Napoleonics Thursday - The Slow Decline of Metal Figures

Recently the historical gaming community (including the author) were shocked and a little dismayed to learn that the people behind Gripping Beast were retiring and would soon be closing the business.  Fair enough, I'm thinking about (and sometimes longing to) retire myself.  Their announcement expressed the hope that someone would come along and buy GP and the various lines it's taken under its wing.  In the meantime, they encouraged gamers to get in their orders soon and that they would be announcing a cut off date in the near future when "we will have to turn sales off so that we can finish everything outstanding and get the last parcels out the door befor we turn off the lights". 

I have no idea if it would be profitable or even wise to take over such a business.  The price of metal alloy continues to increase, postage rates, heating, and power costs increase constantly, tarrifs and regulations make shipping more complicated, moulds wear out, and there are so many more options for gamers now in 3D printing or from all plastic outfits like Victrix.   God bless Foundry and the Perry Brothers, among those still committed to making metal figures, but I do wonder how long they'll be around.

I'm enough of a curmudgeon that I still have a soft spot for metal.  The very first Napoleonic figures I painted (badly) were old metal Minifigs from the mid 1970s.  I love the feel of them.  My collections include metal and plastic units (which would drive some folks nuts) but I always prefer the metal guys.   One of the reasons why the GP annoucement saddened me was that I'm especially fond of Front Rank, and wanted to ad some of their 28mm Napoleonic range to my collection while it's still available, so a purchase has been made.

Here are two figures from the FR Naps line.   They have a pleasing amount of detail, but are on the small side for 28s and perhaps they show their age a bit.

And here is a 28mm figure from MC Miniatures that I recently printed on a filament printer.   The detail isn't terrific (the white filament tends to hide the detail) but I think it will be okayish once painted.  Took about thirty minutes to print, the file cost about $4 US and I can print as many as I want.  One can see why the economics are stacked against anyone wanting to revisit the Front Rank Naps line.

And then there is the attractiveness of 6mm for mass gaming.  I know Baccus is still going strong and I have a pile of their metal figures, but I'm just finishing the basing on these 3D print figures and it didn't take me long to get a brigade (or division depending on the scale of the game on the table.  

These are strips from MC Miniatures done on my old and not missed resin printer, again about $4US for the file and you can print as many as you want.

Finally, next to the big lad are these wee voltiguers, also 6mm MC Miniatures, done on my Bambu filament printer, and surprisingly detailed.

So what do you think?  Are metal figures an endangered species?  Are they a relic of a bygone time, like rotary phones?  Would you miss them?  What do you see happening in the hobby?

Cheers and blessings to your brushes,

MP+

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