New Congo Range?

[marco55]

Maybe.   https://www.facebook.com/groups/Congo.Adventures.In.The.Heart.Of.Africa/?multi_permalinks=3356728617722625%2C3354229141305906%2C3347430758652411%2C3344333312295489%2C3341953592533461&notif_id=1592741614771486&notif_t=group_activity&ref=notif
Mark

[Captain Blood]

Hmmm. Well, given that ‘Darkest Africa’ is well served by Copplestone’s enormous range for Foundry (which established the scramble for Africa as an identifiable wargames genre, 20+ years ago), his own brand ‘DA’ range, and also the extensive North Star Africa range, a new line of figures would have to be an improvement on those excellent ranges to tempt me. And on the basis of the pics shown so far on Facebook - they’re not. Not terrible, but not as good either. Seems a little late in the day to be climbing onto this particular bandwagon with a ‘me too’ range*. Ah well, perhaps they will be doing some unique tribes or troop types not already catered for. Perhaps...

* Particularly given Pontoonier Miniatures stated aim:

"Pontoonier Miniatures is a new company started with the intention of covering periods that other manufacturers do not! Pontoonier intends to cover the neglected periods in 28mm."

How many Darkest Africa figures are there on the market?
Neglected period it is not.

[Plynkes]

Well, I'm always up for more DA type figures. But they would either have to cover someone I want but can't get without converting, or be better sculpts than Mr. Copplestone does. I have my doubts about the latter as much as Richard.

But I'm not going to turn my nose up at more of this kind of stuff if manufacturers are going to throw them at us. At least it isn't another range of Zulus. 

[Diablo Jon]

More Darkest Africa is always welcome but it needs to be something different to what is already available to get me buying. Copplestone's miniatures are so damned nice that they are a tough act to follow. So if you produce something that Foundry or Copplestone already produce they will have to be damn nice.

So those Force Publique miniatures aren't that interesting to me Foundry already do them and Foundry's are much nicer imo.

The Mangbetu pictured, on the other hand, are something new and interesting. No one makes them (as far as I know) and they would be a different opponent for the Azande, Turkish slavers, Egyptians or for what ifs against the Force Publique or Ansar.

[Dags]

It's a bit sad that brand new figures aren't a patch on ones sculpted 20 years ago.

Alright,  Mark C set a very high bar (especially in the Painter Friendly stakes)  but still....

The Foundry moulds are in good nick - I picked up their Belgians at The Last Ever Wargames Show* and the casting was great so doing some that are not as good is, to me, a bizarre decision unless they're going to very, very cheap


*Hopefully not, obviously,  but it feels a bit like it at the moment

[Diablo Jon]

It's a bit sad that brand new figures aren't a patch on ones sculpted 20 years ago.

Alright,  Mark C set a very high bar (especially in the Painter Friendly stakes)  but still....

The Foundry moulds are in good nick - I picked up their Belgians at The Last Ever Wargames Show* and the casting was great so doing some that are not as good is, to me, a bizarre decision unless they're going to very, very cheap


*Hopefully not, obviously,  but it feels a bit like it at the moment

Only thing I can think of is that Pontoonier Miniatures are a US based company maybe they figure US gamers will plump for them over Foundry etc as all the DA miniature ranges are British made?

[Dags]

Could well be.

Next week's postage hike will certainly help them

[marco55]

Badger Games also sells Foundry's DA range plus others.Badger is a big outfit I guess as they have M&T's first range but haven't produced them as of yet.I looked at some of Pontooner's ranges and wasn't impressed.If their figures look like the photos they put on FB I won't be buying them.Too many good sculpts out there now to get something like these ones.
Mark
 

[Plynkes]

Not especially impressed with those Mangbetu. I have long had a plan to have some of my own, but I still think converting Foundry Azande is a better prospect than those sculpts. Sorry, but they're just not for me.

[Diablo Jon]

Not especially impressed with those Mangbetu. I have long had a plan to have some of my own, but I still think converting Foundry Azande is a better prospect than those sculpts. Sorry, but they're just not for me.

They are certainly cruder than the current market DA figures but not all of us have your conversion skills  . They'd be an option for me I reckon I could paint them better than the ones in the picture provided. Though to be honest I can't see me being done with my British Central Africa project any time soon.

[bazookajoe]

I would have loved to add some new poses to my Force Publique collection (Foundry) but these look a little crude with baseball glove sized hands.  Sorry to be mean.

[Diablo Jon]

I would have loved to add some new poses to my Force Publique collection (Foundry) but these look a little crude with baseball glove sized hands.  Sorry to be mean.

Yeah I wouldn't mix them with the Foundry ones.

[Captain Blood]

I would have loved to add some new poses to my Force Publique collection (Foundry) but these look a little crude with baseball glove sized hands.  Sorry to be mean.

I felt mean making a critical comment too. None of us like criticising. It feels mean spirited in the face of someone’s hard work and creative endeavour. But your point does kind of goes to the heart of it.
Why do wargames miniatures businesses decide to produce a range of figures for a niche genre that is already well served by three or four famously top notch ranges? The only reason to do that would be to bring something manifestly better or different to the market - to justify jumping in with both feet.
So when you see that the quality of sculpting is plainly not as good as those existing ranges from other manufacturers, I just find myself unavoidably having to ask: ‘Why?’
Why bother? It seems an exercise almost doomed to failure.
Unless perhaps they are going to be dirt cheap to appeal to people with limited budgets?
Ah well, ours not to reason why, etc... 

[marco55]

Time will tell.
Mark

http://

[Diablo Jon]

eekk those officers...