QMx LDH - Serenity Maquette

JiminSTLouis

https://store.qmxonline.com/Serenity...e-6_p_152.html

Mechamaniac

Just got that email as well.

I'd like to hold out for something between this and the BDR. Give me one about 12-14" long and it would be perfect. 8" is just a bit too small IMHO.

darthviper107

I like the paint on this more than the larger one, it's more consistent. And more accurate to the source (although since it was low-cost CG in the TV show it wasn't that realistic in the first place)

sycor

Do bad it doesn't light up. Then it would be perfect for me.

darthviper107

That would be very difficult to light up at 8" long

JiminSTLouis

The BDR paint scheme was based on the CG files from the movie.

darthviper107

And they did a terrible job. Take for instance the wall decal, it's a very poor render, without hardly any shadows or reflections, and really shows all the texturing flaws. Along with having a few render bugs (parts showing up black). To be able to view the ship correctly there's extra post processing and composting. If they made renders in the same way and used them for painting reference then it's no wonder they did such a poor job.

The TV version was different since most of the detail was captured in the textures since it couldn't be rendered very realistically due to the budget. And so the textures look pretty good that way and are a good reference for painting.

JiminSTLouis

Well, I'm thrilled with the way mine turned out. I think the paint job looks amazing.

darthviper107

I've built the ship a few times before and so I've pretty much researched as much as I could ever find on it, for $2,500 they just didn't do a good job.

They missed tons of paint details, and for what they did put down they either had too much weathering or not enough. And were a bit lazy with the painting to where they tried to make it so that everything could be masked and airbrushed and it needed finer detail on the markings than that. Not only that but the pipes on the back are all wrong--there's a set of smaller pipes that they skipped, probably since they didn't cast any pipes but rather they cut and bent brass rods into shape and it would have taken too long to do all the pipes. Yet the larger pipes that they did put on they did a crappy job of bending them into shape.
Not only that but the reactor flaps were attached poorly, in some cases where there were to be attached by screws--which is unacceptable. They also had the Firefly version of the bridge rather than the Serenity version--which is accurate to the movie technically. There were parts where you could see inside the bridge but that was a live-action composite, in cases where the interior wasn't highlighted they used a CG model which was just the CG model from the TV show, which is very different from the interior set they built for the movie.

Bryancd

I think fora Franklin that looks great.

Yellowjacket

My wife surprised me the other day when she came home bearing a package from QMx. I didn't expect to ever own one of the maquettes. I certainly couldn't justify buying one right now, since we're as cash poor as we've ever been, but I was touched that she went to the effort of sneaking the purchase for the sake of getting me a Firefly. That's what makes this so bitter sweet.

I love Firefly. It's the only show that I've collected for since my childhood. Something about it just spoke to me when it came out, so I can't begin to explain how underwhelmed I was when I opened the box to reveal my very own little Firefly.

She's darker than I imagined. You have to set her in pretty good lighting to see contrast in the coloring. The windows aren't dark, so the cockpit looks flat. She looks 'boarded up' from the inside. The overall shape and little details are fine, but there's something soulless or dingy about the model that I makes me sad and I don't know why.



It doesn't help that one of the heat exchangers is broken and she's bent out of true in places. A friend of mine bought one and he describes the casting better than I could.

"The bent parts remind me of molding errors in the old Micromachines Star Trek miniatures."



A panel was off right out of the box.



The word 'munged' keeps coming to mind when I try to describe her starboard engine.




I hate that things I should love keep making me feel more sad. I had to put it on the shelf for a few days just to forget about it long enough to figure out why it bothered me.

darthviper107

That's too bad--mine turned out fine although one of the solar panels came off as well, but it wasn't actually broken, just a little glue and it had a peg that fits into a hole on the ship. But the other stuff on yours is really messed up. Definitely contact QMx about getting that replaced.

moffeaton

Their QC is atrocious!!!!!

So sorry it took the wind out of your sails. No one deserves that.

TiberiousST

Mine came with only 1 panel above the shuttle docks, is this correct? My engines are all round (for the most part) and overall I don't see anything broken......but I totally get what you're saying about the boarded up feel. It just isn't alive. It's dark and feels like what it is, a big piece of resin. Solid and soulless. That said, it's probably the only one I'll ever own and I'm glad that I have it.....I just wish some bright idea would come to me on how to breathe life into it. I think it's flat-lined though.

Tib

darthviper107

Yeah, there's only one big solar panel on the left side of the mess hall.

I think maybe because the finish is so flat, rather than looking like metal. It's accurate to the TV though since they couldn't afford to have high render times with material reflections.

Chrisisall

Hey- mine had a similar warp to it, since it's resin, a few minutes with a hair dryer made it *just* soft enough to gently coax back to round. But then a Hot Wheels BTTF car rolled off a shelf & grazed the other side, and shattering ensued. I fixed it easily enough, but watch out, polystone may SEEM like solid resin, but it has some of the properties of porcelain due to the limestone in it.

Also, I concur with the lifeless take. I definitely have to repaint this thing. I'm playing with the idea of just blasting it all an aluminum colour like it's a statue. But more likely I'll go for just touching it up- CERAINLY the windows!!!!



Oh, and one of my solar panels was off as well.

Jedi Dade

To me it looks like a lot of careful weathering in all the nooks and crannies would take that ship to a whole new level and get rid of that "lifeless" feel. A little dirt, rust, exhaust, and a decent slightly off silver/black/gray color wash, and probably just painting the cockpit glass black, would do wonders... it usually does

That out of round engine straight from the factory is completely unacceptable though - contact them and get a replacement...

Jedi Dade

Yellowjacket

I decided to keep my wee little misshapen mid class transport, for two reasons. One, it was a surprise gift from my wife and I was touched that she managed to find the time and money to set aside one for me. Two, the problems with the model are a reminder to me not to be duped by promises and products that seems 'too good to be true'.

The recent problems with another polystone product help supoport this decision.

Chrisisall

Quickie touch up. Will do a more detailed one later.

MwNN

Thank you for the pics and the update.
I am sorry for the lack of quality control of QMx products.
It's a real shame they don't run a tighter ship.

Yellowjacket

"You can bank on the fact that we'll be doing other Serenitys and other sizes with other features, because very clearly it's what the fans want." - Andy Gore, 'Geek Shall Inherit' interview at Wondercon

darthviper107

Well, they had been showing a different version of the BDH replica at last year's comic-con. With a little less detail and no lighting, plus it was landed. Haven't heard anything about that one.