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For those who care/want to hear some good news.

http://viewfromtheturret.com/category/wargames/miniature-wargames/flames-of-war/

-Nuts book at printer now. Next Battle of the Bulge release.
-The new European building range shown in Wargames Illustrated 296 will include about 12 total buildings.
-Mid-war remake (probably starting 2013?) will see campaign books on topics such as Tobruk, El Alamein and Kursk.
-Market-Garden compilation will be ready for Christmas 2012. It will be two ~80+ page books.
-Next early-war release will be winter war (Barbarossa?) in 2013.
-Sea Lion will be done as a campaign book(s).
-Vietnam gets proper campaign/rules book in February 2013 with lots of ‘new things to come’.

John-Paul gives some nice details on their efforts in plastic production where he mentions:
-Battlefront makes over 640 vehicles, over 400 of which are armored vehicles.
-Battlefront wants the plastics to look like BF game miniatures not scale models.
-An Open Fire boxed game will be released in October 2012 that will include ~11 tanks/guns, ~150figs and a V1 Rocket on launcher all in plastic.
-Plastic infantry on frames with ~60 figs each. Look identical to metal infantry figures.
-Company boxes of plastic infantry to come later.

Thanks for sharing.
Also i reposted your post on another site , Just to share the BF love. Especially now with all of the inmature attitudes over the tourney fiasco.

Interesting to see Sea Lion upcoming from BF, this will be their first "what if" book (other than MWM, but those were just units).

-Plastic infantry on frames with ~60 figs each. Look identical to metal infantry figures.

Please let that be the Gebirgjager figures and not the Brit Paras then.

I'm not a fan of plastic infantry, I replaced all my PSC plastic infantry with FiB metals.

The new open Fire box could be interesting though.

col. krazy kenny wrote:Thanks for sharing.
Also i reposted your post on another site , Just to share the BF love. Especially now with all of the attitudes I don't agree with over the tourney fiasco.

Just a small clarification.

George Spiggott wrote:I'm not a fan of plastic infantry, I replaced all my PSC plastic infantry with FiB metals.

The new open Fire box could be interesting though.

I'm not a fan of plastic infantry in 15mm either. Plastic tanks and vehicles are alright of course, but for 15mm infantry metal is definitely the way to go for me. I don't have any problem with them making infantry in plastic, as long as they don't stop releasing metal blisters too. But even then I guess it won't be that big of a deal, since there are still plenty of other manufacturers that make metal 15mm infantry, but Battlefront does have some very nice metal 15mm ranges (I'm looking at you, Finns and Gebirgsjäger). I doubt they'll discontinue the metal infantry entirely though, or at least, it'll be quite some time before they do.

Your right, it will be quite some time, but I can see the pewter infantry (With the exception of the already specialist items.) being phased out. I am really excited over the new Opoen Fire boxed game set. A V1 rocket? really?

Mat

combat engineer wrote:Your right, it will be quite some time, but I can see the pewter infantry (With the exception of the already specialist items.) being phased out. I am really excited over the new Opoen Fire boxed game set. A V1 rocket? really?

Mat

I'm wondering if it would be used as a terrain piece/objective, or an actual weapon you could use. Either way I think its cool .

Makarov wrote:

combat engineer wrote:Your right, it will be quite some time, but I can see the pewter infantry (With the exception of the already specialist items.) being phased out. I am really excited over the new Opoen Fire boxed game set. A V1 rocket? really?

Mat

I'm wondering if it would be used as a terrain piece/objective, or an actual weapon you could use. Either way I think its cool .

They were supposed to be more of a strategic weapon, so I doubt it will be something that you can actually use on the table. That would be pretty weird.

Hordini wrote:

Makarov wrote:

combat engineer wrote:Your right, it will be quite some time, but I can see the pewter infantry (With the exception of the already specialist items.) being phased out. I am really excited over the new Opoen Fire boxed game set. A V1 rocket? really?

Mat

I'm wondering if it would be used as a terrain piece/objective, or an actual weapon you could use. Either way I think its cool .

They were supposed to be more of a strategic weapon, so I doubt it will be something that you can actually use on the table. That would be pretty weird.

IIRC they were only fired at some of the cities in GB. So yeah it would be weird but, I still think if they could pull it off that it would be cool. That being said I'm guessing that it would be most likely an objective that has to be defended.

Makarov wrote:

Hordini wrote:

Makarov wrote:

combat engineer wrote:Your right, it will be quite some time, but I can see the pewter infantry (With the exception of the already specialist items.) being phased out. I am really excited over the new Opoen Fire boxed game set. A V1 rocket? really?

Mat

I'm wondering if it would be used as a terrain piece/objective, or an actual weapon you could use. Either way I think its cool .

They were supposed to be more of a strategic weapon, so I doubt it will be something that you can actually use on the table. That would be pretty weird.

IIRC they were only fired at some of the cities in GB. So yeah it would be weird but, I still think if they could pull it off that it would be cool. That being said I'm guessing that it would be most likely an objective that has to be defended.

Yeah, I'm guessing it'll be an objective. I don't know, I mean on-table mortars and artillery is one thing (and I know it's a stretch for a lot of people as it is) but on-table V1s shooting at targets on the same table would really be ridiculous. The scale in FoW is a bit flexible, but it's not that flexible. I wouldn't care for it personally. As an objective marker it's all well and good of course though.

Maybe the rocket on it's transporter. That would be a nice objective. Huge, but nice.

Mat

These are new right?

Battlefront's plastic panzer iv j

I think it's the resin body/ turret and plastic tracks, accessories and such. Same as they are doing with (or did) the Panther.

It looks like their not individually sculpted though, shame =(

They're plastic pieces replacing the metal parts. Nice one piece plastic tracks though. PSC could do with learning a trick there.

Hopefully they'll make the sprues available separately I could do with some for repairs. I hope there's a StuG III sprue on the way too.

George Spiggott wrote:They're plastic pieces replacing the metal parts. Nice one piece plastic tracks though. PSC could do with learning a trick there.

Hopefully they'll make the sprues available separately I could do with some for repairs. I hope there's a StuG III sprue on the way too.

They are currently doing that with Panther spures.

I got a new rumor to add,The Dice and Token tins are going to be discontinued.So if you do not have one you want you better get it soon.
My source is at Historicon.

One thing I know about the plastic infantry models, is that they have the technology to scan the existing pewter infantry in, then make the plastic models literal copies of the pewter. This is what they did for the infantry in the market garden box sets from 2010, and I suspect to save design costs they would do the same again rather than do a bunch of new sculpts in an unfamiliar scale or technology.

Rarely will that work though.

Metal figures will have undercuts and positioning that simply cannot be done in plastic die cut moulds.

Well it looks like i will be stocking up on the metal infantry and after that it looks like my money will be going to Forged in Battle and Old glory figs.
Also a durability issue for me. If i wanted plastic i would have used the 1/72 scale models when i started to playing WW2 era.

Big P wrote:Rarely will that work though.

Metal figures will have undercuts and positioning that simply cannot be done in plastic die cut moulds.

I'm sure they could scan the model and edit the sculpts digitally to modify the figures so that they'd work with a plastic mold before they actually make them. I'm guessing if they're scanning the metal models, they probably use that as a base and then make whatever changes they need. It shouldn't be overly difficult with 3D editing software.

col. krazy kenny wrote:Well it looks like i will be stocking up on the metal infantry and after that it looks like my money will be going to Forged in Battle and Old glory figs.

Yeah, same here. I've never really understood the draw for plastic 15mm infantry. I get that they're cheap, but personally I'd rather spend a bit extra for metal infantry at that scale.

Hordini wrote:

Big P wrote:Rarely will that work though.

Metal figures will have undercuts and positioning that simply cannot be done in plastic die cut moulds.

I'm sure they could scan the model and edit the sculpts digitally to modify the figures so that they'd work with a plastic mold before they actually make them. I'm guessing if they're scanning the metal models, they probably use that as a base and then make whatever changes they need. It shouldn't be overly difficult with 3D editing software.

.

But why bother?

If you are going to do that, then you may as well start with new designs from scratch that are done properly in order to be plastic injection moulded. The two materials require different design concepts and processes.


Personally though I think digital sculpting has a long, long way to go for figures, before it reaches the traditional '3-up' level of quality.

Hordini wrote:

Makarov wrote:

combat engineer wrote:Your right, it will be quite some time, but I can see the pewter infantry (With the exception of the already specialist items.) being phased out. I am really excited over the new Opoen Fire boxed game set. A V1 rocket? really?

Mat

I'm wondering if it would be used as a terrain piece/objective, or an actual weapon you could use. Either way I think its cool .

They were supposed to be more of a strategic weapon, so I doubt it will be something that you can actually use on the table. That would be pretty weird.

Haha yes right, it must be an objective. I've always shied away from using artillery pieces in 28mm games (the likes of 40k) because it is so ridiculous to imagine that weapon firing on a 6x4 board. You could imagine a comedy shell, Mario-style (with a face on the end of it), just plopping out of the end of the gun.. It would be the same with a V1 rocket being used at that scale.

Especially now with all of the inmature attitudes over the tourney fiasco.

What tournament fiasco is that? I'm intrigued!

Pacific wrote:
Haha yes right, it must be an objective. I've always shied away from using artillery pieces in 28mm games (the likes of 40k) because it is so ridiculous to imagine that weapon firing on a 6x4 board. You could imagine a comedy shell, Mario-style (with a face on the end of it), just plopping out of the end of the gun.. It would be the same with a V1 rocket being used at that scale.

I feel as though it depends on the type of arty. Mortars are reasonable, and 25pdrs often ended up firing over open sights, especially during the North Africa campaign when they got pressed into service as an anti-tank gun. But you are right about the V-1 and other larger arty pieces.

What tournament fiasco is that? I'm intrigued!

See http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/461807.page

The process of scanning and preparing a model, especially tiny ones like BF infantry, is a process that people are drastically underestimating in its complexity.

The data gained from a 3D scan is enormous and very dirty. You end up not using 50% of that topological data.

A 3D artist has to go in and create cleaned up versions of such scans, usually by creating a whole new model on top of the 3D scan, and resculpting various parts whilst using other parts that they can smooth out.

It is not as simple as just scanning it in and popping out plastics.

Sometimes, it's better to just hire a 3D artist to start from scratch. In this case, since the 15mm models don't need too much detail, or texture and shader work, it's probably faster to just ship him some refrence models and have him sculpt them digitally. Then that's assuming they're using a process that can use 3D files.

col. krazy kenny wrote:I got a new rumor to add,The Dice and Token tins are going to be discontinued.So if you do not have one you want you better get it soon.
My source is at Historicon.

This. I recently picked up the new Armoured Gaming set...disappointing to find it in a blister pack and not in a tin....seeing as how it was the same price as a tin set....

Also, yeah, the PzIV-j kit will have plastic tracks and accessories with resin hull and turret......As much as I like the heft of a tank with metal components... I am glad to see these new plastic track sprues are being used on more German kits than just the half-tracks and new Panthers. Back to metal schürzen on the PzIV-J...the plastic ones in the PzIV-H kits are a nightmare to assemble, I actually thought there were more kits with Plastic tracks...as I just started collecting FoW Americans about a year and a half ago, and the Americans have had their Sherman and Half-track sprues since 2010 I believe...most of mine are plastic anyway. Just started with some late war Germans...picked up the Armored Panzergrenadiers and PzIV-H platoons...was surprised to see how haggard the metal bits in the Panzer box were....you can tell the molds have seen much better days. I almost wish I had waited on the PzIV-Hs until they started integrating the plastic sprues in the other Panzer kits.

Fango wrote:

col. krazy kenny wrote:I got a new rumor to add,The Dice and Token tins are going to be discontinued.So if you do not have one you want you better get it soon.
My source is at Historicon.

This. I recently picked up the new Armoured Gaming set...disappointing to find it in a blister pack and not in a tin....seeing as how it was the same price as a tin set....

Also, yeah, the PzIV-j kit will have plastic tracks and accessories with resin hull and turret......As much as I like the heft of a tank with metal components... I am glad to see these new plastic track sprues are being used on more German kits than just the half-tracks and new Panthers. Back to metal schürzen on the PzIV-J...the plastic ones in the PzIV-H kits are a nightmare to assemble, I actually thought there were more kits with Plastic tracks...as I just started collecting FoW Americans about a year and a half ago, and the Americans have had their Sherman and Half-track sprues since 2010 I believe...most of mine are plastic anyway. Just started with some late war Germans...picked up the Armored Panzergrenadiers and PzIV-H platoons...was surprised to see how haggard the metal bits in the Panzer box were....you can tell the molds have seen much better days. I almost wish I had waited on the PzIV-Hs until they started integrating the plastic sprues in the other Panzer kits.

Also PAtton is getting Discontinued. Same source.

col. krazy kenny wrote:Also PAtton is getting Discontinued. Same source.

What's all this about? They've only just released him.