GHQ Models Forums

Every year we receive thousands of suggestions for new models. The suggestions come to us in many ways- people mail them to us, we talk to people at conventions, people call us on the phone, we get them in an e-mail, and we see many of them on this forum. We usually have 50-60 releases per year, so obviously we can't make everything. The winnowing process is very complicated and time consuming. It usually takes us about 6 months of internal meetings and conversations to trim the list down to a reasonable number of new releases. There is no exact formula for coming up with the new items, the process is part science and a lot art.

We wanted to give all of you some ideas for submitting your suggestions and getting them heard the loudest.

- Keep your list small, the one or two items that you absolutely would like to see us make the most. We often receive huge lists, some over 100 items. We have a large library, and we are very aware of the things that we make and the things that we don't make. Sending us a list of everything that we don't make, truthfully will get no consideration. It is sad that someone has taken the time to put the list together, but there is really no way to get our heads around a list like that- What does this person really want? What do they think is the most glaring hole in our line? What nationality/theatre/era does this person think is the most valuable to pursue? etc.

-Come up with a well-thought out argument for your suggestions. It doesn't have to be a long history of the vehicle/ship, but have it be more than "You don't make a ______, and I think it would be cool." Why would this particular vehicle/ship be good? Where was it used? What kind of numbers were deployed? Why is it significant? Why would it be a good fit with what we already have out? Those kinds of things are good places to start. Once again, don't feel that you need to write a book about it, but give us some reasons why you think it would be a good release.

-When suggeting new items try to keep from taking our past new releases personally. We regualrly hear from people who are mad at us because they have been suggesting something for the last few years and we still have not released it. Unfortunately a few incredibly enthusaistice customers will not cover the thousands of dollars that it takes to put out a new release. We aren't trying to snub anyone, we are trying to come up with items that our customers will want to buy (honestly, this is true!). Also, try not to insult us for not making your suggestion in the past.

We regularly receive suggestions that lose credibility/weight in the process becuase of things like those listed above. These are just a few ideas to keep in mind when submitting suggestions to us. They are not a silver bullet to turn your idea into a new release. When we put together our new release schedule every year, customer feedback is a large component of the process, but it is not the only component. We also have our ideas about what should be added. There are some lines that will usually be disproportionately high- for example we need to keep the Modern equipment up to date because we sell a lot of miniatures to the military for training purposes. There are some new lines that need to have more attention paid to them with new releases to get them off of the ground. Also, there are some ideas that we have that are new directions that we think would be good to pursue.

It's never dull around here at GHQ. The large number of new releases that we put out on a regular basis insures that things are always fresh. Putting together the new list is always exciting, frustrating, entertaining, tiring, fun to start, and happy to finish. We always look at all of the suggestions that come in, but some of them will carry more weight than others. These are a few suggestions to help you become a part of the process.

Thank you for your support,
GHQ

Hello!

1. Middle Eastern & African Irregular Infantry
For the forseeable future the Middle East and Africa are going to be the actual combat theatre of operations for US and other western forces. For better or worse an arc stretching from Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia contains huge amounts of natural resources coveted by the west and growing economies such as China and India (see The Pentagon's New Map for an excellent discussion on this topic).

You already have central asia covered with the Afghan infantry and African regulars with your bush troops. And Russians will fill in for many middle eastern regulars such as Syria.

But we gamers have no irregular forces for this critical theatre which will be THE theatre of operations for the next decade+. I suppose there are two options here. A generic pack of civilians in modern dress which could fill in for any irregulars in north Africa, Iraq, Lebanon, etc.

BUt I would prefer two packs, one for Africa (light civilian dress, many without shoes, etc.) and one for Lebanon/Iraq (with some figures (not all) in appropriate Arab head scarf.) You can probably provide an appropriate selection of troops in a single pack each since heavy weapons would be very limited.

2. Military Contractors/Modern Mercs
A pack of modern mercs in a variety of dress including bush hats, helmets, etc. Again, this could be a single pack since heavy weapons would be limited but this pack is as crucial for modern war as the packs above.

In any case these new packs could be complemented by your existing products since these "troops" would use vehicles such as your technicals and buggies as well as cast off cold war equipment.

Most importantly, in our local group I've found a lot of enthusiasm for gaming along the lines of "AK-47 Republic", but set in modern/near future scenarios rather than the 60s/70s. People really enjoy our assymetrical scenarios using your Afghan militia and troops such as Americans mounted in Strykers. It's the high quality and size of your modern infantry figures that make these infantry-focused games possible! I've even written a set of home grown rules and campaign background called "Afraqistan" which has caused our members to dust off their aging cold war armor!

Our problem is that we lack the appropriate irregular infantry figures to really pull this off (ie Middle Eastern and African armed civilians and Mercs). These are the actual conflicts going on now in the near future (eg Lebanon 2006, Iraq, north and east Africa, etc.) but we can't game them since we don't have the infantry figures! Help!

Thank you for your consideration,

Tim

PS Not sure if you want these as posts or PMs so I did both. Sorry for the repetition!

GHQ wrote: There are some lines that will usually be disproportionately high- for example we need to keep the Modern equipment up to date because we sell a lot of miniatures to the military for training purposes.

Good point. I'm glad you mentioned this. I for one was silently beginning to wonder what the heck was going on with the production of the more esoteric modern items.

24 made; 12 used for Operation Hubertus at Stalingrad 1942. Other 12 probably used in the relief attempt. Operation Hubertus is now becoming known thanks to the work of Jason Mark's book "Island of Fire"

http://www.leapinghorseman.com/proddeta ... 764X&cat=5

(look at sample images)

For Stalingrad, it was a monster with the 150mm gun. The next largest tube on an AFV was the Soviet 76mm.

StuIG's have been prominently featured in Flame's of War Stalingrad related products/scenarios/discussions, which means a lot of wargamers are getting exposed to them.

Survivors fought at Kursk & elswhere in 1943 on.

---------------------------------

To a lesser extent I would propose the two Emils as these are also getting known. Two very successful self propelled monster 128mm AT guns on the Russian steppe in 1942. They have recently been made in 1/72 diecast so somebody must be interested.

http://www.michtoy.com/MTSCnewSite/vehi ... 36263.html

Can you start a sticky thread with some parameters. If we are limited to no more than three items it should work okay. I personally would like to see:

Scheer/Lutzow after reworking: Fill large hole in my German fleet, although I already have them from another manufacturer, I would buy it again just for your quality. I'm a model buff who realized that for making larger dioramas this is the best scale. Scheer and Lutzow were both easily distinguishable from Graf Spee and lasted longer.

S-boats: you do make PTboats so size shouldn't be an issue. Widely used, and add an interesting additional facet of any Norwegian scenarios. Only alternative is a reisn model.

C-47: While I don't necessarily model us stuff, every army air force in WWII utiilized these including the Japanese and Germans. We have all this paratroopers this year, and the gliders. I think this workhorse would be a good counterpart to the Ju-52 which I love by the way. I would buy them and for my Luftwaffe My three cents.

In keeping with your criterion of limiting requests to the one or two models that you absolutely want the most, I submit the following for 1/2400 Micronauts range:

British Lion class battleship design: The Brits need something to balance the H-39s that you have already produced. The US Montanas will be fully occupied with the six Yamato class Japanese battleships.

US Nevada (BB-36) class battleship - as built, for the GWS series: This was an outstanding design in its day and will fill the gap between the New York class and Pennsylvania class that you already produce.

Don S.

thank you GHQ for being so transparent in your decision making/production policies. It must be hard to have such open communication with so many die hard gamers. I think you do a great job of balancing diplomacy and business sense. Ever think of going into politics? I have been critical in the (distant) past regarding publishing your new release schedule. Low and behold, a few weeks later you did publish it. That was the only proof I will ever need that you care deeply about your customer base. So, thanks again!

Here are my 3 cents.

1. More modern infantry. Hard to pick just one here, French, German, or Chinese stick out for me though. You are currently expanding all three of these particular lines and infantry are the backbone of the army.

2. Modern and/or WWII civilian vehicles. I am guessing the civilian models didnlt go over so well as we didn't get any Europeans. Cars, trucks and vans would be able to be used in any theater due to the proliferation of vehicles throughout the world from relatively few manufacturers.

3. Eurocopter Tiger. The Euro's need a modern AH. The current models that you have out are great but any 90's or 2000's scenario needs something with a little more punch.

Late war German infantry with MP44 assault rifles. These will make good late war infantry and will also go with the up coming Werhmacht 47 line. Also a late war heavy weaopns pack with 81mm and 120mm mortars.

Thanks GHQ for taking the time to listen to our requests. Keep up the great work no one does it better.

Thanls for suggesting the new format. It's tough to winnow the wish list down to 2 or 3 choices, but here goes...
WWII Micronauts: 1) 1939 Type (T-22, or "Elbing" Class), Kriegsmarine Destroyer Escort/Torpedo Boat. The other "major" fleets offered by GHQ all have at least one DE class, and I think this would be a natural, as it was probably the best torpedo boat the Germans had (and was arguably their most useful/effective destroyer class, period), it's an attractive design, and they saw a lot of action, including one night engagement in which T-22s gave the Royal Navy a bloody nose, sinking a CLAA and a DD. Some Elbings survived the war and were parceled out to the victorious Allies; those that went to the Soviets stayed in service postwar for 5-10 years.
2) HMS Enterprise, Royal Navy Light Cruiser. Enterprise and her sister Emerald. completed too late to see service in WWI, but were in the thick of things during the Second World War. Enterprise in particular was a transitional ship in appearance, since she served as the testbed for the twin 6 inch turret used on the subsequent Leander, Perth, and Arethusa classes. She also carried a catapult and an American OS2U Kingfisher float plane during much of the war, which made her appearance even more distinctive. Enterprise was also instrumental in handing the Kriegsmarine a sharp defeat in a surface action--if I recall correctly, she sank or drove ashore two of the T-22s mentioned above. Since she and her sister weren't much bigger than the "D" class they succeeded, Enterprise and Emerald might have to be issued in a 2 pack (hint hint ).
Napoleonic Micronauts: USS Peacock, sloop of war. The Peacock and her near sisters, built duing the War of 1812, outclassed their British brig- and ship-sloop counterparts as badly as their bigger sisters did British frigates, and as a group, they may well have been the most successful surface commerce raiders ever built.. Visually distinctive (longer and beamier than the Fauvette, with quarter galleries and the tall, raking masts of USN saliing warships), she would be useful for convoy battles and even hypothetical USN-RN "fleet" engagements. Peacock also deployed with Decatur's squadron to the Mediterranean in 1815, so she could "dust it up" with Algerine xebecs too.

GHQ,

The posted guidance is long overdue and a good idea.

Suggestion: Why not have a link on your website that brings the gamer to an online form that can be completed requesting the items he would like to see. The form can have entries that answer the questions you posted. It certainly would be an easier method to consolidate the thousands of suggestions you must recieve over a year.

Just a thought,
MTB

Hi guys, Sorry to see everyone freaking out about this year's releases. I wonder what they would have said had you announced that there would be NO NEW RELEASES!!!?? I think the list looks great, as it does every year. You guys do a great job and I am thankful that you are in business. I know it's real early but here are my picks for vehicles that need to be done soon:
BTR-40:over 8500 produced, now in its 7th, yes 7th decade of service(1948-present). Used in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America. Has seen lots of combat.
Ferret armd car: 4500 produced. Service in Europe, Asia, Africa. Has also seen lots of combat. A complement to the Saladin and Saracen.
EE-9 Cascavel: 2000 produced. Service in Asia, Africa, South America. Has seen lots and lots of combat.
EE-11 Urutu: over 1000 produced. Sister vehicle to the EE-9. Asia, Africa, South America.
If you look at any post-WWII armour, you would be hard pressed to find any other vehicles that were produced in such quantity and have seen so much combat on such a wide variety of fronts and are not represented by GHQ models. These are the big holes in the modern range. I hope you will consider them again for future production. Thanks guys

Hello all, very informative thread, thank you. I have 3 items I would like to suggest.
1. A6 Intruder/ I was an A6 plane captain on board USS Forrestal circa 1971 so I am a bit biased on this first one. It was a medium attack aircraft covering the period from Viet Nam to the Gulf wars. It was our first truly all weather day and night time attack platform. It carried out a ton of diferent missions in it's career from mining harbors to wild weasel missions in Nam, to bombing in Lebanon, sinking warships in Libya, keeping tabs on USSR fleet assets during the cold war, to dropping smart bombs in the gulf...so it would lend itself to many, many wargaming scenarios. Except for the tram pod under the nose the outside appearance didn't change much over the years. It was so ugly it was beautiful and so good at it's job that we never sold any to foreign countries over the years.
2. USMC HiMars/ This one is short and sweet, it is a truck borne version of the MLRS system and would fit in nicely with the new Cougars and 7t truck models that you have put out recently for the Marines.
3. WWII Carrier deck decals/ I can't take credit for this one as someone else posted it awhile back but I would like to add my voice. I don't know how many people get scared away from these models because of the flight deck markings, lol, but they can be daunting. One sheet for American or the Allies that includes striping and diferent colored numbers would be great. Also one for the Japanese as they had some diferent style markings and the right size national markings that appeared on some of the ships, with striping and Japanese symbols that were used.
Thanks again for the thread.

Ok folks. Here are my 2 items that I would really like to see for the new schedule for 2009 through 2010.

1. M4A3 Sherman, mid production with the 60 degree glacis for the hull and the turretet with the split hatch and wide mantlet. Currently GHQ makes a model of the M4A3 but it has the 43 degree hull and the turret with cupola. This is the late production M4A3 and not generally seen in Normandy, and least looking at pictures of Shermans in the summer of '44 in Europe. Having this new model of the mid production would do several things in my opinion. It would give the correct variant used in Normandy especially regarding the split hatch and wide mantlet. Having the turret with the split hatch would also allow the modeler to order additional turrets to make an M4A1 with wide mantlet also seen in Normandy and the later M4A3 with split hatch but 43 degree glacis seen in Normandy - basically, this new model would make these others available for those that are interested. This was one of the more common Shermans and that is why I have this on my short list. Need this one for Normandy and France '44.

2. Side skirts or Schurzen for the Stug IIIG and the Pz III L,M, and N. My idea on this is to sell these as separate items rather than including them already molded on the model. These Schurzen were very common starting in 1943 on these vehicles and currently GHQ does not do these. I would have a pack of Stug III sideskirts sufficient for 10 vehicles. For the Panzer III's, I would consider doing the turrets with the sideskirts already molded on, otherwise I think that that trying to glue these on the turret would be too fiddly and not that strong when handled. I think the turret on the GHQ Pz IVH is fine in this regard and doing the Pz III turrets this way would work. Having separate sideskirts would allow the gamer/modeler to customize his vehicles. This would fill a gap for the Germans in allowing these models to be represented with schurzen.

The above items are what I would see GHQ do next year. I didn't get any of my top picks on this years list but there is plenty of new stuff that I am interested in anyway. Below I have my list of runners-up to the list above in case anyone else out there is interested enough to include them in their wish list and you can see my rationale for wanting them. In no particular order of importance, here goes.

1. Pz IIIJ with short barrel. At over 1500 produced this is an important model to have. It served in both Russia and North Africa from 1941 through 1942. Currently GHQ has only one other short barrel 50mm Pz III which is the G model. The model would be fairly easy to make for GHQ I would think since it didn't differ much from the long barreled
Pz IIIJ except for the length and shape of the gun and the gun housing.

2. Pz IVG. At over 1100 copies of this one made it should be done. Currentlly, GHQ offers the F2 model but that had only 200 produced. Having the Pz IVG would give the Germans the workhorse of the Panzer Forces between mid '42 and mid '43.

3. Tiger I mid production - No Pfieffel air cleaner but with the rubber rimmed roadwheels. Very common - more common than the one with the Pfieffel air cleaners which it appears were not all that widespread or were discarded. As an added bonus GHQ could include turrets with both the drum and cast cupolas for variety.

4. Ju87B Stuka. The workhorse of the Luftwaffe between 1939 and 1942. No Blitzkrieg is complete without them and gives the Germans something to bomb those pesky Matilda I's that GHQ will probably do at some point.

5. Russian rifle infantry - summer uniform first. I don't know why GHQ has not yet produced these and should include the Maxim MG and some AT rifles in the weapons pack please. More common than the current Russian SMG's especially for earlier in the war.

6. Heavy and Medium mortars with crews for all the major combatants that had them. Also want to make sure these have several crewmen and 1 person does not do justice to a crew served weapon.

7. New AT crews similar to the artillery crew concept. In lieu of that, at least some French AT and Artillery crew with Adrian helmets.

8. T-62. This needs a new model. The current one is not up to the current GHQ standards in my opinion and this was the workhorse of the Russian Army in the 1960's and 70's as well as use in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.

I think this should do it for now. Since GHQ has been very nice to hear us on our requests I have limited my list to 2 items with the runners-up listed for those that might be interested. Thanks GHQ.

Pete - Binpicker, Out!

Hi

I almost forgot 1 other item for my runners-up list. This would be a Sherman detail kit and would include things like Cullen Hedgerow cutters, Spare wheels and tracks, and also applique armor for those Shermans that had it. If space in the pack permitted, then additional items such as tarps, boxes, duffel bags, camo netting and jerry cans could be included as well. I didn't include this in with the Sherman model since it might appear that I was trying to sneak this one in under the radar so to speak but this would be important to have as well.

Pete - Binpicker, Out!

As Micronauts are my area of interest, here's my top two:

1. HMS Vanguard (1945 UK BB). This could have been ready in time for the Pacific War, particularly if conflict had continued into 1946. It makes a good match for some of the Japanese battleships, having good armour but only middling armament.

2. USS South Carolina/Michigan (BB26/27) - I'd really like to finish off the WW1 era U.S. battlefleet, and these are an interesting design and at a key point in the evolution of the battleship. The Nevada would be close behind, but these are more interesting ships and could have seen action in hypothetical US/German scenarios over Mexico circa 1914.