Is World War 2 the most expensive era ?

[grant]

And BF have to be one of the exclusive club of most expensive miniature companies around at the minute.

Apart from my Skyyrex LCA and various building terrain pieces, all my Flames of War are Battlefront. It's easy to know a box gives you what you need to finish a platoon or company, with no spares really.

I have no problem paying for BF. None at all.

[Colonel White]

Sometimes geographical location plays a part in pricing. As FIB is cast in the UK ( one of my friends is a subcontracted caster)the price in the UK could be in real terms less than that of another country where the models have to be exported.Whilst not activley into 15mm, FIB products I see are far cheaper than FOW products (excluding Hobbycraft clearances of course) and Brian at our local store sells 4 times as many FIB tanks as he does FOW.

Correct me if I am wrong here but I beleive the FIB infantry can work out as just as expensive as they are not organised into FOW units unlike the Battlefront ones.

Speaking of FOW ,I have noticed the Ian Allen bookshop in Manchester have just taken on this range with some prepainted 20mm vehicles as well.Unfortunately you will be paying top prices for these so it will be interesting to see if the FOW sells any better than it did at Hobbycraft.

[NTM]

The gap is closing between BF and the others too. Peter Pig now sell platoon packs which are not much different in costs to BF ones. Single vehicle costs are creeping up from £6.00, to £6.50, £7.00, £7.25, £8.25 and Skytrex are even charging £10 for a single Nashorn or Hummel. The other thing was that until recently if I wanted a single vehicle I could walk into a local shop and pick it up whereas if I want a single vehicle from Skytrex I had to either wait until I saw them at a show or pay £4 postage. I'm not knocking Skytrex by the way just using them as an example I've got loads of stuff from them. I just think the FoW is expensive mantra is somewhat overplayed, it's not difficult to get there vehicles at £6.75 each which is a bit more others but the easier availability and many online retailers giving free postage levels the playing field somewhat. Just for the record I am aware that Peter Pig offer discounts on show pre-orders, QRF give platoon discounts and FiB stuff is discounted by some online retailers. Things that could start to make a dent in the BF market share are not so much the cheaper products offered by PSC & FiB but the retailer and consumer friendly packaging they come in along with the platoon packs from PP. The industry has to move away from the polybag with a tatty card header. This is an area where Warlord excel and helps with getting their product into shops I'm sure.

I suspect I will be buying a lot less from BF in the future but not necessarily because of the cost, I've not paid full FoW RRP for any of it, but because I can't get it locally anymore but there is now a shop that stocks PSC & Zvedza and I fully intend to support my FLGS. Sure I will pick some of their stuff up at shows (after considering options from various traders as usual) and will get some as my WI subsription gift. The game is far from being my favourite but I recognise that they do some excellent models (and some shockers) and have undeniably giving 15mm WWII gaming a massive boost over the last decade which has given me options I could not of hoped for when I first started in this scale 20 years ago.

[NTM]

[quote="Colonel White"]
Correct me if I am wrong here but I beleive the FIB infantry can work out as just as expensive as they are not organised into FOW units unlike the Battlefront ones.
quote]

FiB packs are pretty much accurate platoon packs so by and large suitable as a platoon in FoW or any 1:1 game. The heavy weapons packs don't include a command stand which is needed for FoW but can be easily obtained from spares in a platoon pack. This of course only applies for 1:1 games, as I play 1 stand = 1 platoon they are pretty much perfect for my needs. Where they do fall down at the moment is with things like command figures, nothing above platoon, and no bazookas in any US packs. I'm sure these things will come though.

[NTM]

, FIB products I see are far cheaper than FOW products (excluding Hobbycraft clearances of course) and Brian at our local store sells 4 times as many FIB tanks as he does FOW.

Depends what you're looking at really, single vehicle blisters not much difference in RRP at all, but FiB really win out with their platoon packs which work out at £4.50 per tank IIRC.

[Colonel White]

I don't think you are far off the mark there NTM because I couldn't help noticing I can pay the same cost for a prepainted and built 20mm Tiger1 as a 15mm unbuilt version. I think some of the smaller manufacturers are finding it tough to keep their costs down as they cast in metal.They are finding the transition to Resin more difficult than some of the larger companies and therefore they are having to pass on these costs to the consumer.Eventually unless these smaller companies change to resin ( eg Skytrex) their products could eventually work out far more expensive than FOW.If I had the choice of the two I would prefer to buy FOW. On saying this I believe Skytrex have just started making some models (20mm) in resin.

[NTM]

Yes, Skytrex state they had to change over to resin on the Hummel/Nashorn because of the rising cost of alloy. I'd hate to think how much it would be if still cast these in metal. Skytrex are not what I would call a small manufacturer either.

Interesting point about the cost of various scales too, I was struck by the fact that a 1/35 Tamiya Pak40 and crew was only £5.99. Of course £38 for a tank soon stopped me considering a switch in scale!

[Colonel White]

With the raft of new releases from PSC ( Brief resume in General Discussion) it can only get better and cheaper for you 15mm guys.

[mikeland]

Yes, Skytrex state they had to change over to resin on the Hummel/Nashorn because of the rising cost of alloy. I'd hate to think how much it would be if still cast these in metal. Skytrex are not what I would call a small manufacturer either.

Interesting point about the cost of various scales too, I was struck by the fact that a 1/35 Tamiya Pak40 and crew was only £5.99. Of course £38 for a tank soon stopped me considering a switch in scale!

Tamiya's pricing is always a puzzle to me, they don't seem very consistent. I suppose some of the moulds they have been using for decades and still sell in large quantities which keep the prices down.

[NTM]

Tamiya's pricing is always a puzzle to me, they don't seem very consistent. I suppose some of the moulds they have been using for decades and still sell in large quantities which keep the prices down.

Could well be fairly sure I built one of the Pak40's about 30 years ago, definately the Pak35/36 which was the same price.