Re: Field Marshal Games Pieces Project Discussion thread

@FieldMarshalGames:

They are all of the same quality… Some of the pictures are bad.  These were made from grainy factory pictures.

Can we expect better pictures?

I will have more pictures soon.  Once I have the first production samples I will make my own pictures and they will be the correct colour etc…

To “kcdzim”
Thanks for correcting me on the Tac Bombers.  I did not know that the Val had fixed landing gear like the Stuka.  In that case, you are right and they should have landing gear.  It still makes it hard to place them on carriers though.

To “Rorschach”
Thank you for bolding my list on upcoming pieces and correcting “cminke”.  I can certainly take criticism like anyone else because Lord knows I am not perfect but I don’t appreciate being told I am wrong then being asked about something which I put right there in plain sight.

By the way, just wanted to add my 2 cents worth.  I don’t understand why no one seems to like the lines on the planes.  I think they look great.  Like the extra detail of the suspension and engine covers on the tanks, that’s one main reason I was attracted to this project.  I think it is incredible that they can make such tiny pieces with such fine detail.  In fact, after seeing the pics of the new FMG pieces, I have become much more dissappointed with the WOTC pieces.  Then again, to each their own I guess.  Maybe the more detail/less detail debate can go in the column with the black/grey Germans debate.

Can’t wait to see the production pieces in their actual colors.  I am wondering if the detail will be as noticeable on the regular color pieces as they are on the light grey prototypes.  Anybody have some thoughts on that?

I can’t believe people are complaining that the pieces are too detailed. If you want less detail, then buy WOTC pieces.

@Brain:

I can’t believe people are complaining that the pieces are too detailed. If you want less detail, then buy WOTC pieces.

People will complain even if they were hung with a new rope.

@coachofmany:

@Brain:

I can’t believe people are complaining that the pieces are too detailed. If you want less detail, then buy WOTC pieces.

People will complain even if they were hung with a new rope.

This is all too true.

Funny enough, browsing EBay for some extra pieces the other day I noticed the old (1985 old) A&A pieces had more detail than the new ones do (specifically noting the fighters that actually had almost the same amount of line detail that these new FMG pieces look to have).

@knp7765:

By the way, just wanted to add my 2 cents worth.  I don’t understand why no one seems to like the lines on the planes.  I think they look great.  Like the extra detail of the suspension and engine covers on the tanks, that’s one main reason I was attracted to this project.  I think it is incredible that they can make such tiny pieces with such fine detail.  In fact, after seeing the pics of the new FMG pieces, I have become much more dissappointed with the WOTC pieces.  Then again, to each their own I guess.  Maybe the more detail/less detail debate can go in the column with the black/grey Germans debate.

Can’t wait to see the production pieces in their actual colors.  I am wondering if the detail will be as noticeable on the regular color pieces as they are on the light grey prototypes.  Anybody have some thoughts on that?

It’s a matter of scale translation.  The larger the piece, the more detail can be added before it muddies the works, the smaller scale the piece, the less detail is apprpriate.  An infantry unit or artillery can have much more detail than plane because they aren’t the same scale.  a 2" strap or belt is clearly visible and easily modeled on an infantry piece of this size.  a 1/8" to 1/4" rivetted panel joint is not only impossible to model accurately at this scale, it’s invisible at this scale.  A crystal clear photo of an actual airplane at the distance that it is the same size as a unit will be smooth and streamlined.  You might register cowling or the gasket around the windscreen and perhaps the joint where the wing connects to the fuselage, but unless the flaps and rudder were painted it’s unlikely you could not distinguish that joint.  It actually appears less realistic to add detail at such a small scale because it’s oversized and exaggerated, which is why I don’t care for it.  But that’s only MY opinion - take it as a grain of salt.

If FMG’s planes looked like these I would be ecstatic.  They LOOK like the actual aircraft - sleek, slim through the tail, scale wing thickness and size.  And those are larger pieces than the OOB planes.

@Yoper:

The air units only look a bit cartoonish because that is what they looked like in real life.  Many of the Italian designs had that distinctive engine cowling over their radial engines.  (See the Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero for another example of distinctive engine cowlings.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breda_Ba.65

And the Macchi C.202 Folgore does indeed look very much like the picture that FMG provided.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_C.202

The lines in the wings and fuselage may be a bit exaggerated, but I will take that any day to get a country-specific unit.

Thanks Craig!

It has been a lot of fun doing the research for the project.  I found that the Italians had very distinctive and stylistic designs.  You will notice that most of their planes did have radial engines.  I have two more coming very soon to share.

Craig/Jeremy,

Don’t get me wrong - I LOVE the models, both are perfectly in scale and detailed. The only beef I have is dropping the lines on the side that are wing panels/etc.

The radial engine detail is exquisite - that can and should be kept the same, but have the sculptor smooth over the lines on the fighter. Look at the link that Craig posted - do you see any lines?

Hey “kcdzim”,
What game/set are these pieces from.  I haven’t seen them before.

@knp7765:

Hey “kcdzim”,
What game/set are these pieces from.  I haven’t seen them before.

http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=1900

@Yoper:

The air units only look a bit cartoonish because that is what they looked like in real life.  Many of the Italian designs had that distinctive engine cowling over their radial engines.

And the Macchi C.202 Folgore does indeed look very much like the picture that FMG provided.

No, I understand that the Italian planes will look different.  I think the Tac looks great, and the plane choices are what I expected and I think fairly well executed.  My only beef is that by adding lines, the wings become thicker than scale, and at that point it’s not because it’s Italian design that they begin to appear cartoonish.

All that said, I agree.  We’ll take what we can get, and once molded in the semigloss national color the lines may be less obtrusive.  They just don’t strike me as particularly necessary from a design standpoint.  Just something I would have edited.  again, that’s just me.  They are at least MUCH MUCH better than the Singapore 1942 planes, and that gives me hope my favs: the Hawker Hurricane (or Typhoon), N1K George, P-51, FW-190, and ummm…  shucks… whatever Russian fighter is chosen.

How about the MiG-1?

If the final cost is still the original $60, it will be a miracle of capitalism.  $50?  No way.  More like $80 for all eight nations.  You’ll be paying less than a penny for each sculpt.  When you factor in cost of the actual plastic, labor, electricity, blah, blah, blah, the profit margin per plastic piece could easily be less than a mil ($0.001).  That makes less than $8 profit per set sold.

I haven’t seen FMG’s books, but at $80, FMG would probably need to sell thousands of these to “get their money back.”  This is a major long-term investment.

Inflation only makes the profit-loss calculation more of a headache.

I’d happily pay anywhere between $30 and $40 for each nation, and maybe a bit more for the “extras”. I could probably stretch it to $50 per nation.

Hey Brain, I can purchase four Spring 1942 games for $80.00. I have two of them just for pieces. The FMG Italian pieces look great. But $10.00 per nation seems reasonable to me. I might go $20.00 to get a particular set but we must keep this within reason.

Hey Fishmoto37,
I tend to agree with you some on the price issue.  I did the same thing and got several copies of A&A 1942 just to add extra pieces to my collections.  However, one big attraction of the FMG pieces is they are much more detailed than the original A&A pieces.  For example, check out the battleships.  On the A&A pieces, the main guns look like one block but on the FMG Littorio class battleship, you can actually see all three gun barrels.  So it’s basically a quality issue, the FMG pieces are of higher quality so they will cost a bit more.

Also, with the FMG sets, you will be getting more pieces than you did in the 1942 games.  Not only will you get more of the pieces that you get in the games, but you will also be getting pieces that aren’t in the 1942 games (trucks, tac bombers, half tracks, transport planes, commanders, etc).  We must remember that these pieces are being created for all different WW2 games, not just Axis & Allies so some of the pieces you won’t find in any A&A games, at least at the current time.

With the higher quality and more pieces and a greater variety of pieces, FMG is really not asking too much.  They are really not making a lot of profit on these either.  The cost of creating the new molds and getting a factory to work with them is enormous.

Hey cminke,
I was just on the FMG site and they still have the FMG Ammo Box for $249.99.  It comes with 8 nation trays and 3 other two-compartment storage trays for China, neutrals and other game parts.  The national trays have three large compartments for the pieces (land, air, sea) plus a slot on one side for combat dice.  It looks really cool but I don’t like having just three compartments.  I like to separate all the different units.

What really drives me nuts are the games like Guadalcanal, Battle of the Bulge, D-Day, Pacific and Europe because they just have one large compartment for each nation.  It can be a real pain trying to search through all those pieces to find one fighter unit.

From the FMG Games AMMO BOX thread (relating only to the ammo box of course!) … probably missed by most people …

@FieldMarshalGames:

This is now truly a LIMITED EDITION product.

The shop that is making this for us says cost is TO HIGH to produce, and Margin to small.

I only have a commitment from them to make 10 more units and then this will become an FMG relic / Collectors Item.

Thank you to all members who supported this product on its short run.