"Pre-painted 28mm plastic Napoleonic minis?" Topic

If you play 28mm Napoleonics or are interested in doing so, would you buy inexpensive pre-painted 28mm plastic Napoleonic minis if a company made them?

without a doubt I would.

YES

You can get nicely painted metal Napoleonics for $2.50 USD a figure. How cheap are you thinking of, and with which paint job?

These are the $2.50 USD 28mm metals

If you are thinking of using a chinese shop to spray the paint jobs onto figures, that isn't going to be very nice for many figures which have detailing.

Depends what you mean by "inexpensive"!

To a certain degree, it was some pre-painted WWII minis that gave me the inspiration for the poll.

I figured that painting Napoloeonics is one of the drawbacks for people collecting this period. As is the cost of having miniatures painted (even $2.80 USD a figure is too expensive for many who want to game this period!).

If decent quality 28mm plastic minis could be sold in unit packs at a savings over metal miniatures, I wonder if they wouldnt do rather well.

I would.
Clif

I'm terrible at painting period correct models, I would love to have some (especially austrians and russians)

Now that being said, I dont like "cheap" pre painted figs. Some companies think that pre painted plastic=soft plastic, similar to plastic toys.

It would definitely bring me back into Napoleonics. I stopped because I get tired of painting repetitive figures.

Yes, I did forget about RBP painted Metals. I suspect it would be difficult to get painted miniature in 28mm scale any cheaper than what's on offer there.

I'm already doing it. I'm selling well painted 28mm plastic Perry Napoleonics at $3 USD a piece, figure included and trust me, that's the lowest you can go if a. you do not want to run a sweatshop and b. you want to be able to feed your family.

I can not complain about sales, but it is not like people are breaking down my door to buy pre-painted figures. A LOT of Napoleonic gamers still want to paint their own figures or are just not willing to spend money on having figures painted, pre-painted or on commission.

Also, napoleonic figures are not the same as the tanks that you use as an example. Tanks can be spray painted really quick, Napoleonics can not.. unless you don't mind a substandard paint job. So in my mind mass produced, inexpensive pre-painted napoleonic figures are toy soldiers and will never be able to compete with wargames figures painted by a human with a brush in his hands and a passion for what he/she is doing.

I will probably get stifles for this but with all due respect, if people can not afford the $2.80 USD that you mention for a figure then 28mm might not be the scale for them?

So don't get your hopes up, if there was money to be made by selling 28mm pre-painted napoleonics Neil and I would already be driving Ferrari's. :-) Neil, please tell me you're not! LOL

Fons
MMPS

How would you deal with Austrians and Brits who have countless facing variations? Or the more exotic French units? You'll need a lot of ready painted units.. god help you when you try and start French hussars though, one set for each regiment.

50 gamers want 50 hussar regiments. Unpainted, you need 50 hussar regiments ready to sell. Or you need 50 sets in stock of each hussar rgt, to dispatch quickly which means most of your stock sits idle. Or you paint to order which may slow down production right?

While you can get away with small anachronisms, cap badges ect ect the important ones are jacket, facings and helmet/ hat shape.

The Austrians, Prussians, British, Spanish, Portuguese, Saxons and Bavarians are all too varied for this to work.

Now for WW2, Boer War, Medieval, and stuff you might be onto something. Napoleonic I think you might be biting of more than you can chew.

Should point out I'm talking about per painted boxed sets, not someone painting to order.

I would.

>Neil, please tell me you're not! LOL

Fons, I drive a 1988 Toyota Corolla station wagon. Just for the cool factor. Ferraris are so out of fashion here..

Lol.. my wife drives a Honda Fit.. Japanese surplus, I'm not even allowed to drive here… :-) Wonder how many figs I would have to sell to buy a Ferrari. :-)

Fons