Re: assemblying FT minis

> From: 	 devans@uneb.edu
> To:		 gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
> Date: 	 Tue, 16 Feb 1999 10:43:30 -0600
> Subject:	 Re: assemblying FT minis
> Reply-to:	 gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU

> I have been unwavering of my praise of KR for taking the license,
suppling GZG
> to the US, his excellent support, here and for cons, of GZG products,
and am
> still quite taken with his own delightful gaming mats, but must admit
having had
> a concern as to the quality of cast myself.
> 
We have JUST taken over production of the lines here at Geo-Hex, but 
have yet to produce any figures (waiting for metal to arrive!!).  
Since the inception of the license all of the FT ships have been made 
under contract by a third party molder.  Unlike the Stargrunt figures 
and the DSM line, the molds were NOT made by Brian Hitsman of 
Majestic, but by the third party molder.  We relied on their stated 
expertise in doing microscale minis, and to be quite frank they did a 
more than adequate job in the beginning and helped us get the line 
out to stores and hobbyists quickly.  But QC concerns became a major 
point after awhile, and were never ironed out (one reason we switched 
to using a professional mold maker for later lines).  

Now that we have the lines in-house, we hope to address those 
concerns and make some changes to packaging and quantity per pack.  
It has been decided to remold and rework each item as the molds 
require replacing.  To that end we are going to inspect all 
production masters in inventory as soon as possible.  I suspect that 
many of the problems stem from poor production masters and not from 
poor molding.  We will not remake another mold from masters we feel 
are inadequate.  Having said that I must state that the overwhelming 
majority of the pieces cast properly and give a very nice model in my 
opinion - and I've personally made them all!!

The second change will be to go to plastic base stands for the smaller 
models in the lines, both to reduce costs and to allow the extra 
model in the packs.  This way we hope to put two of every cruiser in 
a pack and perhaps four scouts and frigates.  The new base is a flat 
hexagon slotta base with a unique "T-Bar" post that is much stronger 
than the flight stands currently on the market.  We will for the near 
future keep the heavy pewter flight stand for the larger ships, 
although we plan to replace it eventually.

You should see the new models in new packaging in stores and through 
mail order beginning in March.	Since QC remains an issue we welcome 
your feedback so we can fine tune the line to produce the best ships 
we can.

Thanks,

KR, Geo-Hex