Birds of Prey Miniatures: We are pleased to announce the pre-order process for 1:350 scale miniatures for Birds of Prey. We will be taking pre-orders for these in waves of four jets at a time. The first four are:
- F-14 Tomcat
(two per pack)
- F-5 Tiger II
(four per pack)
- F-86 Sabre
(four per pack)
- MiG-15 Fagot
(four per pack)
Our miniatures are created through a rapid prototyping process where we consistently get details as fine as a 0.3 millimeters to show up on our spacecraft minis. The detail you see on the rendered images is the detail you should see on the finished miniatures.
Some of these jets will likely be multi-part castings and take a bit of glue
to assemble.
How do pre-orders work?
Each blister has a price of $17.95. When the total number of blisters pre-ordered hits 250 (whether that's 160 F-14s, 30 F-15s, 30 F-86s, and 30 MiGs; 63 of each; or whatever combination), we'll get the ball rolling on production.
People who commit to the pre-order price get a 10% discount on the cost of
the miniatures, and get to know they're helping put these in production.
In general, going from "hit the preorder threshold" to "take orders on the shopping cart" will be 1-3 months. Once we take orders on the shopping cart, the lead time ranges from six weeks, if the stars align properly, to twelve weeks if Reaper Miniatures is backed up on production, or if a master needs to be re-done.
Why 1:350 scale?
First, so that our jets will be compatible with the aeronautical diorama
community, who use the 1:350 scale as their standard for naval and fighting
aircraft displays.
Second, because we've seen enough jets at "just about" 1:300 to 1:285 scale to know that that's a crowded niche, and the scaling is rarely consistent—even on miniatures from the same manufacturer. Within the limits of metal shrinkage, our miniatures will be in scale to each other and to their real world counterparts. (The wings and other thin, flat surfaces will be exaggerated compared to the real world planes to make them survive casting.)
Third, because they're the right size for the hexes most commonly used for
Birds of Prey: Air Combat in the Jet Age, large enough to show a lot of
detail, and small enough to work with our magnetic flight basing system.
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