Thread: Robo-borg-K'kree beetles

Evyn--

We had a good relationship with RAFM, and were really getting going with
starship miniatures toward the end (Frank was good friends with Jack, I
think his name was), so had we and RAFM lasted long enough I'm sure there
would have been K'kree bio-tank minis.

> Tonight I started reading this thread wanting go find which box I stashed
> the makings for my Hiver Puppet Head, but slowly that morphed into "So
> wanting Borged out K'Kree Miniatures" for tabletop mayhem...
>
> Or forget your puny Space Orks, K'Kree are the true bad juju on the SF
> battlefield...
>
> --
> Evyn

On Sat, Jun 16, 2012 at 9:36 AM, <> wrote:

> Evyn--
>
> We had a good relationship with RAFM, and were really getting going with
> starship miniatures toward the end (Frank was good friends with Jack, I
> think his name was), so had we and RAFM lasted long enough I'm sure there
> would have been K'kree bio-tank minis.

Man that would have kept in 28mm Miniatures....

RAFM has found the molds for their old Traveller 15mm line in partnership
with Citadel and is producing them again, unfortunately they never got
around to K'Kree....
--
Evyn

As of a few years ago, they would still do special orders for the
Traveller starships as generic things. I had lost mine, and was trying to
reconstruct my set, but ran out of money partway through the enterprise.

The one that I still want is the old Martian Metals Imperial Grav APC. We
didn't even have one at GDW, so when I had Kirk work up the illos for RCVG
we had to work from pictures in old ads. We changed the turret, but you
can see that we retained the big seam around the hull where the top lifted
off to expose the interior.

> On Sat, Jun 16, 2012 at 9:36 AM, <> wrote:
>
>> Evyn--
>>
>> We had a good relationship with RAFM, and were really getting going with
>> starship miniatures toward the end (Frank was good friends with Jack, I
>> think his name was), so had we and RAFM lasted long enough I'm sure
>> there
>> would have been K'kree bio-tank minis.
>
>
> Man that would have kept in 28mm Miniatures....
>
> RAFM has found the molds for their old Traveller 15mm line in partnership
> with Citadel and is producing them again, unfortunately they never got
> around to K'Kree....
> --
> Evyn
>

On Sat, Jun 16, 2012 at 7:03 PM, <> wrote:

> As of a few years ago, they would still do special orders for the
> Traveller starships as generic things. I had lost mine, and was trying to
> reconstruct my set, but ran out of money partway through the enterprise.
>
> The one that I still want is the old Martian Metals Imperial Grav APC. We
> didn't even have one at GDW, so when I had Kirk work up the illos for RCVG
> we had to work from pictures in old ads. We changed the turret, but you
> can see that we retained the big seam around the hull where the top lifted
> off to expose the interior.
>
> This one?
http://members.tip.net.au/~davidjw/pictures/miniatures/g-carrier-oblique-view1.jpg

RAFM had it up for sale last year so you might want to call if the urge
hits you again....

Here is their current line in 15mm
http://www.rafm.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=RAF&Category_Code=GRAV&offset=0

I kinda have given up on ship figures, I passed my collection onto another
group that was doing that level of miniatures combat a few years ago. But I
love what was produced in the day. Ad Astra recently produced the
battlewagons of CT in Miniature
http://www.bitsuk.net/files/f25f9730cbd72f58d481d40910978ac8-50.php

Currently there is a move towards/intrest in 15mm in SF Miniatures. As such
one of the nucleus of this resurgence has been the classic Traveller 15mm
figures, in large part because a certain former Traveller Licensee's Gothic
"Space" game turned into medieval/WW1 fantasy with guns and the secondary
market went with them in those tastes in 28mm. With all of that there
several companies out there producing some very nice figures that work well
with Traveller.
--
Evyn

And RAFM just had a 25% off sale. Bizarre that they have Droyne but no K'kree.

I have a 6mm K'kree army - but normal K'kree, not bio-engineered nightmares. Now I know what they are meant to be though...

I would love to see a armored up K'kree, it'd definitely be something out of a nightmare.

Derek Stanley
Sent from my iPhone...

On 2012-06-16, at 20:40, "Jake" <> wrote:

> And RAFM just had a 25% off sale. Bizarre that they have Droyne but no K'kree.
>
> I have a 6mm K'kree army - but normal K'kree, not bio-engineered nightmares. Now I know what they are meant to be though...
>
>

On Sat, Jun 16, 2012 at 8:37 PM, Jake <> wrote:

> And RAFM just had a 25% off sale. Bizarre that they have Droyne but no
> K'kree.

That line never had em, nor Hivers...
--
Evyn

Hi, Evyn.

>> This one?
> http://members.tip.net.au/~davidjw/pictures/miniatures/g-carrier-oblique-view1.jpg

No, that's the grav carrier. We didn't have any of those at GDW either.

> Here is their current line in 15mm
> http://www.rafm.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=RAF&Category_Code=GRAV&offset=0

There's the old Grav APC. They call it the Plasma Tank, and the hull is
out of one-piece resin. That hull used to be three pieces of lead or
"white metal" or whatever. See the seam around the sloped plate that runs
all the way around? The hull roof lifted off, and it had seats inside, all
kinds of tremendous detail and controls in there. Obviously too expensive
to keep doing in metal.

> Ad Astra recently produced the
> battlewagons of CT in Miniature
> http://www.bitsuk.net/files/f25f9730cbd72f58d481d40910978ac8-50.php

Man, those are gorgeous! However, I went to the Ad Astra site and saw no
evidence of them ever being produced, and lots of 2007 dates. Also mention
of 2300, but couldn't find anything. Another good thing that never quite
got born? I would love to have a little Arrival Vengeance to sit on my
desk. The Plankwell is too big, I'd rather have that SEH class cruiser.

> Currently there is a move towards/intrest in 15mm in SF Miniatures. As such
> one of the nucleus of this resurgence has been the classic Traveller 15mm
> figures, in large part because a certain former Traveller Licensee's Gothic
> "Space" game turned into medieval/WW1 fantasy with guns and the secondary
> market went with them in those tastes in 28mm. With all of that there
several companies out there producing some very nice figures that work
well
> with Traveller.

Remember, I've been out of circulation for a while, so "certain former
Traveller Licensee's Gothic "Space" game" doesn't necessarily jangle any
bells... I'm thinking, "what, FASA? Warhammer 40K? Space: 1889?" And I
know none of those are correct.

Dave

You could kit-bash your own with some lead foil and extra weapons taken
from other figures.

> And RAFM just had a 25% off sale. Bizarre that they have Droyne but no
> K'kree.
>
> I have a 6mm K'kree army - but normal K'kree, not bio-engineered
> nightmares. Now I know what they are meant to be though...
>
>

RAFM kind of had their own ideas of what they wanted to do. We'd tell them
what we wanted, and they'd sometimes bring us a somewhat different
collection with a CT flavor. It's like their sculptor was an old CT
player, and was making the stuff that he liked.

But it was great when Jack would bring me a bunch of stuff that they had
produced that I could just rate up for the game and the miniatures would
already be there. That's where a lot of the RSB ships came from,
especially the things with the podded guns. I had to reject some things,
though. I swear to God, they mounted a TL-10 ACR on a stand and tried to
tell me it was a ship. Nope.

> And RAFM just had a 25% off sale. Bizarre that they have Droyne but no
> K'kree.
>
> I have a 6mm K'kree army - but normal K'kree, not bio-engineered
> nightmares. Now I know what they are meant to be though...

On the t-shirt they look kind of sleek, like the USS Sea Shadow on legs.

However, from human eye level and them towering over you, and they would
certainly have to have vents to steam and gas would snort out, they would
be kind of nightmarey.

> I would love to see a armored up K'kree, it'd definitely be something out
> of a nightmare.
>
> Derek Stanley
> Sent from my iPhone...
>
> On 2012-06-16, at 20:40, "Jake" <> wrote:
>
>> And RAFM just had a 25% off sale. Bizarre that they have Droyne but no
>> K'kree.
>>
>> I have a 6mm K'kree army - but normal K'kree, not bio-engineered
>> nightmares. Now I know what they are meant to be though...
>>
>>
>

On Sat, Jun 16, 2012 at 9:07 PM, <> wrote:

> Hi, Evyn.
>
> >> This one?
> >
> http://members.tip.net.au/~davidjw/pictures/miniatures/g-carrier-oblique-view1.jpg
>
> No, that's the grav carrier. We didn't have any of those at GDW either.
>

Martian Metals are hard to get photos of. The real test is photos of the
The Line that Hobby Products did for Traveller in 89 or so, they didn't get
too far out of Germany.

> > Here is their current line in 15mm
> >
> http://www.rafm.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=RAF&Category_Code=GRAV&offset=0
>
> There's the old Grav APC. They call it the Plasma Tank, and the hull is
> out of one-piece resin. That hull used to be three pieces of lead or
> "white metal" or whatever. See the seam around the sloped plate that runs
> all the way around? The hull roof lifted off, and it had seats inside, all
> kinds of tremendous detail and controls in there. Obviously too expensive
> to keep doing in metal.
>

I own one of those in Lead. I tend call it "Murder Exhibit #1", yet it
gives me warm and fuzzy memories of those early days of playing the game.

>
> > Ad Astra recently produced the
> > battlewagons of CT in Miniature
> > http://www.bitsuk.net/files/f25f9730cbd72f58d481d40910978ac8-50.php
>
> Man, those are gorgeous! However, I went to the Ad Astra site and saw no
> evidence of them ever being produced, and lots of 2007 dates. Also mention
> of 2300, but couldn't find anything. Another good thing that never quite
> got born? I would love to have a little Arrival Vengeance to sit on my
> desk. The Plankwell is too big, I'd rather have that SEH class cruiser.
>

I saw them hanging on the wall of my not so Local Games shop earlier this
year.

Here is a link that says they have them in stock.
http://www.frpgames.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=38146#.T91jQCtYuJs

> > Currently there is a move towards/intrest in 15mm in SF Miniatures. As
> such
> > one of the nucleus of this resurgence has been the classic Traveller
> 15mm
> > figures, in large part because a certain former Traveller Licensee's
> Gothic
> > "Space" game turned into medieval/WW1 fantasy with guns and the secondary
> > market went with them in those tastes in 28mm. With all of that there
> several companies out there producing some very nice figures that work
> well
> > with Traveller.
>
> Remember, I've been out of circulation for a while, so "certain former
> Traveller Licensee's Gothic "Space" game" doesn't necessarily jangle any
> bells... I'm thinking, "what, FASA? Warhammer 40K? Space: 1889?" And I
> know none of those are correct.
>

Sorry Games Workshop with WH 40k. Amusingly one of my crowd spent a fair
amount of time with FS&S converting chunks of 40k to Traveller.

--
Evyn

> Martian Metals are hard to get photos of. The real test is photos of the
> The Line that Hobby Products did for Traveller in 89 or so, they didn't
> get
> too far out of Germany.

I think I heard of the German line, don't know that I ever saw it.

> I own one of those in Lead. I tend call it "Murder Exhibit #1", yet it
> gives me warm and fuzzy memories of those early days of playing the game.

Hang onto that. They were expensive when they came out (for the time and
our wallets when we were younger), and they're rare now.

> Here is a link that says they have them in stock.
> http://www.frpgames.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=38146#.T91jQCtYuJs

Might have to get me one of them.

> Sorry Games Workshop with WH 40k. Amusingly one of my crowd spent a fair
> amount of time with FS&S converting chunks of 40k to Traveller.

Oh yeah, those cheap little news-printy deck plans and forms and stuff? I
forgot about that.

Some 40K stuff would probably look like some Wilds or TED forces.

You can get the traveller fleets 1 zho, 1 imp as fleet boxes from the ad astra store. They also do packs which are sometimes on ebay and noble kinght carries them. They also do special orders if you give them a ring.

The plankwell is impressive and the AHLs are damn nice.

Cheers
Richard
----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2012 5:07 AM
Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE] Robo-borg-K'kree beetles

Hi, Evyn.

>> This one?
> http://members.tip.net.au/~davidjw/pictures/miniatures/g-carrier-oblique-view1.jpg

No, that's the grav carrier. We didn't have any of those at GDW either.

> Here is their current line in 15mm
> http://www.rafm.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=RAF&Category_Code=GRAV&offset=0

There's the old Grav APC. They call it the Plasma Tank, and the hull is
out of one-piece resin. That hull used to be three pieces of lead or
"white metal" or whatever. See the seam around the sloped plate that runs
all the way around? The hull roof lifted off, and it had seats inside, all
kinds of tremendous detail and controls in there. Obviously too expensive
to keep doing in metal.

> Ad Astra recently produced the
> battlewagons of CT in Miniature
> http://www.bitsuk.net/files/f25f9730cbd72f58d481d40910978ac8-50.php

Man, those are gorgeous! However, I went to the Ad Astra site and saw no
evidence of them ever being produced, and lots of 2007 dates. Also mention
of 2300, but couldn't find anything. Another good thing that never quite
got born? I would love to have a little Arrival Vengeance to sit on my
desk. The Plankwell is too big, I'd rather have that SEH class cruiser.

> Currently there is a move towards/intrest in 15mm in SF Miniatures. As such
> one of the nucleus of this resurgence has been the classic Traveller 15mm
> figures, in large part because a certain former Traveller Licensee's Gothic
> "Space" game turned into medieval/WW1 fantasy with guns and the secondary
> market went with them in those tastes in 28mm. With all of that there
several companies out there producing some very nice figures that work
well
> with Traveller.

Remember, I've been out of circulation for a while, so "certain former
Traveller Licensee's Gothic "Space" game" doesn't necessarily jangle any
bells... I'm thinking, "what, FASA? Warhammer 40K? Space: 1889?" And I
know none of those are correct.

Dave

On Sun, Jun 17, 2012 at 3:46 AM, Richard Perks <>wrote:

> **
>
>
> You can get the traveller fleets 1 zho, 1 imp as fleet boxes from the ad
> astra store. They also do packs which are sometimes on ebay and noble
> kinght carries them. They also do special orders if you give them a ring.
>

That is good to know, their site was acting up when I was looking at it
with my earlier reply.
--
Evyn

Thanks, Richard.

I'm glad to hear that the AHLs are nice. I went to the link that Evyn sent
and ordered an Imperial box, a blister of two AHLs, and a blister of 6
escorts. I'm not sure what's in the escorts, but I'm imagining it's 3
Chrysanthemums and 3 Fer-de-Lances.

While I was doing that I stumbled across a photo of the AHL on one of the
Ad Astra discussion boards which made me think, "Ugh, that doesn't look
near as pretty as it did on the BITS page," so I'm glad to hear you say
that they are "damn nice." :-) Miniatures can often not photograph well,
and it can be hard to see what they REALLY look like without holding them
in your hand.

I almost ordered the Zho box, but then backed off, simply because to the
best of my knowledge they had not been illustrated by 1995, so do not have
the same hold on my psyche that the others do, all of which date back to
Book 9.

I also learned that the Ad Astra Power Projection game is strictly based
on High Guard 2d Ed, rather than anything subsequent, which is
interesting. Is there a reason for that?

I also realized that when I said in an earlier post about liking the "SEH"
class, I may have been mistaken. There was a cruiser or two in Book 9
which kind of looked like a Planckwell/Plankwell but more curved and
rounded, which was always my aesthetic favorite.

Thanks for the info, Richard!

Dave

> You can get the traveller fleets 1 zho, 1 imp as fleet boxes from the ad
> astra store. They also do packs which are sometimes on ebay and noble
> kinght carries them. They also do special orders if you give them a ring.
>
> The plankwell is impressive and the AHLs are damn nice.
>
> Cheers
> Richard

And when Richard says, "special orders," my impression is that means
onesies and twosies of any of the ships they make, rather than having to
buy the full box at one time. I picked that up from a query on their
discussion board from a guy that wanted to pick up the ships gradually
without honking off his wife.

Anyone know if they ever got around to making the 2300 ships? I saw lots
of mention of them on their site, including discussion that "2300 won't be
in PP, it will be in Squadron Strike" because it's not vector movement."
"Yes it is," "No it isn't," "Yes it is," "No it isn't." Actually it isn't,
but does have elements of what I described as "pseudo-vectors" if you are
running your SW, based on the ratio of SW jumps to the time it takes to
turn the axis of your ship. Not really vectors, though.

> On Sun, Jun 17, 2012 at 3:46 AM, Richard Perks
> <>wrote:
>
>> **
>>
>>
>> You can get the traveller fleets 1 zho, 1 imp as fleet boxes from the ad
>> astra store. They also do packs which are sometimes on ebay and noble
>> kinght carries them. They also do special orders if you give them a
>> ring.
>>
>
> That is good to know, their site was acting up when I was looking at it
> with my earlier reply.
> --
> Evyn
>

I've wanted to get that AHL for awhile. Plankwell doesn't
interest me, though wish they had a Tigress.
I've always wanted a die-cast and plastic maggart clipper toy
with removable modules. I bought a couple copies of the miniature
to assemble with enough spare modules but I'm thinking larger
scale


---
from my T989

The zho ships are okay, but I agree, we haven't seen them before and aren't really attached to them like we are to the AHL and others.

The AHL is 5.5cm long including the goose neck, about 8mm high including the fin and about 8mm wide not including the drive. You can see the big bay weapons, the 4 fuel shuttles on the bottom, the spinal gun tube and that little runway the fighters use just on top of the goose neck

The Power Projection rules are quite nice and the fleet box allows you to convert Traveller HG2 into the power projection stats. Don't think anyone did the 2300 ships. Ad Astra do a pack of pinnaces, a pack of 2 scouts and another pack for a A1 free trader. They are okay but don't seem to match the scales of RAFM et.c

Yes you are right about special orders. I picked up an extra plankwell and two more AHLs. They will cost up and send them out. But this was before they did the blister packs.

Cheers
Richard

----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2012 7:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE] Robo-borg-K'kree beetles

And when Richard says, "special orders," my impression is that means
onesies and twosies of any of the ships they make, rather than having to
buy the full box at one time. I picked that up from a query on their
discussion board from a guy that wanted to pick up the ships gradually
without honking off his wife.

Anyone know if they ever got around to making the 2300 ships? I saw lots
of mention of them on their site, including discussion that "2300 won't be
in PP, it will be in Squadron Strike" because it's not vector movement."
"Yes it is," "No it isn't," "Yes it is," "No it isn't." Actually it isn't,
but does have elements of what I described as "pseudo-vectors" if you are
running your SW, based on the ratio of SW jumps to the time it takes to
turn the axis of your ship. Not really vectors, though.

> On Sun, Jun 17, 2012 at 3:46 AM, Richard Perks
> <>wrote:
>
>> **
>>
>>
>> You can get the traveller fleets 1 zho, 1 imp as fleet boxes from the ad
>> astra store. They also do packs which are sometimes on ebay and noble
>> kinght carries them. They also do special orders if you give them a
>> ring.
>>
>
> That is good to know, their site was acting up when I was looking at it
> with my earlier reply.
> --
> Evyn
>

On Sun, Jun 17, 2012 at 11:51 AM, <> wrote:

>
>
> I also learned that the Ad Astra Power Projection game is strictly based
> on High Guard 2d Ed, rather than anything subsequent, which is
> interesting. Is there a reason for that?

Yes, Power Projection is based on FullThrust by Ground Zero Games.

FullThrust is a very simplistic game in terms of ship construction, it also
ia the author's take of Ship combat after reading Book 2 and book 5. Jon
Tuffley the author and owner/operator of Ground Zero Games is a Traveller
Fan, and has written some games over the years that are very Traveller in
feel without being Traveller. (Note, Jon and by extension Ground Zero Games
are about Miniatures, the games exist so we can play with our miniatures.)

Anyways, Power Projection is what happens when yet another party wants to
do Fleet Combat in the Traveller Universe using the FullThrust rules, it is
utter and amusingly recursive in it's inception.

Some GZG links (the last 4 to illustrate GZG's Traveller roots)
Main
http://www.groundzerogames.net/mambo/
Store
http://shop.groundzerogames.net/
Air/raft
http://shop.groundzerogames.net/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=1459
Advanced Heavy Grav Tank
http://shop.groundzerogames.net/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=1496
Advanced Grav Lift Infantry Assault Vehicle
http://shop.groundzerogames.net/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=1497
And Imperial marines... I mean UNSC Hardsuits...
http://shop.groundzerogames.net/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=762
--
Evyn