Just wanting to get a feel from the community:

how much do do you think you would pay for a fully lit SSD model (without the cards)? I’m talking flickering engine lights, plenty of fiber lighting throughout (24-36 spots, at least), and maybe a few more bells and whistles. I’m looking to offer some as a side hustle and am wondering if it would be worth it.

Note I’m not asking if you want one, just wondering what people think is a fair price?

Well since an isd goes for around $400 on Etsy, I would say double at $800. Reason is $50 for isd then $350 for the lights and labor. So SSD is $200 and about $600 for lights and labor.

14 hours ago, Admiral Theia said:

Just wanting to get a feel from the community:

how much do do you think you would pay for a fully lit SSD model (without the cards)? I’m talking flickering engine lights, plenty of fiber lighting throughout (24-36 spots, at least), and maybe a few more bells and whistles. I’m looking to offer some as a side hustle and am wondering if it would be worth it.

Do engine lights flicker in Star Wars? I picture them pretty constant.

10 hours ago, Packerman29 said:

Well since an isd goes for around $400 on Etsy, I would say double at $800. Reason is $50 for isd then $350 for the lights and labor. So SSD is $200 and about $600 for lights and labor.

Would the parts and labour costs go up that much? I'd have thought maybe an extra hundred over the cost of parts and labour on the ISD. So $650, according to your figures for what's already on Etsy.

That's a tough call. It really depends on the buyer. For anything over $600 you may as well buy the Korbanth 38" SSD and do a proper light install. Or have one done for you.

Personally, I don't know if the fiber optics would look right for the portholes on FFG's SSD. With it being scaled so small almost any hole you tap will look big.

42 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

That's a tough call. It really depends on the buyer. For anything over $600 you may as well buy the Korbanth 38" SSD and do a proper light install. Or have one done for you.

Personally, I don't know if the fiber optics would look right for the portholes on FFG's SSD. With it being scaled so small almost any hole you tap will look big.

I’ll know better once I get it in my hands and popped open. I have some pretty small drill bits for my Dremel (and there are some 0.1mm bits on Amazon) and some pointed punches that might do the trick.

im thinking 8-12 hours of work, give or take, per SSD, so $25/hr would put it at $200-300 on top of cost (which I get a discount on)

15 minutes ago, Admiral Theia said:

I’ll know better once I get it in my hands and popped open. I have some pretty small drill bits for my Dremel (and there are some 0.1mm bits on Amazon) and some pointed punches that might do the trick.

im thinking 8-12 hours of work, give or take, per SSD, so $25/hr would put it at $200-300 on top of cost (which I get a discount on)

I think $600 is high end, I wouldn't buy one at that cost. Even $500 seems high to me (but I may be biased because I have the tools and skills to do it myself if I wanted to). $400 seems like a solid medium maybe even as high as $450.

The way I see it, that's $150-$175 base cost plus $200-$275 in labor and parts.



But at the end of the day, you'll get what people are willing to pay. Maybe $600 isn't too much for the average Joe.

21 hours ago, Admiral Theia said:

how much do do you think you would pay for a fully lit SSD model (without the cards)?

Without the cards?! $0

Planning on recasting the figure components or something? If you're not recasting and not having the customer send their own SSD, what are you gonna do? Buy SSD packs and throw the cards away or resell the cards separately?


Also, yea an ISD is about $400 to have illuminated. An SSD will not scale linearly, but exponentially (e.g. doesn't the SSD have like four times the engine ports of the ISD?), so I think the going rate for the parts/labor is going to end up costing well over $1,000, and that's assuming the buyer is supplying the $200 miniature to be worked on.

I didnt pay anywhere near that price to have my ISD's lighted by Testa. I think he did mine for $150. Hes doing my SSD because I'm buying his SSD.

Warning: I'm reasonably sure that the SSD is a doomed project for cracking it open and lighting it from the inside. The following is educated supposition based on a close examination of the prototype at Worlds this year (well, as close as one can get through a glass case).

So the rest of FFG's ships don't have lateral seams that cut through the main sections of the hulls. The Super has not one but two lateral seams that cross the entire ship left to right, from top to bottom. At least one crosses the superstructure (I believe both do but I can't find my pictures anymore). What this means is that, as best as can be told from the outside there is either no internal support between the sections to control warping at those seams, or there is significant controls, which will make it *exceedingly* difficult to open if they are as significant as a ship of this size probably warrants, especially on the first one without a detailed set of manufacturing drawings. If you want to attempt this, it would be my personal expectation at least one Super will have to be sacrificed to understand how it's assembled, if it's possible to open it without destroying it, and if it's at all possible to achieve any meaningful quality control reassembling the ship.

Like I led with at the beginning, I don't have manufacturing drawings, and I don't have a sacrificial model I've sliced open to examine. However, those are my observations and my best deductions from those observations. Do with this information what you will.

Life always finds a way.

Based off of what I saw at Gencon last year, I estimated it was going to be about 3x the area to actually light. So without any massive headache working on it, I was estimating ~$1,000-1,200 for it. But thats based on around 1,200 fiber optics as well. I told those who were interested that I'd have a finalized number after I do my own first... But the interest at those prices is really limited.

PS, to the person talking about .1mm drill bits- two comments. 1) No, just no. They break SO FREAKIN EASILY. And 2, I haven't seen FO cable less than .25mm, where are you finding your <.1mm?

This is tough, because I know it's going to be expensive, time consuming, and even risky (breakage) to do this modification. On the other hand, I think $600 is about what I'd spend on it--maybe a little more if it came out really nice, but certainly not more than $800.

I almost feel like you'd find a bigger market and better profit if you charged $300-$350 and did just engine lights, tbh. Not nearly the artisan collector's piece you and @Khyros are talking about with the fully-lit business, but still really nice and a way easier mod to do.

6 hours ago, Ardaedhel said:

This is tough, because I know it's going to be expensive, time consuming, and even risky (breakage) to do this modification. On the other hand, I think $600 is about what I'd spend on it--maybe a little more if it came out really nice, but certainly not more than $800.

I almost feel like you'd find a bigger market and better profit if you charged $300-$350 and did just engine lights, tbh. Not nearly the artisan collector's piece you and @Khyros are talking about with the fully-lit business, but still really nice and a way easier mod to do.

Perhaps, but when I was serious about this as a side business, I was offering ISDs for 400, and just engines for 150. I didn't have a single order for just engines. And that expands to all of the other ships as well... with one exception, every order I had was for every option I offered. And that single exception was because he didn't like the appearance of one option I offered (cockpit on XWM Gozanti).

Again, perhaps it'll be different talking about $500 for engines vs $1000 for everything... but then again, I know how much work goes into doing this, and I still wouldn't pay someone what I charge to do it =P.

On 7/30/2019 at 4:01 PM, GiledPallaeon said:

Warning: I'm reasonably sure that the SSD is a doomed project for cracking it open and lighting it from the inside. The following is educated supposition based on a close examination of the prototype at Worlds this year (well, as close as one can get through a glass case).

So the rest of FFG's ships don't have lateral seams that cut through the main sections of the hulls. The Super has not one but two lateral seams that cross the entire ship left to right, from top to bottom. At least one crosses the superstructure (I believe both do but I can't find my pictures anymore). What this means is that, as best as can be told from the outside there is either no internal support between the sections to control warping at those seams, or there is significant controls, which will make it *exceedingly* difficult to open if they are as significant as a ship of this size probably warrants, especially on the first one without a detailed set of manufacturing drawings. If you want to attempt this, it would be my personal expectation at least one Super will have to be sacrificed to understand how it's assembled, if it's possible to open it without destroying it, and if it's at all possible to achieve any meaningful quality control reassembling the ship.

Like I led with at the beginning, I don't have manufacturing drawings, and I don't have a sacrificial model I've sliced open to examine. However, those are my observations and my best deductions from those observations. Do with this information what you will.

I hope you’re wrong about cracking it open. So far the hardest to do was the AFmkII, but I managed that one

23 hours ago, Admiral Theia said:

I hope you’re wrong about cracking it open. So far the hardest to do was the AFmkII, but I managed that one

Now that I have mine in hand, I have good news and bad news, and I'm not entirely sure where one stops and one starts. The fact of the matter is this: FFG's claims to the contrary, the display model to date must not have been a production model, because the lateral seams prominently present on that prototype are nowhere to be found on the production variant. What appears to have happened is that FFG acquired the deep magicks and was able to actually cast the upper armored hull in a single segment (the deep magicks being a reference to the fact that by the data given to me in my manufacturing classes, this should be impossible .) The upper superstructure is multiple pieces, with no obvious rhyme or reason; the lower superstructure appears to be primarily continuous as well, but clearly has places where it was also assembled prior to being mated to the top (only the rearmost engine bank appears to be part of that mold, the other four are not). So, in summary, you actually might be able to take the Super apart, but you are taking the entire ship apart at once . Good luck.

The base costs of the SSD is so high already, getting people just to pay the base cost is a hard sell. Doing anything additional on top of that, is basically going to be not much more. Just more than a couple of people to dish out $600 is a pipe dream. Going to be one of those, what people are able to pay for it and what it is actually worth are such different numbers it isn't worth doing beyond a few. Yes, the cards must be included at those prices.