Pacific wrote:
The other thing is that they seem to be able to get away without getting crushed by C&D orders by GW. The list is long of the number of UK 'garage' sellers that have been shut-down overnight by threat of legal action, and those that survive have been forced underground. There are a number of guys who do stuff for 40k (and some great stuff for Epic in particular), but you will never see them advertise on the net or with their own website, and its more a case of knowing someone who knows someone! Very French underground kind of stuff.. The Eastern European producers seem to be immune to that kind of legal action.

Alkasyn wrote:Well, it's simply profitable to do the models here and sell them West. The profit margin is huge even with low (for the western customer, at least) prices.

Max Jet wrote:Coming from Poland I can assure that it is one of the european countries with the largest scale modeling hobby culture and it's tabletop culture is second only to the UK. They have some insanely skilled guys around every corner. My hometown Gdansk used to have 6 to 7 shops in their best times, selling Railroads, scale models and wargames, go figure! They even have their own fairly interesting gaming systems which get reported in the news.

However the average guy detests the GW prices. They love the artwork and minis and so on, but most of the guys really just cannot afford it, hence their services which as far as I know are a lot cheaper if bought in Poland. Not everyone mind you! The GW culture once was booming, but as it is with every new country GW ventures in (especially with somewhat lower living costs) there is only a very tiny overseeable market for uberpriced minis. Combining with the churn and burn strategy the growth quickly came to a halt.

I am not surprised to see as many bit sellers. I am more surprised to see so few alternative garage made gaming systems as the GW systems are wildly beloved, yet the price highly detested.

Grimtuff wrote:I heard similar rumblings that apparently Poland is like the "IP blackspot" of Europe, where companies simply won't/can't chase up infringements due to too much bureaucratic mumbo jumbo. Or something.

RiTides wrote:

Alkasyn wrote:Well, it's simply profitable to do the models here and sell them West. The profit margin is huge even with low (for the western customer, at least) prices.

That makes a lot of sense! That's the problem with ordering from some of the excellent UK companies that I've found... the exchange rate is just so high...

PanzerTC wrote:Hi guys,

First off I love the Poles. I spent a month (Mid-November to Mid-December) there training forces to go to OIF and OEF. They really went out of the way for me to make me feel at home. They made a great Thanksgiving day dinner for the U.S. Servicemen who missed thanksgiving to help prepare their soldiers and officers for their deployments. They even forgave me for speaking broken Russian to the senior officers who did not speak English or German. [I have always supported anti-communist groups including the Solidarity movement in Poland.] My brother fought with the Poles in Afghanistan and swears by their determination and reliability. They are truly a great people and partner to have on our side. Although, they did think I was nuts to execute Physical Training in the cold weather (lots of snow) and did not believe me when I told them the Republic of Korea was colder (three tours there including the coldest winter in over 50 years) but none of them ran with me or the other Americans who ran outside. Their hospitality will always rank among the highest with me.

Second, their economy post-Soviet domination/resource rape, is bounding upwards, but is not spirally out of control in regards to their cost of living. This is due to several factors (some mentioned previously): 1) They are pretty hard workers; 2) They are pretty hard partiers I could not keep afterhours with the Vodka (or the Vat 69, from Sanderson in Germany I think, they ordered for us because they really thought the Band of Brothers is prevalent amongst U.S. servicemen; 3) the cost of living is not too far off from what the salaries and means are for the majority of the population; 4) they have a very real sense of honor, fair/free trade, respect for the rule of law and are also very-anti-corruption; 5) there are other factors too - like they seem to understand the means that their GDP generates and how to increase/replace ageing/failing infrastructure or create it where there is a gap/void while not going into huge debts too fast (a sad lesson that my own leaders in the U.S. Congress/Senate have yet to learn or execute for the last four years).

Third, the Polish are some of the most artistic people I have ever met [I'm married to a Russian artist (multiple mediums) - the unit I was with also forgave me for this and congratulated me on my taste in Slavic women]. They have been working hard to get rid of the grey and pink Soviet buildings and add color and life back into the buildings and community areas. My per-diem in this case was the only time I feel the U.S. government has ever overpaid me. The food and the drinks when converted from U.S. dollars to Polish Zloty was slightly out of whack. For 1 days per diem I was able to buy 2.5 days worth of food/drinks/etc. Note this was the exception to the rule. I don't want anyone to thinks it was a GSA party on taxpayers funds. There was a lot of ingenuity in transforming old empty warehouses or re-tooling old factories. I heard stories from the Poles of how they really on worked for three -four days a week in a lot of cases because of the inefficiencies related to supply/transport of materials. One cement factory would have the workers show up and wait for materials for two days – spent three days preparing/producing wait a another day or two and then load the product on trucks when they arrived. (My father-in-law says that the same was true Soviet Russia compared with the Russia of today.)

When I travel I usually take a Black Library book, or a White Dwarf (I had an American version of one issue, two German versions of other editions and a Spanish version of a fourth that I had picked up in Madrid's GW store a month prior) or four to read during travel or downtime. One of the polish Armor officers saw me reading these during my breaks from training the groups of staff officers and came and talked with me. He showed me pictures of his Ultramarines he had posted to Cool mini or Not and You-Tube. He was almost flawless in the manner he painted them. We talked and I had no idea how popular it was. Training was 7 days a week for about 15-18 hours a day, but we had 2 days set aside for downtime. This brother tanker took me to a local hobby store and showed me the local wargamming group (not just GW, Flames of War, historical, etc.). MOST OF THESE GUYS HAD SCRATCH BUILT/HEAVILY CONVERTED THIER ARMIES! I was impressed to say the least, and of the dozen or so armies about 3 were not painted and you could see green/brown stuff on the miniatures. He showed me his meager, but growing IG army – two platoons – ALL SCRATCH BUILT KRIEGS – and the Army Company he was working on to support his Ultras. I really feel bad that I did not keep in contact with him or that group.

Fourth and finally, I have used so many bits from the Polish companies it’s like second nature to me now. I usually get my items off of Ebay, through their storefront’s there and or request for a buy it now option to be put up or off of their storefronts when I have access to them on the internet. Sometimes they are slightly off from the intent I have in my head – but they usually work out fine. I bought several bits that I had planned to use with True Scale Terminators (another issue for another time) now I’m looking as to what I can re-task them for when I get more free time.