 miniMo  | 10 Oct 2025 1:46 p.m. PST |
Good news today — Ral Partha Legacy has secured the rights to produce RAFM in the US.
Facebook announcement:
link |
| 79thPA | 10 Oct 2025 4:20 p.m. PST |
I'll hold my applause until I see how much they jack up the prices. I'm certainly happy that the owner was able to find a buyer. |
 John the OFM | 10 Oct 2025 4:56 p.m. PST |
I too shall withhold my applause. I do like their Plains Indians, though. I need more! |
| Garand | 10 Oct 2025 7:58 p.m. PST |
Will they keep the RAFM brand, or roll it all under RPL? Damon. |
 Editor in Chief Bill   | 10 Oct 2025 8:39 p.m. PST |
Has to be an improvement… |
| John the OFM | 11 Oct 2025 5:40 a.m. PST |
Well…
I just checked out the prices for a typical 25/28mm infantry figure at Ral Partha Legacy.
$6.75 USD?
Uhhh… No thanks. 🤷 |
| 79thPA | 11 Oct 2025 6:41 a.m. PST |
That's why I made my price jacking comment. RP's pricing of most of its figures is laughable. |
 Sgt Slag | 11 Oct 2025 8:26 a.m. PST |
Those are fantasy figure prices. Cheers! |
John Leahy  | 11 Oct 2025 12:40 p.m. PST |
I had forgotten they had the Partha Colonials. I have to admit I was stunned to see a single 25mm figure was 5.00. A Cavalry fig was 8.50. I do not think that pricing promotes sales for that range. I have bought a bunch of the older Fantasy figures they released and they are beautiful sculpts! I have nostalgia about those figs. But sadly, historicals priced similarly make them a non starter for me. 3D printing should probably be explored as the cost per fig would be a fraction of the metal prices. Or sell the STL files. You'd make a killing doing that as long as those prices weren't prohibitive. YMMV. Thanks. John |
| John the OFM | 11 Oct 2025 1:45 p.m. PST |
Who wants to build a 24 figure unit at $6.75 USD per figure?
Yeah, that's fine for a "magic user", but a "true 25mm" infantryman? |
 aegiscg47 | 11 Oct 2025 2:35 p.m. PST |
I'm not sure what these companies are thinking. I recently saw the revamped Spencer Smith Franco-Prussian line (we play at Trenchworx who was producing them) and thought that might be a cool project to start. Just to do a two player game of 4-5 units a side plus artillery would have set me back around $700. USD That ended the dream rather quickly! |
| John the OFM | 11 Oct 2025 5:14 p.m. PST |
Yeah. The figures are already sculpted.
The Masters are cast.
The molds are done. So…. $6.75 USD/ figure??? 😄😄😄😄😄 I like RAFM, but that was back when "true 25mm" was Da Bomb".
This is just silly.
Seriously, "Soldiers of the Queen" are superb figures. But I got mine back when their prices weren't ridiculous.
Heck. Even Foundry, Front Rank and Perry aren't this preposterous. 👎 |
| John the OFM | 11 Oct 2025 5:16 p.m. PST |
So…
Why would a supposedly sane entity purchase "the rights" and then price themselves out of the market??? 🤔🤷 |
| 79thPA | 12 Oct 2025 9:17 a.m. PST |
To be fair, they haven't been priced yet. |
| John the OFM | 12 Oct 2025 11:55 a.m. PST |
I'm going off the prices for other Ral Partha Legacy figures. |
| 79thPA | 12 Oct 2025 12:00 p.m. PST |
I know. There is still hope. |
 piper909 | 12 Oct 2025 12:16 p.m. PST |
I am venerable enough to remember a time -- mid-1980s? Later 1980s? -- when Ral Partha sold infantry blister packs of 10 infantry figures from its 25mm Colonials range for $4. USD That was the only way I could afford to build my British and Zulu armies and I still use these for the bulk of my gaming in that conflict. Those were indeed the days. I'd be glad to see RAFM come back, even though I only have a smattering of its figures for the SYW and a bunch of siege machines that I'm actually in the process of selling. RAFMs were prone to lead rot in my experience, to a degree, but not as bad as Ral Partha's. |
| John the OFM | 12 Oct 2025 2:47 p.m. PST |
Yes. That was back in the day when those of us who "experimented" 🙄 with home casting figures tried all kinds of lead. Tire weights, etc.
Apparently many manufacturers were quite blasé about the lead alloy too.
We were warned to coat the figure with a dark green plastic primer (I forget the name. Started with a P? 🤷) and then do a white primer, like Gesso.
That was supposed to keep away lead rot. Right. 🙄😄 |
| John the OFM | 12 Oct 2025 2:52 p.m. PST |
My current project of Plains Indians should have started 2 years earlier. RAFM had a nice, large, range of different figures. They were reasonably priced, and on my "They're next" list. Then they went out of business.
When I checked out the typical prices for Ral Partha Legacy cavalry…. No longer reasonable. |
| piper909 | 13 Oct 2025 11:13 p.m. PST |
Hey OFM!
I also bought some "home casting" sets in 1980 (I believe these were advertised in The Courier magazine) and tried to make my own molds from existing figures I owned (historical 25mms from MiniFigs that were no longer being made or sold in the US) and then cast my own miniatures so I could build out my nascent armies. This was a period when historical 25mm ranges in the US were disappearing in favor of Fantasy ranges and I worried I had no way to complete my medieval or ancient armies without casting my own somehow. The results were dodgy. I had a hard time making decent molds that did not produce excess flash and of course I could only hand-cast -- no centrifuge. I bought lead/tin alloy from a hardware store in the form of small bars, as recommended by the casting equipment seller. I remember that set consisted of instructions, a small can of liquid silicon/rubber for making molds with, some mold forms and clamps, a little pan for melting lead alloy in over a stove top, and a few other tools or bits. My clumsy, untutored efforts produced a couple dozen very messy medieval bowmen and very little else. I abandoned the whole project as being too fraught after a short while. Eventually the commercial supplies came back and I could at least mail order stuff from the UK if not US distributors. My ugly archers were given away, my casting materials junked. Lesson learned -- I was not fated to become an illicit toy soldier counterfeiter. |
| Sgt Slag | 14 Oct 2025 7:03 a.m. PST |
I had a friend, in the mid 90's, who made RTV molds of GW fantasy figures. His metal castings turned out so good, I had a hard time telling they were pirate copies. There is technique to it, and he had it down pat. I tried the Prince August fantasy 25mm molds around 2000. I even paid for their premium metal for the castings. Their premium metal was far superior to straight-up lead tire weights, but I still ended up with some really poor quality figures. I packed it in, selling off my gear. Gravity casting never worked very well for me. I wish I had better skills with it. I know I can make decent RTV silicone molds, but I also know that gravity casting is very challenging to achieve good results! I prefer to pay for professionally spin-cast models that actually have their appendages properly molded (this is where gravity casting fails…). Cheers! |
| John the OFM | 14 Oct 2025 7:17 a.m. PST |
@piper909
"Back then" one could find quite a few legitimate articles and advice on home casting. I think even from Jack Scruby.
But the Dow RTV kits were incredibly messy. And expensive. 🙄 Which made the setup problematic.
I tried a half cataphract horse. Legs wouldn't cast right, nor half the head.
I tried a Hinchliffe AWI soldier. Turnbacks and bayonets were problematic. Even the hat sometimes.
And you're right. This was actually promoted by the hobby press.
I quit it because I couldn't get good results. The moral outrage came later. 😄 |
