FAQ

STRIP SIZES AND PACK FORMAT

Formed infantry are based four figures to a strip, facing forward, on a 20mm frontage and 5mm depth. Skirmishing/light Infantry (four to a strip), and Mounted troops (three to a strip), are based in file for cutting and rebasing.

SHIPPING TIMES AND METHODS
Most orders for which all items are in stock are dispatched within twenty one days of ordering, subject to delays resulting from holidays, sickness, or preparations for wargames shows.  We send all UK parcels via Royal Mail second class post.  We send all overseas parcels using the International Small Packet service or a carrier service as is appropriate.  Only the latter carries a tracking service.

All orders for figures are cast to customer requirements in strict order of receipt.  Normally this is a relatively quick turnaround, but during peak times, staff illnesses or natural disasters, there will inevitably be delays.  We're not Amazon folks!   Please bear with us in such cases - we do not have orders hanging around awaiting completion any longer than we have to.

POSTAGE, PACKING AND DELIVERY
Postage charges in the UK are 10% of the total order value, those to mainland Europe 20%, and for the the rest of the world 30%. These charges are subject to VAT where applicable. There are minimum postage charges of £4.00 for UK orders, £5.00 for Europe, £7.50 for the Rest of the World.

• UK orders are sent by second class post.
• Orders to the EU are sent Delivered Taxes Paid (DPD).  This means that you are charged the VAT due at the appropriate rate when you place your order.  
• Orders to the US have the 10% tarriff applied in the final total

We are not responsible for any 'handling charge', local sales taxes or customs duties levied on goods.  

WHY DOES IT COST SO MUCH MORE TO BUY YOUR FIGURES IN THE 'REST OF THE WORLD?'

An alternative version of this question is the more common statement, 'I'd buy from you but your unreasonable shipping costs to the USA/Canada/Australia make it TOO expensive!'

OK, Let's approach this one from two angles. Firstly no matter how you look at it, shipping bits of metal overseas in commercial aircraft isn't cheap. We have to pay for that to be done and we have to reflect that in my price structure. Selling services at a loss is a very good way to end up not selling any services at all.

Secondly and more counter-intuitively, buying from us from outside the EU means your orders are CHEAPER than those to UK citizens. It's all to do with tax. Suppose you order £50 of figures and you live in London.

The costs are as follows:

Ex VAT price of figures = £50.00

Plus P&P at 10% =          £5.00

Plus VAT at 20% =         £11.00

Total =                          £66.00

However, sending the same package to the USA

Ex VAT price of figures = £50.00

Plus P&P at 30% =        £15.00

Total =                         £65.00

So it's not a bad deal at all even with the postage costs!

ARE BACCUS FIGURES COMPATIBLE WITH X, Y & Z?
The emphasis on this question is wrong. To my way of thinking it should be rephrased as, 'Are x, y, and z's figures compatible with Baccus?' It is really difficult to be objective about this as we judge other people's ranges by our standards. The following picture shows samples from Baccus, Irregular's and Heroics ranges.

<img data-cke-saved-src="https://www.baccus6mm.com/_img/sizecomp.jpg" src="https://www.baccus6mm.com/_img/sizecomp.jpg" style="height:84px;" width:360px"="">

The red line marks the 6mm height. Ours are measuring about 6.5mm from base to eye level, Irregular about 6mm and Heroics about 5mm.

So if we are all making 6mm figures, why aren't ours exactly the same as the others, so you can mix and match across the ranges?
Well, we started making figures because none of the ranges available gave us what we wanted:

Heroics have a vast range, and in many ways are the 'standard' for this scale. However, they are not 'true' 6mm figures. They were designed as 1/300th scale models, and so are smaller than the nominal 6mm in both height and bulk, measuring as little as 4.5mm foot to eye. I suppose the easiest comparison to make is between a nominal 25mm figure of today and the 'equivalent' 1/72nd plastic ranges. Their slightness of stature means that there is little or no detail on the castings. Remember when someone tells you that Baccus figures are 'huge' in comparison to Heroics, it is not that our figures that are grossly oversize, it is that the objects of comparison are actually smaller than the perceived scale.
Now depending on your point of view their smooth form and poor detail makes these figures either a dream or an absolutely cow to paint. As we are firmly in the latter camp, we designed figures with lots of clean, raised detail - a fact appreciated by many.
So, we wanted figures that were larger than 5mm in size and had lots of detail - as a result, there was no chance of ours being like Heroics!

Irregular also have a vast range, and with more bulk and height are actually 6mm in scale. However, we did not like their fixed basing and believed that we could produce castings that carried more and better defined detail. So, no chance of ours being like Irregular!

Adler figures are incredibly well designed, animated and detailed. However, they are considerably larger than 6mm, and their very distinctive styling is not to everyone's taste.

In essence, Baccus figures are my interpretation of what a 6mm figure should be. To have purposely chosen to make my figures match other people's ranges would have meant that I would now be turning out what would effectively be copies of Heroics or Irregular or Adler miniatures - something we were not inclined to do.

Figure design is an Art, not a Science. Every artist sees things differently, as does every designer.



ARE 6MM FIGURES ANY CHEAPER THAN 15MM OR 28MM'S?
While we do not hold that 6mm's only advantage over bigger scale is that of price, it is certainly a major factor. Indeed some say that if you follow the practice of basing 6mm figures using 15mm or 28mm ground scale you actually end up with losing that price advantage.
Well...not quite. We'll work through a couple of examples based on DBA/M standard basing to show what we mean. To start with, let's state the basic assumptions.
 

So what do we get if we compare 28mm and 6mm figures on bases using the 28mm ground scale.

So, 6mm works out much cheaper, but look also at the difference in numbers of figures you get out on the table.
If we take a twelve element Early Imperial Roman DBA army as an example, and use standard 28mm base sizes:

So there is a significant cost saving. There is also a much shorter time for painting. At the rate of one figure per minute the painting time
of the 6mm army is about five hours work including basing. At a rate of one hour per figure (speed painting for some!), for the 28mms you are looking at about 34 hours work.

And as for visual effect...well some people can look at a battle line of 20 exquisitely painted legionaries and convince themselves that they are fielding half a legion. When your front line contains 240 figures in two ranks then you don't have to imagine as hard...and wait till you see a pike phalanx!

CAN I HAVE A DISCOUNT?
We all like to pay less if we can, and we get a lot of emails headed with just this question, and then promising  that that the writer will purchase £30 of figures if we can give a 'favourable' answer. The simple facts are that Baccus ranges are very competitively priced compared to other products in the hobby, and that we have actually got to generate a profit in order to live!  As a comparison, the next time you get your car fixed, take the bill to the mechanic and see what reaction you get when you ask for a discount because you are spending £30 with him....

An important point to note is that the boxed sets, army and booster packs are already discounted.

In addition there may be some room to bring postal charges down with larger orders, but this is neither guaranteed, not quantifiable until the order is packed and weighed.

WHY CAN'T I BUY SINGLE STRIPS?
We sometimes get requests for specific single strips of figures.We're afraid that it is simply not a feasible option to supply figures like this. The strips are cast in bulk with an eye to producing pack quantities. As all orders are cast to the customer requirements we don't have large numbers of spare strips on hand. Therefore to do an entire spin of a mould to supply just one casting from it is not financially viable. The only way it would be is if the customer were prepared to pay the true costs of production, and we don't think many are.

We are however prepared to alter the ratios of command to line in any pack. At its extreme this means that you can order a pack containing no command strips or no line strips. with any combination in between.

With regards to samples we offer packs rather than single strips,  It costs the same to post a strip as it does to post a pack, and you get a good spread of figures across a subject rather than a single casting which may turn out to be atypical of what you can expect from the other models.

DO YOUR FIGURES CONTAIN LEAD?
The simple answer is, 'Yes they do'.   The longer answer is, well, longer.

A few years ago, there was a scare about the lead content in toy soldiers and there was a seeming universal condemnation of this innocent metal as being a 'bad thing' with a flight to the use of lead-free pewter.   The latter alloy was universally hailed as a 'good thing' despite it containing some pretty nasty component metals and compounds.

Lead, as part of the alloy that we use to cast our models, is inert.   I have had some enquiries from parents worrried that the very existence of the metal in the house would harm their children.   A bit like this:

No, lead does not issue deadly 'Plumbum Rays'.  It just sits there doing its own thing very quietly.   Yes, you should take precautions such as washing your hands carefully after filing, cutting and even handling your little men, but you need to really do that with any metal figures.  Once painted and varnished they are perfectly harmless.

To be honest, the only way that you can really cause damage to your loved ones with our castings is to make them part of a controlled diet, and if you are regularly feeding your kids random samples from the Baccus ranges, they, and you, have many, many more problems that the lead content of our little men!