Hello. Given how there's years worth of news/blogposts since the company's inception, there is a lot of information to comb through. I'm sure this was outright stated in one of them but I'm super curious what did happen to the Spanish set?
The company seemed dead set on making Napoleonic Spanish being the 1st set released. Not one of the 1st sets, THE FIRST set! And yes this started start of 2020 before everything went to heck in a handbasket, but it still looked like this plan was chugging along. And then something happened to make a swerve.
What was the official reason? I can only think of the below:
1. The planned sprue or runner (for you gundam fans) was not satisfactory or working and needed massive retools.
2. The original sculptor left the company, requiring a new sculptor.
3. Covid made this set too "risky" from a profitability standpoint.
4. Making the models as historically accurate as possible required more research and planning, especially given how uniforms and equipment can change drastically in just a few years in this genre.
5. No matter how loud people get on the internet, this would have still been a very niche set to sell in reality.
The original files didn't fit on the frame so it was sidelined for awhile. Still coming. No release date yet. Check out Vox Populi.
@Hudson Adams Has anything ever been released via the Vox Populi route ?
Somewhere else it was written that WA has the ability to release about a new dozen plastic boxes per year. Given the stack of Damned offerings in the pipeline and the Grognard Cavalry announcement (which went into plastic bypassing the Vox Populi system entirely) that seems to be a years worth of items in the production/release queue.
Anticipated release date 2025 and climbing? It was those multiple head options that interesed me.
Let'em loose via Atlantic Digital ?
Vox Populi is only a few months old and you'll see it start to make major moves in a few months time. The Damned releases are on top of this year's 12 which already include Landsknecht Ogres, Harvesters, SAS, German Sentries, and the upcoming WW1 British.
@Dennis Horne well none of the stuff has reached 1,000 votes yet, and its not going to anytime soon. Like I've only paid for 5 votes for Modern Operators at the moment.
Once more people are aware of vox populi and decide they want to vote on it, then we'll see numbers rise up rapidly.
@Hudson Adams As they have not been tooled and need a layout rework, here are 2 suggestions:
- split them into 2 frames, heads & torsos (as was done on the Grognard command box), slip in a 'hagman' head from the rifes sprue and a sombrero type head
- take 2 of the torsos and split them into upper body & legs, add an upper torso with shirt only, a lower torso sitting on something. Even a blunderbus ?
These minor tweaks would make modelling guerillas easier and facilitate kitbashing the set as general 18-early 19 century ship's crew. (Those shirted sitting figures for boat crews, camp scenes and riding wagons). Upper torso bodies would find a use as mounted guerillas just as I did on that Colonial Militia Death Fields post.
Now a box set that not been considered is British Indian Colonial Infantry, if modelled with SMLE (WW1 Lee Enfield) and Martini Henry rifles options these chaps can serve in 2nd Agfhan war, Boxer Rebellion, WW1 Palestine and WW2 scenarios. They can even become a non European Death Fields faction if mixed in with some cannon fodder rifles. ( British Indian Army )
@Charles Tottington As you correctly stated, none of those offerings look like reaching a 1000 votes in the forseeable future.
Unless the threshold is dropped to say 300 votes, I doubt any will happen. The Damned promotion excercise did get over that line, but with a lot of promotional activity.
Correct. That's exactly what I dreaded : just a smoke screen.
C'est exactement ce que je redoutais : un miroir aux alouettes (un écran de fumée).
In Europe (France), hardly anyone today dares to order from the USA (or from UK) : taxes, customs... are way too expensive. As the vouchers are useless for us, no vote.
In fact, I guess it would be cool (for us) to have a distributor in France, Germany, Italy or Spain, not ?
@Pierre Lerdou-Udoy I read somewhere that the Damned were being distributed via a route involving the ROI (who are still in the EU). There was so much hype around those figures that I can't remember which post it was in.
I presume that the stuff comes from the US to Sarissa in the UK who then repack the Europe bound goods send them onto somewhere in Ireland (crossing the tax issues on the way). The Irish distributor then posts onto the EU.
Several UK manufacturers dodge the Brussels trade barriers by having friends in the EU (one uses a shop in Holland) which stock their ranges & advise their EU customers to order from there.
Trust me, being in the UK, ordering anything direct from the EU is just as bad as to be not worth the effort.
An example is the Dungeons & Lasers Sci Fi Customisation bits box from Archon Studios in Poland. Not viable to order direct for me.
Luckily Nortstar Figures stock these in the UK so I got the stuff that way. These guys do a whole range of scatter terrain aimed at the DnD community - DnD 32mm scale rather than 28mm gaming scale. Worth a look even though the figures are too large, the terrain is useable.
Hi.
On the issue of ancillary costs, going through Ireland (the Republic) could indeed be a good solution. There is also a distributor in France, Alsace. Not everything is always available, but we manage to find some of the boxes there, with free "shipping" from a certain amount.
The only problem is that it is not possible for us to vote, by ordering directly from WGA. Prohibitive. The 1.000 will remain a very distant goal. A goal for 3, 5 or 7 years ?
Perry's Spanish guerrilleros (bandoleros) are very beautiful and accurate (but they are not in plastic).
@Pierre Lerdou-Udoy we ship our EU orders from the UK with IOSS. It works just fine.
Right, thanks for your information. I'll see if it's different now, in 2023 and with IOSS...
The official website of the "Douanes françaises" (Customs administration) talks about : 1. VAT (payable once, in UK or in France, no problem) ; 2. customs duties (threshold at 150€, if certified "made - or produced - in UK") ; 3. customs fees, paid by the transport company and billed to the person receiving the package (final amount difficult to estimate with private companies) ; 4. the Bank company may charge an additional exchange transaction...
If I ordered in Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Italy or Spain : same currency unit, no taxes (except VAT) or additional costs for me. In EU, I would only pay for what I ordered, at the listed price.
Damn Brexit. I tested once : that's a very unpleasant system for a basic and individual customer (at the end of the process : 1/3 the price more). Bad medicine....
