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 Malika2 wrote:
I asked Mangozac about the price, this is what he had to say:

I just recently completed costing so guess it doesn't hurt to tell you guys ahead of time. The Dreadnought and Firedrake kits will be AU$36.00 each. That price includes a pair of each of the three weapons module types, plus extra turrets for the hull mounting points.

So it's little bit less than €25 ($31) for a complete cruiser with additional weapon modules and turrets. That's quite decent for something that's not produced in China!

Let's not forget the shipping + 21% VAT + €13,50 postnl admin fee. Those are going to be some damn expensive ships, still way cheaper to go and get second hand BFG...

Long live Dutch tax laws!

Cergorach wrote:

 Malika2 wrote:
I asked Mangozac about the price, this is what he had to say:

I just recently completed costing so guess it doesn't hurt to tell you guys ahead of time. The Dreadnought and Firedrake kits will be AU$36.00 each. That price includes a pair of each of the three weapons module types, plus extra turrets for the hull mounting points.

So it's little bit less than €25 ($31) for a complete cruiser with additional weapon modules and turrets. That's quite decent for something that's not produced in China!

Let's not forget the shipping + 21% VAT + €13,50 postnl admin fee. Those are going to be some damn expensive ships, still way cheaper to go and get second hand BFG...

Ugh, I order from within the EU so often now I keep forgetting about the customs buggers, same problem in UK - 20% VAT & £5+ "handling fee" if your package gets tagged at the border; frankly the worst thing about it is it's completely random, some packages pass through without a peep, others you wait for days or weeks past the expected delivery until Royal Mail can be bothered to drop off the "we're holding your package to ransom" card.

Well i am outside the union and maybe there will be a bundle discount.

 Jehan-reznor wrote:
Well i am outside the union and maybe there will be a bundle discount.

Yes, that would make a lot of sense for them to offer!

Great looking ships.

We need to get these ship designs to Proxiemodels stat!

Official announcement!

Hi Folks,

After many months in the making we're excited to announce that Battlegroup Helios is now live. Battlegroup Helios is our new range of fine scale, highly detailed, boutique quality models for use in starship-level space combat wargames. Our first cruiser sized models, the Dreadnought and Firedrake are now available for purchase and we're working hard on expanding the range shortly with both smaller and larger ship designs (in addition to new fleet styles in the future). We're only a small operation so initial stocks will be limited, but we are doing our best to produce more models for you guys.

Check out the site at http://www.battlegrouphelios.com

Well I ordered a Firedrake, because this deserves support, but ye gods dat shipping charge. I was planning to make a second order when the frigates became available, but I think I'll have to hold off until either they get a UK stockist or the range expands enough that a large order will make the shipping justifiable.

 Yodhrin wrote:
Well I ordered a Firedrake, because this deserves support, but ye gods dat shipping charge. I was planning to make a second order when the frigates became available, but I think I'll have to hold off until either they get a UK stockist or the range expands enough that a large order will make the shipping justifiable.

How much is the shipping cost?

Did I miss a scale pic somewhere?

I just don't think I can go $30 for a cruiser, battleship size- yes.

They do look great though.

chaos0xomega wrote:
bLooks like a cease and desist waiting to happen lol

I would like to point out that GW used forum posts like this as evidence in the GW v CHS litigation. Not that it should have been allowed by the judge, but even so, I personally think it would be polite to make an effort to be somewhat circumspect with comments like this.

Of course, you can say whatever you like (subject to the forum rules), but I think such comments are better made via PM, generally speaking.

 Jehan-reznor wrote:

 Yodhrin wrote:
Well I ordered a Firedrake, because this deserves support, but ye gods dat shipping charge. I was planning to make a second order when the frigates became available, but I think I'll have to hold off until either they get a UK stockist or the range expands enough that a large order will make the shipping justifiable.

How much is the shipping cost?

$18AUD, half the cost of one cruiser. That's to the UK.

Like I say, I can swallow that as a one-off, because we need some readily-available gothic space ships and so I want to support the company, and because it will make the perfect flagship for my Rogue Trader, but I can't justify it again for the escorts when they come out. Frankly I'd have waited until the escorts to do the whole order, but given they're a small startup waiting could mean they run out of stock and take ages to get more, or if everyone waited they could go out of business.

Hi folks,

I'm Vaaish over with BGH (normally I'm a mini painter rather than PR, but I wanted to at least chime in here)

we're really sorry about the shipping charges but it's one of the areas we don't have much control over. I'm working to get the site updated to help clear up some of the questions that we've received about package contents, currency and shipping.

The problem we're running into is that international shipping is expensive almost everywhere. I'm based in the US and shipping from here to the UK or EU comes in at nearly $20 US. It's not much consolation now, but hopefully we'll be able to get some regional outlets or other shops to carry the line to reduce shipping charges.

In the mean time, if you guys want to batch orders, we offer free shipping on orders over AU$200.

That site might do some improvements to the actual store:
#1 actual pictures of the models (components, so folks know what to expect)
#2 Some indication on how big the ships are with each entry
#3 If your promoting shipping for $5, you might specify to which locations (is it's only within the AU, say so)

Hah you beat me to posting.

Update:
We are offering an introductory $5 flat rate shipping for all orders until 12.09.2014 if you buy two or more ships. So get your orders in before 11:59pm EST December 9, 2014 to take advantage of the special rate!

1. Actual pics are on the way but require me to update the site a bit to get them implemented. I'm also painting the models for the site so I'm splitting my time. Hoping to have some painted pics by the end of the week.

2. If you go to the product detail view, we've got complete specs on the size of the ships and the pieces in the kit.

3. The flat rate shipping is global so any orders get the shipping promo so long as they order two or more ships.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

I don't want to sound rude, but I get the impression our UK friends are used to low shipping costs from overseas. Here in Australia it's pretty normal to pay AU$18 or more to get a package delivered from overseas. We are passing on the standard shipping costs at or under what Australia post charges us, and that doesn't account for the packaging materials or time taking orders to the post office.

 Yodhrin wrote:
Like I say, I can swallow that as a one-off, because we need some readily-available gothic space ships and so I want to support the company, and because it will make the perfect flagship for my Rogue Trader, but I can't justify it again for the escorts when they come out. Frankly I'd have waited until the escorts to do the whole order, but given they're a small startup waiting could mean they run out of stock and take ages to get more, or if everyone waited they could go out of business.

I understand your concerns and appreciate the feedback. Hopefully our $5 (to anywhere) shipping option will help get someone like yourself started!
I don't want to make any promises but hopefully I can get the escorts completed and in production over the Christmas break. Since I'm doing all of the casting myself and I have a day job there's no need to feel nervous about missing out. I've been making resin model kits for years

 Mangozac wrote:
Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

I don't want to sound rude, but I get the impression our UK friends are used to low shipping costs from overseas. Here in Australia it's pretty normal to pay AU$18 or more to get a package delivered from overseas. We are passing on the standard shipping costs at or under what Australia post charges us, and that doesn't account for the packaging materials or time taking orders to the post office.

 Yodhrin wrote:
Like I say, I can swallow that as a one-off, because we need some readily-available gothic space ships and so I want to support the company, and because it will make the perfect flagship for my Rogue Trader, but I can't justify it again for the escorts when they come out. Frankly I'd have waited until the escorts to do the whole order, but given they're a small startup waiting could mean they run out of stock and take ages to get more, or if everyone waited they could go out of business.

I understand your concerns and appreciate the feedback. Hopefully our $5 (to anywhere) shipping option will help get someone like yourself started!
I don't want to make any promises but hopefully I can get the escorts completed and in production over the Christmas break. Since I'm doing all of the casting myself and I have a day job there's no need to feel nervous about missing out. I've been making resin model kits for years

I completely understand that it costs what it costs, it was just feedback. Sadly the offer doesn't really help me, since you already have my order and my money(I literally put it in when I first saw that the store was up, I've been anticipating these)

EDIT: Oh, have you considered contracting someone like Zealot or Zinge to produce and/or distribute your range to UK/EU customers? I've no idea if they'd be interested of course, my only relationship with them is as a customer, but it might be a solution.

 Yodhrin wrote:

I completely understand that it costs what it costs, it was just feedback. Sadly the offer doesn't really help me, since you already have my order and my money(I literally put it in when I first saw that the store was up, I've been anticipating these)

Fair enough, we do appreciate the feedback

Ooops, sorry I didn't notice the username! If you wanted to take advantage of the postage offer just reply to the order confirmation email and we can amend the order as necessary. Either way, thanks for your order!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Yodhrin wrote:
EDIT: Oh, have you considered contracting someone like Zealot or Zinge to produce and/or distribute your range to UK/EU customers? I've no idea if they'd be interested of course, my only relationship with them is as a customer, but it might be a solution.

Not really. At this stage we're just keeping it a small, in-house operation, since it's the most efficient way for recouping our investment in this. More importantly, it gives us direct control of the casting quality, which is if paramount importance with these boutique models. Trust me, the level of detail in these models is nothing short of mind blowing. Vaaish has done a stunning job on both the design and the 3D model and in my (admittedly biased) opinion there's nothing on the market that even comes close to the level of detail we have achieved

Cergorach wrote:
That site might do some improvements to the actual store:
#1 actual pictures of the models (components, so folks know what to expect)
#2 Some indication on how big the ships are with each entry
#3 If your promoting shipping for $5, you might specify to which locations (is it's only within the AU, say so)

What he said and it would be nice if you buy more ships, you get a discount, or when you add more different ships in the future, a boxed set.

 Jehan-reznor wrote:
it would be nice if you buy more ships, you get a discount, or when you add more different ships in the future, a boxed set.

Well if you buy $200 worth of ships shipping is free, so that's a discount

Once we have the range filled out some more I'm sure we will make fleet package deals available.

weeble1000 wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:
bLooks like a cease and desist waiting to happen lol

I would like to point out that GW used forum posts like this as evidence in the GW v CHS litigation. Not that it should have been allowed by the judge, but even so, I personally think it would be polite to make an effort to be somewhat circumspect with comments like this.

Of course, you can say whatever you like (subject to the forum rules), but I think such comments are better made via PM, generally speaking.

Weeble, that's an excellent point, and I for one really really wish people would just leave the issue alone.

GW's legal team are big enough (and ugly enough, in their approach) to look after GW's IP without "help" from us.

If you look at Shapeways and what is available there...

One shop got a request from GW to remove 40k alike bits but the ships were no problem. And those ships looked more GW then Helios.

By the way, I just saw this over at Tactical Command:

Got my Firedrake this morning, luckily they must have been on a teabreak when it came through customs so there was no extortion attempt by Royal Mail 14 days from order to arrival in UK from Oz isn't bad at all.

The model itself is lovely; all the detail is sharp, not a single air bubble, you can barely even tell where the mould split is(there was literally a 3mm long line on the ventral spine, and it was gone with one scrape of the knife). At first I thought there was a blemish on the prow, but it's perfectly smooth to the touch so just much be a slight discolouration of the resin. It comes with four of each insert, so you can go all launch bays, all turrets, all gun batteries, or any combination.

All in all, I only have two regrets; now I want to buy more of the range, and the rest of it isn't available yet

Pictures or it didn't happen!

Hey Guys, I've been a bit swamped recently and haven't had a chance to catch up here (or much of anywhere for that matter).

YodHrin: Glad you like it, can't wait to see it painted!

To update everyone, I finished painting up the first Helian Firedrake just in time for Christmas. Hope you like it! Merry Christmas everyone!

Nice Paintjob, loving the design!

Wow, that paint job is amazing! Very nicely done.

Hmm, I'm gonna sit in the corner and be in awe for a while if that's ok with you?