Buildings from JR Miniatures???

plumfire · Post by **plumfire** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 9:06 am

I found these buildings and thought that the prices were pretty good. Anybody have them or seen them in person? I am thinking of buying the Iraqi buildings and was wondering about the quality. Any help would be greatly appreciated. You can email me at plum1975@comcast.net

Thanks, Tom

Thomaso827 · Post by **Thomaso827** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 9:13 pm

I bought several packs for Napoleonic town "building blocks" and some are pretty good, some arent. The bottoms arent always level, so a bit of filing and work - the resin makes it a bit harder, with worrying about that resin dust being toxic. The 'farm' items are interesting but the base is a bit thick. I was able to flock the edges so they dont look so bad. Just depends on how much work you want to put into it, as well as how much you want to spend. If you value your time, you might want to stick with GHQ as the time will outweigh the price difference. I'm working on a shoe-string budget, and money more than time pushed the decision, especially when the JR minis were on sale. For my Vietnam gaming, it is pure GHQ, though.

pmskaar · Post by **pmskaar** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 9:17 pm

Hi Plumfire

Having some experience with buildings from different manufacturers here is my opinion.
GHQ makes the best buildings but as yet don't have the large variety I would like to see so I have had to use several other manufacturers buildings to have the numbers and variety I want.
I have stayed away from JR because they are very crude and no comparison with other makes. Recently they acquired the Architectural Heritage line of buildings. Overall these are decent and GHQ carried the line for a time back in the 90's. I bought quite a few when they were owned by GHQ and painted up a number of them. Scalewise, they are probably closer to 1/300th than 1/285th scale but are fine when grouped with other buildings. I have a German style church that is the centerpiece of my village and it looks great. I'm not sure if this one is available through JR however but the "village church" is I believe. The old Architectural Heritage buildings were made of high quality resis which had a matt red brown color to it. I don't expect that the resin that JR uses is as good which may result in more bubbles and some detail not being as crisp as on the older ones but I haven't purchased any because I have enough of the old ones.
Leva Productions has a great line of buildings in resin as well. Recently this line was acquired by George Nafziger but the quality of the resin is not as good. I bought some of these at the last Historicon and noticed that there were more bubbles and some of the details were not there.
I have also used C in C buildings as well as their bridges which I like but these are not as good as those that GHQ would do - are you listening GHQ? I would like to see more structures from GHQ such as pontoon bridges, light industrial buildings, shops, utility buildings, wooden bridges etc. and will buy them as they become available. Until then I will have to use procucts by the "other guys" to fill in the holes. I know this has been long winded but I hope this explains things a bit. In essence, I look for good models and if they are cheap too that is good but I don't let price alone dictate whether or not I buy that building model or not.

Pete - Binpicker, Out!

Der Kommandeur · Post by **Der Kommandeur** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 11:20 pm

Hi Everyone

I'm not sure what level of detail we should discuss GHQ's competitor's ranges here ... but here's my small contribution ...

I have some Leva items which I bought from George Nafzinger before he licenced them (but I notice that he has not licenced the entire range). Overall I thought they were pretty good â€“ good quality resin and nice surface detail. Always need a bit of work, but worth the effort. A Polish company has also licenced part of the Leva range, and are busy augmenting it with their own items (probably a bit too far in terms of shipping for you, but if you want the web site addess please pm me).

I have some TimeCast stuff too .. which is simply exquisite and qualitatively no embarrassment for my GHQ miniatures.

As far as JR are concerned ... anyone who can't be bothered to illustrate their online catalogue properly isn't going to get my custom (and here I take my hat off to GHQ â€“ especially since making good close-up images is actually quite hard to do). Judging by the comments above it could be that there's a very good reason for the lack of JR photographic images.

As I said on another thread, I don't think GHQ can be expected to make everything, but I reckon a Baily bridge would make a great PE project!

Just a few thoughts.

DK

pmskaar · Post by **pmskaar** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 2:56 am

I agree with Der Kommanduer. I would generally stay away from the original JR stuff. I also forgot to mention that I got some Timecast at Historicon. These are very nice and in some sort of plaster type material and not classic resin. They are overall very nice but may need a little work to fill some small holes and repair some details. I'm still wanting more from GHQ.

Pete - Binpicker, Out!

Bull`s eye · Post by **Bull`s eye** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 12:15 pm

Hi, original LEVA is really good, but hands off the polish stuff, horrible quality. Wait till Leva is " back " again in 2007 ( as i was told )

Xveers · Post by **Xveers** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 12:43 pm

The polish stuff is of variable quality. I have some, and they've had some bubbles, but are still quite servicable IMO. Personally I think they're far, FAR better than anything JR sells. I have a JR granary, and it just looks wrong. Windows aren't square, the component silos are wobbly, it's a pretty poor job, even in resin.

For the polish guys, I have their eastern european village, as advertised on Ebay, and I find the quality quite nice. Not as good as Leva, but certianly better than JR any day of the week

Bull`s eye · Post by **Bull`s eye** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 1:36 pm

And i have the pleasure of a pontoon bridge, that is the worst proof of resin casting i have ever seen, and it seems to me, that they made foundings of existing models, cause I was told too, that they have no molds of leva, most of the original leva molds allegedly destroyed.
The ruined factory i bought too the same appearance. And in fact, itÂ´s not difficult to be better than most of the JRÂ´s

.
So my advice is, if you want real LEVA wait some month, and buy real Leva, and not simpel copies ( even if licenced the are no REAL leva ! )

Der Kommandeur · Post by **Der Kommandeur** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 2:52 pm

If true then it is good news that Leva will be back ... there are some cracking models on their list.

Bull`s eye · Post by **Bull`s eye** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:50 pm

News about LEVA

http://theminiaturespage.com/news/708118/

I hope it will come true

Xveers · Post by **Xveers** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 5:11 am

This is a pic of some of what I have. These Items are ALL from Sosna, the polish supplier. I don't know if they're Leva casts (I have a few Leva items, but they're semi-painted). The fore building on the left has had some filling due to voids, as has the silo (on the far side). I haven't filed off any of filling, is why I looks so crude.

The large grey building on the right is a Sosna original, I think. It's got very nice quality and I haven't done any work on it at all. There's some flash, and a few small voids, but is of reasonable quality. I can take more, detailed pics as requested.

Theodore · Post by **Theodore** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 5:28 am

The JR's line is pretty ugly, but it is the only way to afford dozens of buildins for scenarios. I have almost 60 buildings, mostly JR, many I got at the flea markets at conventions. WHen you can filed an entire town, it is worth not having the best detial on the buildings. To do that with GHQ would be out of my budget range.

groundlber · Post by **groundlber** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 10:27 am

I have a few JR Miniatures as part of my building collection. The quality varies from servicable to "what was I thinking when I bought that?". My suggestion would be to look at the actual models before you buy any. There didn't seem to be much effort at quality control. At the time, they made a lot of items no one else did, so you pay your money and make your choice.
Groundlber

Bull`s eye · Post by **Bull`s eye** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:22 pm

The " grey building " can be seen at the nafziger HP too, and it seems to be NOT a polish product. And by the way, when i spend 6 to 8$ for a little resin building, i donÂ´t want to work as a restorer, spending time with " building repairs ".

And service seems to be not really good , i wanted to send the bridge back to get a usable one, but i was told : " Everything will be done with your NEXT ORDER ". But i will not order anything once more ( cause i will wait for the REAL leva ). So iÂ´m the owner of an ugly ( lisenced ) plagiarism. But perhaps i misunderstood something, and that guy meaned a BOMBED pontoon bridge..perhaps, who knows... iÂ´m getiing old

sosna · Post by **sosna** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 4:39 pm

Hi all

We (Wargamer from Poland) produced some Leva's models o the basis of agreement with Alain from Leva. Currently we had to stop the production - Leva will be back on business in 2007. At the moment we sell only models already produced until our inventories will be empty.

Bull Eye â€“ It was only our offer. I can re-send you damaged item without additional orders. You simply have not responded to this offer. There is no reason for nerves or accusations. Just contact me.