at the price point they were selling the boxes at. Plus it would have been massively heavy. Although the weight/cost issue could be overcome by a hollowed out battleship.
ReplyDeleteAs for what to do, if you don't have time/inclination to make a larger model yourself, find someone who can do 3D modelling and get them to make you a model in the scale you want. Then get it 3D printed. After that you can use the printed model to make a mold and cast metal ones.
Good ideas. Interestingly, the "Assembly of Miniatures" paper that comes with the minis actually does show the battleship split lengthwise in two possibly hollow halves (like the heavy cruiser, but not like the actual crosswise-split solid BB mini).
DeleteMy current plan under the all-old-school premise is to try and hand-model a "leaf" section to increase the size of the BB. Turning to a 3D modeller friend is a good alternative if that doesn't work out.
I do frequently wonder how the original modeller made these vehicles so regular and symmetric? (Not like an organic character that can forgive a lot of irregularities.)
DeleteI wouldn't be completely surprised if they made some sort of CAD drawings and had the original machined. The technology certainly existed then. Then they could have used the machined piece to make the molds. That definitely would have given you the regularity and symmetry. Either that or they were really, really good.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, that's an interesting idea too.
DeleteDon't discount the possibility that they were just really good. And took a lot of time.
DeleteThat's certainly my default expectation. But the closer I look (and as I try to do stuff vaguely like it), I can't get over how perfectly symmetrical and repeated the elements are. For example: pin-head thin upraised lines in a perfect parabolic shape. I must say if that was CAD-printed it wouldn't surprise me. How do GW guys make WH4K vehicles nowadays, I wonder?
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