"Beyond Help" Topic

HMGS-east has just sent me an e-mail telling my many spring conventions have been cancelled--thanks for the update!--and urging me to purchase on-line from their "exhibitors." (Surely we have dealers and manufacturers, and museums have exhibitors? I don't want to go on display yet.)

With due respect to many excellent hobby-related businesses, large and small. I cannot count the number of hobby projects which have come to a complete halt because…
--I cannot match the size of the existing castings.
--The manufacturer never produced enough troop types to put an army in the field, or took so many years I'd already sold out.
--The manufacturer never produced an opposition army.
--The manufacturer killed the entire range.
--Someone sold the range, and the new owner never resumed production.

Note that I am not discussing--except to a degree as it relates to scale--manufacturers who folded. In every case, the manufacturer is still in business, or someone else makes castings which would be compatible if they weren't head and shoulders bigger than the last production run.

I'm TRYING to work with the "exhibitors" but they're not trying to work with me.

Funny – I have never halted a project like that. I guess it's my habit of buying the figures all in one go.

Last time I started a new period was 5 or 6 years ago. I bought 15mm Vikings and Saxons. Bought both armies all at once (I usually buy one army at a time). In that case it was a special treat as I sent them all out for painting.

I guess it also helps I am "size" agnostic. My Viking army is perhaps 1500 figures total, with figures from every manufacturer around. They range in size from 14 to 19mm but once on the table they look fabulous. I prefer variety and will live with teh size differences – even in my horse and musket armies (ACW, Napoleonics).

Well, "Good On You!" Extra Crispy! You are certainly "healthier" than the countless others of us who are less tolerant about extreme differences within the same scale.

I sympathize with Brother Piepenbrink's premise, that those of us who have/had projects that lasted years/decades and still wish to expand or complete them find our original figure sizes (not to be confused with "scales") are being replaced by generally larger castings.

But more to the point, it is the conundrum of most manufacturers--to produce a complete line of uniform/weapon types for all sides and risk the expense on an unproved product, or just produce what's affordable and hope it catches on and go back and fill in the gaps.

In practice, I'm not sure over the decades how many companies have actually been able to "go back and fill the gaps." With passage of time and the need to spend any income just to stay alive, plus the advent of new interests/fads, going back begins to look less realistic than going on.

At TVAG,it's always been our philosphy to go big, or go home, so each range we have introduced (and so many to come in the immediate and near future) designed from the start to be "complete" and with everything needed for all sides. The risks are just as real for us as everybody else, but we hope that though we tend to the obscure, niche subjects (so far), we can earn a loyal following who know they can get all they need in them from the start.

But still the conunmdrum is ever there….

TVAG

EC, wait until the manufacturers start berating you for not buying just because the line isn't complete. It's been done often enough on TMP.

Mind you, I'm not asking for each distinct volunteer rifle uniform. But I don't think it's unreasonable of me to expect an army for each side, and that army to contain (for horse and musket, as an example) horse, foot and guns, with light horse, light infantry and horse artillery if the uniforms are distinct. I can think of at least two projects which eventually went to flea markets for pennies on the dollar because the manufacturer never got that far in ten years or more. Hmm. Make that three projects. On the EC program those armies would never have been started. Better for me, of course--but that's my point when people start banging the drums claiming we're under some obligation to support vendors who don't support us.

I see the point on the scale thing. But it works best with a LOT of castings and a lot of manufacturers. When you only have two or three, adding a dozen 32mm figures to a couple or dozen 25mm is not the same. I once knew a nominally 30mm cavalry regiment which was half Holgar Erikson and half Stadden or Suren. They were locally know as "The Dachshunds and the Giraffes." I feel no desire to repeat the experiment.

Both armies. Enough troop types for both to fight a decent game. And either matching existing castings, or in a completely different scale, like 5mm, 15mm and 28mm--not 6'6" people in a 5' world.

And I don't care how often HMGS spams me. I absolutely draw the line at buying troops the manufacturers refuse to make and sell.

Both armies. Enough troop types for both to fight a decent game. And either matching existing castings, or in a completely different scale, like 5mm, 15mm and 28mm--not 6'6" people in a 5' world.

Like the Iggy Pop song, "Five foot one"

If you think you have heartache, try being a 40mm figure collector; oh the agony and the ecstasy.

Also, with this corona virus going around and knowing the average age of both my favorite makers and painters, I am truly terrified for the future.

Dear Russ, of Old Glory fame, I know I havent always been gentle on you but please take care of you and yours and stay healthy!

I promise I'll never bust your chops about missing packs in ranges again.

Wow, someone peed in your cornflakes. Never go full curmudgeon.

The HMGS was no doubt trying to help out folks who will take a hit from all the cancellations. You may not care to buy, but there's no need to add so much vinegar to your salt.

If anyone is probably tough enough to get this novel flu and survive, I believe it will be Russ.

Never go full curmudgeon.

That should be a meme.

Tired of people trying to blur business and charity, TGerritsen. You GIVE things to people who are poor, hungry, clothed in rags or homeless. You BUY things from people who are selling you what you want at an acceptable price. The one is a moral obligation: the other is not, and confusing the two isn't good for either.

By the way, the only other time I heard "someone peed in your cornflakes" it was also on TMP when I suggested that powerful unaccountable governments were a bad thing. Did you two go to the same school?

Oh, and I have attempted to place two orders since Cold Wars. Both want to calculate an "exact" postage & handling, and neither has, so no money has changed hands. Maybe business isn't as bad as HMGS-east thinks.

I don't believe the intent of HMGS or anyone was a bad one. At this point I am not open to buy much of anything until this Coronavirus issue settles itself out and I expect that to take a full two years before it does. Don't see much need to expand my gaming or entertainment categories when it is possible I may not be around to enjoy them.

+1 TGerritsen

In my experience "peed in you cornflakes" is not an uncommon phrase.

Hmph. Around here, when we want to get even with someone, we obey orders--to the letter. More sanitary AND more fun.