"Our sincerest thanks, and a polite introduction" Topic

Good Morning TMP'ers !

I'm Battelscar Bear from Battlescar Historical Miniatures. I'd like to extend a very large Thank You to our fearless leader Bill Armintrout for including us in the Manufacturers listing.

We are a new company manufacturing high quality pewter mini's located in Ontario Canada.

Our pieces are mainly made for "display purposes" but we are excited to get involved in the War Gaming side of the hobby through The Miniatures Page and it's loyal patrons.

We have a lot to learn about War Gaming and could use any and all advice you can give us, in order to serve this community and our customers better.

We are humbled to be part of the community and look forward to interacting with you!

Welcome, and don't be humble around wargamers! Many of us are utter troglodytes, and even more of us will take advantage of humility.

Glad to have you, and tell us a bit about your company please.

Don't be humble. It's a sign of weakness.

"You admit that Mr. Attlee is a humble man"
To which Churchill replied, "He is a humble man, but then he has much to be humble about!"

I would include a link here for everyone that can't be bothered to look you up… :)

Nice to see another Canadian Manufacturer on TMP, Congratulations!

Best of luck for you!.

Amicalement
Armand

Welcome!

Many thanks for the Welcome folks!

First off, here's the link:

storenvy.com/battlescar

The company was started just last November so you can see we've been real busy. We have around 200 pieces in the collection so far, ranging from ancients all the way up to our exclusive F117a Nighthawk ( which is pretty damn cool ).

Primarily our focus is on finished display collectible pieces, but they certainly can be used for gaming. We finish the pieces for you and in some cases paint them.

We also produce historically accurate diorama's for Museums, Educators, Film and more.

We're about to unveil the first of our 15mm WWII Br. Commonwealth Soldier gaming sets this weekend!

Unfinished, for the most part, so you can do as you please with them! Paint 'em, stand 'em and play with them … and take pics. We want to see your Battlescar!

LOTS more to come!

Will you be attending any of the southern Ontario wargame conventions? Hold the Line is July 12th, not far from you in Mississauga, and Hotlead is the biggie in Stratford in March (CanGames is in Ottawa in May, but that would be a further drive).

They would be a good intro to wargaming, in all its strangeness.

@ boy wundyr x were shooting for ComiCon T.O. in March, first up unoficially is Doors Open Ontario at the Small Arms Heritage Building in Mississauga, not confirmed as of yet.

The shows we have booked are primarily focussed on the diorama's, sculpting and painting. We've looked into Hotlead and hope to be there if it doesn't conflict with ComiCon.

Thanks for reminding me!

News, updates, shows, releases and events are updated regularly on our Facebook page where you can also access the store site.

facebook.com/mybattlescar

By summers end we hope to have a full display playable table we can haul around with us, just working out which battle and when so we can chose the pieces.

I'm pushing for a 15 mm scenario so we can use the tanks ( and maybe the F117A) We'll see what they say!

Finally found the website and not the bleeping facebook page, some of the vehicles look quite nice albeit a bit rough and ready in places, the infantry on the other hand I'll just not comment on.

Thanks for the input, every little bit helps.

As I first posted, any and all advice is welcomed. We have some very talented folk on staff, and they take it quite personal if even one person doesn't like their work.

If we can improve in any way, please let us know. After all, it doesn't matter if we like them (and we love them! )it matters if you guys do.

We have over 150 more pieces to come, so we don't want to make the same mistakes over again.

link

$35 USD for 4 figures?

Finished, black washed with arborite base. Gaming pieces will be much less, as in,we don't have to spend the time finishing them or supply the bases. What you see on the site are meant for the collector's market. We are testing the waters to see if our pieces generate enough interest to be added as gaming pieces.

These are definitely the kind of comments we need.

Tell us what you want from gaming pieces and we'll deliver. We don't do plastic, and we don't " print " anything. Completely old school sculpting, mastering, master molding then casting. We use Pewter and nothing else.

We've designed some 25 mm turret's, barrels and tracks for the plastic tank owners who want a bit of heft and an upgrade to their plastic pieces.

Would this be something you guys would be interested in?

Does 5 x 15 mm pieces for $10 USD sound more attractive? We've added those to the site and will be adding individual pieces so you can mix and match, $2 USD-3 for one piece, ready for you to finish.

Glad to have you on board,good luck mate!

Does 5 x 15 mm pieces for $10.00 USD sound more attractive?

No. Not when you can buy 20 15mm figures for $10.95 USD from companies like this:
link

8 to a pack at £2.95 GBP (~$4.50) :

$10 USD – in gaming terms that's 15-20 figures (maybe even more)

Irregular miniatures for example do 15mm at 30p ($0.45ish) each, £1.80 GBP for a fully painted figure ($2.70ish).

Not trying to be unpleasant – but it's probably best that you know that that's the kind of prices you're up against.

Good advice, thanks guys. Plastic and white metal we find is far less expensive than pewter

We prefer not to make our figures out of recycled margarine containers or white metal.

We are Fantasy gamers from the old TSR days and prefer some heft to our pieces. 15 mm is a new scale for us.

We've done quite well with our collector's pieces, dioramas and film sets, so this foray is all new to us.

We certainly appreciate the input, this will help us formulate an economically viable business plan for war gaming pieces as we move forward.

Most pieces we have up seem to be bang on s far as quality and pricing within the industry ( aka $35 USD for a finished, arborite based tank ) vs an unfinished unassembled one for $25 USD on average throughout the industry.

As for the 15 mm soldiers ( yes I see where the prices are at), I'll sit down with Les Grand Fromages and crunch the numbers so we can get you guys playing with them.

I knew we came to the right place!

We certainly want to be one of your " go to " options when considering pieces, so all of your constructive criticism is very valuable to us.

Please check us out as often as you can please, with your advice and input, we can only improve, keep the advice coming!

What percentage of gamers prefer to finish their own vs painted?

Would the WW2 cavalry go with the 20mm Britannia cavalry figures of a similar style?

martin

What percentage of gamers prefer to finish their own vs painted?

In my experience the large majority of gamers paint their own figures.

Thanks MajorB, we will accomodate!

Well, I still have my job, although 10 lbs lighter on account of what's left of my ass.

But I did it! Check out our new " market entry" pricing. I convinced them to even start including the tanks in the Gaming collections!

Panzers will be added to the gaming sets soon. Got lots more goodies coming next week in 25 mm scale. Currently on the paint bench in the studio being brought to life.

@ Martin, absolutely ! Britannia has great pieces, I'm glad Grubby picked them up and is re-vamping the collection.

To even be mentioned with Brittania is a proud moment for us Martin, we thank you!

@ boy wondyr x, looks like we'll be heading to Hold the Line in T.O. on July 12th. We're going to enter a number of pieces in the painting competition and the entire day should give us a good understanding of the " madness"!

Not enough time for us to set up as a vendor, but if you are in Toronto, come on down and have a look at our work in person.