• Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 811

Topic: Xtreme Hobby Miniatures Cold Navy 1.5 review

These are some of the nicest minis to come out of california since the mac mini. They're beautifully sculpted and cast with little to no flash whatsoever.

I got the Karradorn fleet last year for Xmas and I was very impressed! The minis went together fairly smooth and had only a little flash. The first impression of those minis was fabulous.  However, the mold lines and lack of a mounting hole, and lack of any sort of assembly instructions were a might off-putting after the first impression.  There were lso noticable "stepping" marks from the obvious 3d sculpting process. However, I would not have thought twice about that if I hadn't already known their origins.

I painted them up and have to say that the mold lines were impossible to see from three feet up.  So overall, I'd give the first run a 7/10.

Now, the second run is a different story.

I got the terran box this time around.  The minis have very little of the stair-stepping that was the hallmark of the first castings.  There's also little to no "pitting" in the second run. A rumour I heard that the guys over at Xtreme were unhappy with the castings in the first round, but I never saw any of that so I can't speak to the quality improved or not.  they look about the same to me.

I gotta say that the basing solution they're providing is nothing less than asinine.  They could not be using these posts with these bases and these ships, they simply do not fit together

1. the friggin posts don't fit in the base.
2. the friggin posts don't fit in the ship
3. even after carving them up a bit and trying to squeeze them into the ridiculously small hole, I broke off one of the friggin fins on the Lorraga.

I was mildly annoyed with the lack of a post hole. I am downright peeved about the new stuff. Not only that, but the damn holes in the ships don't fit any damn posts I own, and I own a lot of space ship bases and ships.  I also slightly preferred the wooden bases, but that is entirely up to personal taste I won't gig them for that.

Okay, the rant's over.  I'll figure something out if I have to go to brass tubing.

When  I'm through cursing the friggin bases, I'll prime this literal MOUNTAIN of spaceships which I managed to get for a song because these guys really know customer service!  I got a hefty 1.5 discount because of the great attitude they have towards their customers.  I'll probably be buying more in the future because I really can't get enough of these ships.  The fact that they come with pre-built starmada ship cards makes it that much cooler.

Let's call the second run an 8/10 and hope the guys figure out the bases so i can give them the 10 they deserve!

2 Reply by Guest

  • Guest
  • Guest

Re: Xtreme Hobby Miniatures Cold Navy 1.5 review

Hi Jim...

I'm really sorry to hear about the basing situation that you're having with our ship.

To be perfectly honest, we're kind of in a quandry ourselves about basing.

Originally, we had tried to get the Citadel Flight Bases for use with our ships.  GW, considering us to be a competing miniature line chose not to sell to us.  So, we were stuck.
We needed to get a set of bases that was large enough to handle our big ships.  Double basing didn't seem right and no other manufacturers out there had large bases.

Then, we found Litko.  We spoke with Ken and we put together an initial order for his wooden bases.  He didn't have flight stems, so, we put an order with eM4 for the stems.

As we started working up our Wave 1.5 release, Ken gave us a call and asked if we'd like to see his new clear acrylic flight bases.  We were very eager to see these new bases.  The only drawback was the stem, for obvious reasons.

However, we've developed a way to work with these stems.
You can take a look at this by visiting our assembly tutorial by clicking here:
http://coldnavy.xtreme-hobby.com/shipyards/assembly.htm
Fact is, even if you wanted to use traditional flight stems, you'd still want to drill and pin them as we've described here.

There are lots of different ways to base your miniatures.  We offer just one.  I'm sure you have your own prefered method.

I apologize for the problems you had, hopfully this helps a bit.

  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 811

Re: Xtreme Hobby Miniatures Cold Navy 1.5 review

let me clarify my review a bit and bring attention to the facts.

1) I love these miniatures

2) I am truly sorry to hear that GW considers you "competing" on a game they no longer produce and give away for free.  They have some nice ships, I got 12 for $10 at a gaming garage sale at a con once, I painted them in wierd colors just to frag off the GW fanboyz. But otherwise, Hm.

3) The problems with the bases are multiplied by the fact that the posts don't always fit into the stands, and the posts will never fit into the minis. It's almost worth it to call the holes "pilot" holes and tell us exactly how big the posts are so those of us with some talent in the area of the drill can use it to drill real holes.  I'd rather see no holes and the wooden hex bases, but, again, that's just my opinion.

4) I have used two posts on my my larger ships, cause it makes sense. Not double-based, cause I really like the big hex.

5) These are the best starship minis on the market as far as I'm concerned.

6) Xtreme Hobby has the best customer service of just about any gaming company out there (except mj12games, of course)

7) Did I mention that these are the best minis out there. Once you get the basing figured out there will be no contenders. Heck there aren't contenders anyway.  And I love the ship designs that you've done.  plus the starmada cards make them even cooler.

I really appreciate you're response, I hope you get the bases figured out.

My suggestion: Make them compatible with GW-style flight bases, but send a little slip with instruction on how to drill them for the acrylic posts.

jim

4 Reply by Guest

  • Guest
  • Guest

Re: Xtreme Hobby Miniatures Cold Navy 1.5 review

jimbeau wrote:

My suggestion: Make them compatible with GW-style flight bases, but send a little slip with instruction on how to drill them for the acrylic posts.

Well, we did design these mounting holes to be compatible with typical flight bases that you see with GW, Mongoose, AoG et al...  Because of casting deformities, you'll obviously have to clean out the hole to fully accomodate the stem.

I'll see what I can do about assembly instructions as well...

Thanks for the input.

  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 811

Re: Xtreme Hobby Miniatures Cold Navy 1.5 review

Human-Machine wrote:

Well, we did design these mounting holes to be compatible with typical flight bases that you see with GW, Mongoose, AoG et al...  Because of casting deformities, you'll obviously have to clean out the hole to fully accomodate the stem.

Hmm, still seemed a little small to me casting issues notwithstanding, but I will survive the inceident and hopefully find many years of joyous mayhem with them. (heh, it rhymed)

jim