"1/1200 Civil War buildings" Topic

Pithead have produced prototypes for southern style buildings in 1/1200 scale to form a scenic the backdrop to battles like Memphis, Galveston and Pass Christian. The set when completed will be around thirty buildings consisting of Town houses , Houses with porches , Commercial buidings , Churches , Warehouses , a Tavern , Small Hotel, a Bank , Blacksmiths Workshop , Small Courthouse , Plantation house , Town Hall and a Lighthouse . We are looking for your support to put these into production , they will retail for around £30.00 GBP a set.

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"Anti" bellum buildings? What do those buildings have against war? Good looking set of buildings. I like 'em.

Oops , should read ante bellum.

Seems pretty expensive to me. I just paid 8 Euro for about 12 hard plastic (FROM INJECTION MOLDS) buildings in 6mm at Crisis. If my math is right, 1/1200th is about 4 times smaller than my 6mm buildings!

Does this seem "right" to you?

I'm not sure how significant the size would be in calculating the cost of miniature buildings (in pewter it could be quite a difference, in resin probably negligible, etc.), but I have to agree that the proposed price is already undercut by the existing market. The Pithead proposal is £1.00 GBP per building, but Brigade Models already produces a set of American-style buildings for about £0.28 GBP per building:

They also produce sets of English buildings, French buildings, Industrial buildings that could look perfectly American with the right paint job.

Some of the Irregular Miniatures 2mm buildings and towns can also be adapted, and are also much cheaper (£0.30 and less per building), though not nearly as nice. Irregular 2mm buildings are also a crap shoot, since many of them aren't photographed… quite a bit of my Irregular 2mm scenery is actually being used as 1/2400 scale terrain, because the models too small to be 1/1200!

I might still buy a couple sets of Pithead buildings just to add variety to my shorelines for £0.50 GBP per building, if they're size compatible with my existing 1/1200ish terrain. I happen to have a lot of US pennies on hand to test with. (For those who don't know, a US penny is 3/4" in diameter, which is about 19mm.)

For the record, I'm very interested in all the forts (Morgan, Jackson, St. Philip) and the set of Confederate River Transports.

- Ix

"Anti" bellum buildings? What do those buildings have against war?

It's natural for buildings to be opposed to war, since they tend to suffer terribly when the shooting starts, and they can't take cover or flee the area. :-)

- Ix

You both have a point but you need to consider that it has taken me 30 hours of work to make these buildings and I will only expect to sell less than a dozen sets . Not to be disparaging about the models above but they appear to be a lot smaller than the set I have made and not as detailed , they are also saying Pennsylvania to me not Louisiana.

If you make anything unusual you need to be realistic about how many you will sell taking into account the hours it has taken you to make them and price accordingly .

Tom , you of all people should know that when a company gears up to make plastic injected mouldings then they are planning to sell them in the thousands and not just a dozen.

Admiral, no I won't be selling these models at 50p a building as I don't do skilled work for less than the UK minimum wage. Anyway four of these models have involved me in as much work as any $8.00 USD USD ship model I have ever made so why should a building be any different, its my hours of labour you are paying for afterall.

I didn't say it explicity, but you've summarized exactly what I meant about the cost of materials being, well, immaterial to the price. The cost of labor for a low-volume miniatures casting project will likely exceed the cost of casting materials, probably by a large margin.

I don't expect you to bring the price down just for me. :-) I didn't mean to sound critical, I'm just being honest about my position. I only meant that I personally can't justify the proposed cost given all the other options I'm already invested in. My miniatures hobby is a net drain on my finances and I'm not rich, so I have to be rational about the budget. I'd rather save my money for your ship models, which depict vessels I'm unlikely to see modeled by anyone else, and are after all much more important for wargaming than the shore terrain they steam past on the way to sink each other.

Best of luck, I hope you can get this project launched.

- Ix

Admiral , I take no offence from your views , they are honest and are generated by your own set of personal priorities . You have opened up an interesting debate on what we are paying for in wargaming , materials , labour, accuracy or rarity value . From my point of view I have used it as an opportunity to illustrate my dilemma of what to do when it comes to pricing . I was fully aware of the controversy this set would cause when I made them . I will also have the same dilemma when I release the North Carolina mosquito fleet of eleven tiny ships and a fort . People will be saying "that ship is tiny it's not worth as much as that bigger ship", as if its size was the only consideration. From my point of view size is immaterial , it's all about how many hours of work I have put in to making the master and the number of parts that make up the model that count . I hear the same things said about people comparing makes and prices . A certain British producer charges a "high price" for his models but from my point of view the price is fully justified when I look at the time he has put into making the master, it's flawless . On the other extreme another producer not from the UK makes very reasonably priced "wargaming models" that will do the job but are not of the best quality or as well researched . When I look at these models I just feel that most wargamers have no idea of how these vessels looked anyway and will be quite happy to buy them as long as somebody tells them which warships they are intended to represent .
Now I have to be honest , before I am accused of double standards I am not making these unusual models just to sell. Primarily I am making them because I want them for myself , I have put in a lot of research effort ( both mine and other peoples) and spent a lot of money on books to make sure these models are as accurate as possible and I am not passing these costs onto anyone because I have done it for myself . If there is enough demand to make the project viable then I am prepared to make copies of my models and offer them for sale to like minded individuals who appreciate the research effort I have put into their creation and in return I will charge them one twelfth of my labour time. I have arrived at this figure because I know from experience there will only be a dozen 1/1200 naval wargamers out there who have any idea of what these ships actually looked like , who want to wargame something unusual and are prepared to pay slightly above the odds for it .

l have already bought the first set of ships and intended to buy more. I would definitely put myself as one of the dozen.

The buildings are lovely although I'm not sure I would buy them just for "eye candy" on the table. They are just not high on my list.

I do love the fort and battery castings that are shown on your website, however. Those I will be glad buy. In particular I've been looking for something to use for Ft Morgan for years now to put on a Battle of Mobile Bay game.

Civil War town using Spithead 1/1200 scale buildings , suitable for Memphis , Vicksburg , Galveston, Pass Christian and Elizabeth City scenarios.

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