This is my first Armada related video. I finally broke down and ordered a few Mel's ships from shapeways. I went small to check out the quality before I tried something bigger. This is an unboxing and comparison video of that order.

Thanks! That was an enlightening video. I've wanted to order some stuff from Mel's for a while but have never gotten round to it. But you've convinced me to get FUD if I do.

How long did it take between placing your order and delivery?

I'd love to see the final versions when they're painted!

Thanks for posting this (I couldn't hear it until now). That is extremelly ilustrative and detailed. Material descriptions, size comparison, the functionality of the pegs. Everything. I hope you enjoy painting those and I can't wait to see them.

3 hours ago, ElSee said:

How long did it take between placing your order and delivery?

I'd love to see the final versions when they're painted!

The web site lets you track through production, it was quite fast...

Shipping was also very fast but that comes with the qualification that these were produced on Long Island New York and I live just outside Boston Massachusetts so they didn't have to go far.

I'll definitely let everyone know how the painting goes. Hopefully I will get some time this week to do that.

That's nice and quick. I presume it would ship to the U.K. I'll start a collection for FUD models ?

if you're in UK it will be printed in the Netherlands and sent from there

depending on what you order, it can be 2 or 3 weeks to go to shipping due to printing time. (2 weeks for the Executor in WSF)

my yesterday order is scheduled to be shipped on October, 3rd; travel time is usually 2 days to my place

This was a great reference, thank you for posting this!

This video was really helpful. I've been on the fence about buying from mels (I've been eyeing that SSD), I think I may check out a few models once I get some extra cash. @melminiatures , any chance there's a harrower class dreadnought in the works?

There is... but I wanted to do something a bit smaller after the Kandosii and the Resurgent.

Here is part 2 of my series on these models. In this video I discuss some of the issues I had washing the models and we get to priming all the models and getting a base coat of paint on the Gozanti's. Sorry in advance for all the exposure the back of my hand gets. I will be changing the camera angle for the next video.

The next video I will do a little bit of detail painting on the Gozanti's, apply shading, dry brush, and seal the models.

Future video's will feature painting the C-ROC and the Hammerhead.

17 hours ago, Darth Sanguis said:

This video was really helpful. I've been on the fence about buying from mels (I've been eyeing that SSD), I think I may check out a few models once I get some extra cash. @melminiatures , any chance there's a harrower class dreadnought in the works?

I've never had any problems with anything from @melminiatures . I got a Far Star that wasn't printed right but shapeways sent me a new one right away. I really can't recommend Mel's creations enough.

Nice vid man -do they still make those paint pots so they seem custom-made to dry out at citadel? Those At-At gozantis look sweeeeet, but i think im gonna convert my own gozantis instead of getting those from Mels..

9 hours ago, Velthelm said:

Nice vid man -do they still make those paint pots so they seem custom-made to dry out at citadel? Those At-At gozantis look sweeeeet, but i think im gonna convert my own gozantis instead of getting those from Mels..

Well the Citadel paints do tend to dry out on the edges of the lid. Every once in a while I have to dig it out with an knife or something to make sure it seals. I generally like the Citadel paints I just am very careful buying new bottles because in some stores you never know how long the paint has been sitting there.

I was originally eyeing the AT-AT Gozanti's but I decided they were not very thematic for the game even though they look great. I don't think you would see those flying around during a big space battle, they would be for landing strike teams for a ground assault either after "space" superiority had been established or if there was no resistance.

As for converting your own, not sure how you will manage that, I would love to see it. For the smaller Mel Miniatures, the cost is very reasonable and I would just order from his store if something met my needs. The larger models, the price spikes pretty quick. I would love to get the Lucrehulk Star Destroyer but at nearly $250 it makes it a tough sell.

https://www.shapeways.com/product/JFVCU2E4T/armada-lucrehulk-star-destroyer?optionId=61661142

I assume the price is so high because of the amount of material involved and you just can't hollow much of that out.

I am looking for a larger model to try out next but I am having a hard time deciding.

I finished up the Gozanti's and uploaded a video that includes some detail painting, Shading/Wash, and Finishing.

I hope to get to work on the Hammerhead and the C-ROC soon. Those videos will be shorter as I won't be repeating all my commentary in every video. I will just highlight things unique to each model. I would like to do the Hammerhead first but I need to buy some paint for the base coat first so I may go for the C-ROC next. We shall see.

Overall I am very happy with Mel Miniatures, I don't have any reason to say not go for it. While the Hammerhead had some cleaning issues it does look like it should paint up well after priming.

Nice one! These turned out really nice, and look great alongside the FFG ones! Love that these work so great as a Comm's Net model!

Look forward to seeing your others!

Amazing. Thanks for the extemely detailed series. With your paintjob those Gozantis look exactly like the official ones.

Im looking through my bits box, pinning the antennae would be neccesary to prevent the dishes from snapping off, i imagine. Yours look absolutely lovely man.

Those are some sweet looking AE-35 units. Be careful though. IG-88 can't handle when they go wrong.

I have put up a C-ROC painting video. This is highly edited and speads through things so I can paint the whole thing in about 12 minutes. Just seeing how short I can make the videos and not lose too much.

Wonderful paintjob as always One question for all of you:

The C-ROC Gozanti and the Civilian Gozanti models were done before FFG released the Gozanti and they have slightly different proportions and details. Would you prefer I redid them to look like the FFG one or leave it as their own ships?

55 minutes ago, melminiatures said:

Wonderful paintjob as always One question for all of you:

The C-ROC Gozanti and the Civilian Gozanti models were done before FFG released the Gozanti and they have slightly different proportions and details. Would you prefer I redid them to look like the FFG one or leave it as their own ships?

I don't have the C-ROC but I do have the civilian one and I like it being noticeably different.

3 hours ago, melminiatures said:

Wonderful paintjob as always One question for all of you:

The C-ROC Gozanti and the Civilian Gozanti models were done before FFG released the Gozanti and they have slightly different proportions and details. Would you prefer I redid them to look like the FFG one or leave it as their own ships?

I have the Civilian one on my want list. I like the differences, just like differences between modern Military Vehicles and Civilian Vehicles. I kind of like your C-ROC, it is long and sleek where if it were proportioned more like the FFG X-Wing C-ROC it would be more short and stought. I want the Civilian one as well because I think it will look good flying next to the C-ROC.

It is a tough call though and a personal preference I guess. Sometimes scale is really hard to figure out with Star Wars, especially stuff that has limited screen time.

This is the last of the models that I opened in the original box opening that started this thread so this is probably my last video in this thread. Any future Mel Miniature purchases will likely get their own thread.

This is for the Combat Hammerhead. I just want to say that I really like this model. I was a little worried about some of the details after opening but after lots of cleaning all the details came out. If you get really close there are some printer lines noticable in a few spots, mostly on the underside of the model but honestly during play or just casually looking at the model they are unnoticable.

Turned out very nicely mate!