Re: Field Marshal Games Pieces Project Discussion thread

@Black:

FMG

Exactly how do you make the sculps?  Can you make them from a 3D graphic or to you take a plastic model, scan it into a 3D model, then make the mold from that?  Maybe knowing a little bit more about the process might help in having other people provide you with a greater selection of sculps.

We had been collecting Models to use for sculpts.  It will cost us $50 USD to miniaturize an existing model and put it into a mould (on top off mould cost) and $500 USD to have a sculpt made in a digital 3D file and put into the mould.  If you do the math with the number of units we are tying to give for each Nation ON TOP of the mould cost you can see that this is very expensive.  Each Mould (One for each Nation) has a cost of approx $5000 USD on top of these costs even before we pay for PRODUCTION and LOGISTICS to get the product back to us.

We were able to collect 80% of the models but some, like the DiveBombers we had to have made with 3D models.

This is no small undertaking and the sale of COMBAT DICE, TOWERS and AAA Games has been paying for the development costs so far.  Once the bill comes for the first mould we will post a page for pre-orders.  The speed of production on all 7 nations will depend on the number of these pre-orders to fund the project.

As I’m sure you all know, we are doing this not to make money (that would be CRAZY and a bad investment) but to have the COMBAT UNITS on our own game table and to share with the community.

Thus: all support by making your AAA purchases via FMG is a direct contribution to this project.

Thanks

Jeremy

FMG, I hope you do make some money! People who take risk should be able to receive the reward. Will you be allowing others to sell your units as part of a game they developed… so they don’t have to do all this mold stuff?

It was the right decision to make the Italian line first.

Next should be a line with neutrals. Since the new reharsed A&A pieces are of better quality, not so many will buy germans, brits or russians from FMG. But the new games of A&A Europe and Pacific 1940 will not come with neutral pieces, so I guess many players want to buy neutral infantry to use with this new games. FMG please do listen to my advice.

I’ll throw in my two cents here.

I don’t have the newest A&A game so I don’t know about the pieces, variety and quality.  I hear folks were dissappointed with the Italian pieces so I can understand bringing the Italians to market first.  In my opinion, the next pieces should be the Brits.  There are three reasons for this.  First, the Brits are in every game except for Guadalcanal, so everyone that plays the non-worldwide games will want to buy this set, regardless of whether it is AAP, AAE or BOTB.  Second, the original Brits share many duplicates with the Americans (same tank, same arty, same destroyer, same sub, same transport) so the new pieces will deliver the variety folks appreciate (eliminating the duplication with the Americans).  Third, delivering the Brits will provide an opportunity for folks like myself to use the old Brit pieces for the Aussies in AAP until a FMG set of Aussies comes to market.  This will deliver the biggest bang for the buck and will get more interest in the total project.  There are many WWII games that don’t include Italian units, but very few that don’t include British forces.

After delivering British pieces, I’d like to see the Americans because I play AAR, AAP and AAG.  Americans are in all the games so they will be in great demand.  After the Americans, I imagine everyone wants to see the Germans.  I would rather see the Japanese, but I can see that more probably want Germans.  As a matter of fact, I expect many will want to see the Germans before anything else, but I have given my reasons for the other priorities.  After the Germans we should see the Japanese, the Russians and then the Chinese.

Finally, I hope to see some FMG Aussies.  Maybe Neutrals could be substituted from one of the other nations the FMG pieces replace until true neutrals are developed.  I see developing neutrals as a difficult goal.  How do you decide what sculpts to use?  I would think French pieces would be ahead of neutrals.  Anything that brings the whole 7+ nations to market quickest would be great.

We had been collecting Models to use for sculpts.  It will cost us $50 USD to miniaturize an existing model and put it into a mould (on top off mould cost) and $500 USD to have a sculpt made in a digital 3D file and put into the mould.  If you do the math with the number of units we are tying to give for each Nation ON TOP of the mould cost you can see that this is very expensive.  Each Mould (One for each Nation) has a cost of approx $5000 USD on top of these costs even before we pay for PRODUCTION and LOGISTICS to get the product back to us.

Thank you for sharing this.  Very much appreciated.  I think this will go a long way in helping us find what you need.

We were able to collect 80% of the models but some, like the DiveBombers we had to have made with 3D models.

I know you’ve posted here several times asking people for sculps but it was rather general. If you are looking for a specific model that you can’t find, post it here.  This way, you will have a 100 pairs of eyes or more all over the world helping you find exactly what you need.  Plus, as I just mentioned, now that we know a little bit more specifically how things work, it will make it easier for us in our search to help you find what you’re looking for.

By the way, no need to explain the cost of molds to me.  I’ve dealt with molds before and know how expensive they can be.

Thanks again for all your hard work and for keeping us posted as this project moves along.  I’m look forward to seeing the first batch. :-D

oh well, something different for the Italians.  I think the Sweeds designed a turretless modern tank some years ago, but now they use the Leopard II.  Upon further reflection, the sculpt should not be changed, but the subtitle of the picture.  It’s not a self-propelled gun at all, but more of a siege gun or a tank w/o a rotating turret.  Three cheers for me being wrong!  :-D

$5000… :-o  For each sculpt?!

With the price you sell the dice at, I can’t imagine you make much money off each sale.  You must be selling dice by the truck loads.

Oh, and speaking of the dice, I always get comments on them, as well as the dice tower.  I did get some green dust on my fingers from the China dice (guess they were “very” fresh from the factory), but the dice themselves stayed unsmuged, and are all, I have to say, perfect.  I keep them in the AA50 nation boxes.  The old black and red dice I keep in the silver and gold bags.

The most useful thing is the dice tower.  I don’t always play A&A, but the tower comes in handy when playing other dice using board games, like Cashflow.  Those days of accidentally throwing the dice across the board and knocking over all the playing pieces are over.  :-D

@Upside-down_Turtle:

oh well, something different for the Italians.  I think the Sweeds designed a turretless modern tank some years ago, but now they use the Leopard II.  Upon further reflection, the sculpt should not be changed, but the subtitle of the picture.  It’s not a self-propelled gun at all, but more of a siege gun or a tank w/o a rotating turret.  Three cheers for me being wrong!  :-D

$5000… :-o  For each sculpt?!

With the price you sell the dice at, I can’t imagine you make much money off each sale.  You must be selling dice by the truck loads.

Oh, and speaking of the dice, I always get comments on them, as well as the dice tower.  I did get some green dust on my fingers from the China dice (guess they were “very” fresh from the factory), but the dice themselves stayed unsmuged, and are all, I have to say, perfect.  I keep them in the AA50 nation boxes.  The old black and red dice I keep in the silver and gold bags.

The most useful thing is the dice tower.  I don’t always play A&A, but the tower comes in handy when playing other dice using board games, like Cashflow.  Those days of accidentally throwing the dice across the board and knocking over all the playing pieces are over.   :-D

Thank you for your review.  I think you mis-read the post.  It is $50 for each existing sculpt, $500 for each sculpt made from a 3D image.  And $5000 for the final creation of the mould.

As I’m sure you all know, we are doing this not to make money (that would be CRAZY and a bad investment) but to have the COMBAT UNITS on our own game table and to share with the community.

Been following this on and off since the spring.  Glad to see it unfold, but I hope the profit for this will reward you for your seeing this through.  Count me in a pre-order.

There are a lot of pages to go through here, though … what colour did you choose for the Italians?

Cheers

Same colors as their dice which just happen to match AA50

@Brain:

Same colors as their dice which just happen to match AA50

let’s hope they don’t go and change them now for the '40s games, though all the complaints about the closeness of the Italians and Soviets, who knows…  (fingers crossed) :roll:

Since they are offering a complete set of pieces that can replace the old ones, why would it matter if the new colour matches the old one?

I would rather FMG gave us light green italians.  Regardless, I’ll pick them up … unless FMG will offer them in another colour down the raod.

@jim010:

Since they are offering a complete set of pieces that can replace the old ones, why would it matter if the new colour matches the old one?

Right. I’m happy for this too. The German pieces will look much better in FMG combat dice grey rather than black. Don’t know why WOTC decided to change the Germans to begin with.

@jim010:

I would rather FMG gave us light green italians.  Regardless, I’ll pick them up … unless FMG will offer them in another colour down the raod.

I like the FMG Italian color. The colors for each nation are perfect if you ask me. Wouldn’t change them one bit.

russian/italian colors terrible for the color blind in AA50

That’s hilarious!

@johnnymarr:

russian/italian colors terrible for the color blind in AA50

Colors are terrible for the color blind, the rulebook is terrible for the illiterate or blind, having to move the pieces sucks for the paralyzed. Sorry the game is not for everyone. We all can’t suffer for the few.

@Brain:

Colors are terrible for the color blind, the rulebook is terrible for the illiterate or blind, having to move the pieces sucks for the paralyzed. Sorry the game is not for everyone. We all can’t suffer for the few.

Calm down.

There are actually many, many people who have complained about the color of the pieces being too similar.

You realize like our Politicians, if you make the game friendly to the color blind, deaf, hard to see, people with ADD, etc… the game will cost $500.00; similar to our out of control deficit. I think they do a pretty good game and yes the colors could of been chosen better.

@johnnymarr:

russian/italian colors terrible for the color blind in AA50

Fortunately the FMG dice are not quite the same as the AA50 pieces … the Russian dice are red-er, and the Italian dice are brown-er than the actual pieces themselves.  So, I would imagine this will follow through to the FMG pieces as well.  :)

yes, I have a set of the dice from FMG, they are nice and a good choice of colors.