15mm sci fi has grown rapidly in recent years with some excellent new ranges and releases but there are still a few gaps in the market. Things the Dropship Crew would like to see include:
1) More aliens!
Khurasan Miniatures and Critical Mass Games have produced some excellent aliens. But we’re greedy for more! CMG’s Merc range has a great Mass Effect ‘feel’ and we’d love some of these aliens to be expanded into platoon sized forces. We’d also like to see more civilian and non-combatant aliens as well as avians, squid-based lifeforms and other ‘weird alien life forms’ for use in skirmish games. Sci fi shows have often been criticised for 'aliens' who are just humans with pasties on their foreheads but there should be no such restrictions when sculpting aliens with green stuff.
2) More robots!
Ground Zero Games produces some nice robots and drones but no one produces generic android droids in the style of Star Wars or I Robot.
3) More generic (or not so generic) crew figures!
Ground Zero Games produces some nice civilian and crew figures, as do a few other manufacturers, but I wonder if a manufacture could produce some 15mm Starfleet Universe crew under licence from AmarilloDesign Bureau?
4) More civilian vehicles!
There are a few civilian vehicles available such as those in the Laserburn range produced by 15mm.co.uk but there’s a gap in the market for more civilian ground and hover vehicles.
5) More dropships!
5) More dropships!
A number of manufacturers such as Rebel Miniatures, Combat Wombat, Old Crow and GZG are producing some nice dropship models but there are currently no 'alien dropships' or utilitarian landers not based on aircraft designs like the Union and Overlord dropships from the BattleTech setting.
6) More terrain!
There are some excellent shanty and slum buildings available from Battle Works Studios and GZG, as well as some nice utilitarian buildings from CMG and Old Crow, but there’s a gap in the market for buildings that take games beyond the 'early colonist' period with some high tech, high concept sci fi buildings in the style of Antenocitis Governance of Technology or based on ‘alien’ design principles.
7) More high technology forces!
7) More high technology forces!
The focus of most manufacturers seems to be 'hard' or 'near future' sci fi. The upside of this is that there is lots of choice but the risk is that this could make ranges fairly 'samey'. There is a gap in the market for more high technology human and alien forces.
The Dropship Crew would like to hear your thoughts on what opportunities there are for new and interesting 15mm sci fi releases!
Khurasan has some good dropships, I would agree with most of those wishes, personally I want to see CMGs Vorq'La and Ygs expanded into a full range, also good to see Khurasans space demons will be expanded, and more robots would be good.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.criticalmassgames.com/images/mercenaries/MERC14-600.jpg
http://www.criticalmassgames.com/images/mercenaries/MERC9-600.jpg
Has got to be pulp sci-fi.
ReplyDeleteWhere are the bubble helmets, rocket packs and rayguns? It's good to see the "Space Knights" by Blue Moon which is sort of a step in the right direction but I want Flash Gordon dammit!
Of course if I've missed them somewhere I'd be gladly pointed in the right direction.
I'd like to see the CMG "snake" race expanded. As for hi tec, somthing akin to the Dark Star range of armour in 15mm instead of 6mm
ReplyDeleteYou guys are really tuned in. I'd love to see more of this too. I think you've found weaknesses at other scales too. Even 28mm can be lacking in some of these areas.
ReplyDeleteIs there interest in a 15mm corridor system? We where working on one a while ago but other projects have taken precedent. I'd love some feed back on what people would like to see.
ReplyDeleteJonathan Bowen
CorSec Engineering
www.corseceng.com
Terrain is the most glaring in my book but these all touch on suspiciously sparse areas.
ReplyDeleteOooo what a good topic to get your teeth into and you never know some of the miniature companies might actually read our comments and take note, well first off let’s start with us the humans I personally think there are plenty of human forces wearing full body armor now all the companies are producing at least one of these types and to be quite honest they are getting rather repetitive…. I would however appreciate seeing some more hero and specialist types in some dramatic (John Woo) action poses, spaceship crew members and fighter pilots have already been mentioned and I agree that they would be a most welcome addition to the 15mm market.
ReplyDeleteAs for alain races there are some great looking alien species out there and a special mention for Khurasan’s.space demon’s is a must here but the 15mm gaming community can always use some more, triffid’s and ZZ Top space bear’s wanabes have recently made a novel and very welcomed appearance and I would really like to see these races expanded especially the Ursids as they are busting with character and I would like to see atleast another four different sculpts made one being the big boss ‘Buba’ weilding twin slug pistol’s and wearing crossed bandaliers. How about this for a idea some long lost but technically advanced dinosaurs race that resembled Brontosaurus or would that be Brontosauri anyway I saw these in 28mm a few weeks ago and thought they looked very quarky, hmmm but now I think about it those 28mm dinosaurs would be about the right scale for the 15mm market anyway...
THis is perfect. i was wanting ask these questions and you did it for me.cool
ReplyDeletethere are such great human sculpts out there that i was thinking of 4 new alien races. so hopefully that will help. years ago there were some great 28mm sets of traveler aliens , cats , wolfs, rhinos, bat like creatures, ect. all were great sculpts.some thing for you guys to look at .
question. on drop ships do you want interior details , thus open hatchs , landing ramps , and detail interiors or just a solid model?
reason i ask is there is of course a cost diffrence.most 15mm models are fairly cheap retail wish , what are price limits in your minds (pockets) ?
We as manufactures like to know before we invest .
thanks
Micropanzer's Slipstream line does some nice 15mm aliens, too. If you haven't seen them, you can find them here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.syrhobbswargames.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=SHWL&Category_Code=PS-KE
And a new one here:
http://theminiaturespage.com/news/870704/
Another problem I have noticed and goes along with this topic is the lack of 15mm support in the US. We have some great companies like Rebel Minis but I stop myself from buying a lot of UK stuff because of the shipping costs. Would be nice if the distributors would embrase more 15mm lines over here.
ReplyDeleteJonathan Bowen
CorSec Engineering
www.corseceng.com
Ravenstar Chris i would say on any kind of dropship model you deside to make the landing gears and ramps should be optional and included with the model, as for interior detail i would keep that simple but the model should be able to hold up to say 10-12 troops inside. As for more alien races "Doh" why didnt i think of it myself and put it in with my earlier post, how about some Rhino aliens ala Dr Who Dagoon's, now how cool would they be......
ReplyDeleteI would love to see big dropships that could carry 2 APC's like the aliens one or the avatar ones.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple aliens races I would like to sculpt and I will do that, lets hope I can find someone to cast them.
hello....corseceng....(think Newman from Seinfeld)...
ReplyDeleteI personally like the mid-tech stuff a tad better than higher tech...to me that's drifting into the Star Wars or Star Trek realm, which I LOVE both, but I kinda keep them separate, if that makes sense.
I would love to see the corridor system take flight, I assume the 3d system I asked you about a while back?
There are some current human ranges I'd just like to see expanded from GZG, Rebel Minis and Khurasan...
And yes, definitely some civvie vehicles and more dropships...although everytime I think of dropship, I think of the "Cheyenne" from Aliens...
Thanks!
Brian
In all fareness, huge dropships are prohibitively pricey for most. Low sales predictionss means a high price tag to start with.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for a manufacturer to push those.
I think there is definitely room for more "high-concept" humans. Anime and video games provide a wealth of stylish angles for manufacturers to draw from.
-Eli
Yup. I totally agree with each of those perceived gaps. Those lazerburn civilian vehicles do the job well enough, but jeez those moulds are old. And it really does show.
ReplyDeleteI would also like to see some of the Critical Mass merc lines expanded. They're excellent figures. And more generic crew/civilians for the RPG gamers amoung us couldn't hurt either. I have 76 GZG civilian/tech and crewman figures, but more variety in clothing styles(fashion wear rather than work-wear, overalls and the like) would be appreciated.
Would love to see someone take on the aliens from my favorite TV shows like Star Trek and Doctor Who!
ReplyDeleteI think 15mm has to seriously start looking into on demand 3D printing. I've been watching it for some time. Check some of the items in the shapeways stores. Some of those designers have great stuff. If independent designers put their stuff out there through something like Shapeways then we cut the middle men out and the large overhead from sculpting or CG design. Someone could sit down and in a few weeks design and print an amazing dropship and offer it on shapeways. The margins are really tight. This is part of the reason CorSec has stayed out of it. I don't have 3D experience so the learning curve plus the low margin doesn't make it worth my time. Designing cool attachments to the Omni-Stand is a better use of my time. If you can do the 3D design then it might be a nice way to get a little income and you get the dropship you always wanted. I look at it this way. If you put X amount of effort into it and get Y cash out each month for ten years it was worth X effort but only if you love it. I think the future of 15mm is in on demand 3D printing. Price points are far enough down now that you could easily do this for 6mm and 3mm and compete with metal cast price per model. higher detail as well.
ReplyDeleteJonathan Bowen
CorSec Engineering
www.corseceng.com
More civilians unarmed and armed and seated, Colonist in winter gear. Crew personnel. Furniture civilian and ships stuff
ReplyDeleteDropship’s, if you know how to look for them your be amazed at the amount of toys and sci-fi kits or models that are already out there that can easily be adapted and used for 15mm war gaming, Starting with Battletech IWM produce several Map scale (6mm) resin dropships such as the Union, Overlord, Leopard and Broadsword, and you can also still find the much bigger Mech scale (12mm) Leopard dropship or bigger still is the MWDA (15mm) Aroura class dropship which is about 2 ft long. If they don’t tickle your fancy you might want to check out the Gundam spaceship toys there are plenty to choose from and all of them would be a perfect to represent most forms of spaceship or dropship in 15mm, other toys could also be sourced such as the Jerry Andersons Thunderbirds range which you can find pretty cheap these days all in different sizes from 2ft down to about 1” and I’m not even going to mention all the other 25mm dropships that are already available from wargame companies which can also be used such as the ex Grendle Aliens look alike dropship that’s now produced by Scotia models, I could faf on and list dozens of other useful toys but at the end of the day it all boils down to using a little bit of imagination and maybe being a little bit creative with some plasticard…
ReplyDeletewhat we lacking is softskin vehlices, different styles of tank ,most of the tanks are copy of abrahams or merkava exception is GZG bud i cant choice there,maybe more of t and VTOLS general not just dropships but gunships as well think commanche or apache style - i would love see some Command Conquer style vehlices especialy Nod vehlices and GDI style VTOLS (From
ReplyDeleteTiberium sun - also what are lacking are small armoured suits and power armoured infantry
ReplyDeleteScale props and equipment, which I believe falls under the scenery category. I like lots of little details to flesh out spaces and things like crates, jerry cans, food/water canisters, tables, computers and what-have-you would be very nice.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Haydencz. Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun in its own right is a great source of potential in all ranges of things, from scenery to infantry, vehicles and personel.
Most of the Tiberian Sun models were in the net as simple paper models recreated from game meshes.
ReplyDeleteI am for Power armor
We have like 10 sci-fi humans, but (excepting GZG 15 years old sculpts) only 2 (?) kinds of modern made Power armor (Khurasan great multipart and Critical mass not so great single part) !
So as i said before i say again more Power Armors !!
As for existing lines
More Critical mass snakeman.
and Khurasan bugs and Felid Power armors !
And (thats les realistic want) Infinity models from Corvus belli in 15 mm
None mentioned:
ReplyDeletea) street furniture, often usable for objectives scenario: manhole sever cover, cash machines, telecom units (phone booth), fire hydrants and all sort of alien benches;
b) civilian robots in different size and purpose, f.ex. automated cleaners/sweepers;
b) bailed out vehicle crew (with goggles or helmets, armed with laser pistols, bald heads, wires from neck, some wounded)
c) wounded
d) surrendering with hands up
e) prisoners (of war).
I would also love expanding Khurasan Felids, CMG Nagaa (also Ygs and Astaghar) with AT-teams, AA-team, sniper, flamethrower, sapper, drone operator/hacker, medic/chaplain, power armors, civilians (leader, merchant, diplomat, technician, females, children), bailed out crew, wounded and surrendering/prisoners of war.
I would love whole range of GZG Heavy UNSC Infantry (amored/dropshipped/exoskeletons).
@Jonathan B. - eventually, you're probably right about 3d printing. In ten years I think we'll download our vehicle files (some free, many pay) and print them ourselves. But for now, the cost of a 15mm vehicle is still $60-$150 printed.
ReplyDelete@Umpapa - have you seen the new Rebel Minis Titan Scouts? Perfect human vehicle crews - exactly what you described. And great call on expanding the Felids, Astagar, and Ygs.
Chris K.
Also, I'm going to go against the grain on human forces. One thing that's missing? Space Opera or Sci-Fantasy humans armed with close combat weapons and pistols. Just a few ranges like this would really help the 15mm community entice people away from 40K.
ReplyDeleteOnce we cross them into 15mm, they can eventually grow their collection with proper sci-fi minis. :) But for now, the typical 40K gamer will see nothing but rifles and support weapons and never give 15mm a second glance.
Chris K.
Yeah, did some pricing for a possible prototype and the upfront estimate, trimmed down to the bare minimum was something like $44 and that leave a lot for me to do after the print to get the final model done.
ReplyDelete-Eli
well back at home FoW recruited almost one-third of all-country WH community (and it had no swords or magic) and now we got big success with tommorow war demo (ve play it with 20mm and 28mm minis but most of guys were asking about 15mm scifi. so depending what you classifed as typical WH40k player - from my POV typical as far i can tell is treadhead or RTS player show him real combined arms battle and his is yours.
ReplyDeleteand more alien races, i want to see more alien swarm beasts (like the space deamon but not so alien movie-like) and even armed aliens but not animal style but more like Halo Covenant forces
ReplyDeleteI think we need a forum.
ReplyDeleteI just hope that this thread may lead to something, with 30 comments thus far with loads of thoughts on what the 15mm community on Dropship Horizon would like to see put into production, so to briefly sum things up.
ReplyDelete#1st Resin corridor and room system made up of single or lengths of floor tiles that you can lock together and some airlocks, armored doors and bulk heads, maybe an alien lair system also composing of inter locking parts for stability during game play.
#2nd Scatter terrain in all shapes and sizes from spaceship items to regular every day city street items and debris to small weird alien structures and off world fauna.
#3 New miniatures form civilian and military tech and spaceship crews and service droids, full bodied tank crews and pilots with cybernetic implants, some military leader, NCO’s and hero types and finally a few more unusual alien races.
#4 Dropships and shuttles with optional landing gears and loading ramps with lift off sections to reveal detailed loading bays and or troops compartments.
#5 Civilian vehicles and buses maybe a few wrecked vehicles and some trucks with optional tarps and some generic jet bikes and riders.
Great posts everyone, just to add my two cents; we need more swarm aliens - aliens/tyranids/zerg in style. Khurasan makes a nice tank bug but more large units of this type would be nice. Using 28 mm tyranids is ok, but dedicated 15 mm sculpts wold be better
ReplyDeleteAs well we need more diversity in vehicles. Alien vehicles should not look like an Abrams. Heck, human sci fi vehicles probably shouldn't look like an Abrams.
There tends to be too much rifleman/SAW/sniper/rocket launcher/flamethrower going on. I would love some variety in my weapons. GZG crusty lightening gun is a good example. I don't want to see two forces that are basically the same squareing off.
Great inspirations for new vehicle and alien sculpts are all over - Mass effect, C&C, starcraft, Avatar, sci fi novels etc.
Also WOMEN are a priority for human casts! And special characters.
Sorry if I’m over posting on my quota, but I would just like to second the suggestion of Dropship Horizon hosting a forum. There has been a huge surge of interest in 15mm sci-fi in the past year or so and momentum is still picking up, I think it would be great to actually post your ideas, photos and to give constructive feedback and get involved in some interesting wargame topics…
ReplyDeleteHey everyone, glad you liked the blog post! The Dropship Horizon crew have had discussions about the possibility of hosting a message board but the general consensus was that we should support the 15mm Sci Fi message board on TMP rather than create a new one - hence the new widget below popular posts linking to it!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to throw my two cents in with Chris K (Basement Gaming Bunker) and say we need more space opera type figures out there.
ReplyDeleteEndless waves of similar near future figs is all well and good, but I grew up with a lot of the more fantastic science fiction media. As such I'd much prefer pitting my Imperial space legion troops against uncouth space barbarians, or weird aliens from the outer rim.
Throwing the Space Allies up against Space Nazi's really REALLY doesn't do it for me. Even if it did, there are plenty of figures out there now that quite happily cover that genre.
What I would like to see maybe is some modern day like buildings. The only ones in 15mm scale I've seen are either WWII or middle eastern so some western looking stuff would be nice.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the sentiment that we have a lot of humans with armor and guns from a generic near future/harder sci fi setting, and not enough of everything else.
ReplyDeleteTERRAIN is a big one. All my stuff right now is either home made or converted from 28mm terrain (for trees and similar). We do have some nice 15mm buildings at GZG and CMG, but they're very expensive.. Are they resin or metal? Perhaps switching to plastic could lower the price?
In either case, more variety of terrain (more building types, especially the 'high tech, high rise' variety, alien worlds sort of terrain, etc) would be very nice.
Also, as always, more aliens, more civilians/mercenaries/pirates, more 3d corridors, and more interior design for ships and buildings would be much appreciated.