What I'd like to see ...

[fsn]

Here are my general thoughts on the Pendraken ranges, and what I'd like to see in the future. It's just musing. Throw in some new ideas, rehash some old ones. My suggestions would hopefully be commercial. Yes, you can probably get some of them from other manufacturers, but I couldn't go through that trauma again.

Chariot armies
There's a big hole in Pendraken's range, and historically. it's at the start. The first ranges Pendraken produce are the Greeks and Achaemenid Persians. There's a whole lot of history, even in the Middle East, before that. Egyptians and Hittites, Assyrians and Babylonians. Chariots rumbling across dusty a plain!

Add to that, Trojans and Minoans in Dendra armour and boar-tooth helmets. Mighty Achilles waddling around looking like a dustbin taking on Heroic Hector in a similar panoply. A bit like "It's a Knockout", but deadly.  

Byzantines
The period when the Byzantines, the Normans, the Arabs and locals were fighting in Italy and Sicily is very, very interesting, a little sideline to the more popular 1066 and Crusades. We have Arabs. We have Normans. We don't have Byzantines.

Napoleonics
The revamp of the Napoleonics is droolingly exciting. The Brits and the rest of the Waterloo Campaign forces makes one hungry for more. I have bought many - but not painted any yet, as I don't think I can do them justice - yet. Adding the Prussians is a great move. The obvious additions now are Russians and the Swedes.

Post War
Obviously, the proposed Korean war range opens up the post war periods further. Looking at the major conflicts (from a UK perspective) post 1945, you have Korea, Viet Nam, Arab-Israeli, Falklands, Gulf and Afghanistan. Much of this has been covered, but the release of the Egyptian & Syrian vehicles suggests some infantry for the Arab-Israeli war are also required. Need Sagger's to take on those Israeli Centurions.

A complete new range would be needed for the Ultra Modern. Vehicles and foot both. Personally, not something I'd go for, but I can see the attraction.

Trains and Boats and Planes
Well ... walls.

I'd like to see some armoured trains - particularly to support those poor, hard pressed WWII Poles.

Some generic ships boats, dingys, cutters etc could be used from Renaissance to today.

The Kallistra range of castle walls is fine ... but I'd rather buy from Pendraken. The TBM range is magnificent, but it would be good to see some medieval castles, C17 earth works and generic ancient mid-East fortifications.

And while we're on the subject - how about trees?

Melee Ranges
I wonder if the calls for Gangsters, Superheroes, Cowboys et al, would be made commercially viable by offering them at a premium price. One pays 70p for Maj Gen Friedrich Wilhelm v. Seydlitz, so perhaps one would pay 40p for Big Al Capone, Floss Woman or Two Gun John? I certainly would. These speciality figures could perhaps be backed up with some generic cops, civilians or townsfolk.

Civilians and Animals
Always good for background and objectives. Civilians would be useful in any range. Sheep, cattle and geese would be useful for many ranges.  

Nudes
This probably sounds a bit odd, but I have tried sculpting from dollies with little success. I wonder if "nudes" would help the aspiring modeler who wants that one special figure. I may be wrong. I am, as I say, a failed sculptor.

So there you go. My starter for 10.

[Bodvoc]

Chariot Armies, yes please

[Orcs]

Armoured train

I would second Armoured train for Poles, If the wagons with guns were carefully made they could be used for other armies and theatres.  The loco and tenders were fairly generic, as were the troop assault carriages and flat cars.  If you could just chang the gun turret on the gun wagons they could be made Russia or German by the addition of the relevant turret. especially as the Russian used the captured polish trains.

[Womble67]

Definitely add my vote for the Armoured train

Take care

Andy

[Wulf]

Armoured train wagons, yessiree - but, having a couple of them now in resin, they're big beasts and will realy have to be resin. They're as big as the railway gun but actually more solid, being boxier!

Chariot armies - mmm... nice...

And I'd also put a vote in for polkice & rioters (without firearms) for modern city activities, spies, mobsters, riots, zombies (we have the zombies, but nobody unarmed to fight them in a more restrained very British sort of way), etc. Police in riot gear preferably, whatever they're against. Police horses would be nice.

[FierceKitty]

Chariot and Byzantine stuff is desirable. I have, however, pretty well got what I want in these lines already.

[slugbalancer]

More African colonial stuff please.

A West African nation, perhaps the Ashantis.

Colonial adventurers

Airco DH.9As as used in in Somalia, the middle east and during the RCW.

[SV52]

More pics on the website 

[d_Guy]

With the exception of the nudes my list is hardly congruent at any other  point.

Aztecs - of course

I would support the expansion of the 1950's ranges since that period represents the perfection Western Civilization.

And, yes, a specific Trojan range since I mess around with the period in my spare time. See only Ajax (the big one) in Dendritic armour, however.

The nudes would be wonderful for attempting figures with green stuff. Could also be used to enact certain alternate universe and highly private scenarios. Suggest a male/female ratio of 1 to 10 (or even 20), but that's just me.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Trojans/Minoans/Mycenaean please

[Leon]

Chariot armies
There's a big hole in Pendraken's range, and historically. it's at the start. The first ranges Pendraken produce are the Greeks and Achaemenid Persians. There's a whole lot of history, even in the Middle East, before that. Egyptians and Hittites, Assyrians and Babylonians. Chariots rumbling across dusty a plain!

Add to that, Trojans and Minoans in Dendra armour and boar-tooth helmets. Mighty Achilles waddling around looking like a dustbin taking on Heroic Hector in a similar panoply. A bit like "It's a Knockout", but deadly.  

Definitely something we'd like to do, but we'll need to get the currently outstanding Ancients revamps finished off first.  So Dacians first, Greeks and Persians after that, then the odds and ends.  The Dacians might get squeezed in while Techno's doing the Korean list, then the others will be after that.

Byzantines
The period when the Byzantines, the Normans, the Arabs and locals were fighting in Italy and Sicily is very, very interesting, a little sideline to the more popular 1066 and Crusades. We have Arabs. We have Normans. We don't have Byzantines.

Again, something we'd like to do, but not sure on timescales.  Once the Ancients are done, we'd like to revamp some of the Dark Age / Medieval ranges as well, so this is likely a longer-term job.

Napoleonics
The revamp of the Napoleonics is droolingly exciting. The Brits and the rest of the Waterloo Campaign forces makes one hungry for more. I have bought many - but not painted any yet, as I don't think I can do them justice - yet. Adding the Prussians is a great move. The obvious additions now are Russians and the Swedes.

Not sure where we're going next with these, we need to get the Brunswickers released and then have a think.  The previous plan was to do the Polish, Saxons maybe.  It's a complete minefield though, no matter what we decide to do, we're going to get complaints.  If we do smaller Waterloo nations, we'll get asked for the more popular Peninsular period British.  If we switch to the earlier period, we get asked why we haven't done the Swedes... 

Post War
Obviously, the proposed Korean war range opens up the post war periods further. Looking at the major conflicts (from a UK perspective) post 1945, you have Korea, Viet Nam, Arab-Israeli, Falklands, Gulf and Afghanistan. Much of this has been covered, but the release of the Egyptian & Syrian vehicles suggests some infantry for the Arab-Israeli war are also required. Need Sagger's to take on those Israeli Centurions.

A complete new range would be needed for the Ultra Modern. Vehicles and foot both. Personally, not something I'd go for, but I can see the attraction.

Arab-Israeli would be the next conflict we'd be doing after the Korean range.  No plans for Ultra-Modern at this point, we'll probably fill in upto 1990-ish first.

Trains and Boats and Planes
Well ... walls.

I'd like to see some armoured trains - particularly to support those poor, hard pressed WWII Poles.

Some generic ships boats, dingys, cutters etc could be used from Renaissance to today.

The Kallistra range of castle walls is fine ... but I'd rather buy from Pendraken. The TBM range is magnificent, but it would be good to see some medieval castles, C17 earth works and generic ancient mid-East fortifications.

And while we're on the subject - how about trees?

We've got a few plans for some of these, but as I've mentioned before, the planes, trains and automob... boats are usually high-cost/low-sales items and not as viable to produce.  We'll have a careful and see what we can fit in here and there.  Castles are not planned, but never say never.  Trees are unlikely to re-appear in the near future, they're just so much cheaper to buy on eBay these days that there's no point us trying to sell them as well.

Melee Ranges
I wonder if the calls for Gangsters, Superheroes, Cowboys et al, would be made commercially viable by offering them at a premium price. One pays 70p for Maj Gen Friedrich Wilhelm v. Seydlitz, so perhaps one would pay 40p for Big Al Capone, Floss Woman or Two Gun John? I certainly would. These speciality figures could perhaps be backed up with some generic cops, civilians or townsfolk.

Still not sure on these types of ranges as they're so difficult to make any money on, even at 'premium' prices.

Civilians and Animals
Always good for background and objectives. Civilians would be useful in any range. Sheep, cattle and geese would be useful for many ranges. 

We're constantly adding more civilians to various ranges, with the ECW and Dark Ages ones due to be released in the next week or so.  The animals that Techno previewed ages ago are ready now as well, so those should hit the site after Warfare this weekend.

Nudes
This probably sounds a bit odd, but I have tried sculpting from dollies with little success. I wonder if "nudes" would help the aspiring modeler who wants that one special figure. I may be wrong. I am, as I say, a failed sculptor.

I've got mixed opinions on this one, as it's nice for customers to have them available for attempting their own sculpts, but at the same time you never know if a rival company is going to get hold of some and save themselves some money by using them as dollies for their own ranges.  It's quite difficult to prove once a sculpt has been built on the armature.  We might look at it, but sell them at a higher price than regular figures, to put off anyone buying them for commercial use.

[fsn]

Thank you for that considered response, Leon.

I feel your pain on the Napoleonics. The problem you have, as I see it , is that if you go down the Confederation of the Rhine route, you'd have to have 'em fight someone. Yers, you've got your Prussians, but from memory, most of the 1813-14 allied armies were a mix of Russians, Austrians, Prussians and Swedes. (Didn't the Brits get involved in Leipzig with a rocket battery and a bttn of infantry?) Having commited to the 1815 campaign, for me (and I hasten to add this is a personal opinion) it would be better to flesh out the 1813-14 period.

On the Post War, I think by covering the Arab-Israeli's you've probably got most things covered. Would you be thinking of a Team Yankee 1980s Soviet/Yank offering? Would have to look at how the Falklands covers the Brits for this period.

For the melee ranges, and I don't want to offer to pop over and educate Dave's Mum in the mattter or ova osculation, but could it be something that is crowd funded? For example. You have buildings and wagons and all things suitable for a "cowboy" game - except a cactus. To make this a melee lover's paradise all that is needed are some personaliy figures. It would show the level of commitment of those calling for the range in a "put up or shut up" sort of way. I say cowboys because I've recently found my copy of the "Once Upon a Time in the West" ruleset (with suppliments), which I thougth I had binned in error. The same argument could be made for any other melee range - except possibly 1920's gangsters.

Good news about the civillians and animals. I was much taken many years ago by a Viking raid game, and have valued the general populace and their domestic fauna ever since.  

It is good to see your viewpoint on nudes. Something I hadn't considered.

Thank you again for your reply.

[Techno]

As far as the 'nudes' are concerned, I'd only foresee a real problem if someone got a 'whole set' of all the different dollies I've made......Then they could use them to make their own ranges.

The other thing that folk might consider, is that I made the original dollies a tad chunkier than I really wanted them, so that Dave wouldn't have huge problems in getting them out of the mould.

I always 'thin them down' a tiny bit with a burr on the Dremel, before I start slapping putty on them. 

Cheers - Phil.

[Zippee]

Thank you for that considered response, Leon.

I feel your pain on the Napoleonics.  Having commited to the 1815 campaign, for me (and I hasten to add this is a personal opinion) it would be better to flesh out the 1813-14 period.

Cough! Having committed to the 1809 campaign first, it would be better to complete it before spiralling off into the plethora of other campaigns and fronts! 

[FierceKitty]

Chariot-fanciers: Newlines have started their Christmas sales. If you can't bear waiting for new ranges here....