BEF Miniatures

[Mr.J]

I was just wondering if anyone on here knows what happened to the Mike Owen sculpts that he did for BEF Miniatures? I know the vehicles wound up at Warlord Games but they don't seem to have the minis there. They seem to have a bit of a habit of buying up ranges (e.g. Bolt Action) and replacing excellent sculpts (e.g. Paul Hicks) with less then excellent (but still good) sculpts and I hope that these minis have not been lost.

Any ideas anyone?

[fitterpete]

I'd like to know if you can still get them too.
They were on my " to buy" list. Paul from Warlord said on TMP that they had been "retired".
What I'd really like to get are the originals  before they butcherd them with their separate head system.I bought the Germans but the heads fit kinda silly(read pin heads) on them.
Pete

[Helen]

My guess is to place an ad for wanting these miniatures. As mention I bought the Germans and Belgians and the separate heads are wee smaller than the body.

Cheers,

Helen

[Ray Earle]

I'd put an ad in the (WANTED) thread a little while back, there are very few about. I think the current Warlord games sculpts are mainly the old sculpts with the heads chopped off and new ones sculpted. The support weapons definitely are.

It looks like there are some additional sculpts there too and some that have been discontinued.

I'm tempted to contact Mike and see if he'll sculpt some heads for the British so I can get them to match....

[jtrnka]

I was just wondering if anyone on here knows what happened to the Mike Owen sculpts that he did for BEF Miniatures? I know the vehicles wound up at Warlord Games but they don't seem to have the minis there.

Those vehicles also went to JTFM Enterpises/Die Waffenkammer and Company B.

I've emailed Mike Owen about the old BEF miniatures and he no longer has the rights as I was hoping to purchase those rights....

[Mainly28s]

I'm probably going to be labelled a "hater" for this, but I really don't like the way Warlord "retire" perfectly good figures, and then replace them with "improved" "remastered" ones. The re-sculpts don't usually look better than the older figures, and in many cases look worse, and, more importantly, don't match the style of the original figures. This is especially noticeable in the way the clothing is draped- the creases and folds of the newer sculpts are completely different.
The overall style has become a lot more cartoon-like (think Battle or Commando), and has gone (IMHO) downhill. The other part of the retire/re-sculpt/re-release cycle I don't like is that some figures never see the light of day again.

Would it not make sense to keep the older ones in production, and add the new sculpts/re-sculpts as additional options to a range?

[Mr.J]

I agree with pretty much everything you have said there Mainly28s. I don't see why they bought the ranges in the first place if they don't intend on using the minis.

[Adam]

I'm probably going to be labelled a "hater" for this

Certainly not by me, though. I could kick myself for not getting some while I had the chance for VBCW.

[Ray Earle]

Not by me either.

I'd always meant to pick some of the BEF stuff up when I eventually got around to WW2. Gutted that I missed the boat. To me the original sculpts are just so much better.

[fitterpete]

No argument from me either Mainly28s.
The old Bolt Action figures are IMHO much better than most of the new stuff.

[Thunderchicken]

So do Warlord actually sell early war Brits?

[Adam]

Yes, they've released a new range of them, and the BEF that were part of the BEF miniatures range have gone. They've also been removing metal bolt action minis from sale when they do them in plastic, as far as I'm aware. Think they replaced the Bolt Action early war Germans with metal versions before they did these new plastic ones too. Not knocking the new sculpts, just seems a shame that such nice minis have fallen by the wayside.

[Wilkins]

Bought a load of Paul Hicks' Bolt Action Americans. And it is becoming a chore trying to flesh them out into a useful force! If Warlord own the molds why not cast and sell some?

[carlos marighela]

Well there is the Crusader Miniatures range of early war Brits. Nice figures, no cartoon faces.

[jtrnka]

It's a shame as the old Paul Hicks BA sculpts were excellent and Mike Owens BEF sculpts were extremely well done.