It’s taken best part of two years but the original move to a rural location with a specific building for a business and hobby workshop is shaping up. COVID driven supply chain problems, floods and cyclones have all played their part in delaying the lead-in project intended to free up the building. We’ve taken down walls, reshaped the kitchen, re-laid carpet, plastered some holes in walls, built a workbench using the old kitchen cabinets and a processing space for putting orders together.

We have moved all the molds and figures out of the bedroom we were using to run the business from and into the new location. That took a bit of effort and lots of trips back and forth towing a hand trolley!

So now everything is in the right location and all the storage racks and cabinets are in place. As with all moves there are some final decisions to be made about what goes where but the hard work is done and we are fulfilling orders! Mold making and casting is all done by the guys at Regal Enterprises so I don’t have to worry about that side of things.

As part of this exercise, we have fully catalogued all the molds in the business; those we inherited from Doug and the original Miniature Service Centre business, and those we have made for the new figures in the range we have added. To ensure we have maximum recoverability for the ranges we are trying to create a three-tier production system; Master mold (derived from the original Green, which sometimes doesn’t survive the mold-making process), the sub-masters cast from the original Master mold, and, the Production mold from which the retail figures are produced. That structure should ensure the lifespan of the range can be expressed in terms of decades rather than years.

Moving Forward

We have some new figures going through the production process at the moment. These are all in the FIW/SYW range and feature new figures for the French.

These new infantry figures will represent units from a slightly later period of the Seven Years War, by being depicted with their coats turned back. This is a more traditional appearance, what most people (like me) expect when we see French infantry of this period. According to “Kronoskaf”, which is where I go for most of my SYW guidance, the coat turn-backs began to become the “norm” from 1757 onward. The new figures will have some in advancing stances and some in firing line stances. Our officers in the existing French range are portrayed in advancing stances without turn-backs, so are suitable for both the existing and the new advancing figure poses, as officers did not turn their coats back. Sean is currently working on a standing command group to fit with the firing line.

Here’s a sampler –

These first figures will be available around the end of May.

Next Year

Next year, 2025, is the 250th anniversary of the start of the American War of Independence, the American Revolution, the Rebellion, all of the above. We currently have most of this period covered off and have done for a while. But there are always bits and pieces that we can add.

Initially we will start with dismounted dragoons for both the British and the American forces. We will also add the Brunswick dragoons that featured Burgoyne’s campaign. It is also apparent that there are some characters to add, Burgoyne himself, George Rogers Clark and quite a few more. We will add them as we go.

And last but not least…..

The reward for reading through to the end is a discount code – MAYMOVE24 – use this in the shop and get an extra 10% discount on any orders through to the end of the month.