RAFM closes it's doors!

[Fencig]

mm.. my local does alot of metal.. does plastic and some resin too but alot of metal there. maybe cause it's not a chain shop?

by local i assume you mean retailer? i was talking more about the manufacturers, where their old metal versions are now increasingly New Old Stock in online 2nd hand stores and if you go their online direct, it's new resin.
next time your at the local shop please ask them. " are you seeing a drop in metal availability?" I would be curious.

For us here, the couple shops I've been in are now pure plastic, even worse, they got rid of Reaper Plastic and going full Wizkids. Some of their large mosters are good enough, their smaller figures are pretty awful IMHO

 

[ManicMan]

yes
but alot of companies I know of in the UK are still going.. while some are dropping out, it's seams.. oh.. that would explain a few things.. better try not to go into the politic side but yeah..

Reaper's plastics aren't bad bad but very soft in my experience.. both the plastic used and the details..

 

[Fencig]

Reaper's plastics aren't bad bad but very soft in my experience.. both the plastic used and the details..

i started off with original Bones 6 years ago when i re-discovered modeling . it was good to learn on, dirt cheap to buy (back then at least),

and the lack of detail, blobby, bendy nature meant you didn't need a lot of painting skill, (and if you had that skill it was wasted on "Bonesium"). i think they're perfect for the game table, but looked sorely out of place in my display case. So off to ebay they went last year.

the Bones black is much, much better, on Par with typical Sprue plastic, which is what i think it is. I have the Owl Bear, and Drow Queen on throne, maybe a few others. No complaints on the quality. Quick trim with sharp blade on the flash, and your good to go. she hasn't got her legs yet in this pic, but nice model IMO. it's 80% of metal quality, as long as you don't need that last little bit of super crisp detail, it's good and cheaper than metal

 

[Fimm McCool]

I still have a big CD collection (and quite a bit of vinyl). Used to be you could pick up a second hand album for a couple of ££. Not now though, like old warhammer it seems people want that stuff again. I much prefer putting on a well-crafted album and listening through to jumping around on a streaming platform.

 

[Brother Meredith]

Ditto, have a massive collection of CDs and decent shelf of vinyl. Tend to buy second hand and (semi) direct via Bandcamp these days. I also consume a fair amount of music via YouTube and online radio stations, but have not picked up on streaming services.

 

[Fencig]

I much prefer putting on a well-crafted album and listening through to jumping around on a streaming platform.

right, same here. If you've never sat down and listened to the Who's Tommy all the way thru, then you're really missin out (assuming the listener likes Rock, other great genres certainly deserve an extended listen).
then again we have modeler's brains, ability to focus on things for long periods of time. When i was young, a typical attention span was probably 5 to 15 minutes, Today with a computer phone in everone's hands, it's maybe 5 to 30 seconds. So random playlists listened to as background noise is common. Not judging it, if it makes someone happy then that's what matters, but personally, i find this type of music-play annoying and distracting

Ditto, have a massive collection of CDs and decent shelf of vinyl.

do you prefer one or the other?
I find that a good clean record, doesn't need to be a special pressing, on anything better than a $100. turntable, sounds better than Redbook, just my opinion. Now, once you get into BD type audio, 24/192 it's a different dicsussion. But i'm not ready to build a multi-Terrabyte capable computer to store all that and replace 800 records.

 

[Fimm McCool]

Problem with vinyl for me is most of the time I am upstairs in my studio and the decks are down in the dining room. I have a bluetooth speaker that will reach upstairs but going down two flights every 20 minutes to flip/change the record? Nah.

 

[Brother Meredith]

For the collecting and playing experience, vinyl is my preferred format.

 

[midgetmanifesto]

I met the owner/operator of interloper miniatures on the weekend at a con. RAFM was doing his casting work and sent him back his masters and molds. So at least it doesn't seem to be a catastrophic implosion (or death).

 

[Fencig]

I met the owner/operator of interloper miniatures on the weekend at a con. RAFM was doing his casting work and sent him back his masters and molds. So at least it doesn't seem to be a catastrophic implosion (or death).

that is good news, and the correct way to close down a business, Good on the silver fox people. Also possibly good news for whatever surviving RAFM molds are still functional, hopefully they sell or donate them to someone like Ernst at RPG elements. I bought some former Centerstage models from him and it was a very good experience.

Wonder what will happen to the Harlequin masters/molds? best case scenario, they wind up in a yard sale and someone grabs them, worst case dumpster.

 

[Fimm McCool]

I'm most sad about the early Reaper minis RAFM were carrying. I don't believe Reaper sell them anymore and presumably the license agreement was with the now defunct company not whoever takes on the range.

 

[Fencig]

I'm most sad about the early Reaper minis RAFM were carrying. I don't believe Reaper sell them anymore and presumably the license agreement was with the now defunct company not whoever takes on the range.

I wasn't even aware of this? i saw Reaper on their web-site and just assumed they were acting as a Canadian distributor. Well if anyone does get this stuff, I'm sure a deal can be made with Reaper easilly enough. There are some cool old Reapers, like the Storm Giant

how does this all work anyway? with the sculpts/license. The artist's hold the rights into perpetuity, like a Copyright, unless they sell it outright?

How does that apply to the molds/casting?

 

[Fencig]

you know i realized yesterday as i was feeding my new addiction to the Gamezone stuff out of Spain, (also slowly going to Resin ) , that while i like my Reaper stuff = have a whole drawer full,
the style in aggregate is not my absolute favorite. . As a whole the sculpting style is very much Game pieces, much more than collector's models, not sure if that makes sense. But if you look at the GZ stuff, there's just so much more to them stylistically and conceptually.

Note i'm not dinging on anyone, just an observation. If your running a company and trying to pay salaries and rent, game pieces will do that much more than collectors will.

 

[Fimm McCool]

The artist's hold the rights into perpetuity, like a Copyright, unless they sell it outright?

How does that apply to the molds/casting?

If the sculpts were done for a company then that company owns the rights. They can license or sell permission as they see fit. If the company folds it will be down to administration to sell them or not as assets belonging to the company.