 July 21, 2009 - 8:44am | Just got back from Historicon in PA- great time at my first war-game convention. thought I'd give a heads up on a little discussion I had with an exhibitor- (this post gets around to the relevance to SF at the end) www.achesoncreations.com (The bad news is this is an old obsolete site and the new one will be up in Sept with over 500 products + all the new stuff but right now the site aint much to look at and its missing the really cool new stuff) I'd seen his site before and thought I might buy some of his stuff some time but seeing it in person was an eye opener. First off the quality of his resin castings is incredible- he uses a urethane resin and a vacuum tank so that none of his casting have bubble in them at all! Which is a nice surprise over polyester resin casting that can be loaded with surface bubbles requiring that they be filled lest your model look crappy after painting Secondly he prices are based off the cost of materials and consistently I was surprised over the price of a piece vs it's size and I ended up buying a lot from his table. He had a $.50 bin loaded with small stacks of chest, ammo crates, oil drums, beer cast, tree stumps, wrecked 15mm tanks, and such- for next historicon he promised to have $1 & $2 bins. I bought pieces for $9 that I thought would cost me $17 or more dollars from other manufacturers. Any how he has some excellent (not seen on the old site) sci-fi pieces in 28mm The wormric line is based of a caterpillar like race that builds bubble like constructions- right now there is a handful of building but in the future will be a wormric lander that will fit into a matching hanger There is a drop ship coming (described as something like the space 1999 eagle or the drop ship from Aliens the movie) The drop ship will come as a separate nose and tail sections plus cargo, troop, etc. sections There is also a red mars line coming to compliment someone Else's miniature line of john cater of mars minis it has a open topped flyer and will have stack-able interlocking tower sections with a possible bridge section to connect towers as well as tower landing platforms If fact he plans to start casting flyers with a threaded brass fitting so that you just have to thread a rod into the base and mount on a stand. Now shouldn't be in too much trouble with the wife as long as I can intercept the Visa bill. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 21, 2009 - 6:38pm | Where in PA was it. You might have been close enough to tag up with Imperial Lord. That's his neck of the woods. The minis sound cool. Can't wait to see what you do with them. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
July 22, 2009 - 4:40am | In Lancaster- ex-girlfriend's neck of the woods too though I didn't even think of that till just now. Too much fun trying out 2 different set of ACW naval rules as I might like to sink some money into that genre of gaming down the road. Plus my club ran our project game: Battle of Bunker Hill twice. And 1st Srgt. Eversman was scheduled to speak on his experiences in Mogedisu (Black Hawk Down) though he was forced to cancel. Its kind of funny how the only female gamers are teens who's father dragged them to the gaming convention. And of the 4 days and estimated 4000 attendees I only saw 5 and only 1 was really into it. Though there was a single/divorced mother there with her brother and his family who sat in on one of the ACW naval games to hold a spot for her nephew who was dragging out of bed- which was cool cause most older women at the con were there cause the spouse threw money at them to go shopping while they gamed. Next year its in Baltimore and, God help me, I'm considering taking the family. My oldest daughter will be 8 and if I run a convention game to get free admittance she could sit in and play/help run the game (which will most likely be a Prehistoric Hunting type game with cave men, Victorian hunters, a German Uboat crew, and mamoths, smiladons, raptors and T-Rex of course). I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 27, 2009 - 1:52pm | You were at Historicon??? Aw shucks - I would have gone if I knew you were going there. I am going to the end of the BPA in the same hotel two Fridays from now if you want to come to the Board Game Players con. It's a grand ole time! I will have loads of time on my hands, since I am not in my tournament this year. :-( Maybe we should get the word out if we go to Cons so we can at least meet... I feel like a moron for not having thought of that sooner (I was at Historicon and BPA last year - duh.) |
August 2, 2009 - 6:37am | @: Imp Lord- naw I'll only get away with 1 con/year with the spouse. Though I had thought maybe that wearing a Star Frontiers T-shirt at the con would be a good way of trying to out others into the game, whether on these forums or not. maybe we should have a t-shirt design contest or even baseball hat contest that would have a requirement of non- copywrited art. One person could volunteer to have the shirt made (I have a regular guy and could do this then reset up my ebay store as a easy way of transacting business) most likely it would require a minimum number of 12 shirts with the guy I use for this and once the design is in his computer any number of 6 or more can be re-ordered from him as demand warrents. though the initial set up carries the set up cost and the sale of those 12 would require covering that cost later runs would be cheaper but at least 12 of us would need to "man up" as it were and commit to the purchase of the initial 12. I fully plan to be at Historicon next year in Baltimore and possibly run a game- (even considered doing a skirmish game of the storming of the pirate outpost from SF-1 but may just do pre-historic hunting game since my kids may just be along with me) I would deffinetly love to promote my favorite site and RPG since on average 4000 people attend historicon (though with the switch to Baltimore there maybe some drop off as I did hear some bitching about the cost of beer at the venue in Baltimore! I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 2, 2009 - 9:40am | I'd be in for a t-shirt or a hat. I wish I lived a little closer to the 'con scene. Pa is way too far for me. At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy...... |
August 2, 2009 - 1:16pm | I'd be in for a t-shirt or a hat. I wish I lived a little closer to the 'con scene. Pa is way too far for me. Luckily I'm a fringe member of a wargaming club and 7(+3 spouses) of us car pooled in 4 cars and doubled up on hotel rooms for the convention so it worked well otherwise I may never have made the trip for the first time. Actually I have 12 hats made- got ahead of myself with my stalled face2face campaign where I planned a tangible game reward of a Volturnus Survey Expedition II uniform hat for the 6 players in that group when they hit the first pirate outpost they'd find a crate of thier own supplies and I'd pass out the hats to the players. The hats were the "castro" style in pale stone color (light khaki) with a half planet and the words: "Volturnus Survey Expedition II" arched over it. But since we never got to the Kurabanga village I've lefted them in the box and haven't even worn one myself. Most likely I'll hang onto them till I can get a face to face group through the SF-1 module and yet I keep thinking I should recover my money by hawking them off on ebay especially since it cost me $20/hat to have them made with the set up charge! I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 2, 2009 - 5:44pm | Castro style?? I hope you mean Fidel and not San Francisco... |
August 2, 2009 - 8:28pm | Castro style?? I hope you mean Fidel and not San Francisco...  hah! yeah fidel castro style- thought it would be a nicely different look to a baseball hat.I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 2, 2009 - 11:37pm | Those sound cool!! How can I get one? At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy...... |
August 3, 2009 - 6:29am | Those sound cool!! How can I get one? If there is real interest I'll put 4-6 (I certainly didn't need 12 but that was smallest run they'd do but it did drive the individual price up) up for sale probably best handled through PMing   I have a civil war shell jacket pattern (somewhere in a box) and I was thinking that if I "de-constructed" elbow pads (for roller bladers) plus a few other mods to the pattern and I could make a credible looking piece to a skien suit. Throw on a name patch and a mega corp logo and you'd have some unique convention wear! But just admitting to that shows my geekiness. But serriously I'm torn between doing something like that or obtaining an old school cylon suit to play BSG with my 7 & 3 yr old kids. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
