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Post by revdrdave on Sept 20, 2018 12:57:44 GMT
Any chance well see the Austrians, Russians or Spanish?
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Post by revdrdave on Sept 20, 2018 13:28:37 GMT
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Post by Peter Webb on Oct 26, 2018 11:03:54 GMT
I found this thread because I was googling "28mm plastic miniatures", so obviously for me the answer is yes. I like ancients, so Victrix and Warlord have both been good to me. With one of the most popular ancients games being Hail Caesar right now, which requires something like 200-300 models a side, 28mm is a very smart move for you to make. I will echo what others have said and encourage you to make your models compatible with other ranges - after all, the only point of marking scale in the first place is to know which dudes work with the ones your friend has.
While there are several other companies making plastic 28mm models (Warlord, Victrix, Perry, Gripping Beast, and Conquest to name a few), there are still huge gaps in the market in my humble opinion. Look around at people playing Hail Caesar and Kings of War Historical on Youtube. It seems to be all armies which are available from Warlord for $0.75 a model - that is, Romans, Celts, or Greeks with not much else. I have a suspicion that if other sets were available at the same cost, we'd be seeing them as well. I would encourage you to ask people interested in 28mm gaming what armies they feel aren't represented. I grabbed a list of all of the armies covered by Kings of War historical - Hail Caesar has far, far more. Many of them have no inexpensive plastics available, which means your competition is metal figs coming in at maybe $2 a model.
Anglo-Saxons - Avoid. Gripping Beast and Warlord are having a race to the bottom with pricing, and Victrix is coming out with a much higher quality set in 2019.
Aztecs - no plastics that I've seen, but no one is clamoring for them either.
Barbarians - Celts are cheap as dirt from Warlord, and Victrix has several sets as well. Archers are missing though, so that's an opportunity.
Byzantines - Gripping Beast is working this angle with their Late Romans, and Fireforge has more expensive later Byzantines.
Carthaginians - It's Victrix or nothing here, but they have a quality range at a reasonable price.
Chinese - None that I've seen, but I've heard a lot of interest. Opportunity here for sure.
Conquistadors - No dedicated plastic ranges but I imagine some of the Pike and Shotte stuff from Warlord would work for most of it.
Crusaders - Fireforge is hitting this angle hard with their Deus Vult sets. Some of the cheapest plastic cavalry around. Avoid.
Egyptians - Nothing, and a lot of call for it. I will buy 100-200 figs on release day if you come out with a good 28mm set here. Warlord has the cheapest I've seen at about 2 bucks a fig for infantry, and $50 for 3 chariots. A Hail Caesar army would be at least $500, and a Kings of War one wouldn't be much less.
English - The Perry's have their stuff but that's about it.
Franks - Nothing as far as I recall, but Gripping Beast has lots of cheap general stuff for this era.
French - Again with the Perry's and not much else.
Greek - Nope, Warlord and Victrix have this area WELL covered for cheap.
Holy Roman Empire - Iirc this covers Pike and Shotte era HRE, so Warlord probably has it covered for the most part.
Huns - I've not seen anything, but I'm confident that there are armies out there that are actually made up of Fireforge Mongols. Could work out.
Indian - Nothing here in plastic world. As a side note, this army as well as the Egyptians and several others allow elephants at 3-6 models a unit. The cheapest manned elephants in 28mm are currently $15-20 from Gripping Beast and Victrix, so myself and many others will happily buy some cheaper ones.
Japanese - Warlord has a cheap box here that people like. Good luck getting in on that action.
Macedonians & Successors - Warlord and Victrix both cover this.
Mongols - Again with the cheap Fireforge models. They'll be tough to beat here.
Normans - Conquest has hilariously cheap models here.
Ottomans - Not sure. I think Warlord has some models here, but there's not a great deal - not sure how compatible the arabic models from Gripping beast would be.
Persians - Wargames Factory had a set which wasn't super highly regarded, but Warlord (who bought them out) doesn't carry plastic Persians. Who will all of those cheap Greek models fight? Big opportunity here! Just wait for me to paint up all of those Egyptians and you've got me here too.
Polish - No plastics as far as I know, but no one cares.
Romans - Warlord's flagship Hail Caesar set, and Victrix has them as well. With that said, depending on the cost of Victrix's upcoming set (probably ~$35-40 for 16 models), a low cost auxiliary cavalry set might do well.
Scottish - Mostly standard late middle age fighters which can be covered by Perry and Gripping Beast. There are no "Braveheart" style ones though if you want to bend reality a bit.
Slavs - Fireforge has one plastic box, but it's relatively expensive.
Spartans - If these were any cheaper from Warlord they would be paying you to take them.
Scythians - I haven't seen anything here. A box of horse archers would probably do well.
Thracians - The army list itself is bizarre, with falxmen led by Spartacus, so I'm honestly not sure what they were going for. Between Victrix peltasts and Warlord falxmen, I guess this is covered?
Vikings - As with Saxons, Warlord and Gripping Beast are having a bit of a price war here.
Mainly, I have to say, don't necessarily look at what armies people ARE playing (90% Celts vs Romans), look at what armies people wish they were playing. The entire Bronze age is neglected, including Egypt, as are the Persians that everyone would love to pit against their Greeks. Alternatively, if you do look at what armies people are playing, find what isn't available or is still expensive. Celt chariots are still $15 each (I don't expect the upcoming Victrix set to change that), so are elephants as mentioned above, cataphracts seem to all be metal and $4-5 a model. Artillery tends to be expensive as well, apart from the Roman Scorpions that Warlord includes in their starter set and legionary box.
I didn't mention later periods as I know far less about them, but unless you go very niche-y, you will be directly competing with the big boys. People LOVE their Perry and Victrix models, and generally don't paint them fast enough to kill their pockets. With that said, if you can produce high quality sets that match standard 28mm models and halve the cost, then as stated above, it will be down to distribution/people actually knowing about the things.
Apologies for writing a book. I wish you the best of luck and I'll be keeping an eye on your line.
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Post by jeanmarc on Oct 27, 2018 10:24:37 GMT
No
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Post by Malcolm on Oct 30, 2018 9:28:46 GMT
When Hat first started making 28mm figures, although I do not collect them, I thought that at least it would mean an increase in quality in order to compete with the likes of the figures produced by the Perry´s etc.. However, with the number of new sets being produced each year dropping considerably any new scales that would slow this down even further would be worrying. I also wonder if the collectors of 28mm hard plastic miniatures also consider the soft plastic used by Hat. As to sales I imagine that Hat must have some idea since they would know how well their Penninsular War British Heavy and Light Dragoons sold. So they would know if this scale could be a money winner for them.
Best regards,
Malcolm
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Post by twrchtrwyth on Nov 4, 2018 13:30:46 GMT
when will you finish the Elcid command groups please? as with a poster above i use them for LOTR and need some command... Another Haradrim man I see. I concur.
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Post by HENRY on Mar 18, 2019 21:36:32 GMT
I have not purchased any 28mm figures from any manufacture. I am 65 years old and have only bought 1/72 plastic and 25mm metal scale since the early 1970's. Also I do not do much wargaming any more. I was excited when I saw HAT American revolutionary war figures on their site several years ago and would have bought several boxes of each in 1/72 scale. I have bought my most recent figures for World War two from Caesar and the RIF WAR from HaT. Everyone has their own preference for what scale they like and that keeps the hobby in good shape.
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Post by Steven Marthinsen on Apr 9, 2019 4:48:30 GMT
I would love to get the El Cid series but the lack of Spanish cavalry is a big deterrent. You guys are so close to finishing the range I would hope that would help put those last three or four sets towards the top of the list; a complete series really lends itself to collecting and wargaming.
Is there any chance that the British light and heavy dragoons will be done in proper hard plastic instead of the soft stuff? I can't imagine I was the only buyer who found this out to his dismay!
Thanks and best of luck moving forward!
Steve
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Post by Mr. M. on Apr 11, 2019 10:34:58 GMT
Someone has pics 28mm hat british light cavalry to compare with Perry or other 28mm companies?
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Post by Christian on Dec 24, 2019 23:33:46 GMT
Yes to Spanish Napoleonic in 28mm, folks like me doing Peninsular War with a group of friends would love to have a non-metal Spanish alternative to collect or point potential allies/foes to!
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Post by waynew on Dec 25, 2019 22:23:02 GMT
Not me; but if you can do it and there's a market I say go for it.
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Post by Stan on Dec 26, 2019 23:43:08 GMT
To be blunt, no..
To elaborate on that; I think there is already so much in this scale of such good quality, it is hard to add to that and compete. I would rather see HaT establish a solid line in 1/32 featuring the plans they have in the pipeline (SYW and continue Napoleonics) and continue their 1/72 scale instead of again trying something else...
Best, Stan
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Post by jock52 on Dec 27, 2019 10:38:50 GMT
I would love to get the El Cid series but the lack of Spanish cavalry is a big deterrent. You guys are so close to finishing the range I would hope that would help put those last three or four sets towards the top of the list; a complete series really lends itself to collecting and wargaming. Is there any chance that the British light and heavy dragoons will be done in proper hard plastic instead of the soft stuff? I can't imagine I was the only buyer who found this out to his dismay! Thanks and best of luck moving forward! Steve What he said re El Cid
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Post by Jurjen on Mar 14, 2020 8:24:43 GMT
The answer is yes, the question is what.
The historical wargamers around me are adult gamers, 30-60 years old, well educated, generally well-paid, who have money and time to spend. They have the inevitable mountain of lead and regularly invest in kickstarters / skirmish games (I live in Holland, I'm founder of the Amsterdam wargame club amsterdam6shooters and convention organizer, I think I know the scene reasonably well)
The standard here (in Holland, and in general in Europe) is 28mm heroic and a level of detail that more or less can compete with Games Workshop. I showed my 28mm Bavarians to a fellow wargamer, he regarded them as 'too thin'. Money is not an argument. Adult wargamers have plenty, GW is asking 4 euro or more per figure, So the average European wargamer prefers for example the taller, larger and more detailed Perry figures that are 50ct per figure. I'm not sure if 'complex assembly' (vs HäT's quick assembly) is the selling point. Detail and size is. The HäTs are 26,5, not 28mm or 30mm. I read on TMP that commenters disliked that.
Useful for HäT maybe is a comment I found there from a certain 'Marc the Plastics Fan' on TMP. He wrote:
Having looked at my french again, and the photo of the raw Bavarian on Scott's (excellent) site, I will reserve judgement until I have some next year, but they look good to me. I agree that they are different in style – as they are more "scale miniatures" than caricatures, and so the detail is lighter than metal fans are used too. However, I find that they paint up well (as do my 1/72 figures). What is interesting is that HaT seem prepared to go for the "odd" nations – Bavarians now, with Austrians and Russians on the prototype pages. So it may be that they have created their own marketplace, and the others will not fit in with them, rather than the other way around. It will be interesting to see. Key to HaT will be if they can do infantry, cavalry and artillery – that will make them a market leader.
Maybe HäT should try a Kickstarter with true 28mm Austrians, Prussians or Russians, a full army (infantry, cavalry, artillery) in a box. Might work.
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Post by joe5790 on Mar 26, 2020 15:30:19 GMT
I am still hoping that Hat will one day continue the 28mm line of models. With digital technology the way it is now they can digitize all of the Master models they have for all of their sets and release them in every scale using the same methodology they are employing with their newer sets.
I mean, imagine a 28mm Wurttemburg infantry set, or Nassau infantry, or Netherlands and Belgian Militia. Oh it would be glorious. Though I would hope for the Swedish to get a release, but that is a pipe dream as Hat has no intention of using the masters for its 1/72 set again
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Post by davidmac on Mar 26, 2020 22:08:10 GMT
I plan to buy 28mm American Civil War figures.
The group I'm gaming with decided to do ACW in 28mm, so, I'm going with that.
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Post by Tripod on Mar 30, 2020 23:03:05 GMT
Just started putting together my 28mm Perry plastic ACW figures and quickly found that I would much rather have one piece models so that I don't have to struggle to make drummer and standard bearer arms fit various bodies. I don't expect that hat will ever release their ACW figures in 28 mm but its nice to dream.
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