Looking for input on some plastic ACW figures

[Doug ex-em4]

I've asked this question on TMP and I'd be interested to see what the reaction is here as well.

A little background. We had these sculpted and tooled 4 or 5 years ago. They were intended to be sold painted at a very competitive price. However the arrival of high quality, hard-plastic figures just as we were about to go to production made us stop the project. Why? Simply because these were in pvc – the nature of the tool means they can't be made in hard-plastic – and hadn't got the detail of the new (at the time) hard-plastic releases.

Now I'm thinking that they may have a future as competitively priced, UNPAINTED figures. Each bag would have 20 figures as shown in the photos. All figures could be used for either side. Price would be as I mentioned above, about £5.00 GBP for a bag of 20. Size is 28mm.

I'd be very grateful for comments and opinions.

[Sangennaru]

Well, the quality looks quite interesting for large battalions, and i would love to see some miniatures unpainted to understand the actual details!

From what i can see the minis are not as detailed as the Perry's ,for example, but still they are suitable for battalions, for those who wants to go even cheaper than hard plastic!

Well.. why ever say "NO" to new miniatures?


(unpainted pics, please! )

PS: How many different poses? that's quite relevant, at least to me! ^^

[Trooper]

They look good, certainly ideal for bulking out units. A couple of points, I'm not sure that a moulded flag is the way to go, and the drum is just a tad too small and was usually carried on the left side of the body.  Some rebs in kepis and yanks in slouch hats would also be nice. 

[Calimero]

They look good enough for rank and file troop indeed. If you do units pack, be sure to have 2 standard bearers for the union side though… that’s something that a lot of manufacturers ignore…

I also would like to see unpainted shots and some comparison pics with other manufacturers figures or a ruler would be useful too.

[katie]

"Some rebs in kepis and yanks in slouch hats would also be nice. "

At that price, just buy 'em and do headswaps.

[katie]

I had wondered what had happened to this plan.

"Why? Simply because these were in pvc"

Is this the same material as the Orcs/Dwarves are made in?


"hadn't got the detail of the new (at the time) hard-plastic releases."

They don't actually look too bad painted.

"Now I'm thinking that they may have a future as competitively priced, UNPAINTED figures. Each bag would have 20 figures as shown in the photos. All figures could be used for either side. Price would be as I mentioned above, about £5.00 GBP for a bag of 20. Size is 28mm."

Price has a quality all of its own. Something you might want to consider is whether to do bags of similar figures (unit builders) or bags of all different ones (skirmish gamers). But that's 25p each!! That's like falling back in time 20 years!!!!

"I'd be very grateful for comments and opinions."

I'd buy some.

You should get someone to do articles about conversions for them like you did with the fantasy figures. I suppose I ought to have thought of those sorts of things before, but the articles were an eye-opener about the potential. Same here; how to make arty crew, quick conversions to make

(If you're going to expand the range, make CAVALRY. Cav is always expensive in metal. Or, if not cav figures, make the **horses**. Some decent scaled horses that people can put riders from other manufacturers onto.)

[SBRPearce]

I second the request for pics of the unpainted figures. That said, the pricing is quite competitive for folks looking to bulk out units - these would probably do nicely for second and third rank figures behind the more detailed current products.

Some size comparison shots with other manufacturers' figures would also be useful.

[King Tiger]

Size comparison would be nice, but I would also bag them as 24 not 20, its easier to work with in more popular systems like black powder as it is the norm, its also easier to make use of spare models if people prefer smaller than to buy another 20 just to get 4 models

Just stick an extra banner bearer and 3 basic infantry in.

[Painter Jim]

The slouch hats on the Confederates sort of have the veitcong look, not bad figures but again need to see them unfinished and compared next to some other manufacturers models.

[Doug ex-em4]

Thanks for the input, everyone. I've been scouring the likely places for unpainted samples but it's about 5 years since the project was "live" and all I can find are the painteds - the original project was to sell them painted so we didn't bother too much with unpainted examples. As regards showing them compared to other makes, my "large" scale ACW collection is made up of Hinchliffe 25mm so not much use as a comparison these days.

Anyway, from what I've seen here and on TMP, I think it's worth a punt to offer them as described.

Thanks agaon.

Doug

[Belgian]

Looking good! As said the price is great!   

[Jon Suth]

I think they are great, the only thing I don't like is the narrow brimmed slouch hat on the Rebs. I'd probably end up buying the Union figures more, but I suspect with the tooling you won't be in a position to sell the Reb command figures separately? I suppose a little green stuff on the slouch hats would sort that out at a pinch, but it adds to the prep time.
Let me know when you are about to launch the range, my units are 25 figures (5 bases of five). Once I've seen them in the flesh, so to speak, I'd be interested in several hundred of them.