I have started an army using the Les Grognards kit which to this point has been great. I have done a lot of conerting to make what i think is one of the more inexpensive armies. That being said I am in need of a lot of the sitting body to convert into pilots for my vehicles. I have to this point used what I have but I need a good many more. As I was pondering what to do about this problem i.e second hand market or recasting I also noticed my bits box was getting out of control. Then it hit me, I would very much like to see an "Upgrade sprue" of just bodies. No weapons or heads just bodies. I think that would sell, not only for people like me but laso guys wanting to make Kriegsman and the like. Sell 24 bodies for 20$ sell it in a bundle with the infantry kit so you use all the weapons. I think it'd sell without cutting into your sales of the main kit too much. what do you guys think, would you buy just bodies?
Bodies only sprew
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Admittedly with how the sprues currently are, separate bodies will be a huge challenge. Although I am a big fan of the idea of selling sprues entirely dedicated to giving you bodies. Since we have loads of spare heads and arms with usually no spare bodies for them.
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generally a bodies only set is more the provenance of 3D printing, since general demand would be fairly low.
for 3D printed sets though the trick is to include enough to make the cost worth it.
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@Mithril2098 I actually think the demand is greater than you think given all the times its been brought up, but it is a very left field idea and would not be good business model for anyone actually selling full kits since it would be under cutter. It should be done as a 1 item crowdfunder by some third party other than WA,etc. (you know someone like Anvil Industiers).
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@timothy lacasse best advice at this point is get a 3D printer and print out all the bodies you want, failing that just sell the bits in a lot or 2 on ebay at low but not too low starting bids (people will buy them), or turn them into fatalities (in the case of backpacks and pouchs, you can always glue them to vehicles).
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You might want to have a go at using 'blue stuff' (or 'oyumaru') molds to make green stuff/miliput duplicates of pieces you think you could make use of. Depending on the complexity of the piece you want to duplicate.
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@timothy lacasse Loathe as I am to have a bunch of arms and heads laying around that I can't use, I don't think it makes sense to make a tool, which isn't cheap, for the sole purpose of allowing people to get more models for cheaper. While It's nice to cut down on waste, plastic is [relatively] cheap, which is why you can have so many options on the one frame, unlike other materials where it is uneconomical and difficult to reliably cast a large volume of optional parts.
As said previously, 3D printing would be the way to go if you're looking for somewhere to put all of your spare parts, or to get a large volume of bodies on the table cheaper than buying a full kit and [feeling like you're] wasting part of the purchase price on bits you don't use.
The Dark Age Army Builder is probably the closest you'll get to something like this, because the clothing and weapons look close enough to a bunch of different Armies from that period that they could reasonably pass for whoever you wanted with the right paint job. Death fields, on the other hand, has very distinct uniforms; you aren't realistically going to get more than one faction from a generic body sprue.
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@Brian Van De Walker I have a 3d printer and plan on printing the one body thats available
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@Brian Van De Walker I admittedly have no idea how much tooling costs or what they might expect for profit margins. I'm sure there is good reason one one has done it before. I just figured if anyone would do it it would be WA. they seem to listen to the customer base and if this post got enough traction it might go somewhere.
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@Stephen SuttonWargames Atlantic's DAB actually just contributes to the "heads and arms" pile more to the point I am not sure why people kept backing it other than to annoy Warring States China fans like me since there are a lot of sets done by other folks that do the same thing and actually cut down on the extra heads more (200 heads, extra sheilds plus a bunch right handed weapon arms you will likely never use on a mini cause they have no mate versus whats out there already by other manufacturers, its more extras bit box bits).
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@timothy lacasse they do listen to the customer base, and as I mentioned this idea has been talked about before both here and on FB.
I don't think the tooling cost is the main issue. Last I heard (which admittedly was years ago now) tooling cost for 1 plastic frame cost around $10,000.00 to $20,000.00 in USD and I am not sure if thats for the whole set making process from start to finish or just making the mold. That said a body only kit should be a 1 frame, so the cost would be the same as any other 1 frame kit so its doable (heck you could even do it as a half frame).
That said, I think the real issue with a body only kit on the manufacturering side is it would cut down on sales of other kits since on average for kit to break even it needs to sell 2 or 3 kits per buyer. If you throw in a body only kit to that formula, there is a high possiblity most folks would just buy 1 body kit and one of whatever other kit they want to build thier army out of, so the body kit might do okay to fabulous, but at the cost of every regular set underprefoming.
If its not that then the other issue that did come up each time this has been talked about which effects both the manufacturer and the model builder is "what outfit do we do the genric bodies in?" because believe it or not "genric" either doesn't actually exist for wargame mini topics or is subject to such a long list of interpretations it may as well not exist.
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@Brian Van De Walker I saw the name of this topic and immediately assume that you had made the original post 😂
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@Big Boi not this time.
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I am a general fan of this idea. The Les Grognard's box-set is one of my faves and I intend to pick up another box soon as building and painting them was so much fun!
More spare bodies, in general, would be really helpful for kit bashing
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@Brian Van De Walker Yeah I understand the undercut of your own product. Thats probably why no one does it. I wouldn't be surprised if the body kit sold on its own, whether it would be enough to off set your losses to the sales of your other product is the real question. Anyway I'll drop it, I'm not trying to be argumentative; I am honestly just asking the question. As for the "generic" body. I very selfishly want the Les Grognard body only. I am in no way trying to serve the wider community in any way, that much I promise you. After they make the kit I want, maybe I'll consider lobbying for the greater good. "Les Grognards are the best, Anyone who says otherwise is wrong." -A scientist. I'll let that quote speak for itself.
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@timothy lacasse Well, if its just more Grognard bodies, believe it or not you can already do that more or less without getting a 3D printer yourself or using blue stuff recast mold, in two way in fact:
First option is plastic bit part re-sellers, and I know there is/was at least one on ebay selling individual official WA grognard bodies by themselves for a fairly good price, even the heavy team ones (Toil and Trouble Hobbies).
Second option while a bit more pricey is to buy a set of 3rd party heroic sculpted French great coat leg (which are common enough to elicit expletives) and then use an armored torso (even more common and yes you can even use old plastic cadian torsos).
For the Second option, currently the best stable deal in the US is probably Hoplite Miniatures' ebay store which sells Reptile Overlords French coat legs at 10 legs for $12, they have Reptile Overlords Pareto Legionnaire armored torsos that would work perfect for grogs also at $12 for 10 parts, for the same price they even have matching French style coat upper torsos as an alternative torso option if you want some unarmored light infantry to go with the grogs you have, all their orders come with bases and they are currently having a sale so everything 10 for $10.
Great coat legs are as mentioned really common so you might be able to do it even cheaper. I actually have some Maxi mini metal great coat legs I got in good sale off ebay that I have since decided to use to make some “Damned Grognards” since I also have some resin torsos also off ebay that would work great for that and not counting the arms which will mostly be WA I am pretty sure it costs me about $20 to $24 for 24 bodies (just need to sit down and do it).
Now that all said, I noticed you mentioned "setting bodies for making pilots" in the first post, for that depending on what they are driving you may not need or really want great coat bodies since tankers often dress diffrently from infantry, so if its walkers or power amor you can get away with using old GW Sentinal pilot bodies with grog heads, the only place it might be diffrent is if we are talking things like jeep type vehicles and even there you can have the sitting driver dressed diffrently from the standing gunner.
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@Brian Van De Walker This is exactly what is was looking for. Im going to print the reptilian overlord bodies. I think those will do just fine. My pilots are in open top vehicles, like jeeps and mini tanks so thier legs are exposed. Thanks for the suggestion, perfect solution to my problem. I'll just have to source sitting legs elsewhere.
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@timothy lacasse Well, if you actually have a 3D printer, then I know there are quite a few "death corps" type print files outthere and seated poses do exist.
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