"BEF miniatures Closing?" Topic

The fate of BEF appears to be in the balance
I saw this on Tabletop Gaming News on Friday –

"Ian Crouch has announced that he is suspending operations at BEF Miniatures. From their website:

I have decided to put BEF on ice. Sales of figures haven't made enough to sustain the costs involved, and the interest is minimal in the products. Combined costs of sculpting, casting, website and research are greater than the sales receipts, therefore it is not a viable business proposition at the moment.

Then this was posted yesterday….Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 –

"Ian Crouch has updated his blog and appears to be reconsidering his decision to put BEF Miniatures on hiatus.
From his website:
A new day, and a surprising amount of support and a few orders to help out. I am very grateful for this. It is not my intention to "cry wolf" and see if I can generate interest through negative postings, such as BEF is closing down. I am now in the awkward postion of realising that there are people out there who want the stuff. It is very much the chicken and the egg situation with something like this. There will never be sales of big battalions, because the figures are for smaller scale skirmish games, requiring fewer to be purchased than say Napoleonics or SYW.

I will take stock of where I am at. One option that has been suggested is to produce a few trucks and simpler vehicles, which can be cast in resin. As early war vehicles were generally open cabbed, there is no need to make resin blocks. I will try this first, and see if things like the Einheits LKW, Morris CF 6 wheeler and the Belgian GMC truck can be made cheaply but maintain the quality I require.. This in itself will take some time. I'll see what I can sort out. In the meantime orders will be fulfilled, and I'll work on trying to get BEF on a more even keel,with a view to continuing."

I hope that he stays with it and is successful within a reasonable time.
Mick

I hope it doesn't close. Pity the vehicles are out of stock – they look very nice!

His vehicles look great. The French tank (Fm 2 C)looks like ideal for a pulp game. I also hope he manages to make Belgians

Its the usual catch 22 really. I fancy doing 1940 BEF games and want a full platoon of British and Germans with all the likely supporting weapons. Vehicles are not as important but some would be nice. I don't fancy ordering until everything I need is available as I don't want to end up with a half completed project but if nobody orders than the range will maybe never be completed…

I have to confess that I didn't even know BEF existed. I've taken a look and like what I see. Very 'DUNKIRK'. Lovely vehicles too.

How do they match with Crusader Minis BEF?

Cheers
Mark

Given that Battlefront is soon to bring out their EW books he might want to consider doing the same line in 15mm. That would be a boon to him I should think.

Mark – BEF are a pretty good match with Crusader; the figures are sculpted by Mike Owen (Artizan etc.) whose style is pretty similar to Mark at Crusader.

Crouchie's has numerous supply issues. He'll be working on getting the vehicles back up soon and hopefully some more infantry (some of them are done).

You want to support the range and see more stuff? Easy. BUY SOME!

I know I will be.

Guy

all the vehicles I want have been out of stock for the past 2 months or so. any idea if that means that are not available or they just dont have them in stock? Which is confusing because I thought BEF made them as well as retail the models.

They're contract cast, and I believe Crouchie was/is looking at moving from all-metal to resin hulls due to cost issues.

As Dom says, they're cast by a 3rd party in small batches as demand dictates – unfortunately this sometimes means you run out of stock as some loon inexplicably buys a dozen of one type of tank.

If you drop Crouchie a line and let him know what you're interested in then he'll it can all go into the next cast run.

Huh. I bought and painted up a Pz 38(t) for review… I suppose I should take some pictures and get it posted ;-).

It IS nice enough, I have some questions about scaling, have to dig up line drawings to see if they're okay.

Don.

I doubt you'll find any scaling issues with Crouchie's stuff, Don.

But then scale drawings are as subjective as scales models ;-)

Thanks Chieftain, and you're right… Know what I did? Glanced into the box and saw another 38(t) that was significantly larger and thought "one of those is wrong…"

No, they weren't… The "other" 38t was a 1:48th and Crouchies is 1:56. So now, properly humbled, I can sit down and write that review ;-).

Don.

Well, as Crouchie's semi-official painter I stand guilty of sockpuppetry.

The Pz.38 isn't my favourite – mainly because it's such a simple model.

The A13 Cruiser is a joy because there's so much you can do with it, from the earliest Mk.IIs to last of the Mk.IVs in the desert.

The A11 Matilda I is a little gem, and utterly useless on the table, which only adds to it's appeal.

The A12 Matila II was possibly his best to date, but out of production pending modification to France spec (tail skid and suspension raises) and trying to get a good resin cast. The original all-metal one weighs a tonne.

The little Vickers VI is another very good kit.

The Pz.35(t) I can't comment on as I've not built one.

Any news on how BEF is doing?

They seemed alive and well at Partizan this Sunday!!!

I expect Crouchie is skulking about looking for some new way to produce yet another neglected French AFV to confound German players of the 1940 Campaign…

One of these days I for one will get my claws on one of his Char 2C kits and finish it as a pulp fiction Chinese warlord's "Great Iron Dragon" complete with garish interwar camouflage pattern and traditional Chinese battle standards flying from the main turret…

Leland R. Erickson
Grayhawk Studios
grayhawkstudios.com