"Flames of War - Introducing Flexible Plastic" Topic

Our new casting technique and material for figures

"The new Desert Rats infantry and gun crew figures are pioneers – they are the first figure range to introduce a new casting technique and material we have been developing…"
See here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Never had good luck with painting flexible plastics but these may be better.

Problem is usually that the plastic may be flexible, but the paint isn't.

I have the gun crew. The plastic is fairly stiff and you need to give it almost as much of a push to get it to bend as you would with metal. I think it has more in common with the new boardgame mini style plastic than the green army men style. Mine painted up fine but I did have several other problems.

I had difficulty with cleaning the mouldines. Although they were less of them than metal usual has they were harder to remove.

There was a lack of detail in the faces and some other areas. You know how in a pack of metal 15mm you get 1-2 models with almost flat faces or some other miscast? Here some sculpts had that problem and it applied to all copies of that sculpt.

Some of the gun crew had some sort of pole. The poles were bent and apparently you need to use the boiling water trick to straighten them (I didn't know about this before I painted them). I wouldn't look forward to doing to do with for a pile of Soviets with bent rifles.

Don't count with me. Sorry, by my experience with soft plastic hasn't been positive.

And by the pictures in the article linked, the new figures seem to lack the crispness in the details that hard plastic figures have.

I hope it is not Battlefront's own "finecast" fiasco. It is not my cup of tea, but, who knows? Maybe the general public likes it.

By the way, I am one of those people that doesn't mind to pay a premium for a quality product. I rather prefer to build my collection slowly than "save" a few quids but receiving such a crap product in return that I can't bother to paint it. Ever.

I just saw these at my local gaming store. They are indeed as crisp as old Airfix plastics. (Which is to say, not very compared to metal or resin).

But, they are 15mm, so I suspect once paint is on them, they will look just fine. I have some battalions of 28mm HaT Prussians, also in soft plastic, and I've very happy with them. They painted up quite nicely. Sure, compared to my other 28mm Prussian Perry figures, they are not quite as nice, but you can't beat the price!

Although I didn't compare the prices of the new FoW soft plastic infantry, so I don't know if that advantage applies.

I said this on an earlier thread:

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.

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.

By the way, the new British motor platoon runs $9. USD That compares to the $15 USD+ for the old metal platoons or $40 USD+ for the plastic companies.

Those looks quite good to me!… (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Well if you have most of the FoW minis you're ever going to buy it's really kind of academic. From what I've seen any of the plastics look better than many of the metal figures I bought 10 years ago. Wish they were around then but I'm not about to redo my entire army at any price. Cheers!

Whether it's Mantic, Privateer of Battlefront, I don't do board game plastic miniatures.

I wonder if trying to get access to that sort of plastic modelling was one reason that Battlefront attempted their partnership with Dust Studios (who do use the soft plastic for their 1:48 infantry models).

Looking through the Battlefront page explaining what is happening makes the 'newer' models look softer in shape and details than the previous options. Massed up, painted and in 15mm it probably isn't a big issue on the tabletop.

I found the FOW site, comparing materials, to be amusing.
Its written like no one had ever heard of soft plastic army men before.

Soft plastic! What a miracle!

These certainly are not soft plastic like 1/72 scale model figures. They are abs like board game plastic. I don't know why they called them flexible in their marketing. That was just a huge mistake. Sure, they're more flexible than metal and styrene, but a ton of people just assume they are like Airfix or Italeri 1/72 figures.

For me, the biggest problem with abs or pvc based board game plastic is that it doesn't do shallow detail very well at all. Edges get rounded and things don't stay crisp. It's one of the worst materials possible for 15mm miniatures. For Mantic and Privateer, their board game plastic miniatures look best when they are the larger models.

I wish this was closer to Dragon Styrene, which is the softer stuff that Dragon uses for things like tank tracks and tarps.

Not ABS crap that you can't take mold lines off.

I can hardly wait until a manufacturer announces their revolutionary plan to introduce crisply detailed, weighty, metal figures.

Not that I do FoW, or 15mm, but I pass all the same.

Have fun getting those mold lines off.

Related, I see GW offers a "mold line removal" tool. Does anyone use this, and how's it work? I just use an exacto knife, but I'm always looking for something better.

Blunt knife scraper for hard plastic kits – at GW prices

I wish this was closer to Dragon Styrene, which is the softer stuff that Dragon uses for things like tank tracks and tarps.

There have been some complaints about Dragon Styrene ("DS") that it can/will degrade to become hard & brittle. I have several kits that use this medium and have not experienced the problem…yet. But others have. It may be a batching issue though. But keeping an eye on my kits…

As others have said, ABS is not the same as the flexible plastics Airfix, Esci, Revell & others used (which was IIRC Polythene). I have built ABS plastic model kits before, and the comment that you cannot use model cement on them is incorrect…you just need the right model cement. Plastruct Plastic Weld is designed to be used with ABS as well as other plastics (like good ol' styrene), & works just like other liquid cements (though I find the Plastic Weld is pretty "hot" & bonds very fast, so useful for those scenarios). I of course can comment that I have practical experience, since I (mostly) built a 1/35 Trumpeter Type 85II Chinese MBT several years ago, which was molded in ABS…(I say mostly because it was still a terrible kit…).

Damon.

Couldn't resist Followup comments. I agree it is amazing how anyone can tout soft plastic figures as new. I started playing with Airfix like 50 years ago. I got into metal minis because of their crisp detail. Ability to hold paint and weight. Which is a good thing when moving stands of 15mm. The trick is the metal has to be a good alloy with the sculpts well done. The only exception I believe comes in with the larger scales like 28mm. The Bolt Action plastics are great because you can create action poses like you could never do in metal. Not that I'm suggesting glue on arms and torsos in 15mm. But therein lies my point. If you're into making masterpiece minis for your games maybe you should not be using 15mm. In that scale a well painted metal mini, soft plastic mini or hard plastic mini all look pretty much the same on the tabletop. I'm lucky I can see the figures much less the mould lines! Cheers!

Are these replacing their other plastic infantry entirely?

I saw a sample yesterday, in the flesh. It didn't change my opinion. Actually, it has been the opposite. Mould lines are noticeable and details are lacking, specially in the faces. I don't like them at all. The only thing positive to me is that they remind me of my childhood, when I pestered my mom to buy me some Airfix boxes for my collection.

RE plastic figures: many 20mm figures are in "soft" plastic but detail has greatly improved since the Airfix days. Plastic allows body parts and weapons to be much better proportioned than lead at a fraction of the cost.

To paint first get a can of Krylon Fusion for plastic. Wash then spray – they will hold paint as well as any other figures.

Have only seen the Flames stuff in blister at store. In general board game figures are far inferior to current 20mm plastic stuff. But these could be better…

TomT

I saw this on the Battlefront forums. The gunners of the 25pdrs are made the same material as the new infantry, looked serviceable enough to me.

link

<img src="http://s1272.photobucket.com/user/slatronic/media/25pdr1_zpsw2b9vahk.png"/>

The painter posted:

"On a side note, I thought the new soft plastic figures in the 25pdr crew painted up just fine. I got the flash off no problem and my normal acrylics went on same as usual. They arent as soft as say reaper bones or the airfix rubbery figures. They also arent like the "restic" that PP used. The faces could use a little more detail but to me compared to 28mm there isnt much detail to begin with. We will see how they hold up with time but I like them so far and cant wait to get my motor platoon."

Sorry I could not get the image links to work.

[ img ] url of image [ / img ] remove spaces

You also may need to rehost the image on a site like imgur.com as photobucket doens't always play nice with forums.

They really should have just downplayed this. A side note that the crew are ABS and will require super glue on the product page is all that was needed.

They should never have made a video and an announcement like going for a cheaper plastic was some great thing. I doubt people would be nearly as up in arms about it had they just quietly did it without any fanfare.

As it really isn't deserving of fanfare. It is a worse plastic than the stuff the tanks and gun sprues. I'm hearing mixed reviews though. Some say it's better than mantic/PP PVC "restic" others say it's pretty much the same. Some say they paint up great, others are reporting flat non-existant faces and detail being all rounded/melted looking.

I wonder if it has to do with how the model is positioned in the mould? Or if the models are demoulded without cooling enough.

I'll be honest… the new plastic figures don't look good. Stick with metal.

Thing is that I liked Battlefront hard plastics, and choose them before other ranges, like Plastic Soldier. I understand the commercial logic that has inclined them to make this move, but in my opinion they are making a mistake. I can't but remember when GW tried to sell its "finecast" as the next great thing in wargaming. It was a flop.

Good quality metal 15mm fo me (like Peter Pig) I like the feel of weight to the figures

I'm pretty sure they said anything they have produced in hard plastic with stay in hard plastic. They were going to use the new material for any future figure releases.

Saw these in person. One platoon was crisp and only really blobby on the faces, the other had rounded detail and generally looked bad. Proportions were great on both. I went and checked the ones still on the shelf and the rest seemed good.

So is EVERYTHING GOING PLASTIC! As in the Hungarians Finns etc? Eventually?

Infantry and weapon crew that are part of new releases are going to be in this plastic assuming they sell alright.

Given how slowly they are going to work through mid war, I think Hungarians and Finns may be quite a while before they get released as a new product.

I bought two of the Motor Rifle Platoons. The detail, except the faces, is fine. The durability is fantastic and the cost is great. Maybe you'll never win a "Best Painted" award with these figures but they are serviceable enough and paint up well enough for the "3 foot rule." Most of us, especially new gamers are not great painters to begin with. With the low cost and great durability I think these are fine to start with for new players and are good enough for most game tables.

BF still sells the metal versions which is also an option. PSC will soon sell 8th Army Hard Plastic infantry. It's all about having options and these new flexible figures have their place. I'm glad they offer a low cost option especially for new players.

Ooh, when did PSC announce that?

I think it was a Facebook post I saw from PSC asking people to vote on what gets worked on next. There were four projects the wanted to have rank ordered. 8th Army was one of them.

Ahh yes, I remember that. I was hoping for something more definite though! :P