3D Printing and the Slow Death of Battlefront Games
I thought that would get your attention. So what has been happening I hear you say? Well I know it has been a very very long time since I last posted something, in fact the Necromunda post was drafted in May. Mental tiredness and fatigue due to some medication I am/was on had an undesired numerous side effects that was put down to several other disorders until I did a bit of internet research (although I always say never Google ones illnesses as you will regret it, this time it was spot on). Good news is that I am getting the better of it, so on with the post.
3D printing and the slow death of Battlefront; what's all this about? Well the first thing is I purchased a 3D printer... a Anycubic I3 Mega S for those wishing to know.
This baby is a result of a friend carrying out some trial Printing for me and I decided to buy one, the biggest factor that came into play was Battlefronts Marketing strategy. Hmm... what's he on about I hear some say? How does a 3D printer come into play due to BF? Well more on this later on..
Printing is not that straight forward as it is with paper. Some hit and misses will occur but over time you will sort these out. If you can not make your own models to print there is a plethora on a site called Thingiverse and a site called Yegi (although the latter steals heavily from the Former). Most files are Free to download but you need to have the correct software to interpretate the files, and once again luckily this was free.
Suffice to say if you can put up with the low quality of the printed models which all, as some may say pass the 3 foot rule, then you are on to a winner. Good quality models take twice as long to print and if you want fast bulk printing you will have to sacrifice the quality option and some degree of supervision may be required.
What do they look like? Quick Answer, no worse than models from the 1980s. I will do some pictures later on as my WW2 15mm collection has increased somewhat and needs some time to catch up on the painting as I have basically missed out the whole summer. Oh look I managed to do some painting.
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Some of the stuff I have 3D printed, looks like the paint need matting down more, rushed them a bit but I am really happy how they came out.
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Onto the next subject,
The Slow Death of Battle Front miniatures.
Over the years Battlefront miniatures that first appeared in the mid 1990's has slowly built it self up to the monster it is today, with the introduction of Flames of War, 15mm WW2 took to mainstream gaming and to many introduced a new period and scale.
Over the years BF expanded their miniature range into one of the most comprehensive ranges in the whole gaming world, no GW don't count as they are gits and not historical. You could buy virtually any thing you need for your multitude of available army lists, then v4 FOW reared its ugly head, (I am a child of v2 FOW) and a new marketing strategy that seemed at the time good news for independent stockists.
Boxed sets, selling not individual models but a platoon in plastic. Sounds good until you realise what's happening to the rest of the range. BF seem to be following in the footsteps of Plastic Soldier Company where they offer plastic models by the platoon. Down side is the assembly time, the upside was the cost compared to BF resin and metal models.
From what I have seen the new models are of a good quality (Desert Infantry aside) but the cost has not reduced either, still making them slightly more costly then PSC. Now I buy from various companied the models I need, Skytrex, Peterpig, Defunct SDD, PSC, and BF. Most of my armies are resin and metal miniatures, with a sprinkling of plastic.
Battlefront have taken the decision to discontinue a lot of their range as they introduce the boxed sets, and slowly the models you need are disappearing.
I am slow to build armies and as most of us older players have numerous periods and collections which we suddenly get an urge to tinker with and expand over a random period of time.
I found that the models that was required to expand and finish my v2/3 armies are now defunct. For me this is bad news, for BF this is bad news also, as a 3D printer has sorted the supply problems and opened up further possibilities for my collections.
The simple resin and metal models which took novices a few minutes to assemble, that also includes unsticking their fingers due to the superglue exploding to making them make Airfix style models although in some cases a lot simpler to put together, but time consuming non the less.
So no more quick army assemblies for kids but hours of annoying assembly that could have spent better playing on the Xbox. Now that BF has destroyed its most comprehensive range that people purchased not only for FOW but other reasons (Hey I just thought maybe that's the plan, you cant buy your models to play other rules, you have to buy our platoons for our rules, one step closer to their beloved GW marketing plan), but you take a look and see what I mean, make your mind up, but why sell Loose Artillery guns but not the crews?
Personally I may be a bit cynical about this, but instead of discontinuing the most comprehensive range in the world, why could they not just offer the now old range as direct sales only, to allow us oldies to carry on expanding our armies. So has BF signed their death warrant only time will tell....
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Some rubbing down is required and I missed one by looks of it, but that's the worse one I have done. I like the 3D printing aspect as it gives you access to models that are not normally produced like the Radio truck.
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What has a £200 printer done? so far:
1 MkViB
1 Dorchester ACV
2 CMP Radio trucks
1 Char B
1 SDKFZ 253
4 5.5" Howitzers (Crews from Peterpig)
4 CMP 20mm SPAA
4 2pdr Portees
3 Marmon Herington AC
4 M3 Scout Cars
1 articulated slug
and
1 articulated Octopus
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| Close up you can see some flaws of printing but from normal distance the flaws are not that noticeable. |
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The MkVI suffers from print lines but that may be more down to the angle I printed it at, But I am happy, as this was a tester for a larger planned desert army and will be used as part of my desert raiding force heavy section. Also seen is the stepping at the back of the MH armoured cars, but again I can live with that.
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24 vehicles (And counting) at £8, the printer has almost paid for its self, and as these are what I call second line units I can live with the lower quality.
Sorry BF your loss is in many ways my gain, I was quite willing to buy from you. Overall I am happy with the 3D prints and it has given me access to new army possibilities, I will still be buying infantry although not the new plastic types , I prefer metal in 15mm. And to be honest I will still be buying some BF stuff in the future as not all the vehicles are available for printing.
