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I recently began hunting for several of the metal minis from the Rackham Confrontation line to pad out some warband concepts for INQ28 and Mordheim, but most of the ones I decided I liked are evidently the least common on eBay. A recent google session hunting for other sources of OOP minis turned up aarklash-chronicles.com, who seem to be selling brand new casts of the old Confrontation line, plus new models they've added to the factions themselves - my question is are they legit/safe to order from?

I know a chunk of the moulds got sold off when Rackham went belly-up, but I don't want to hand my CC details over to/give money to a site if it turns out they're recasters or somesuch. Note, I'm not implying they are recasters, I just want to make sure before I order anything.

So here's the deal. If you're finding Rackham stuff and it doesn't come NIB with Cards, it's probably a recast. And with Rackham stuff, I've found that the attitude there is....firmly in the grey area.

Rackham made such a mess of how you could get their products when they went belly up that I've seen a lot of differing opinions on how ethical it is to recast their stuff (especially considering the whole of their catalog exists in a bit of a rights quagmire, as I understand it.)

Shoot me a PM if you want some more info.

My understanding is lots of them are the original moulds, which were reportedly destroyed in the move to the garbage plastics. If they are recasts, they are good ones based off the few examples I've seen. But even if they are the original molds, I dont think they own the IP, if that matters to you.

Legacy miniatures supposedly licensed the IP, and released a few unproduced figures in resin, which were pretty damn awesome. Then shot themselves in the foot by trying to release $100 boxes of Acheron, Griffin and Kelt models you can still get the metals mint in package on ebay for like $20...

Which particular figures? Many of the Confrontation Plastics are superior to their metal counterparts and can be found sometimes much easier (all of the Ram and Lion figures, for instance - the plastic Chimera is probably the best sculpt that Rackham ever made). However the absolutely fantastic plastic Wamphyrs are near impossible to find anymore.

Pretty m,uch all of the Dirz I encounteres were significantly inferior. Aberration prime was excellent, but he originated in resin. Wolfen vestals and a couple of other wolf units had soft detail. The gorgon. Melkion and Misan (the dude misan came with was ok). Those are the ones I own, and wasnt impressed. Part of it may have been the blobby paint used... it was pretty thinck.

Though I wish some of the fiddly bits were in plastic. Like the spines on Cypher Lucan's keratis warriors, bows on daikinee archers, etc. Rackham didnt always have the best metal mix and seemed to almost have lead rot int he package at times.

Just had a nose around the site and can see mention of Fire Industries. If I remember correctly they did produce stuff for Rackham when they were still around. They could of gotten hold of the mould's somehow.

Bossk_Hogg wrote:
My understanding is lots of them are the original moulds, which were reportedly destroyed in the move to the garbage plastics.

According to Jean Bey AND the manufacturers, this was untrue.

Also, the worst part about the plastics was that the paint applications were really sparse. The detail is there(though softer than the metals), you just need to add paint to the details and wash/dip them.

Ludikbazar.com bought and then sold some of the original Rackham molds. What confuses me is that some of the minis are from Legacy Miniatures (the Paul Bonner sculpts) and some are from CMoN's range of previously unreleased minis. Is this a collabrotation of all 3 companies??

I looked at the stuff but which stuff is from rackham? Non of it looks familiar.

Just had a look at their 'Terms of sale', not very reassuring...

 Villie wrote:
Just had a look at their 'Terms of sale', not very reassuring...

This. Why would a Californian company be under Hong Kong jurisdiction? At least they use Paypal, so 44 days after order and no delivery: open dispute!

Aarklash Chronicles isn't legit, and they are selling re-casts. Don't buy from there if you aren't fine with it.

Edit: Oh, and they aren't only selling re-casts, some figures they are are selling are their original figures