Minairons, a new miniatures company

[Hildred Castaigne]

A lovely level of detail on that model kit.
I have to echo what's already been said, a simple to assemble and versatile tank like that in 1/56 would be wonderful!

[CompanyB]

I wonder if the injection molding costs have come down at all.  We looked into it once... The amount of volume we'd have to move was a bit much to make it profitable versus costs.  1/56 Wargames market is still pretty niche.  I sure don't do it to make money, as that would be a difficult task in itself!

Still, if you made the kit modular, so you could get three variants out of the base parts would certainly help.

Panzer IA
Command Panzer I
panzer Jäger I
Panzer 1 Bison

[Stu]

I'm up for 20mm and 28mm.

[Arlequín]

EDIT: I almost feel sorry for this total derailment of what was meant to be the heralding of a new line of toys. Sorry man!

Sshh! Sshh! 

It's good for a just born company to dialogue with gamers --even compulsory, I believe. No matter what you can be told, everything is useful provided there's no aim of offending. So no problem 

Okay talking 15mm... I appreciate that Panzer I, T-26 and L-3 will be the most requested and likely sold items, but trucks, 'Tiznaos' and even aircraft (NiD-52, Breguet XIX, HE-51, CR-32 etc) might be worth considering. The one thing that stops me from entering 15mm is the lack of models outside of the most obvious ones. The new additions to the Peter Pig range look excellent and I could be sold on this if I was reasonably certain there might be an extensive range of vehicles being planned that I could use with them.

As for 28mm, the Spanish Civil War has two quite extensive ranges of figures (Force of Arms and Empress), FoA also having a quite reasonable range of vehicles too. Judging by the response here, more are wanted!
 

I wonder if the injection molding costs have come down at all.  We looked into it once... The amount of volume we'd have to move was a bit much to make it profitable versus costs.  1/56 Wargames market is still pretty niche.  I sure don't do it to make money, as that would be a difficult task in itself!

It's a difficult call... resin is obviously far cheaper to set up and produce (save the cost of the resin used) than plastic. Which is of course quite an investment in money to produce stuff for what is still a niche scale. I know the profit on resin models is slight, but I also know that I'll never be able to buy as many of them as I'd wish to.

From a customer's point of view though, the inhibiting factor for 28mm is the cost per model. I could justify buying one (possibly two) resin models of a type, but never the three or four I dream of owning, yet I could (possibly) buy the three or four models I desire, in plastic, at the same price(-ish) as one resin model.

I've lost count of the demo games I've seen where there's a lonely and lost looking single vehicle on the table in 28mm, while in 20mm and 15mm the tables are crammed with vehicles... while ground scale to table size is a factor, so is the price of the models (however fairly priced) themselves.   

[Hildred Castaigne]

By the way I quite like the tracks on these models.
There's no greater nuisance when assembling a tank than having to glue every single wheel into place.
Especially with Shermans...

I could justify buying one (possibly two) resin models of a type, but never the three or four I dream of owning, yet I could (possibly) buy the three or four models I desire, in plastic, at the same price(-ish) as one resin model.   

And that is one of the many joys of plastic! 

[Big Martin]

Good luck with your venture.

Will also add my name to the "I'd buy it in 1/56th" list!

[Gun bunny]

Very clean lines, if you should ever make it in 1/56 scale i will certainly want several for my collection. 

[Lluís of Minairons]

I wonder if the injection molding costs have come down at all...

Still, if you made the kit modular, so you could get three variants out of the base parts would certainly help.

Not that much reduced, CompanyB. It's keeps being expensive. That's the reason why we try to be cautious.

About modular production: this is one of the ideas behind our models designing, besides of assembling easyness. Take this Panzer I A as a reference of such intentions.

[Durutti]

Its a great idea, but I don't think you will find the sales volume for 1/56th models in plastic, especially the more obscure things like the various Tiznaos. You may get the volume for the standard tanks like the Panzer 1, T-26 and the BT5, possibly the little italian tankettes too. Generic 1930's trucks might be a good idea, the Ford or Dodge, and perhaps the Soviet stuff.
You may be better off going down the 1/48th route, at least there could be crossover for the scale modellers, but you would have to offer excellent detail to capture this particular market.

Anyway best of luck with your venture, I hope it all goes well for you.

[fastolfrus]

Don't be that optimistic, Dr. The Viking! Not that easy to make me derail... 

Armoured trains!
That would be cool.

But on a more serious note, how about softskins and artillery?

[Lluís of Minairons]

...don't think you will find the sales volume for 1/56th... more obscure things like the various Tiznaos

I do agree, Durutti. Unfortunately, plastic production keeps being essentially a matter of quantities, given the still high costs of mould making. How many thousands of tiznaos or, let's say, armoured trains in a given scale would we be able to sell? ...for we ought to produce them by the thousands.

However, we're already exploring collaboration chances with other Spanish companies, in order to jointly produce shorter run products --that would unavoidably mean a different stuff, not plastic. Also exploring higher detail level chances with a different mould maker (for plastic injection still).

I'm quite skeptic about choosing 1/48^th. Such would throw us straightly into the modelism hobby world, and I suspect a fast assembly wargaming model would hardly be capable of competing with pure modelism products, no matter the detail level we put on our designs...

[Dave Knight]

I don't know if 1/56 makes commercial sense but I think 1/48 would be even less likely, for the reasons you suggest

[Durutti]

I do agree, Durutti. Unfortunately, plastic production keeps being essentially a matter of quantities, given the still high costs of mould making. How many thousands of tiznaos or, let's say, armoured trains in a given scale would we be able to sell? ...for we ought to produce them by the thousands.

However, we're already exploring collaboration chances with other Spanish companies, in order to jointly produce shorter run products --that would unavoidably mean a different stuff, not plastic. Also exploring higher detail level chances with a different mould maker (for plastic injection still).

I'm quite skeptic about choosing 1/48^th. Such would throw us straightly into the modelism hobby world, and I suspect a fast assembly wargaming model would hardly be capable of competing with pure modelism products, no matter the detail level we put on our designs...

might be worth your while speaking to Empress Miniatures, they have my old 28mm SCW range, a tie in with them might be useful to you both.

[answer_is_42]

15mm is cool, I can dig it.

You know what would be good in 15mm plastic? Guns. I often find a battery of guns is the most expensive unit to put together in an army. Plastic French 75s, for example. That would be fun.

Good luck, anyway!

[Lluís of Minairons]

You know what would be good in 15mm plastic? Guns. I often find a battery of guns is the most expensive unit to put together in an army

Quite interesting, indeed. Worth to be noted 

Meanwhile, let me amuse you with a couple of pictures on one of our 1/72 prototypes, after having been painted by Ruben Torregrosa of http://www.heresybrush.com:





More pictures on our blog : http://minairons-news.blogspot.com/2012/07/panzer-i-painted.html