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Frequently Asked Questions

Licensing

JRDF have worked with CIG on numerous projects over the last five years and are proud to be an official licensed vendor for merchandise.

Are your products official?

TLDR: Yes. These products are made by JR Design & Fabrication Ltd. with permission by Cloud Imperium Rights LLC and Cloud Imperium Rights Ltd.

JR Design & Fabrication are an approved Star Citizen vendor and have a licensing agreement to produce props, furniture and kit models from the Star Citizen universe. All products are licensed on an individual basis. Products are made and distributed by JR Design & Fabrication Ltd. with permission from Cloud Imperium Rights LLC. and Cloud Imperium Rights Ltd.

Any enquiries or fulfilment concerns regarding your purchases should be directed to JR Design & Fabrication Ltd., and none of the Cloud Imperium or Roberts Space Industries entities have any responsibility in this regard.

Why aren't your products on the Star Citizen merchandise page?

Firstly, because the back end integration required for the RSI website to communicate with the JRDF very old school fulfillment centre (hand packed by JR/Kals) is time consuming and we'd rather they concentrate on building the #BDSSE. We do have got a presence on the RSI site though :)

And secondly we're a licensee. We're not part of CIG. You don't see Gentle Giant models for sale on Disney's website. We wouldnt expect our proiducts to be on sale on RSI website.

Will you sell/upload the stl files?
  • TLDR: Nope.

We put 100+ hours into the research, design and development for each and every kit model to bring you amazing quality and highly detailed model kits. We are huge fans of the Star Citizen project, but we are a commercial business, albeit a small one, trying to be successful so we can bring you even more amazing kit models.

Finally, to upload those files breaches our agreement with CIG, and we believe our attention to detail and hard work speak for themselves. Check out the Fan Kit for official CIG rules).

Why don’t you produce fully built and painted models?
  • TLDR: Because that's not what our licence agreement is for.

The licence agreement granted to us from Cloud imperium Games is for scale kit models, not fully painted completed models. To have models built and painted here in the UK would significantly increase costs which we try and keep it as low as practical.

Having models built and painted abroad is NOT something we are interested in, we are proud of our MADE IN BRITAIN accreditation and perhaps most importantly we are makers, and in this instance we are making kit models. Why not try a new hobby?

However, should you wish to have your kit sent to a model painter for them to build and paint, what a great idea. Check out our team page for our favourite Model Painters who all take private commissions.

Do CIG see a finished model for sign off on it before you can sell it?
  • TLDR: Yes.

The licensing process is a thorough one. Once the design process is complete, a prototype model is sent to the appropriate development team for sign off, ships to ships, weapons to weapons, characters to characters, props to props etc. Artwork goes to Art and a final sample is sent to the merchandise department for final sign off before a kit goes on sale to the public.

This ensures that your model is as accurate as possible.

Could you produce models for another gaming company if you wanted to?

Yes. We are not restricted by a non-compete with Cloud Imperium Rights and we continue to explore all avenues for our companies growth and development.

Products

A summary of the product range?

Why do you 3D print your kit models?
  • TLDR: We choose high fidelity SLA 3D printing because it allows us to get incredible detail in lower quantities than traditional model making.

We, thats you and us, know that Star Citizen is incredible, and will continue to go from strength to strength but the whole community is relatively small in number.  With "only" 2.5M accounts worldwide, the potential market for a Model Kit, which is a relatively niche product in itself, is nowhere near the numbers required to mass produce Kit Models (mass production methods such as injection moulding only become viable above 50,000 units) and we're just not there.

With that in mind, we made the decision to produce the highest qualitynumbered kits, here in the UK, at our own facility, in limited edition runs of only 500 per model. 

(There's a series of blog posts to follow on this one.)

Why have you chosen 1:40, 1:100, 1:200 and 1:500 for your scales?

We want people to be able to display their completed Model Kits however they want to.  For some people thats on a stand in a display cabinet. For others thats in a full on diorama setting with other ships/people/crates surrounded by mountains/rivers and flora/fauna.

The former means that you need to have the ships at a size that allows you to see the detail and with ships ranging from the Origin X1 Force at 5.5m to the Aegis Javelin at 480m we needed to set pretty big jumps for those scales.  

For those that wanted the dioramas we needed to look at what people might display with each other. So ground vehicles, fighters, capital ship battles etc.

We'd like to do everything in at least one scale, usually the biggest first and then whatever smaller ones make sense.  Thats the plan.  Stay with us on the adventure and we'll see where we get to.

How do you choose your Model Kits?
  • TLDR: By listening to what our community tell us they want.

Let us start by asking you a question: What's your favourite ship? Now ask your mate. And another mate. And another? You've got two, three, maybe even four different ships. "I want a Kraken." "I want a Carrack." "I want a Javelin." "I want a Cutlass Black." "I want a 890 Jump." "I want an Aurora". The list goes on, and on, and on. And thats one of the many amazing things about Star Citizen. We all love our own little corner of it.

There are nearly 150 different ships and vehicles in the verse and everybody has their favourite. So with that in mind, we look at whats popular, what we can do brilliantly with the current technology available to us, what is flight ready, whats in game and what's unlikely to have a rework from CIG. Then we start the R&D process.

The R&D journey is a long one, and after licensing, design, manufacture and approval it can take a year to get a product on the shelf and ready for sale. Rest assured, we are working hard and there are some very exciting model kits and diorama pieces in pipeline.

Finally, no, we can't tell you whats next but if you sign up for our newsletter or join the discord server, you'll be asked in our next poll. Alternatively drop us a line and tell us what Model Kit you want, we love to hear from you.

What ships are you doing next?
  • TLDR: We won't tell you that until its ready for sale.

We don't do concept (or pre-sale) anymore. When we tell you what's next, it'll be flight ready and available to ship the very next day. What we can tell you is that the R&D process is a long one and at any one time we could be working on upwards of a dozen different Model Kits, Diorama Kits or Accessory Kits.

But please get in touch, let us know your favourite ship and we'll add it to the ever growing list. You could also fill out our survey form and help us narrow down our choices even further. :)

Why do your products cost so much?
  • TLDR: If you compare like for like; consider the limited nature and niche demand; we are far more a “ForgeWorld” than a “Mattel”.

We are a small UK company, passionate about Star Citizen and its community. We are determined to make the best damn Star Citizen merchandise possible, and we manufacture as much as we can in-house rather than out-sourcing it to suppliers abroad. This means that our labour and material costs are higher compared with other more commonly used manufacturing countries but we genuinely believe the quality of the products we manufacture is worth it.

Our products are lovingly designed, manufactured and packaged here in the UK, and we hope that our love for the project comes through in the fidelity of what we produce for you.

Why should I buy your models when I could just print my own?
  • TLDR: Crack on, we geniunely can't wait to see what you create :)

We love the creativity within the community (two of our designers were well known for their Star Citizen 3D printed ships before working for us) and we actively encourage you to put the hours in and create your own fan projects.

We spend 100+hrs per model on the design and then the same again in test prints to check for fit and detail, so we know there is no quick fix of a Star Citizen model that gets anything close to the detail we draw into our products.

If you need any help with your projects, we have our own discord group of Star Citizen makers to help you along.

Help! I broke a piece. Do I need to buy a whole new kit?
  • TLDR: Nope :)

We know that these things happen so you can now easily order a broken piece and get it shipped to you. Take a look at our spare parts collection, pick your model and then let us know which number piece you need. Simple as.

What supplies do I need?

Glues

We recommend a good superglue gels, we swear by loctite or gorilla superglue. The gels are that little bit less liquidy so easy to work with. But please note that these are not injection moulded so "cement" from other manufacturers does not attach your pieces together.

Snippy things

A good scalpel/knife, (don't be afraid to replace the blades regularly, you'll appreciate it).
And a good pair of flush cut snips.  

For advice on putting your kit together, check out our tutorials.

Delivery & Shipping

All of our kits and dioramas are shipped from our highly technical and fully mechanised fulfillment centre* in Scotland, UK.
* Disclaimer: This assumes that JR and Kals are robots, as everything is packed by hand and includes a hand written thank you note.

How much does shipping cost?

Shipping costs are based on the weight of your order, as well as its final destination.  

Every kit weight varies, but as a rough guide small box kit models are around 700g and large box kit models are 1.1kg.

UK

  • Dioramas - Free
  • Kit Models (up to 2kg) - £4

The EU

  • Dioramas - £8
  • 0.5-2kg - £15
  • Over 2kg - £20

Rest of Earth*

  • Dioramas - £12.50
  • 0.5-2kg - £19
  • 2-4kg - £38
  • Over 4kg - £54

Rest of Verse
Please email hello@jrfabrication.co.uk for our latest intergalactic prices.

*Rest of Earth does not include China or Russia.

Where do you ship to?

Using our trusted network of UEE approved haulers we ship throughout the verse.

Unfortunately due to recent worldwide events, we have suspended all missions to Russia and China as our hauliers have made it increasing difficult to safely transport items to these locations.

What if I want to return my Model Kit?

If, for any reason you are not completely happy with your purchase, please contact us on hello@jrfabrication.co.uk and we will do everything we can to rectify the situation.

Did we miss your question?

If we haven't answered your question, please get in touch and we will get back to you as soon as possible. 

Get in touch

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