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Re: US History

Hi Mike,

Do you know what happened to the emhar company, they produced a lot of nice Napoleonic figures and so did waterloo1815 who have also went very silent recently.

any news would be great

bfn

Allan

Re: US History

While I appreciate the influx of support & adoration for American history sets, Mike Bunkmeister hit it on the head: VERY Limited interest! The few, like myself, can talk the talk all they want, but until people give a ton more of interest, nothing will change. I appreciate & love what Strelets is doing for ACW, but they abandoned 1812 after 2 sets. Hats' AWI sets have been shelved for years now. Mike mentioned all the failed companies who collapsed by trying to inject a little interest in North American conflicts. US History collectors are very rare & that is a shame! Companies throw us a bone now & then, but it really is just a "There, now will you shut up!" type of gesture. I will believe somebody is serious about US history when I see some WW2 US artillery & heavy weapons! Instead of yet another set of WW2 German infantry that had a different belt buckle than all the other previous sets!

Re: US History

I also live in upstate New York and have been fascinated in early American history all my
life. I have visited Ticonderoga and Fort William Henry numerous times. I'd love to see more
French and Indian War sets, Revolutionary sets, and more Eastern Indian sets.

Re: US History

The minimum number of sets the larger companies make is 5,000 and often 20,000. When people here on the forum say, I would love that set, I would buy two of them. Who will buy the other 4,998? Or the other 19,998 sets? The hard core people are here on the forums. We buy lots of sets. But when it comes to WWII Germans, or Romans, or Napoleonic French the demand for those sets is huge compared to almost anything else.

When collecting a WWII Army you buy British and you need Germans. He buys Soviet and he needs Germans, and I buy USA and I need Germans, the other guy buys French, and he needs Germans. So each of those collectors or wargamers buys one nation, plus Germans.

The same is true in Napoleonics, someone collects Russians, Austrians, Prussians, British, Spanish, but they all need French. Ancients are the same way, everyone fights Romans; Gauls, Germans, Celts, Egyptians, and so on.

So for every new WWII British set, we need another German set. For every new WWII Russian set, we need a new German set.

But when it comes to ACW we have only two sides and so we don't get a lot of variety. I am very pleased that Strelets is making ACW and I have purchased most of them, and plan to purchase the rest later this year and more. I hope Strelets continues to make ACW sets.

I have no update on Emhar.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Re: US History

I'm very glad Strelets is still considering some more new ACW sets. I've bought several boxes of each set so far and will with new ones also.

The ACW Sailors fought right along side the U.S. Marines while taking Fort Fisher. They also fought with Infantry at other fortress sea-based landings. There are many very inexpensive cardboard based and foam based Paddlewheelers, Sailing Ships, and Battle Ships being sold on Amazon, eBay, and Russia and China sellers and they are easy to make conversions into Ironclads.

I'll do some homework for you Strelets and e-mail my favorite pictures of sailors and mail paper copies also for consideration. One mould would work for both Union Blue and Confederate Gray. Saves on costs, but you must, must, must do both Blue and Gray!

As far as American themes, there is another well known company who just posted their ACW Marching test shots and they do look nice. There are plenty of customers commenting on their forum. I'll stick with Strelets Marching sets and buy more action poses sets from Strelets. That company is also collecting information from it's forum members for the AWI and responds to questions favorably about future production. They are also doing WWII Yanks and Brits. Strelets recently released WWII sets also.

Ceasars WWII German sets are really nice, cover early, mid- and late war uniforms and go well with Strelets German sets. I've got both. Reminds me of my childhood watching on T.V. "Combat" with Vic Morrow. I very much like the Pegasus U.S. Rangers, nice and soft and bendy and don't break. I held out as long as I could from buying Imex Alamo, but no one else is doing it so I've got a respectable inventory. But I dislike all of the broken rifles and lances right out of the boxes because of Imex's brittle plastic.

I read a public article on the internet that Emhar's founder passed away several years ago. That's when new chatter quieted down regarding new sets. Their existing sets are nice and go well with Imex, but are a little too tall for me.

I think overall the hobby is healthy and productive and most of my discretionary cash goes to buying new sets, and taking the family out to eat.

Honestly, if no other producer but Strelets keeps making new sets, that's OK with me. They are doing my favorite themes right now and I hope they keep adding to them.

I like your wagon/bridge project Mike! I bought a bunch of those wagons, too and will use them with the Strelets Early Boers.

Re: US History

Good thoughts Garrison!

I don't "do" British Colonial as such, can't do everything, but I do collect Tarzan, I loved reading all the books and watching most of the movies. So I do obtain a few of the various colonial troops that can work for Africa. I also use some of the British as Americans as US troops wore various sun hats / pith helmet type headgear at different times in our history.

The Alamo troops from Imex are great, I purchased a number of their big Alamo sets and in doing so the price per set is cheaper. I also got a number of various Napoleonic sets that came my way over the years, and they get used as Mexicans. Of course, the Mexicans can be used against the Imex Americans for the Mexican / American war.

I have a US ironclad model that I got at a swap meet and it may end up being resin cast into a couple different versions. I am also considering a Confederate ironclad as well, something along the lines of the CSS Albemarle.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Re: Germans

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
The minimum number of sets the larger companies make is 5,000 and often 20,000. When people here on the forum say, I would love that set, I would buy two of them. Who will buy the other 4,998? Or the other 19,998 sets? The hard core people are here on the forums. We buy lots of sets. But when it comes to WWII Germans, or Romans, or Napoleonic French the demand for those sets is huge compared to almost anything else.

When collecting a WWII Army you buy British and you need Germans. He buys Soviet and he needs Germans, and I buy USA and I need Germans, the other guy buys French, and he needs Germans. So each of those collectors or wargamers buys one nation, plus Germans.

The same is true in Napoleonics, someone collects Russians, Austrians, Prussians, British, Spanish, but they all need French. Ancients are the same way, everyone fights Romans; Gauls, Germans, Celts, Egyptians, and so on.

So for every new WWII British set, we need another German set. For every new WWII Russian set, we need a new German set.

But when it comes to ACW we have only two sides and so we don't get a lot of variety. I am very pleased that Strelets is making ACW and I have purchased most of them, and plan to purchase the rest later this year and more. I hope Strelets continues to make ACW sets.

I have no update on Emhar.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog
I find myself in the unusual position of disagreeing with Mike here, as we have reached and gone beyond saturation point with WWII Germans and really don't need a new set or three for every new allied set produced. You can already buy them dressed for summer, winter tropical and unseasonal holiday weather, doing everything from making a sandwich to researching a nuclear weapon.

As I type this someone is probably out there designing a set of Waffen SS latrine attendants dressed for a wet Thursday in Byelorussia, April 1943, about tea time. :face_with_rolling_eyes:

Re: Germans

The marketplace tells us otherwise. WWII German sets continue to sell. Also many of the WWII German sets are limited production. Caesar Miniatures makes a set once and then never re-releases it, so although they make a large number of German sets, once they are gone, that's it. So they have to release new sets to stay in business.

The other thing about WWII Germans is unlike most other nations they were in the war for a long time, 1939 to 1945 and fought from the arctic to the desert. So they needed many different uniforms and equipment. They also had many different kinds of units, Army, SS, Navy, Air Force and Volkssturm who all fielded ground combat units.

Each of these wore a different uniform and the Germans constantly changed their weapons. So the Germans of 1939 were different uniforms from the Germans who invaded France. They wore different uniforms from the Germans who invaded Russia, and the Germans who defended Berlin were much different from those at Normandy.

The Germans also had many odd units composed of people who were drafted or volunteered from occupied territories and they wore different uniforms and carried different weapons. The Arab Legion and the Indian Legion wore turbans and other unusual headgear.

I think these are the reasons why people want more German sets, I know that's why I buy them. I do want more American sets, but I understand the "need" for them might be less, still I buy all of the Americans sets that get produced.

The only nation that even comes close in variety of uniforms and equipment is the British Empire and that's why even Airfix gave use so many sets of British troops, 8th Army, Paratroopers, RAF, Australians, Gurkas, and regular infantry. Now Strelets are giving us New Zealand, and South Africa and others.

And while I don't collect WWII British I still buy one or two sets for conversion, or to fight alongside my Americans, which often happened in real life.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Re: US History

As I type this someone is probably out there designing a set of Waffen SS latrine attendants dressed for a wet Thursday in Byelorussia, April 1943, about tea time.


If Strelet produced the above set I will buy it (my first German set for 20 years!) - although Goebbels miniatures probably already have it planned! Personnelly I would rather have Third Reich mules set - at least I could convert them into something useful!


Unfortunately, American and Western Allies figures and vehicles will always be over looked.
ie. BEF early war period, Allied artilley (US 105mm, British 17pdr, 155mm etc) are totally ignored but there are endless third reich 'paper tanks' like E25- E75 and flying saucers are readily available.

..... but as people say nazi products sell and there appear on modelling sites a lot of modellers who churn out anything with a iron cross on it!

As for Strelet keep on doing what they are best at - unusual subjects which other 'leading' manufacturers would not consider.



Re: US History

Funnily enough although I have no interest in Napoleonics, the only sets of that era that I considered buying are those for 1812, partly because I read a cracking account of the war and partly because I love the look of the Eastern Woodland Native Americans and the American militia. Similarly, I have no interest in the Seven Years War except the parts of it that occurred in North America. Again because I like the Native Americans and Last of the Mohicans film. So I found the comment about ugly Americans really surprising. Must admit ACW doesn't really float my boat but equally not patticularly interested in Franco-Prussian War or wars of Italian unification, so nothing to do with if the subject is American or not.

Re: US History

When it comes to Napoleonics I only buy those sets I can use for other things. The HaT French Napoleonic Limber is a good set to buy for horses, it has 18 horses in harness and they pull wagons and artillery in many of my armies up to and including World War Two. The wagon wheels get repurposed also. The horse riders get cut in half and a new upper half gets installed from the USSR or even WWII Germany.

I too buy them for the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, and even as far afield as the Alamo. Still, the vast majority of Napoleonics go un-purchased by me. I was gifted a number of them a few years ago, and I found several of the sets homes as military school cadets. Some of then right now are attending West Point, and others are fighting for the Confederacy as they march from the Citadel.

A boxes of Imex French and British Infantry got head swaps with each other and they became guards for Doctor Dooms castle in Latveria.

https://bunkermeister.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-army-of-latveria.html

https://bunkermeister.blogspot.com/2016/10/artillery-limber.html

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Re: US History

Sometimes I wonder if Imex Mexican war infantry set had been better, and better sets of Mexicans and artillery for both sides had been released. Would we have seen a thriving U.S-Mexican War community on the 1/72 scene? Sad to think it never was...