Maximus-480 Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 Hello, This could very well be a question that has come up several times before but I can’t seem to find an answer anywhere. Maybe someone here has some insight into this. My question is this: Why is it that there are no more decent-sized, easily-obtainable, plastic model kits of ships from the Star Wars universe out there? Ships like the Tantive IV, the Radiant VII or the Nebulon-B frigate? I know there are resin model kits of some of those ships in a few places on the internet but they are VERY rare and VERY expensive, even without shipping costs. Bandai has released decent-sized models of star-fighters - X-Wing, Y-Wing, TIE Fighters, etc - and Revell has produced great models from bigger starships - Millennium Falcon, Venator-class Star Destroyer, Imperial Star Destroyer. So why would they stop there? Ships like the Tantive IV, Darth Maul’s Sith Infiltrator, or the Republic Attack Gunship for instance, would make for awesome plastic model kits. And I’m talking about big model kits ; not those insignificant 5-inch long plastic models. I feel like great opportunities have been missed, here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted February 16, 2020 Share Posted February 16, 2020 Fully agree. My hopes are in 3D printing now - there are some free to download 3D files of Tantive IV and others. Though the quality is something to watch out for - but that is also the case with some main stream SW kits... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus-480 Posted February 17, 2020 Author Share Posted February 17, 2020 10 hours ago, Caerbannog said: My hopes are in 3D printing now Have you ever tried it? I'm really curious to know what those 3D ships are worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Baker Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 Someone in marketing determined that fighters were the kits to produce so we have really saturated that now- I cannot even count the different X-Wings in various scales made by many different companies over the years. I am glad we are beginning to see some capital ships being produced, while way too small they are accurate and very well detailed. I am hoping these were "testing the waters" type kits to determine popularity like the Mecha Colle ISD was. 3D printing is a great way to go but they can be expensive and most need extensive cleanup since the parts are built in layers which need to be smoothed. I look upon the printers in our hobby like the Dremels of yesteryear- initially rare and expensive, now years later it is hard to find a workbench without one. Right now we have more Star Wars kits available than have ever been released before. U=It is easy to focus on the ones which have not been released yet but just look at what we can buy and build now. I love capital ships and never though I would ever see a styrene SSD in any size but now I have two in my closet of doom. The large Fantasy Flight Games Blockade runner is a great size for a kit, but until one is released I can look at that one on my shelf. A Bandai kit that scale would be so wonderful, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus-480 Posted February 17, 2020 Author Share Posted February 17, 2020 42 minutes ago, Richard Baker said: I am hoping these were "testing the waters" type kits to determine popularity like the Mecha Colle ISD was. I hadn't thought of that. It is kind of encouraging when you think about it. 48 minutes ago, Richard Baker said: it is easy to focus on the ones which have not been released yet but just look at what we can buy and build now. I guess you're right. 48 minutes ago, Richard Baker said: The large Fantasy Flight Games Blockade runner is a great size for a kit, but until one is released I can look at that one on my shelf. A Bandai kit that scale would be so wonderful. I didn't know about that one. I'm not fond of board games but I'm gonna take a closer look at the Fantasy Flight Games models. They look pretty nice. Thank you very much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Baker Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 I have both the FFG Blockade Runner and Rebel Transport, both are exceptionally detailed and a good size. I have seen the BL torn down and rebuilt with a full cockpit and engine lighting. The Transport has a full set of accurate colored cargo pods, it's only downside is that the hull on my edition has too heavy of a weathering wash but that is something easy to fix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kushan_Farsight Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 is there some kind of "illustrated encyclopedia to the ships of star wars" available anywhere? I did always think the capital ships got underplayed in the model making arena. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVoidDragon Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 3 hours ago, Kushan_Farsight said: is there some kind of "illustrated encyclopedia to the ships of star wars" available anywhere? I did always think the capital ships got underplayed in the model making arena. Closest thing I can think of is the "Complete Vehicles" book, which is art of ships/vehicles but more of a cutaway thing showing the internals of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.sin Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 It's a real shame things didn't work out with Dragon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVoidDragon Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 1 hour ago, B.sin said: It's a real shame things didn't work out with Dragon! Was anything actually said about that, or did they just disappear? I remember seeing the AT-AT and a AT-ST (that had some issues) but nothing after that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Baker Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 The Dragon ATAT was pretty inaccurate as about ten minutes with Google will demonstrate- the only good thing was that it was a fairly large scale which many people wish for. The Dragon Star Wars line seems to have drifted off into vaporware land- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVoidDragon Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 7 hours ago, Richard Baker said: The Dragon ATAT was pretty inaccurate as about ten minutes with Google will demonstrate- the only good thing was that it was a fairly large scale which many people wish for. The Dragon Star Wars line seems to have drifted off into vaporware land- Didn't realize the AT-AT was inaccurate too, what sort of problem though? I've had a quick look and I can't see anything glaringly wrong with it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmonk Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 For those that missed the Feb 2016, yes 4 years ago, Dragon venture into SW kits this is what was posted on their FB page. 1/144 Falcon 1/35 AT-AT 1/35 AT-ST and yes the legs are extended, though not wrong for the ESB version Also 1/35 Snowspeeder with all sorts of issues. The falcon was expected to be priced at about $85 which made it about twice the price of Bandai's offering. As for other plastic kits, the licencing has a lot to do with it, very costly no doubt. Bandai produce for the Japanese market so large kits like a 1/350 scale N-B Frigate at 900mm long aren't on their radar as the size would be too big for a normal Japanese household. As they can't officially ship to Europe (except for the 7 kits Revell sell) why would they cater for it. 3D printing may be the way forward, this is an E-wing taken from Thingiverse and printed at 1/1144 scale. Cheers, 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Baker Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 There was a list of errors posted over on the RPF site when it was first revealed. Apparently all the errors match a particular set of blueprints which Dragon seems to have used for their source material. https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/dragon-gets-star-wars-licence.251476/page-7#post-3907622 Most seem to be proportion issues looking at the photos above- the ATAT's legs have the knee too low, the ATST looks too narrow and the Falcon is off in several places, most obviously the rectangular dish looks 1/3 too large. It would be nice to have additional companies producing Star Wars kits, especially in scales not done before. Dragon made a big splash with their announcement then crickets. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.sin Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 7 hours ago, Madmonk said: For those that missed the Feb 2016, yes 4 years ago, Dragon venture into SW kits this is what was posted on their FB page. 1/144 Falcon 1/35 AT-AT 1/35 AT-ST and yes the legs are extended, though not wrong for the ESB version Also 1/35 Snowspeeder with all sorts of issues. The falcon was expected to be priced at about $85 which made it about twice the price of Bandai's offering. As for other plastic kits, the licencing has a lot to do with it, very costly no doubt. Bandai produce for the Japanese market so large kits like a 1/350 scale N-B Frigate at 900mm long aren't on their radar as the size would be too big for a normal Japanese household. As they can't officially ship to Europe (except for the 7 kits Revell sell) why would they cater for it. 3D printing may be the way forward, this is an E-wing taken from Thingiverse and printed at 1/1144 scale. Cheers, What could have been! 😢 I was hoping for a 1/35th scale TIE fighters and X-wing out of this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 On 17/02/2020 at 07:52, Maximus-480 said: Have you ever tried it? I'm really curious to know what those 3D ships are worth. Quite difficult actually as there are a number of different sites for such files with very different offerings regarding quality. You have to search an compare which can be time consuming and frustrating. To find a Tantive IV or Falcon to scale to size to the Revell ISD is no problem, but if you are for larger scale the inaccuacies will become more evident. So far I have not printed any larger size ship yet. Which has also something to do with the size of my printer (Elegoo Mars). I am currently printing a 1:20 scale Jawa and some full scale E-11 Blaster parts to complete my DoopyDoos pipe kit - such things work fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus-480 Posted February 23, 2020 Author Share Posted February 23, 2020 On 19/02/2020 at 14:24, Madmonk said: Bandai produce for the Japanese market so large kits like a 1/350 scale N-B Frigate at 900mm long aren't on their radar as the size would be too big for a normal Japanese household. As they can't officially ship to Europe (except for the 7 kits Revell sell) why would they cater for it. Sadly, that makes a lot of sense. On 19/02/2020 at 22:24, B.sin said: 3D printing may be the way forward Let's hope so 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Baker Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 The 1:1000 Zoellugut-Class Domelaze kit from Bandai is about 30 inches long and the sizable 1:500 Yamato is made for the home market. I do concede that small kits do sell better- makes sense since I also have limited display space, but the Yamato capital ships are a pretty good size and sell well too. I think it depends on what Bandai feels a large amount of people want to buy which is a natural business decision. I wonder what the percentage is of their Star Wars kits sold in Japan vs the the selling to the rest of the world is? The market here in the USA was clamoring for them and finding back channel ways to get them so they obtained the license to sell here through Blue Fin and and now they are available officially. The world wide market must be pretty profitable fo rthem IMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Tomohawk Kid Posted February 29, 2020 Share Posted February 29, 2020 (edited) I'm going to break ranks. Star Wars along with Star trek does pretty well for kits given its a niche of a niche. Tommo. Edited March 1, 2020 by The Tomohawk Kid 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandrock Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 The X wing game from Fantasy Flight goes pretty deep into Star wars lore, if you don't mind miniatures rather than model kits. There's so much money in making cheap X-wings and Falcons with slightly different details they don't seem interested in making the larger ships. The Star Destroyer already fills the big expensive christmas gift slot and there's very few non-fighters with the screen time to get people invested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Baker Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 I have some great replicas in a decent scale from the Star Wars Armada & X-Wing gaming sets- about the only way to get a 14"Blockade Runner without the cost of the very fine but expensive garage kit. Also have a Rebel Transport and got a Starhawk last week for my birthday (62 now). These gaming miniatures are excellent in proportion and detail- the only real drawback is very often they have a bad heavy wash for weathering, a problem easily fixed by a repaint. They are not as fun as building your own model kits, but for some subjects are are a very practical alternative Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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