Being the generous sort of furry reprobate, I promised I'd post a few pix of these old classics of my misspent youth with more modern offerings. After flailing around in our storage unit, I failed to locate my dratted GZG ships, but I *did* locate a few others that will do the job I reckon, so without further ado, here are the photos, and pardon any roughness, as I was using my iPhone-from-Hell to get the job done, and that infernal contraption isn't always as cooperative as the nice man at the Apple store promised it would be:
So here in this group shot we have from left to right, top to bottom the following ships and their makers:
First Row:
1) Silent Death: The Next Millennium (SD:TNM) Stingray class
warhound (escort).
2) SD:TNM Ushas class bulk cruiser.
3) SD:TNM Saladin class escort carrier.
4) Irregular Miniatures (UK) Hunter class scout.
Second Row:
5) SD:TNM Eagle class gunboat.
6) Reviresco Amazon Needle Ship with auxiliary drive pod.
7) Reviresco Amazon Needle Ship with assault pod.
8) Reviresco Federation Light Cruiser (on the Reviresco website
the Federation frigate and light cruiser photos have been
swapped, so caveat emptor!). This one has been painted to act
as a stand in for a House Tokugawa light gunboat in SD:TNM.
9) Reviresco Federation Battlecruiser. This too has been repainted
to serve as a proxy for a House Tokugawa heavy gunboat in
SD:TNM.
10) Monday Knight Productions Entomalian Mantis class
battleship. Also of late 1970s vintage, this ship and its
counterparts were originally made by Superior Miniatures.
After a number of years out of circulation, Monday Knight
Productions brought them back to us thanks to the efforts of
Mr. Bill Char of Hawaii, to whom many scores of starship
gaming fanatics such as myself are eternally grateful!
Third Row:
11) SD:TNM Djinn class heavy fighter.
12) SD:TNM Stinger class light strike fighter.
13 - 15) A trio of Reviresco Rep-Com Armed Merchants. This is a
super handy generic cargo ship suitable for Traveller
RPGs or convoy scenarios for Full Thrust or SD:TNM in
equal measure. Here's a closeup shot of the Rep-Com
Armed Merchants painted up as House Red Star proxies
for SD:TNM:
The other two miniatures are (left) the Chupacabra light fighter and (right) the aforementioned Djinn heavy fighter from SD:TNM.
Continuing the countdown, here is the original group shot for reference again:
Bottom Row:
16) SD:TNM Jii medium fighter.
17) SD:TNM Chupacabra light fighter.
18) SD:TNM Night Brood Manta heavy fighter.
19) SD:TNM Night Brood Tiger Moth fighter.
20) SD:TNM Night Brood Shaggai light fighter
21) SD:TNM Death Wind medium fighter.
22) SD:TNM Havok class medium fighter.
Now for some closeups:
The last photo in this group includes the Sigurd Archdiocese Longboat from SD:TNM, and yes, it is essentially what you get when a starship crosses with a Viking longboat…
One last closeup comparison, the two variants of the Amazon Needle Ships confronting the Night Brood bioships from SD:TNM:
So hopefully this quick and dirty blog entry will help anyone who is wondering how the classic starship miniatures from the earliest days of science fiction miniature wargaming compare to more modern offerings. I promise I'll have another crack at our storage unit from Hell to see if I can locate my GZG ships for some more comparison shots. In the mean time, the bright yellow Entomalian Mantis-class battleship is mounted on a Geo-Hex movement base for Full Thrust, and as Geo-Hex was once upon a time the U.S. licensee for GZGs Full Thrust line, the bases were designed for GZG ships from the get-go, so those of you who have examples of the Geo-Hex bases should have a very clear idea by now as to the size and proportions of the vintage starship miniatures from the classic Starguard! game universe.
The Force is definitely with you.
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