"Battlefront new British Motor Rifle Platoon" Topic

Battlefront announced that the new British Motor Rifle Platoon infantry figures will be produced in flexible plastic vs. hard plastic. They also noted that these were a marketing test to see how players responded (the new DAK figures will be metal). I thought the advertising images of the painted figures looked pretty good with lots of detail. The preparation and painting tutorial indicated that the figures can be primed with regular spray primer used for metal figures, or brush on acrylic. Price of the figures will be about half of the new DAK metal figures. I was planning on getting both new infantry packs just for the new poses and support stands. Anyone plan on giving the new flexible plastic figures a try?

For sure – actually these are 40% cheaper, rather than half the price of the DAK – but still good news for those planning to go large on 8th Army! I love the Peter Pig 8th army figures with the long bayonets and iconic poses, but will definately be getting some of these packs to fill out the AT rifles, officers etc…

Wow, flexible plastic?

They just killed their sales to many of us who like to paint minis, AND, to have that paint stay on the figures.

This will be a boon to other manufacturers, no doubt.

Im definetly not buying them. I'll go Peter Pig metal over rubbery plastic. The gun crews for the Battlefront 88 and 17/25pdrs are really bad. I have replaced them with Peter Pig crews.

I wouldn't buy soft plastic figures if they were the last models on the planet. I (mostly) really like BF figures but these are a non-starter for me.

I will buy them to try. If the paint flakes off, that will be the end of them. It is possible that this could be the solution to broken bayonets etc. So worth a try.

I have several rooms full of 15mm and 20mm and 25mm and 28mm and even 6mm figures. Hard plastic. Soft plastic. Metal. Don't feel the urge to buy every new figure that comes along. The old ones work just fine! Cheers!

Not my scale but the words 'soft' and 'flexible' applied to plastic are a serious turn off to me.

I have 20mm plastic in my WWII Collection but they are the hard, semi-hard variety (Revell and Italeri).

Folks need to watch you YouTube video on this.

YouTube link

This is NOT the same type of soft plastic used by the likes of Airfix. Battlefront insists that the flexible (not soft) plastic will not cause paint to flake off. It also allows more detail on figures (including undercuts).

Mark

Flexible plastics' problem isn't that they don't hold paint. I have many friends who paint 1/72 Caesar miniatures. The problem is that weapons are easily bent.

Rifles will bend, and paint won't be able to adhere under the stress, so will come off.

My guess even acrylics won't be able to handle the stress.

I'll be happy to be proved incorrect on that, but imagine I won't be.

No, thanks. Apparently, some artillery crews are supposed to be made of a soft plastic, too.

I had the same preconceptions ( and airfix "bendy" memories) but the YouTube clip is worth a look, I certainly will be giving these the benefit of the doubt .

This looks to be that terrible grey PVC that Privateer Press and Mantic use a lot. I absolutely hate this material.

some artillery crews are supposed to be made of a soft plastic

Some figures in the Soviet gun sets are made of , a soft resin .

I hope it works out for them, but the memories of Airfix are too deep to simply take them at their word.

I'll wait until I see some that someone else has painted and see how they go on the gaming table before I put any of my money on them.

Not sure that they realized how deep the traumatic memory of Airfix figures would go ;)

Me, most of my armies are soft plastic – Airfix included. Painted and played with, they hold up fine.

I won't go for these as they are 15mm. But if they are good, then they are good. Prejudice be damned

Marc (the plastics fan)

These are not the soft plastic of 1/72 plastics. This is the grey soft plastic many miniature manufacturers have been switching too in order to save money. It's not toy soldier plastic at all, but board game type plastic.

And there's no prejudice. I've worked with the material a lot doing painting commissions for Warmachine players. People who have it in hand are already reporting it's the same stuff with the same issues in terms of mould line removal destroying detail, bad flash, lots of hot water straightening and so on.

I loved their move to hard plastic

Soft plastic is not an option. I am not even thinking of it.

The video above points out that dipping a bent weapon in hot water will straighten it out. One reason they say that they went to the plastic is that it doesn't break off like metal or hard plastic. I just bought two platoons of the things and will give them a go.

@TGunner: please give a review.

If this is the soft restic crap like Privateer uses, HELL NO, do NOT want. Holds paint OK, but is a freaking nightmare to clean flash and moldlines. Can't drill it easily, doesn't sand or file well…

Weirdly enough my two platoons showed up yesterday afternoon. They really look nice! They are not bendy like the old Airfix figures that I use to collect when I was a kid, but they are not as rigid as the recent plastics. They feel somewhere in the middle. Stiff, but still a bit bendy.

I was a bit annoyed to discover that two of my Bren gunners had bent barrels. But I tried the hot water solution and it did work. I dipped both soldiers in some hot water (right off the tap) and bent the barrels back into shape.

There is a lot of detail on these guys and it´s 360 degrees too. There are mold lines, but no worse than any metal figures that I´ve seen. The rifles are a bit ¨meh¨, but you can tell that they are SMLEs. They do look better than the BEF rifles IMO.

link

I love the slings! A nice bit of detail, especially on the Thompsons.

My only grump so far is that the prone Bren gunners don´t have the bipods shown in this picture:

link

I´m not sure what happened there. I guess it is something I can make myself, but is a bit annoying to see something in a picture of a product and not get it with the real deal.

Still on the whole I´m rather happy with these guys. I´m sure your mileage will vary.