Wish list for 2013 - 2014

[fsn]

Dear Mr Dragoon,

I sense your frustration. I empathise with it. I have not bought any Napoleonic figures from Pendraken because I am waiting for the later war British. I have suggested that Pendraken adopt a HaT style calendar, showing what is planned and roughly where the development process is up to.

Pendraken is a family run company, who all work very hard for little reward because they love the hobby and love what they do. They maintain a very large catalogue, and constantly add to it. I'd rather they do this than spend large quantities of time telling us in great detail about forthcoming ranges. 

In my dealings with Leon, I have always found him to be honest and open, but he can only explain the situation as it is at the time you are talking to him. The situation changes and Leon is very good at giving updates when requested.

I have been in your situation. I spent what seemed to be an eternity waiting for the Centurion tank. You may find some small trace of my vigil in the pages of this forum. I hope that my badgering was done with some degree of good humour and understanding of the difficulties faced by Pendraken.

I think it fair to say that the established members of this forum will, to a man, be very unsympathetic to any hint of criticism that edges towards defamation of Leon. We are admittedly, very protective of him.

My understanding is that the British are due out in 2014. Leon will give you updates upon request, but he cannot give you a definitive date because he will not let sub-standard items into the Pendraken catalogue. In the meantime, might I suggest you avail yourselves to one of the other ranges? I can recommend the WWII and the ACW were redone this year and look superb on the table. If, at the advanced age of 70, you believe that your time is too short to wait, may I suggest, and I don't do this lightly, that Magister Militum are a very reputable company with an extensive late Napoleonic British range. Their figures do fit with Pendraken and I think some of the forum members could give you the benefit of their experience. 

[Leon]

You said you didn't have funds for the sculpts as you had put others in font of them and earlier this year, or late last year you said they would be ready later in the year not sculpts you said last half of the year then ready in the last quarter. Before that you said end of 2012. Again before that it was supposed to in end of 2011 or early 2012. In fact it's been next year for some time.
Again it's next year, and that's only sculpts not a saleable product.

The lack of funds is correct, on two counts.

Firstly, sometime in 2012, we had to reduce the monthly budget for one of the designers by about 40%.  This was due to both simple maths and us not having enough spare money, and also due to the amount of backlog we had here at Pendraken HQ.  

The second reason is more of an indirect one, and that was us directing the funds into other ranges.  The ACW range took up a lot of time and money, but we had a lot of people interested in 125th anniversaries of various battles, so it was good business to put the money into that range at that time.  The decision paid off and the ACW is one of our biggest selling ranges at the moment.

Similarly, the WW1 centenary was approaching, and what started off as a basic revamp became more extensive, and therefore ate into the design schedule more than planned.  But we needed these items done, as next year will see a lot of growth in WW1 sales (moreso than it already has!), and we will sell them.

Which brings us onto the Brits.  I apologise for the delays to the range and can assure you that it was never planned to be that way.  But unfortunately things rarely go to plan, deadlines are often missed, and I doubt we're the only wargames company who suffers from that.  With the impending 200th anniversary though, we now have a definite timescale, which we have to hit if we want to maximise the sales of the range.  With that in mind, the designer will now be 100% Naps for the foreseeable future, with any diversions to his time being additional hours and not taking away from the Naps schedule.  We may even review the budget in Feb/Mar and see if we can allot him some extra to speed things along.  Bear in mind though that we spend around £8k per annum on sculpting alone, which I would suggest is more than 90% of other companies out there, and it's hard to stretch that further without basically taking a pay cut.

I sense your frustration. I empathise with it. I have not bought any Napoleonic figures from Pendraken because I am waiting for the later war British. I have suggested that Pendraken adopt a HaT style calendar, showing what is planned and roughly where the development process is up to.

We do have the 'What We're Working On' thread, which admittedly needs updating now.  The problem for the past 6 months or so has been the amount of contract work we're doing for other people.  This month alone we've done around 20 moulds so far, none of them for ourselves.  We're looking at buying a second mould press so that we double our output, but there is the time consideration as well, and stretching Dave too thinly during the hours he's available for the business.

[Fenton]

I think it fair to say that the established members of this forum will, to a man, be very unsympathetic to any hint of criticism that edges towards defamation of Leon. We are admittedly, very protective of him.

All 987 of him

[Chad]

Mike

Chill !

I understand your frustration and, having known you for so many years, I know your prime interest has almost always been British Napoleonics.

I and many other forum members occasionally become frustrated, but we accept that delays only reflects Pendraken's attempts to satisfy the many and varied requests they receive. Leon has never 'fobbed off' anyone to my knowledge and always tries to tell it as it is.

The LoA range has and is taking a long time to complete, but what you then get are superb models that were well worth the wait.

Be patient. Everything comes to those who wait.

Best regards

Pete

[Dragoon]

Pete :
After asking earlier in the year  the answer was in the later end of the year. At Derby the answer was 'Not this year' too busy on other things ! so .
I would have bought French, but as you know, not being familiar with differences in 1809 and 1815 uniforms I didn't bother. but felt that given the time to paint it had now gone well past a cut off point. Particularly as the original plan was for a 600 strong Battalion being 30 files and 2 ranks.

The OG range isn't finished and won't be in the UK.
So AB or Adler/Baccus. I bought 2 x SYW armies in Baccus to see if I could Paint them. (does the lace on the 21st foot have 2 red and 1 blue thread or vice versa?).

[Chad]

Mike

AB or Baccus suggests you have not decided on scale

Sorry know nothing about SYW British uniforms

Pete

[Dragoon]

Scale : No.
As you know I have to buy and paint both armies. On the scale I had planned, this is not now possible.  
I have an 18 feet X 19 feet garage almost finished as a Wargames room.
Central Heating will be in shortly after Xmas.
A 16' x 6' table for any battles and a 6' x 4' table as a contoured campaign board.
However I really need to look at what I'm able to paint. I painted 16 Baccus Prussian Napoleonic in about 50 minutes but I should have been able to paint 24 in that time. (They were rubbish) the blue, faces and bayonets were too bright. I'm told black wash will cure it.
I think OG will be best if magister Militum do the odds.
The 16 figures to a 40mm base fits, giving the look of close order infantry.
I'll give it a run, if it doesn't look right in revise format I'll just scrap it.
I should have used OG in the first place, then I wouldn't be in this position.

[Chad]

Mike

The only way you will paint the number of you
need for a table that size is to do what I am doing, have them painted.

We currently have a 10x5 table and have over a 1000
figures on it.

Pete

[Dragoon]

Pete :
10'x5' at SWG or Home ?
There seems to be a club in all the 5 Towns, not counting the home groups.

Who paints them and how much and how good?
Three for the price of one question mark :-)

It was to be waterloo at 20 : 1
8 figures in 2 ranks on a 19mm (3/4") frontage

[Dragoon]

That should have read 10 : 1 if in2 ranks
Problem is even with Brits painted and ready the 1809 Habit Longue isn't a Bardin Habit so that means old 1812 figures but no pics

[Chad]

Table at my mate's in Leek.

After several bad experiences with Uk painters
I have gone to Fernando Enterprises in Sri Lanka.
Showcase quality is 60p a figure plus shipping
charges. For a £200 order they offer 10% discount.
After the discount it still works out at less than 70p
per figure.

Pete

[Dragoon]

That's good for showcase, but figures?
but overseas, you can't just say Halckets brigade please, you need to specify in detail.
I'll mail them and see about what info they need.
I have say, 365 days to paint all the figures. That's 3 armies, but Waterloo was about 63,000 Allies and about ,I'm not sure, 115,000 French, perhaps not that, after all they had fought Quatre Bras and Ligny on the 16th. and on the 18th. about 30,000 at Wavre, or something like that.
Then Bluchers Prussians. IV Korps arrived at Planceoit  then, I think Thielman with I Korps and those of II & III Korps that weren't still holding up the French at Wavre. I'll have to check on what was left of those 3 Korps. About 25% routed at Ligny and the losses at Wavre. Bulows IV Korps was unused at Ligney, so apart from losses on the march they were full strength.

If I want to do the 100 Days then its over 300,000 men @ 10 : 1 that's 30,000 figures. @ 20 : 1 = 15,000.
If I settle for 100 : 1 It's still 3,000 figures that's about :-
A) Pendraken £400-00 ... Not Available
Magister M. £500-00 . Available
C) Old Glory  £360-00 ... Available

Using AoE it would be 60 : 1 Using 10mm as you get 50% more figures on a stand and 100% more using Old Glory.
Therefore :-
A) £600-00
£750-00
C) £720-00
A Brit. Brigade of say 2520 men or 7 bases of 8 figures each in 2 Ranks. (Base size 20mm. wide X deep 25mm).
A Base is 360 men no matter how many figures are on it.
Figure ratio of 45 : 1
If I mount 6 figures to a base that brings the cost down to, £540-00

To get 4,500 figures painted about £3,400 so with figures £4,120
I would never get away with it in 1 year, if I hadn't waited, and bought OG in the first place I would have got away with it.
The Brits./Allies could possibly be ready but I doubt there will be lead on the table before March.
But there are 4 armies with a small saving if the Dutch are exactly the same as Austrians (but I bet the packs are different)
I know the figures will be good, but The 200th. Anniversary of Waterloo is in June 2015.
Celebrating the 100th. Anniversary was amazing, Artillery and Infantry all fighting over the same piece of ground.
in 2015 It would have been nice to do the same with model soldiers and no one getting killed.
I wonder how many clubs will put on a waterloo game, next year an the tear after.
They will be planning, building scenery, buildings, and painting figures .

[Chad]

Mike

The website gives you all the information you need relating
to their requirements.

I think you should have made your decision a lot earlier as
to whose figures to use given the size of the project you have
planned.

Pete

[WeeWars]

I think you should have made your decision a lot earlier as
to whose figures to use given the size of the project you have
planned.

And Pendraken have no immediate plans for 1815 Prussians or French anyway.

[Dragoon]

Mike

The website gives you all the information you need relating
to their requirements.

I think you should have made your decision a lot earlier as
to whose figures to use given the size of the project you have
planned.

Pete

When I've asked while at shows the answer as always been :-
After the new French range. Or earlier "we will be doing it"
Earlier this year I asked about Prussians.
Leon or No one else said, " we have no plans for Prussians".

But you are right I should have give them up as a waste of time and gone for OG.
Leaving aside what I want, but from a commercial point of view to ignore the campaign that shaped  Modern Europe .
However I shouldn't be surprised.
I've used my time to work around the scale variation the 1/144th. Figure scale and ground scale (La Haye Saint) is Goumont the other
Although the approach to QB offers similar problems.
Be in touch if Allan or Phil has your address.

M