HBG's Japanese Sets

@wittmann:

Thanks for the pictures Hoffmann.
Will be nice to have a Churchill and the detail on the German Infantryman is excellent.

Is that really a Sabre? Pretty, except I always liked the smaller Mig 15.

Maybe that will come in a future Russian Expansion set.

Coach,

Again, awesome lineup,of future AA units, German The Deutschland Class Pocket Battleship is a unit I haven’t had
in my miniature fleet for almost 30 years.  Really looking forward to the Churchill, German Infantry and the F-86 Sabre Jet.
Again Excellent work.  How about an M-26 Pershing and an M-24 Chaffee for you next US set?

WARRIOR888

Got some ideas for the Basic Japanese set.
Medium Tanks > I figured they might go with the Type 97 Shinhoto again. It’s a cool looking tank and they will already have the mold for it.
Fighter > Perhaps HBG will make their own Zero fighter. I’m not sure if the rest of you guys would want a new Zero or just go with the OOB Zero and get some new fighter sculpt.
Bomber > Since OOB gave us the G4M Betty, perhaps HBG will give us the G3M Nell.
Destroyer > So far we have the Akitsuki, Fubuki and Kagero classes. Perhaps a nice addition would be the Yugumo or Tachibana classes.
Carrier > I have heard suggestions for the Shokaku. Sounds good to me.
Battleship > There were 5 different classes of battleships for Japan during the war.
Fuso class = Fuso, Yamashiro
Ise class = Ise, Hyuga
Nagato class = Nagato, Mutsu
Kongo class = Kongo, Hiei, Kirishima, Haruna
Yamato class = Yamato, Musashi
We are already getting the Fuso, Nagato and Yamato. We got the Kongo class in the 1941 game. We could get the Ise class (which would be cool), but both of those ships were converted to battleship/carrier hybrids and I’m not sure a ship like that would be proper as a battleship in the “Basic” set. However, if HBG decides to make the Kongo class, that would also make a good addition to all of our battleship types. Plus they would probably look much nicer with better detail than the 1941 Kongo.
Not sure if this is important, but the Kongo and her sisters were actually graded as Battle Cruisers rather than full-fledged Battleships. Still, probably wouldn’t be a problem using them as battleships.
Correction: I was just reading up on the Kongo on Wikipedia and found out that she and her sisters underwent reconstruction in the mid 30s and were reclassified as fast battleships. So I guess they would fit as battleships after all.

Guys,

––I, also, think that a G3M “Nell” bomber would be a useful and VERY welcome addition to the ‘basic’ set.
Along with the “Oscar” fighter that has already been announced it would allow for early war scenarios.

“Tall Paul”

TALL PAUL,

I concur, a NELL medium bomber for the Japanese for early war would be an appropriate unit to have.  I have 8 NELL’s in metal 1/600 scale from PICO Miniatures an they are heavy little planes.

WARRIOR888

Mitsubishi G3M is the way to go.

Anybody hear anything on the Japanese sets lately?

@toblerone77:

Anybody hear anything on the Japanese sets lately?

Apparently the Expansion set is delayed.

I heard of the delay. Thanks. I was just wondering about some kind of time frame. The word I heard was that quality issues needed to be worked out. How serious they were I have no idea of. I’m just anxious to get them LOL.

Any word on a shipping date yet?

@Pacific:

Any word on a shipping date yet?

On HBG, they still have an approximate date of Sept. 30. Also, HBG is doing inventory this week so no orders are being shipped between the 21st and 29th.
Assuming they get them on the 30th and everything is good, it will probably be a few days for Coach to fill all the pre-orders. I would imagine he has a lot since we all seem to be chomping at the bit to get these new Japanese units.

@knp7765:

@Pacific:

Any word on a shipping date yet?

On HBG, they still have an approximate date of Sept. 30. Also, HBG is doing inventory this week so no orders are being shipped between the 21st and 29th.
Assuming they get them on the 30th and everything is good, it will probably be a few days for Coach to fill all the pre-orders. I would imagine he has a lot since we all seem to be chomping at the bit to get these new Japanese units.

My factory is killing me, still about 2 weeks away, sorry guys.

Coach,

@coachofmany:

@knp7765:

@Pacific:

Any word on a shipping date yet?

On HBG, they still have an approximate date of Sept. 30. Also, HBG is doing inventory this week so no orders are being shipped between the 21st and 29th.
Assuming they get them on the 30th and everything is good, it will probably be a few days for Coach to fill all the pre-orders. I would imagine he has a lot since we all seem to be chomping at the bit to get these new Japanese units.

––I think we all understand that You are part of the solution,….not part of the problem. I salute you.

“Tall Paul”
My factory is killing me, still about 2 weeks away, sorry guys.

This blows but I think we all understand. It’s too bad there’s nobody in the US that could do this as cost effectively as the Chinese.  There is a guy on YouTube that is trying to do his own injection molding in the states. LOL and guess what? He’s a miniatures guy.

He’s been doing this all on his own out of his garage just to show it can be done. He even machines his own molds!

Anyway Coach best of luck for you and us all.

@toblerone77:

This blows but I think we all understand. It’s too bad there’s nobody in the US that could do this as cost effectively as the Chinese.  There is a guy on YouTube that is trying to do his own injection molding in the states. LOL and guess what? He’s a miniatures guy.

He’s been doing this all on his own out of his garage just to show it can be done. He even machines his own molds!

Anyway Coach best of luck for you and us all.

He may be able to do this himself on a small scale, but it’s the mass production that is the key. Think of how many of the German Expansion sets Coach has sold since they came out. Heck, I think he had to order 1000 sets in each color just to get the order started. There’s no way a guy could keep up that pace out of his garage.

@knp7765:

@toblerone77:

This blows but I think we all understand. It’s too bad there’s nobody in the US that could do this as cost effectively as the Chinese.  There is a guy on YouTube that is trying to do his own injection molding in the states. LOL and guess what? He’s a miniatures guy.

He’s been doing this all on his own out of his garage just to show it can be done. He even machines his own molds!

Anyway Coach best of luck for you and us all.

He may be able to do this himself on a small scale, but it’s the mass production that is the key. Think of how many of the German Expansion sets Coach has sold since they came out. Heck, I think he had to order 1000 sets in each color just to get the order started. There’s no way a guy could keep up that pace out of his garage.

Oh I agree. My example is just showing that there are people working on this and in the future this may be viable for people wanting pieces of their own design.

@Variable:

It’s certainly an interesting look at economies of scale… To the guy in his garage, HBG is far too big a project with 16 moulds per run times 5000 runs or so. To our Chinese factory, we are small potatoes. They wish we’d order 100,000 runs.  :-P

Man, that would be a LOT of pieces to sell. You guys would be swimming in plastic.