UVS - 5PFH: Tactics: A painted figure 01/09/2025

[Ultravanillasmurf]

I'd guessed! 
Just looking around for other races - Etsy used to do a set of sci-fi Vargr but I can only find the fantasy ones now. Khurasan and Elheim both do 28mm 'cat-like' aliens which could be useful but not much else out there for non-humans or aliens.

The link for "official" miniatures goes to a generic modiphius page.
Anvil have Avian figures, but sans wings.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

I do have some Anvil robots (Regiments and Exo-lord size) which might work as Souless with alternative rifles (fletchette?).

[Psychopomp]

I do have some Anvil robots (Regiments and Exo-lord size) which might work as Souless with alternative rifles (fletchette?).

I can't decide if I like Anvil robots or Mantic Asterian Marionettes more as Soulless.  I mean, I can print the one and have a few sprues of the other, so I'll probably use one for Soulless and the other for warbots in 5Parsecs.

[Rick]

I've got a load of Legion battledroids I bought then decided not to play. I thought about using them as the Soulless but I do like the Asterian robots and those you showed from Anvil. Oh decisions, decisions. 

[zemjw]

For other races

I converted a bunch of Frostgrave gnolls last year - https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=144260.0

Mantic do space dwarves and veermyn (space skaven)

Have a look around checkpoint models, as they usually have some good items.

[aliensurfer]

There's been more developments, recently.

Hasslefree was one of the companies whose webstore was hosted on the server that went down last year, affecting a lot of companies.  Unlike the other companies, Hasslefree's webstore never came back up.  There's just been a placeholder message promising they'll be back 'next month' for a year, followed by a recent update saying pretty much the same thing but also promising big news 'soon'.

The company the owners set up for Hasslefree, Black and White Games, LTD; was forcibly dissolved by HMRC back in May.  No details on why, but there was an appeal and denial, so its unlikely to be something as simple as a late filing.  The owners stood up a new company, HF Minis, LTD, a few days thereafter.

No one outside the company is sure what's going on, but SOMETHING is.  The above information is only known because the Kickstarter backers (who haven't seen the Pledge Manager open yet, despite it being promised 'next month' two years ago) have been following the company info as best they can to try and figure out if they'll ever get the stuff they paid for.



So, I'm not doing this to be mean to the owners, or to derail the thread.  This is a big, practical 'buyer beware' message from someone who has been burned and managed, after three years, to finally get a refund.

Every single time Hasslefree comes up over the last few years, it's followed a cycle, usually after the yearly "I'm back, I was sick, and I have a plan this time and email me if we owe you something, in the meantime here's a sale!" update: someone has had issues getting an order, in part or in whole, that they paid for, then get ghosted for months to years when they try to contact customer service. 

Then a few people chime in to say they got their last order just fine, Sally and Dameon are lovely people, and the illnesses besetting them are tragic.  Then a few people, encouraged by the latter, make orders and say they arrived quickly and with no problem.  Then, after the excitement of the sale has worn off and the thread has fallen off a bit, several more people start posting that their order, or some of the items in their order, from the sale never arrived, and no one's responding to their emails - then they ask what should they do?

The ratio of happy customers to ghosted customers without product has been getting markedly worse over the last few years, and now there's been no movement of a decent-sized Kickstarter for three years and no webstore for a year.  I'm sure Sally and Dameon ARE lovely people - when I finally got a response, Dameon was very nice, yes.  Their illnesses are indeed tragic, I agree.  However, these things do not change the basic facts on the ground - Hasslefree has been very unreliable for years.  If you get your order in full, amazing.  However, any purchase you make is gambling that will happen.  Their customers can and do fall in the cracks of their unreliability, and it is incredibly and increasingly difficult to get ahold of anyone to make good on it.

Now there's company regulatory issues going on in the background.  If the webstore does come back up, I strongly advise not to order from it until the company is under new management.  Regardless if intentional or not, regardless of other circumstances, as a business the current owners are highly unreliable.

Caveat emptor.  Buyer beware.

Can't say too much but this is definitely not down to Sally (the issues).

[Rick]

No, it won't be and Psychopomp's description, whilst he may be 100% sincere, doesn't fit with what I've seen of them and the company.

Of course, now that Kev's working for Forgeworld, he'll be under EXCLUSIVE contract, meaning he can't have anything to do with another figure company, nor do any sculpts for another figure company. Even his own! Which probably meant a load of fun and games with Companies House as they had to take Kev's name off the list of directors (and I think there has to be a minimum of 3 - so Sally, Dameon and ?).

[hubbabubba]

I'm tempted by this version of parsecs, it'd be nice to play some bigger platoon scale games after so
 much squad sized skirmish stuff over the last few years, but I'm also tempted by galactic heroes bigger battles.

Anyone who's played both care to compare and contrast the experience.

No, it won't be and Psychopomp's description, whilst he may be 100% sincere, doesn't fit with what I've seen of them and the company.

Of course, now that Kev's working for Forgeworld, he'll be under EXCLUSIVE contract, meaning he can't have anything to do with another figure company, nor do any sculpts for another figure company. Even his own! Which probably meant a load of fun and games with Companies House as they had to take Kev's name off the list of directors (and I think there has to be a minimum of 3 - so Sally, Dameon and ?).

I don't know either Sally or Damon personally, but I do know that I'd bought from them regularly for years, and the service was always top notch, until Damon got involved.

Damon had a reputation for inconsistency way back when, before he even got involved  with Hasslefree. It was a running joke on Frothers that his store was closed more often than it was open.

Now I wish them no ill will, but they are not my friends and they are running a business. They may have personal or health issues but at the end of the day, they are not my  friends, they are running a business, and if they can't fulfill their obligations they have no business taking people's money. End of story.

It's a shame because KW is a great sculptor and has produced some wonderful minis, but Damon has run the company into the ground.

[Rick]

It might help if you had actually got his name right - Dameon not 'Damon', as in Dameon Craig Reynolds - if you can't get the details right, people will assume you've got everything wrong in your post. Just a friendly heads up, not a criticism.

Now we've really derailed this thread long enough - I only mentioned the company because the figures I was using were from them, sheesh! 
From now on, just 5PFH: Tactics on here, if you want to discuss the company in detail (real, imagined or malicious) then we can do that in a post on the General Wargames Discussion, not here.

So, as an update, I've managed to sort out 3 squads and then changed my mind slightly, I'm going to use these as Infantry with different ones as Recon and the helmeted ones as Assault. That seems to make sense in my head at any rate. I may now have to post pics.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

I may now have to post pics.

Yes please.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

I received my parcel from Anvil yesterday - seven day turnaround on POD items is half the expected time.

Only the autocannon is relevant to this thread (the rest are Zone Marauders which will end up in TWD:AOW or Zona Alfa - more distractions).

[Rick]

7 days IS very quick for printed models - but then someone the size of Anvil may well have some (at least the more popular sellers) already cast up. Autocannon eh? I may need some weapon teams sorted out.

And, possibly, a white long-haired cat! 

[the commissar]

Just ordered these from North Star and looking forward to a read - and coming up with a few new units (hopefully from the lead pile 😀)

[Rick]

Just ordered these from North Star and looking forward to a read - and coming up with a few new units (hopefully from the lead pile 😀)

It looks good - took me a while to get the hang of where everything was in the book (jumping from 'Rules' to 'Army Builder' to 'Weapon Tables') but I think I've got the hang of it now.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

It looks good - took me a while to get the hang of where everything was in the book (jumping from 'Rules' to 'Army Builder' to 'Weapon Tables') but I think I've got the hang of it now.

Yes, the suggestion of unit cards (real or virtual) in the book is a good one.

There does not appear to be a quick reference sheet in the book.