Thoughts on new JR miniatures bldgs?

HKurban · Post by **HKurban** » Thu Dec 10, 2009 8:55 am

I was over at the JR miniatures site looking for some structures to add to my battlefield (mostly GHQ terrain maker based) when I noticed they added a few new buildings including some high rise structures such as 8 story hotels and large offices. They appear to be the only manufacturer putting out high density urban structures in our scale so far.

I nabbed a couple and will take a look at them over the Christmas break. Although this isn't much for the WWII gamers, its a nice addition for the modern players looking to simulate FIBUA or MOUT action previously limited in scale by low density buildings. How about Russian tank action in the Chechnyan capital, street by street fighting in denser parts of Baghdad or any number of speculative near-future battles.

Thoughts, guys? Anyone interested in getting some of these?

BadKarma · Post by **BadKarma** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 10:33 pm

I just ordered a couple of these and will let you know when they get here.

7.62 · Post by **7.62** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:52 am

Thanks for the post.
It turns out I have a few buildings from this company and never knew it.
The farm/govt buildings I have are not too bad, better in fact than they show on their website.
The high rise, I've never seen but they look very "blockish".
I made some card buildings from a free download (Japanese site) some time ago that I think look dam good from 2 feet or so.
I have some packed flat but will build one up and post a pic this weekend.
One was a 15 floor job and the price was right!
That said I think most people will welcome any kind of building they can get their hands on.
GHQ could make a killing in this area if they take a look at card buildings.
Cheap to design,produce and ship and you have your own market to boot.

Go on, just do it.

VonTed · Post by **VonTed** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 6:06 pm

JR terrain is very hit or miss, some of it is "OK" at best and a lot of it is pretty bad. Bad casts, lopsided, crooked..... but cheap.

It can paint up well and with some basing and flock to distract can look good. But not very good quality to start with.

There are a couple outfits that make great looking stuff (GHQ included).....

7.62 · Post by **7.62** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 11:10 am

15 floor card building, no attempt to spruce up.

pmskaar · Post by **pmskaar** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:52 am

I have seen some of the JR Miniatures buildings in the stores a few years ago. I was not impressed by their quality and found them to be crudely sculpted and nowhere near the quality of GHQ or some of the other manufacturers.
I did check out the JR Minitures catalog and looked over the pictures of their current stuff. Some of the buildings are shown as drawings only so I can't really tell what the actual model looks like. Some of the ruins looked pretty good but without a closeup it is hard to tell.
They also have acquired some of the old Architechural Heritage buildings which they show in their painted state. I am not impressed at all with the paintjobs on the JR Miniatures website catalog but I can say with certainty that this line buildings are basically decent. GHQ used to carry the Architechural Heritage line and I bought a fair number of their buildings. They were originally cast in a red-brown high quality resin and were closer to 1/300th scale than true 1/285th. I have used several of these for buildings in my games and they look fine although there are some better buildings out there now including GHQ.
For my money, I do prefer the GHQ buildings and still have a bunch to paint but want GHQ to do more original buildings for WWII Eastern and Western Europe and North Africa. I also have some other manufacturers buildings including Leva and Timecast which are quite nice as well and help to fill in gaps that GHQ haven't covered yet. I haven't gotten into paper buildings since I prefer the look of fully 3 dimensional buildings on my terrain but Tom Herrschaft aka 8ball does some really nice ones which I have used as well.

Pete - Binpicker, Out!

Xveers · Post by **Xveers** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:31 pm

On the note of buildings, has ANYONE seen something that would work as a WW2 railroad station? The kind of smaller one you'd see in a german/polish/russian town of small to medium size.

I've ideas on how to kitbash one, but I'd much rather take a shortcut

VonTed · Post by **VonTed** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 8:50 pm

Paperterrain has one (a paper one of course)....

HKurban · Post by **HKurban** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 1:07 am

there's the paper terrain one, but another option is timecast models that has some smaller european RR stations.

Mk 1 · Post by **Mk 1** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 5:58 am

I have one that I use in many of my games:

You can see it in the center of this village in one of my early Tunisian games (taken about 5 years ago).

Here it is a bit closer, though not too well focussed, from closer to ground level.

The station is a single resin casting which consists of two buildings, a station and a tender-building with coal-chute, with a platform and a siding that has an armored locomotive.

I think I bought this from a vendor stand at a gaming con -- can't really say for certain who the manufacturer is. I believe it may be the TimeCast "El Alamein Train Station".

Hope that helps.

Xveers · Post by **Xveers** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 6:04 am

Well, it's nice to know a model that works is out there SOMEWHERE, but it's sadly not the TimeCast model. The timecast El Alamein station has a far more arabic flair:

But at least I have some idea of what to look for. Thanks!

pmskaar · Post by **pmskaar** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 12:41 am

Timecast also do some Z scale buildings in their Railway series. These are just a tad larger than true 1/285th scale but might be worth a look.
There is also a Russian railway halt available as well in their Eastern European 6 mm line. This one is a very small station for the countryside. I'm not sure if it is actually a passenger station or a freight station. The Z-Scale station is an Engish type station and I'm not real sure if it is appropriate for other locations or not.
As I stated earlier, there are lots of buildings GHQ need to do. I would like to see some industrial type buildings for Europe as well as some railroad stuff including tracks and a station. I have some ideas of how I would like this done but it would be nice to have more buildings and accessories. How about it GHQ?

Pete - Binpicker, Out!

Matt D · Post by **Matt D** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 12:12 am

About eight years ago I saw a bunch of the sketches from JR Miniatures that and figured it was worth the price to buy a few buildings. Big mistake as the idea of using hand drawings instead of actual photos should have been a warning. I don't want to bash them, but my opinion is that if I'm going to be in this hobby then I want the best material and models. The old saying, "You get what you pay for," is very true as the other saying, "Buyers remorse," was what I got. I sold the stuff on eBay a week later for $1.88.

JR Miniatures are good for gaming and the need for quantity over quality is the goal. The same goes for Irregular Miniatures if you don't mind getting globs of pewter.

Without giving credit to any competitors I gues mentioning that Leva Miniatures by Alain Levesque are very good. Unfortunately he retired and sold his line to a company in Canada that apparently has been sitting on his molds. I talked with him a couple of years ago while buying what was left in his box of stuff and he said the company won't even return his calls.

Mk 1 · Post by **Mk 1** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 4:51 am

Matt D wrote:JR Miniatures are good for gaming and the need for quantity over quality is the goal. The same goes for Irregular Miniatures if you don't mind getting globs of pewter.

I have a few JR pieces. I would say you are quite right for the majority of their stuff, but they have a few pieces that are quite alright. Unhappily they give you no way to figure out the quality of what you are ordering before hand.

That is often the case with online (ex-mail order) buying from many vendors. I bought a fair stack of stuff from three different UK vendors over the years. The term "hit-and-miss" would be generous. Yet there were some worthwhile items, to be sure.

The net result is that the cost savings that you may expect don't quite pan out. If you are at all discriminating in the quality of models you plan to use, you wind up with a substantial number of items that you have bought and paid for, but that you don't / won't use.

This picture provides an example of how substantial the quality difference can be. The SU-152 in the back came from a UK vendor. The one in the front, of course, is GHQ. And by the way, this model was a keeper by my standards (at a time when GHQ didn't yet make an SU-152). You might imagine how bad the models were that I found I could not keep/use.

So now I only buy them when I have had a chance to see them. That means retailers I find at gaming cons, and occasionally eBay, as most of the 2nd tier vendors don't put useful photos on their websites (nor in their catalogs).

Fortunately that has never been a problem in my dealings with one particular company. So I hang out on their website forum more than on any others.

Without giving credit to any competitors I gues mentioning that Leva Miniatures by Alain Levesque are very good. Unfortunately he retired and sold his line to a company in Canada that apparently has been sitting on his molds. I talked with him a couple of years ago while buying what was left in his box of stuff and he said the company won't even return his calls.

The Leva stuff I have is all pretty good.

I too corresponded with Alain a few times. But alas, he is no longer Leva, as the Leva name is only a legacy at this point.

A fellow in Poland who goes by the name Wargamer (realname is Sosna?) on eBay has done knock-offs of several of the Leva products. But as I understand it these are un-authorized. Once I was told that, I stopped buying. Too bad, 'cause the stuff was OK and Sosna was a very customer-friendly fellow to buy from in my experience. Would love to learn his molds are legit, and be able to buy again in good concience.

Now there is a guy on eBay (LegionsIVhire) who has an eBay store selling the Leva stuff made by the new Canadian licensee. Seems to be good castings of Alain's models. A fair bit of landing and coastal craft, railroad stuff (trains, tracks, roundhouses/switching yards), and trenchworks/bunkers. Useful in rounding out the battlefield.

All IMHO. Your mileage may vary.

jtompk99 · Post by **jtompk99** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 8:45 pm

Some of the Les Batiment Resin Building terrain available on the Nafzinger Collection web site are Leva. I'm not real crazy about the resin used as it leaves a fair amount of bubbles and dingle berries on the piece. However, it is easy to fill in / clip off and the edges are otherwise crisp and proportioning is good.

In addition they bought and now offer a bunch of the old Vac-U-Cast molds. I bought a bunch direct from VUC before they went out of business and love those pieces. I have not bought more since offered by Les Batiment but I would if I needed them.