Are Gripping Beast moving into 10mm?

Started by Duke Speedy of Leighton, 10 September 2019, 03:59:17 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Duke Speedy of Leighton

You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner

Leman

Very interesting departure if they are. Have they suddeenly realised that building a large 28mm army is becoming unreachable for many wargamers?
The artist formerly known as Dour Puritan!

Fenton

There meant to ge releasing a small scale version if swordpoint in November as they were demonstrating it at Joy of 6
If I were creating Pendraken I wouldn't mess about with Romans and  Mongols  I would have started with Centurions , eight o'clock, Day One!

Leon

Interesting...! 

I think that larger companies like Gripping Beast and Plastic Soldier coming down to 10mm is generally a good thing, as long as they're bringing more exposure and customers to the smaller scale market.  If their existing customers aren't interested and can't be convinced, then all that happens is that a niche market gets spread even more thinly. 
www.pendraken.co.uk - Now home to over 7000 products, including 4500 items for 10mm wargaming, plus MDF bases, Battlescale buildings, I-94 decals, Litko Gaming Aids, Militia Miniatures, Raiden Miniatures 1/285th aircraft, Red Vectors MDF products, Vallejo paints and much, much more!

fred.

Hopefully will create more interest and exposure to a great scale!

Not sure I'm a huge fan of the GB figures, they look slightly odd in their poses, which might be to do with production methods. The GW BoFA plastic figures, while pretty good, weren't that great and several had rather big solid areas which were filled undercuts, and were overall a bit flat. This may be a limitation of hard plastic moulds - the better 28mm figures are multi-piece. I certainly don't want mult-piece 10mm figures! I remember a few 1/72nd figures with separate arms - they were bad enough to build!!

The PSC vehicles look pretty good from what I have seen of them
2011 Painting Competition - Winner!
2012 Painting Competition - 2 x Runner-Up
2016 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!
2017 Paint-Off - 3 x Winner!

My wife's creations: Jewellery and decorations with sparkle and shine at http://www.Etsy.com/uk/shop/ISCHIOCrafts

Fenton

If I were creating Pendraken I wouldn't mess about with Romans and  Mongols  I would have started with Centurions , eight o'clock, Day One!

fred.

Actually, good question. I've assumed they are plastic, but I may be influenced by the PSC annoucement, though I think I have seen somewhere the GB figures are plastic.
2011 Painting Competition - Winner!
2012 Painting Competition - 2 x Runner-Up
2016 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!
2017 Paint-Off - 3 x Winner!

My wife's creations: Jewellery and decorations with sparkle and shine at http://www.Etsy.com/uk/shop/ISCHIOCrafts

mollinary

They are quite nice, but the commander's horse looks a bit odd - did they teach horses to do the goose step??
2021 Painting Competition - Winner!
2022 Painting Competition - 2 x Runner-Up!

Dr Dave

Quote from: mollinary on 10 September 2019, 07:11:16 PM
They are quite nice, but the commander's horse looks a bit odd - did they teach horses to do the goose step??

The Spanish riding school - in Vienna - do. But it's traditional form of walking over there.  :o

Big Insect

Parthian is one of those 'tester' armies for manufacturers - as there are in reality only 2 core figure types - Cataphracts and Light Cavalry Horse archers (yes, I know there are Hatran allies with infantry bowmen and armoured cataphract camels etc. but you get my point).

So it's a relatively cheap way of entering a new scale/market and doing a test. Sarmatian is another  :)

I think Khurasan did Parthians as their 1st 15mm ancient range (or was it Sarmatian) and Peter Pig likewise.

But we'll see if they are committed to the scale and the period - Parthians fight Romans and Seleucids and Sassanids ... and there are a lot of unit variations in these.
'He could have lived a risk-free, moneyed life, but he preferred to whittle away his fortune on warfare.' Xenophon, The Anabasis

This communication has been written by a dyslexic person. If you have any trouble with the meaning of any of the sentences or words, please do not be afraid to ask for clarification. Remember that dyslexics are often high-level conceptualisers who provide "out of the box" thinking.

fsn

I don't like them. The standard bearer is OK, but the commander's horse looks like a donkey with a complex. Possibly historically accurate it looks too small to me and he doesn't seem to sitting on the right bit of it. Not only that, but his right arm looks a bit ... add-on.
Lord Oik of Runcorn (You may refer to me as Milord Oik)

Oik of the Year 2013, 2014; Prize for originality and 'having a go, bless him', 2015
3 votes in the 2016 Painting Competition!; 2017-2019 The Wilderness years
Oik of the Year 2020; 7 votes in the 2021 Painting Competition
11 votes in the 2022 Painting Competition (Double figures!)
2023 - the year of Gerald:
2024 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

Westmarcher

Quote from: fsn on 10 September 2019, 08:03:57 PM
.. but the commander's horse looks like a donkey with a complex. 

Pose reminds me of Spotty Dog in The Woodentops.
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

GrumpyOldMan

Quote from: Fenton on 10 September 2019, 07:05:33 PM
Are these going to be plastic?

Just having a look at the photos, they look like metal, too many nooks, crannies and undercuts for plastic. Maybe they're look at doing the hoi polloi as plastic and the command types as metal??? Although there are lots of issues in doing realistic scale/lammelar in plastic and smaller scales so the cataphracts would be an issue. My guess is metal for all the figures but we'll only know when they're released.

FierceKitty

I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

Norm

11 September 2019, 05:12:34 AM #14 Last Edit: 11 September 2019, 05:46:33 AM by Norm
Victrix are meant to be doing 1/144 WWII vehicles, which I believe will be plastic.

The interesting thing about the gripping beast offering is that presently, plastics are good for bulking out armies with common poses,  but still often rely on less common things being bought in lead, unless GP make their figures match a current metal producers range, their sprue will need to include all the oddities, which is probably why they have driven past the more obvious 15mm and gone straight for 10mm. The old Warmaster players will be a ready audience.

I think those getting into vehicles will be doing entire platoons or companies, again that bulking out thing, so for those wanting 2 - 4 tanks of a type, may not see any advantage. Timescale are an exception, but then they are metal and not plastic on a sprue.