originally posted to rec.games.miniatures.misc on September 26, 1999
After much procrastination, I finally decided to order a handful of the new Tripods and Martian Invaders (and a few other things) from Studio Bergstrom.
First off, I have to say I was very pleased with the service I received. For basically a one-man affair, he was very helpful and responsive to my email questions. He was good enough to let me know when my check arrived, then email again when the order shipped. It took less than 10 days from start to finish, including waiting for my check to clear.
I ordered a half dozen each of the Tripods and Invaders, as well as a few of the 'Giger' ships.
The sculpting is pretty good. Nothing spectacular, but then again, there isn't much detail here that needs to be replicated. The tripods are much closer in style to the invaders from the movie (sleekness of the lines, etc.) than they are to the book cover illustration.
Casting was much better than I had expected. I wasn't sure about this "tumble bright finish" he mentioned on the web page, but it didn't hurt the detail at all and did saved me a lot of work with a file. Mold lines were present but easily cleaned off. One word of warning, the alloy he uses is extremely hard! I almost broke my drill bit trying to drill a hole for the flight base. On the plus side, the relatively thin necks of the invaders were not damaged in shipping and look very sturdy.
A final note on the castings. The tripod legs were not cast in pewter. Instead, they are pins soldered into the body exactly like his prototype. I actually prefer this, he did a neat job of soldering them and they are much stronger than pewter legs would be.
Anyway, that's about it for my sort-of review. I was lucky this weekend in that I had not only enough time to paint, but also enough time to rent a copy of _The War of the Worlds_ for reference. I decided to paint them both in the same style. (closer to the movie than the book cover)
Update 2-8-00 Giger counters
While I didn't include a review of them with my original posting, I did paint one of the three Giger ships shortly afterwards. Overall I was as pleased with that ship as I was with the war machines. The detail is good, and very "organic looking" as well as close to the original subject matter. The only major difference is the little "bump" on the top of the ship. On the Bergstrom model, this was recessed and rather smaller then it should have been. I remedied that minor problem with a little putty.
Update 1-11-01 Questian, White Dwarf and Royal starships
A while back I placed another order for some of their newer ships. I painted them almost immediately, but never got around to adding them to this review.
Three ships of note were the Questian, White Dwarf and Royal starships. All three were as faithful to the "inspiration" as the earlier models.
The Questian ship was the only one that needed any work. I modified the bridge area a bit with a little putty and built up some detail on the top of the engines. Both of these repairs were more nit-picky than anything else. I painted it solid white (a lot of thin coats for a smooth finish) then picked out the details in greys and blues. The decals were drawn with Corel Draw and printed on an ALPS printer.
The White Dwarf was painted with little modification. If I remember correctly there was a little casting problem in the rear fins that needed a little knife and file work. This one took the longest to paint, with all the little blotches here and there.
Of the three, the Royal Starship was certainly the easiest to paint. All I did was polish it to a nice sheen with my dremel and inked the windows black. The pewter used for these castings took the polish quite well, and I think would have looked even better if I had done the job properly.
Once again, I am very pleased with these ships. They aren't perfectly accurate, but there's no mistaking what they are supposed to be. Service as usual was prompt and polite and the prices can't be beat. I can still highly recommend Studio Bergstrom if you're looking to build either a few custom ships or a large inexpensive fleet.