'First Look' at the new League of Augsburg range!

[Steve J]

I had a chat with Leon at Colours whilst looking at the Falklands range up close and personal. Without going into too much detail, there is a wide price difference per figure charged by the various sculptors used by Pendraken. This means on some of the ranges they will do well over time to cover their costs, as they are very much for a niche market. (See Dave's comment below with regards the French Revolutionary range interest). My main interest is WWII and I would love Pendraken to make a Polish range, but would there be enough interest to justify them making such an investment? I would love to think so, but I doubt it. The interest always seems to be in late War in my experience.

Now I'm a professional modelmaker with 26 + years experience and if I were to charge 'normal' rates (c. £50 per hour) to make a vehicle for Pendraken, I doubt very much whether they would ever be able to recupe their investment, talk less of making a profit. As and when time allows I take the same view as Clib and charge them a nominal fee in return for figures as I don't have the time to commit to producing a vehicle to order by a certain date.

[William]

Glad to see you chime in Clib.  Now armed with more information (although you did not need to disclose all this, but appreciate you did) I will try to stop bugging you about the cavalry and artillery at the end of every month.

I never was really certain how sculpters go about getting and doing commissions, and all the in's and out's, sort of speak, which transpire along those lines.  I think, however, for fans of Clib's work, that it is too much of a tease to come out with this large release of LoA infantry in a relatively short period of time, and then seeing what your skills are with regards to the cavalry in "the other" (28mm) LoA range, and be disappointed in not having something for Pendraken in the same time.  Certainly most are aware the money for sculpters is in the larger stuff, and as a working artist, no one can blame you.

Simply speaking, I, like many perhaps, can be impatient, and could argue why the first releases of the LoA range could not be a small release of each of infantry, cavalry, and artillery.  Although, making sense from a marketing view, it is not feasable, and working within one basic dolly (rather it be infantry, horse, or cannon) is much easier, and able to pull off more codes with variation.

I will await paitiently, and just check the 1st of every month, and will resist the temtation to bug you  

William

[Dave]

I do have plans to do the Poles, Belgiums etc for ww2, I've overloaded the vehicle designer with ww1 stuff for release (hopefully) middle of next year, at moment working on putting more ww2 Italians stuff out so much stuff so little money which is why I still work full time and cast every night to 11ish!!!!!!!

Dave

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Grreat insight from all sides as to how it works. Makes me feel guilty I've not spent money this month (yet)...

[Steve J]

I do have plans to do the Poles, Belgiums etc for ww2

Glad to hear it Dave .

[Techno]

Kickstarter is a non-starter in this scale and with a niche range, we've discussed this before.  If you wanted a basic range of 20 codes, say 3 poses per pack, plus moulding, we're looking at over £2000 of costs.  Then you've got to factor in all the discounted figures you then have to supply to the people who have pledged into the range.  By the time you've included all that metal, and the time to cast them all up, you're way up past £4000 needed just to cover everything.

That's a lot of money, and I seriously doubt we'd get pledges anywhere near that.

And as a final point, which I mentioned on TMP a long time ago, you want the range to be done by Clibinarium?  So a Kickstarter is again no use, as he wouldn't have the spare sculpting time to get the figures done in a realistic timeframe for the backers.

Sadly.....I think you've made very fair points there Leon.
Working at varying scales for folk, I often tend to forget that things don't/won't work in the same way for different manufacturers in the industry. 
Cheers - Phil.

[J.S.]

Firstly, I think that pic shows the figure in a rather worse light than in reality.

first picture I've seen of this range and I'm a huge enthusiast concerning this period...  Seems to be a general problem of figures for the French Revoutionary Wars.. I have never seen a single picture of those 15mm Battle Honors 1799 Russian musketeers, grenadiers or cavalry,  same goes for their Brits and the majority of the Austrian range...sadly, this doesn't really speak for the popularity of the period. Or no one wants to buy a pig in a poke.. or both? I don't know, but in any case it's a pity.
(Actually, concerning this problem, the AWI and LOA ranges are a very positive examples..pictures of the actual figures and painted  )

Well and the LOA cav..good things come to those who wait.. I guess most (99%?) of all wargamers sit on a gigantic mountain of unpainted lead which may be tackled before those riders are finally released.

[Bernie]

Just caught up with the interesting dialogue over the French Rev Wars figure farago - fascinating period - bags of gaming potential - perfect for div sized battles for all those clashes in the Italian Wars & the bigger battles in Low Countries and Germany - but still a minority interest - Even the extensive and well established 15mm BattleHonours French Rev range did not sell well - when I used to buy them the dust on the packs said everything - that I was probably the only person buying then.

It sounds as though there was a serious communication problem regarding the range, what was acceptable, but the sponsor can only have an input and that final decision has to be Pendrakens. I would think that this forum would probably now resolve these issues before it had gone too far.

I do not think the Kickstarter option is a goer as the hobby and our purchases are just too small - Even all this stuff about LofA cav has to be dependent upon modeller's time and Pendraken's project budget. Keith Warren and I are a pretty heavy purchasers of Pendraken figs between us over £1,000 a year - but even my purchase of the cav would only be £200 - £250 to match the amount I have laready spent on infantry yet this would only be equivalent for a few masteras.

BTW the 10mm French were not bad and painted up well, but the molehills they were standing on were dire - I bought a few packs to make up some AWI units but spent many an hour paring down the bases and losing not a few figures breaking in the process.

[BH62]

Hi,
I took time to read comment of this topic since 2011!
I wait with a lot of impatience for the next references of the LOA range. I began to paint the foot soldiers who are magnificent. Excellent work of Clib as usual.
Leon, have you a term for the new references (cavalry, artillery and personalities)?
Cheers, BH62.

[Leon]

Leon, have you a term for the new references (cavalry, artillery and personalities)?
Cheers, BH62.

Artillery should be ready in a couple of weeks, with the first batch of cavalry to follow on shortly after that.

[SV52]

Artillery should be ready in a couple of weeks, with the first batch of cavalry to follow on shortly after that.

Cue Mr. Handel - Hallelujah!

[clibinarium]

Some WIP of the first cavalry figures, which are usable for the majority of cavalry. More will follow, but these are the most useful.

Cavalry command





Cavalry attacking with pistols





Cavalry attacking with swords

[mollinary]

Clib,

I do not know what to say, these set a new standard for 10mm figures.  They are well worth waiting for, many, many, congratulations.



Mollinary

[kev1964]

They look the business clib, lovely work, might be a while before i get around to them,

kev

[goat major]

Oooooooo blimey !!!!

[nikharwood]

Stunning, clib, stunning 

[SV52]

Gimme, gimme

[Wkeyser]

Great looking figures, will have to clear my painting que for these.  Fantastic looking horses, even though the standard horses from Pendraken are good, these are much much better. I hope Pendraken can use these for some of their other ranges. Again Clib does the best 10mm figures on the market!
William

[Aart Brouwer]

Breathtaking, Clib. Simply breathtaking. 

Cheers,
Aart

[fred.]

Woo hoo!  These look fantastic, really dynamic. Get them cast up now, Leon!