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Is it just me or has Battlefront's quality dropped dramatically? I'm working on a Team Yankee commission and everything is all-around garbage - models have poor fit, molded it that horrid Zvezda-grade plastic, crew models have a ton of flash and marred detail, and the decals either won't release even after repeated soakings, separate within the decal film, or won't adhere to the model. Anyone else experiencing this?

I noticed the same thing. Shoddy casts on the metal and resin, poor fits even on some of the new plastics. I had a couple resin models in fact that had some really bad miscasts (an A-10 and a Shilka) during the original US/USSR release schedule that I logged a support ticket about getting the parts replaced. The response was that there was a 90 day backlog on getting the pieces in. Never heard back from them after that and it was about 9 months ago. Decided not to bother with BF anymore and hope PSC will move to moderns at some point. The only kit so far that seemed to be a real winner is the BMP.

I have found the Brit plastic kits (Chief/FV432/Lynx) to be good quality; rather enjoyable in fact. FV432 was a bit fiddly needing all sides to go in at once to ensure a good fit but not really a problem if you are used to making models. Zero defects in casting, nice kits.

The metal Brit infantry acceptable, except long thin SLR barrels some of which broke off and needed replacement. Surprisingly there was little to no flash and no problems with mold slip. I have found that BF are historically quite poor in this regard but this wave was fine. Also BF still cant sculpt faces which is a worry after all this time.

The mixed Resin/Metal kits (Abbot/Rapier) are as fiddly as ever from BF (rapier missiles had to be in 2 parts, really?), but beyond a few mold lines and the inevitable resin goop around the track areas I actually found these kits to be better than similar Res/Metal kits in previous BF armies I have made. A quick clean-up was all that was required.

Not gotten to decals yet but there are tonnes of alternatives if it comes to it.

I picked up all of the American models at one point or another. The only ones that I had trouble with were the A-10s.

Iv had no issues with the plastic kit what so ever

but man the resin and metal.... id rather work in finecast honestly.

the a-10 was the worst

so i bought 4 1:144 kits in plastic.

Yeah, honestly, I do not see myself buying any more resin and metal from BF unless they've shown several releases worth of fixed quality releases by reputable reviewers. My Rapier SAMs and Harriers were just poor kits to put together with plenty of severe casting issues. I can't imagine what garbage the T-55AM2 for the East Germans will look like.

Their plastic kits, however, are great and I'm fortunate enough that those two things mentioned are I think the only two major resin/metal items there are besides infantry.

I'd have to echo that the TY plastics I've dealt with have been great, outside of the very early-run T-72s with the "shiny plastic" which even then were still passable; they just fare poorly in comparison to all the others. There's a few daffy attachment points for the gates here and there, but overall building the plastics hasn't been any trouble at all and they fit together well.

On the metal/resin kits it's more a of a mixed bag. I've not had any miscasts yet, but there's more than a few where the attachment has been dramatically worse than it needed to be. The Gepard in particular seemed like the barrels could have been designed better. The filing of the underside of the hull so the tracks fit on the model has been a reasonably regular issue. I seem to have missed the worst of the aircraft issues though; the worst I had was an A-10 tail fin where the material on the "slot" was so thing it was nearly translucent.

Metal infantry likewise the odd snapped barrel, but the casts have been mostly clean. I dimly recall some troops in the motor rifle box having a bit of excess flash on them, but it was 2-3 out of nearly 160. Most of the later waves that I've gotten to look into have been about the same.

One thing I have been having a bad run of lately is missing bits. I had a Milan section with only 9 missiles in it for the 10 gunners, my Abbot artillery is missing one mudguard, etc. Nothing that is "vital" to what I need for my various armies yet nor anything I couldn't likely make a quick copy of, but mildly annoying all the same.

Overall though, quite pleased with the TY stuff I've gotten, though I do eye anything in resin quite warily.

Got the Bannon's boys set, the tanks and copters were great. However, the resin command post was horribly miscast, and the resin tank commander figures were worthy of throwing out.

Having dealt with BF's customer service before (and 5-6 month wait and 3 reshippings), I didn't feel like bothering contacting them.

So glad I got some snap-tite A-10s instead of the resin ones, been hearing bad things about them in other places.

The Su-25...

shudder...

Horrible model.

That's sad to hear...I thought they looked underwhelming in pictures and reviews. I found the old FoW stuff hit or miss on occasion too.

TY has been consistently miss on their resins and metal. It's clear they've stretched their Malaysian resin and metal production facility to its limit.

I'm not sure how other 15mm moderns stack up, but even if it costs more, I would recommend not buying any Battlefront resin/metal models until they get quality control sorted out. The extra money you pay (or perhaps less money) is worth the savings in time and frustration at fixing these poorly cast models.

 Vertrucio wrote:

I'm not sure how other 15mm moderns stack up, but even if it costs more, I would recommend not buying any Battlefront resin/metal models until they get quality control sorted out. The extra money you pay (or perhaps less money) is worth the savings in time and frustration at fixing these poorly cast models.

There are some very good 15mm moderns out there, but I don't think you can get everything you need for this time period (at least not easily).

Some to look at:

Khurasan: http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/late-cold-war.html

Peter Pig: http://www.peterpig.co.uk/vietnam.html and http://www.peterpig.co.uk/ak47.html

QRF (some of these are decent, some not so much, but they do have a good selection) http://totalsystemscenic.com/product-category/qrf/qrf-qrf-1900-onwards-postwar-1945/

Old Glory: http://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/categories.asp?cat=488

And I'm sure I've forgotten some.

Man some of those offerings are boss.

i really wanted to add more variety to the US line up

TY Germany got a metric asston of stuff :/

 Desubot wrote:
Man some of those offerings are boss.

i really wanted to add more variety to the US line up

TY Germany got a metric asston of stuff :/

The US and Soviets were the launch nations, so they got the barebones (the US more barebones than the Soviets). The US will get fleshed out in 'Stripes', which is the book slated for release after the East Germans, and it should fill in most (if not all) of the gaps. The Soviets also have a "flesh them out" book coming later this year called 'Red Thunder'. I don't know when exactly it's scheduled for, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's the next release after Stripes.

What was the time frame for stripes?

 Desubot wrote:
What was the time frame for stripes?

I don't know if I've seen one for certain. The East German NVA is set for January. FoW V4 is set for March, and presumably the Mid-War Med releases will be at the same time. So I'd estimate May or June for Stripes.

I will second the recommendation of Buying KHurasan models.

Noting the above comments on Harriers, is anyone aware of a 1/100 GR1/GR3/AV-8A on sale anywhere?

I'm not coming up with many current kits in this scale.

 notprop wrote:
Noting the above comments on Harriers, is anyone aware of a 1/100 GR1/GR3/AV-8A on sale anywhere?

I'm not coming up with many current kits in this scale.

Like Flames of War, aircraft in Team Yankee are 1/144 scale.

Revell HArrier
Not sure if it is the rite ERA.
https://www.amazon.com/Revell-144-AV-Harrier-plus/dp/B0008EJ21G
Ebay has them for around half price. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.X1%2F144+harrier.TRS0&_nkw=1%2F144+harrier&_sacat=0
I got the CHinook they are pretty decent kits.

Eumerin wrote:
The US will get fleshed out in 'Stripes', which is the book slated for release after the East Germans, and it should fill in most (if not all) of the gaps.

I really hope it includes the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle.

 Ctaylor wrote:

Eumerin wrote:
The US will get fleshed out in 'Stripes', which is the book slated for release after the East Germans, and it should fill in most (if not all) of the gaps.

I really hope it includes the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle.

According to a Interview,It will be next years tourney objective,
Also i just pick up some Khurasan Cold war Americans Nice clean and crisp sculpts, The best part is that they have a pack with some M 60 gunners that will work out great for my NAtional Guard Reserves that will bounce back and forth from Jeeps/Hummers or a REvell 1/144 CHinook.

Neet. ordered some stuff from QFR


Picked me up two starships for my TY USA tank commanders.

hows the shipping?

I'm not sure if this place is any good, but I found: https://armiesarmy.com/

Which has some modern British, including recently sculpted Scorpion/Scimitar light tanks.

QRF looks like butt most of the time. Peter Pig infantry look like they're doing The Scream from that painting. But both are still above a quality threshold for basic tabletop, especially compared to the poor sculpting and casting for TY resins lately.

I've been looking at the upcoming East Germans, and unfortunately that line is going to be a lot of resin modified T-55s for a helluva lot of money per box (around $70 USD or so). If the quality was as good as the plastics I'd consider it, but with the current track record for TY resin/metal I'm not touching that hot garbage.

I'll gladly buy BFs new plastics for the ease of assembly compared to PSC. But for resin/metal, I can always find or make my own unit cards as needed.

I've bought a few pp miniatures to add to my fow forces the cast are very nice but the faces do suffer from dough boy syndrome, I'd sooner have that than hall a face missing like I've had with older fow casts. Can speak for team Yankee infantry yet as am waiting to pick up some us mech troops.

Can't wait to see what cool stuff will be coming out in stripes, will be busting out my Yankee kits over Xmas to get ready for the new year, maybe actually get to play the game lol

Here is pik of some American for Ty that are Khursan and Zvezda Bradleys theese are WIP i just got them, early xmas presents.But i do like the Plastic kits. there are a few BF models mixed in. THe Khurasan Dragon gunner is really nice one piece cast.

Picked up a PRP-4 Nard from QRF, not that impressive to be honest, however once its weathered up it will be serviceable, may get a few of the BMP scout versions from them as well.

Seems BF are avoiding doing the oddball units, probably to try and keep control over their supply problems a bit better, pity though when there are specific variants of vehicles for them to use the standard basic hull for it simply to have the same plastic models - the old resin & metal ones would doubtless have seen specific models for the oddballs.

BF if you're reading this, if you make a PRP-4 I'll even buy two of them

I've noticed that Battlefront's infantry miniatures seem more brittle recently. I first noticed this with some of the Pacific war infantry. Some of the figures where bent slightly at the base, but when I attempted to correct this they simply snapped at the ankles, which on a 15mm miniature is impossible to glue. I lost a couple of Team Yankee miniatures to this as well. I've put together hundreds of 15mm miniatures over the years and this has only started happening with Battlefront miniatures in the last year. It's a little concerning.

 LuciusAR wrote:
I've noticed that Battlefront's infantry miniatures seem more brittle recently. I first noticed this with some of the Pacific war infantry. Some of the figures where bent slightly at the base, but when I attempted to correct this they simply snapped at the ankles, which on a 15mm miniature is impossible to glue. I lost a couple of Team Yankee miniatures to this as well. I've put together hundreds of 15mm miniatures over the years and this has only started happening with Battlefront miniatures in the last year. It's a little concerning.

New factory possibly using a different alloy ratio to the previous one? Someone somewhere saving a few pennies?

Not noticed it as yet, but then not put together anything from a blister that wasn't old enough to have faded in a while, it is a concern though as its one of the advantages of metal

I got some QRF T-72s after reading some online reviews that the BF kit for them is lacking.

The QRF are nice, and great that you can get some different version varieties (adding later models with laser rangefinders, reactive armour etc.) but they aren't the easiest things in the world to put together and you need to do a fair amount of clean-up. Also, having now seen the BF ones in person I think they are absolutely fine for the tabletop.

I've put together some Russian AA platforms as well for TY that are absolutely fine, nice quality casts. Their other plastics (the Hinds, and just putting together some BPs now) are bloody brilliant.