Vietnam War - NVA Sprue Layout & Sculpts 210507

[ultravanillasmurf]

Nice.

Interested to see how that goes.

[Model Hunter]

can't wait. They look fantastic and with great variation options.

[Rubicon Models]

Out of the six VC bodies, we have assembled a few combinations for your preview... 

Will post some painted samples after the weekend!














Enjoy!

[ultravanillasmurf]

Is it just me who cannot see the pictures?
And they are there.

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Very nice figures, If it's the ones on the Facebook page, and a great choice of options. That is how you make multipose figures,Get all the army sets done at the same time so they can be released together in one release phase.

I am not into NAM stuff but I hope that RM do the support weapons in plastic as the mortar and reciolless rifle support legs are thin.

These look to be the best figures for Vietnam I have ever seen and if the US range are just as good when RM start to do them then it's going too be a huge game changer in the market. I think RM May need to create a sister site or a separate forum page for the NAM project only.

Great work RM, raising the standards again.

I hope RM take the same approach in future for any New WW2 figure sets.

[Rubicon Models]

We have some Việt Cộng prototype samples painted, showing different poses...















Enjoy!

[Rubicon Models]

I hope RM take the same approach in future for any New WW2 figure sets.

We have specifically picked the Vietnam War era to start our new plastic figure range.  There were only that many "fractions" during the 19 years conflict, so there is nothing to lose (both commercially and financially) if our experiment failed.

The figure templates we used for the Vietnam War (VW) range are basically the same as our WW2 range with revisions on the head and hands.  We had also upgraded the body template so that they can be posed more naturally.  If the VW releases proved successful, it will be our stepping stone to start the WW2 range if there is still room for plastic WW2 figures.

What do you think?

[thunderplunk]

These look great! I agree that Vietnam is certainly a less filled niche than WW2, so I look forward to seeing how these do, and what ends up being in the rest of the range.

[ultravanillasmurf]

They look good.

My problem is that I have a large existing selection of Vietnam period hardware and figures.

[Rubicon Models]

Much work had been done on the VC figure sprues.  We now have two VC sprues - a male and a female (with command).

The male sprue is currently in mould making and the female one had just got approved as well.


Male VC figure sprue layout...








Female VC and Command sprue layout...









Enjoy!

[Captain Blood]

These look fantastic. Well done Rubicon. I hope the end product is as good as the renders and the ambition.

If the VW releases proved successful, it will be our stepping stone to start the WW2 range if there is still room for plastic WW2 figures.

What do you think?

Sorry, I missed this. I think it’s a great idea. Would love to see some more ‘true 1/56’ WW2 multipart plastic sets. The three Perry sets are wonderful, but the vast bulk of WW2 plastic figures in this scale are Warlord, which are way too chunky and cartoony for me. So yes, I think you’ll find there’s plenty of room for plastic WW2 figures produced with realism and quality in mind.

[ultravanillasmurf]

Sorry, I missed this. I think it’s a great idea. Would love to see some more ‘true 1/56’ WW2 multipart plastic sets. The three Perry sets are wonderful...

... So yes, I think you’ll find there’s plenty of room for plastic WW2 figures produced with realism and quality in mind.

There are whole theatres open for plastic figures. Choose a theatre where you have a range of existing vehicle models (and the sales information) and release opposing forces for the popular ones.

Barbarossa is one (you have a lot of the hardware already available or in the production pipeline).
Blitzkrieg is another (less of the hardware, but always hopeful).

[H0ffmn]

There are whole theatres open for plastic figures. Choose a theatre where you have a range of existing vehicle models (and the sales information) and release opposing forces for the popular ones.

Barbarossa is one (you have a lot of the hardware already available or in the production pipeline).
Blitzkrieg is another (less of the hardware, but always hopeful).

   You have quite a few vehicles in your range that were used in the North African theater, how about some figures for this theater?
   Yes, both Warlord and Perry Miniatures have figures for this theater, but how about plastic Italians or Free French? Perry makes these figures in metal, but not in plastic. This would be a first from any company  in plastic.

[Tracks]

Rubicon Models released some 28mm WW2 infantry for American, British, German, and Soviet armies.
However....
A lot of us were a little surprised that they went with metal (pewter) instead of plastic for their 28mm WW2 infantry (1).
Yes,  they have their reasons, but it seems a bit strange now that their 28mm VC figures are plastic and not metal (pewter).

(1) There is one interesting exception. The RM German Machine Gun Team is made in plastic. However, their American, British, and Soviet Machine Gun Teams (as well as all the other figures) are made in metal (pewter).

Power of Plastic:
Somewhat of a shame because had their WW2 line of infantry been plastic and not metal, we could have done a lot more with them.

[Rubicon Models]

RE: Figures in Plastic / Pewter / Resin

Looking back at our range of 28mm WW2 figures, we have spent 5 years perfecting our digital sculpting skills and improving our figure template.

Not doing most of our figures in plastic is because we are cautious, not wanting to be like other manufacturers with widely varied "style" of sculpting across the whole range without a standard.

This is also complicated by the knowhow to better mould making techniques.  I think everyone is quite aware that we have improved a lot between the earlier figures and the current one.

Doing the Vietnam War figures in plastic sprues is our testbed towards a bigger range of WW2 plastic figure sprues.  The Vietnam conflict involved only a few fractions limited only to a handful of box sets.  Unlike the WW2 figure range, if we screwed up, the Vietnam range was just a few moulds; we can always go back to the drawing board and refine our techniques and designs.  We would rather wait for another year before we tackle the WW2 range.

There are also several other manufacturers doing 28mm plastic figures, we are very eager to see how they will manage.


PS: On another note, we are also testing other raw material for producing our figures.  We will let you know more about it once we had some positive results.