New Hat 1/32 (1 Viewer)

[Jay]

What do people think of the Hat line? What would you like to see? What is your impression of what they have out now? Personnaly, I think they are good in a lot of ways, I think their Napolionic figures go perfectly with Airfix, however.......it's just not my cup of tea.

 

[Denver]

Hat is not my favorite. Four poses per box and on the small side.
They appear to be 1/35 instead of 1/32.
My favorite Napoleonics are Conte's Alamo Mexican Army.
They are full sized and easy to convert into additional poses.
Also, their removable heads make them much easier to paint.

 

[Ragnar]

There Punic War sets had 4 poses but the Napoleonics have 6 poses.
Yes the Punics are a little small but not that small.....and the French Naps are full size 1/32 with glue on back packs.
Hat are NOT trying to be the next Conte or TSSD they just do there own thing and make good army builder sets.
TSSD have done the right thing by going this way for there Romans ^&grin

 

[Fubar]

Hat Ancients are not bad some are pretty good. BUT THEY HAVE CAVALRY! Between Hat, CTS and Italeri I made a decent themed Punic wars Armies.
Their Napoleonic sets are great. They need some more Cavalry though and at least one cannon set might be nice for each Nation. Napoleonic age is a pretty deep black hole to be stepping into for a 54mm plastics manufacturer .Especially these days.
FUBar

 

[fishead19690]

What do people think of the Hat line? What would you like to see? What is your impression of what they have out now? Personnaly, I think they are good in a lot of ways, I think their Napolionic figures go perfectly with Airfix, however.......it's just not my cup of tea.

Hat has been more known as a 1/72 scale company for years and have tons of great sets in that scale. There early attempts at 1/32 scale figures were not that great and suffered from lack of poses having only 4 poses per set and the figures were pretty much just a few of the 1/72 scale figures blown up into 1/32 scale. The sculpts were meant to be 1/72 scale and at that size looked nice but when blown up to 1/32 they didn,t look as nice.

Hats second venture back into 1/32 awhile back was a total different story with improved sculpting and more poses and new Napoleonic figures which is my era of choice had me very excited! The first few sets looked great and they kept pumping them out!
More poses also meant more conversion possibilities for me for even more poses.
I really like the way they went about there Marching/action/command sets and the separate backpacks and a few with separate arms, that was great for figure converters like myself. I wish they did more of the sets like this but I guess a lot of guys didn,t like having to glue the figures together and would rather deal with blocking under the figures arms? Oh well!

A few of the last sets like the Russians and Prussian Landwher figures seemed to be not sculpted as well as the first sets of Hats new venture back into 1/32 scale but were still welcomed just the same. I,m looking forward to seeing more sets but I would really like to see them give use some good quality 1/32 scale calvary like some full sized Cuirassiers that don.t look like 1/35th that,s available now. There was talk of them giving it a go there for awhile but I don,t know what happened to that????

Artillery sets and wounded figures would also be great but it seams like Hat is again loosing interest in 1/32????

I,m still looking forward to seeing the Austrian and Spanish Napoleonics they have planed.
They also had masters ruffs posted on the site of more french in the works but I never heard any more about that?

I still have boxes and boxes of the last sets released sitting down stairs to paint and chop up. I have a bunch primed and ready to go including a Barvarian artillery crew and a few other conversions.
I hated the cartridge boxes on the Russian figures which I think were way to large so I cut them off and replaced them with Blackcat ones and made some plumes for there shakos and turned them into Grenadiers.

I think they also should have done them as Greanadiers with the plumes and anyone who wanted musketeers could have just cut them off. The cartridges boxes also did not have any grenade markings so that would have made the conversion that much easier.

I think what Hat is doing now in 1/32 is great but I can see that if you don,t like Napoleonics I guess there is not a whole lot to get excited about? Good thing I love Napoleonics!^&grin

Also 7 years war figures coming and hints at MAYBE??? Rev war?

I hope these keep selling well so that they continue to pump these guys out!

 

[Ragnar]

Good post Fish.

 

[MARENGO]

Hey Jay, HaT downunder here in New Zealand is really popular with 1/32 plastic collectors. I am thrilled that they are giving such a wide range of Napoleonics (sets I could only dream of when I was young in the 1970's). I too am a little concerned that they are losing interest in 1/32 scale, and that the quality of the Russian sets is only just up to scratch, and not nearly as good as their Wurttembergers (quality and sheer variety brillant), Bavarians, and Prussians. Surely a greater variety of Russian troop types could be made. I'll keep buying their 1/32 sets in multiples, and hope maybe some cavalry/artillery may not be too far in the future. Jay, Napoleonics are our cup of tea here:smile2: Wellington is not our capital for nothing! (and all the other napoleonic placenames here).

 

[Ragnar]

Marengo welcome to the forum!

 

[Jay]

Marengo, welcome also. And interesting point. I don't suppose you have any cities named Lee, Grant, or Crockett?

 

[MARENGO]

Thanks for your kind welcome Ragnar and Jay {sm4}. Its great to meet other collectors with such a passion for 1/32 plastic. I hope that I'll have lots of useful things to contribute this forum. Cheers!

 

[fishead19690]

Thanks for your kind welcome Ragnar and Jay {sm4}. Its great to meet other collectors with such a passion for 1/32 plastic. I hope that I'll have lots of useful things to contribute this forum. Cheers!

Welcome to the forum Marengo!

 

[MARENGO]

Welcome to the forum Marengo!

Thanks Tim ("fishhead19690"), I though your earlier posting on HaT's second generation Napoleonics was spot on! Let's hope this dream run of new sets every 3 months doesn't stop, and cavalry/artillery are just round the corner^&grin

 

[MARENGO]

Tim (Fish) mentions in his posting "They also had masters ruffs posted on the site of more french in the works but I never heard any more about that?"

I read on HaT's website 1/32 blog from February 20 under "Status update of 1/32 scale" that:

Next up would be any of the Napoleonic masters already finished:
Pre-Bardin French marching and command
Post-Bardin French marching and command
Spanish (all sets)
These sets are all at stage 5 already and therefore could be put into tooling queue immediately.

Does anyone know more about the progress of the French LINE Infantry, such as where we can see photos of the Masters?

I really hope it will be of the same standard as their brilliant French Light Infantry (and include separately Line Grenadiers).

Cheers

 

[fishead19690]

Tim (Fish) mentions in his posting "They also had masters ruffs posted on the site of more french in the works but I never heard any more about that?"

I read on HaT's website 1/32 blog from February 20 under "Status update of 1/32 scale" that:

Next up would be any of the Napoleonic masters already finished:
Pre-Bardin French marching and command
Post-Bardin French marching and command
Spanish (all sets)
These sets are all at stage 5 already and therefore could be put into tooling queue immediately.

Does anyone know more about the progress of the French LINE Infantry, such as where we can see photos of the Masters?

I really hope it will be of the same standard as their brilliant French Light Infantry (and include separately Line Grenadiers).

Cheers

I,m not sure if this is what your looking for??? but these photos of the French masters were posted on the Hat 1/32 scale blog last year and I have never heard any more about them since. These are the pre and post Bardin figure masters in the link I added, just scroll down to see them.
That fact that we have not heard any more about them has me scared that they won,t get done in 1/32 scale???? I,m hoping that they just have been delayed a bit because they look nice.
I think the whole extra heads thing might be a hold up on these just like the problem they are having with the Austrians?
My vote was for the shako heads on the Austrian figures, which I still have not seen any pics of them with shakos yet, just helmets and bear skins.

That Austrian set is one I,m looking forward to, Those french would be great also!

Here is the link to the French masters if the link works? Scroll down the page.
http://132hatblog.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html

 

[Jay]

Marengo, welcome also. And interesting point. I don't suppose you have any cities named Lee, Grant, or Crockett?

Marengo, speaking of Hat and Wellington, it seems to me that they don't have any 1/32 British figures? Does that impeed your play a bit?

 

[MARENGO]

Marengo, speaking of Hat and Wellington, it seems to me that they don't have any 1/32 British figures? Does that impeed your play a bit?

Jay, I have made use of old airfix, timpo, and ACTA figures. I would like to get my hands on some of the Victorix 1/32 infantry, but have yet to find a local dealer for the larger scale figures. ACTA, airfix (many multiple boxes of single figures), and even Italeri have provided some good cavalry, and ACTA and AIP the artillery basics. I think it might appear to be to much of a gamble for HaT to produce a newer second-generation (better sculpted, all sized to the same 54mm scale) sets, as the market has been "well"^&confuse catered for in the past by other manufacturers, and presently Victorix may extend its range. But if they did supply new sets, they can count on be buying up large

 

[MARENGO]

I,m not sure if this is what your looking for??? but these photos of the French masters were posted on the Hat 1/32 scale blog last year and I have never heard any more about them since. These are the pre and post Bardin figure masters in the link I added, just scroll down to see them.
That fact that we have not heard any more about them has me scared that they won,t get done in 1/32 scale???? I,m hoping that they just have been delayed a bit because they look nice.
I think the whole extra heads thing might be a hold up on these just like the problem they are having with the Austrians?
My vote was for the shako heads on the Austrian figures, which I still have not seen any pics of them with shakos yet, just helmets and bear skins.

That Austrian set is one I,m looking forward to, Those french would be great also!

Here is the link to the French masters if the link works? Scroll down the page.
http://132hatblog.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html

Cheers Tim, thanks for the ref. I'm still new to the HaT 1/32 Blog. 2010 seems to have been a year of great optimism for HaT 1/32 on the blog! Those French line troop sets are amazing. It really would be a pity if they didn't put them into production!

I agree that the Austrian sets have slowed up production of the Napoleonics. Too much decision by comittee, and a blowout of production costs. I too voted for shakos (we all seem to agree that italeri have already covered the helmets and bearskins), but too have not seen them applied to the masters.

Whatever HaT decides it will put into production, it can count on me buying bigtime. But please HaT, if you were to put into production quality French Line troops {bravo}}, from what I can gather from others, it would be financially rewarding due both to demand and sheer volume required{sm0}

 

[9thHussar]

hi - hat 1/32nd have been fantastic sets although the last sets of Landwher are not as striking as the previous sets - but landwher were a scruffy bunch anyhow with poor supplies of equipment/uniform etc....

I paint 1/32nd (as a part time business since 2006) and I can see very clearly that the recession is the direct cause of the reduced interest/sales of 1/32nd in particular. I also paint 1/72nd and sales of this scale are better because there are many more collectors/wargamers in this scale so pro-rata there are many still buying eg: I now (2011) have 2 collectors regularly buying painted 1/32nd but I have approx 20 collectors still buying 1/72nd - back in 2006/2007 just before the economic turndown I had 15 regular buyers of painted 1/32nd, plus many other occassional buyers.

I have noticed that Italeri have not released planned sets in 1/32nd and Airfix didnt release any further 1/32nd this year after 2 years of new re-issues.

Its all to do with expendable income - if collectors have spare cash they will buy the figures, but when putting food on the table and keeping a roof over your head is more important then hobbies/interests take a backseat - I keep hoping the day will come when this reverses, but things in the global economy dont help - although in 2007/2008 I think that we talked ourselves into the recession with great negativity in the Media etc...

I will keep ploding away - that is why I would never paint full time as you cannot depend on continued sales - it really is up and down and non-forecastable.

9th

 

[Robert Kirchner]

I would love to have the French line infantry since only ACTA has them in production now. THe Hat figures are superb.

 

[Carnahan]

Those ATCA French are decent, but the faces aren't the best. A lot of them are light on the features, and I swear one guy looks like he's biting his lip (probably a realistic trait, but it just looks awkward). You may be able to get some decent Airfix clones somewhere online.