My last few weeks over Christmas and New Year have been punctuated with the usual Australian Summer countryside festivities ; shopping expeditions (primarily for seafood) , visits to and from nearby relatives , torrential rain and local flooding with some roads cut , eating and drinking too much , helping local neighbors flooded out or flooded in , some family interstate travel to less-nearby relatives (who by coincidence has just recovered from their cyclonic rain and local flooding), more eating and drinking, an overly friendly giant python , and a paralysis tick.
.. At least my snake problems solved my mouse and rat problem. Summertime in Australia !
I’m now just back to the packing room and factory floor and have to first catch up on some already waiting orders. So, I’m back on deck from now, subject to seasonal disasters and support demands of my teenage daughters (one of which is about to move away interstate to begin University in about a fortnight).
Never fear ! I have about half of the already waiting orders nearly ready to post , I have to do a pile of urethane casting of fortification pieces in the space where I have some tarps and tents strung up drying (/dried) but other than this I’m ready to go . I even have a new fan and a set of speakers for the packing shed. Great days ahead !
I hope you are looking forward to 2024 . See you soon .
Again ; if you haven’t found this community ; here is one of the best known Vietnam wargaming forums , with some of the best known old salts of the genre . Do yourself a favor and seek out https://fieldsoffire.forumotion.com/
Also ; find us on one of the many Facebook pages ; https://www.facebook.com/groups/FieldsofFireRedux
Greetings all ! It looks like the year has flown past already ! I hope this finds you healthy happy and productive.
In these days of the “screaming 2020’s” decade every month upright is an achievement ! Every meal a banquet . etm .
We will be taking a break over the Christmas New Year period , and I need to do a little bit of local travel and host visitors in the next few weeks , so orders arriving after about now (24th November ) might take longer than usual to process. Thankyou for your patience .
We’ve been flat out the busiest of all time in the second half of this year. Thankyou for another year of excellent engagement and support of us here at Flashpoint Miniatures . I’m happiest with the MACV-SOG and MIKE forces rethinks we did this year .
For all the Thankyou’s we’ve had ; You’re welcome ! .. Thankyou for sharing our enjoyment of what we do and how we do it, and I’ve learned from and been inspired by the amazing spectrum of people I have met and shared with here . Please keep it coming !
… I’ve got more coming from here ! , including a few secret projects .
I’ve just been away from FPM for a few weeks but am now happily back to the packing shed !
By way of brief explanation ; in my primary profession, I am a Physical Therapist (or “Physio” in our Australian dialect ) who since 1999 has had keen interest (and hands-on clinical practice and consultancy ) in the field of children with Autism and other related Neuro-Developmental disabilities.
I’ve just been involved in a ‘once-every-five-years’ academic project to update the national ‘diagnostic guidelines’ that determine how (and by whom) Autism is diagnosed, and what happens afterwards , including access to funding for families who need it. This has been a collaborative project where I have been academic-ing well above my ‘pay grade’, so I’ve had to focus diligently on all the reading and writing I need to do to keep up and make a worthwhile contribution to this . My immediate role here is done , I’ve been honoured to even be invited onto the team to walk with (behind) the giants, and our submission is now in the hands of the serious career Medical academics, lawyers and bean counters .
So… back to something more fun than reading medical journals and writing into the late night.
My efforts at adding M203 launchers to some USSF troopers .
I already have a few orders waiting ; including some sizeable ones that have been waiting for a few weeks already , but I am back in the saddle here at Flashpoint Miniatures and I’ll get these waiting orders moving. Thanks for your patience and comradely-good-fellowship so far. I am looking forward to the work I have ahead.
I am closing the shop for a few weeks as I am coming up to a busy period of travelling and receiving a few visitors I’d like to be able to look after . I am just finishing up on current orders I have already to date, and I plan to be away from next week.
Thankyou for your support and custom over the last few months , It has been very busy . I have also solved the website back end problems that have been haunting the shop sales-comms between Paypal , customer and Flashpoint . Hooray ! .. this had been reported by a few customers in the last weeks , but all good now.
I hope you are well and happy and productive while I’m away . I’ll let you know here or directly when I get back on deck in a few weeks from now .
Just a short G’day to let you know that I’m overtly back in the packing shed and working away . I’ve just now caught up on a swathe of orders that had arrived while I was away (in January) and I’m up to orders from the end of last week. All good so far. A running start to 2023 !
There have already been a pair of large-ish ‘club’ orders come through, so it’s good to see some interesting big group projects underway out there . This should be a good year for 15mm Vietnam tabletop wargaming .
on the painting desk right now ; MACV SOG all-options team . On the right is a Recon Team in enemy uniforms / some enemy weapons , to the left ‘Brightlight’ search -and-rescue teams .Flashpoint ACAVs before undercoating ; I’m starting a new armoured cavalry troop . WIP destroyed wire sections ; just needs some scraps of wire remnants . I want to offer a tutorial on defensive wire making . ARVN Marines in contact with VC US Army and Mobile Riverine Force looking for VC
I hope your 2023 has been good so far , and only gets better .
Hi all , Happiest Merry Politically Correctest Christmas, New Year and holiday season wherever you are !
We have made it through another year of the 2020’s …
Here is hoping that the holiday season (or at least the blizzard season up north , or the monsoon season down south ) affords you a few extra painting or gaming days this season.
All orders are away enroute and I am closing the shop for a few days from here over the Christmas and New Year period . I’ll let you know when I am back and processing orders .
Thankyou for another most excellent year of Flashpoint Miniatures . Next Year we are coming up to ten years since we got started at Flashpoint miniatures so I am looking forward to doing something special.
Hi all , I hope you are well and in a happy place .
I’ve been busy as ever recently with some bigger projects and thus have had a few items like US Army Rifle , HQ and Mortar Platoons listed as out of stock for a short bit ; but they are back ! ..they always were really , but there was a short while where I was manufacturing just to get orders completed .
It has been an interesting and rewarding task for me to ‘custom’ a number of rifle platoons ; particularly the US Army rifle platoons as I have a good selection of figures that when required to lay out “ x18 US Army riflemen” I have twelve sculpts (in helmets) to choose from ; add to this M79 grenadiers , LAWs rockets , M60 gunners , leaders, RTO , medics etc . … and each time I see the Platoon come together .
US Army Rifle platoons being first-quality-controlled as they are laid out ; check for casting , weapons, ankles
I’ve had a longstanding goal of being able to offer the US Army Rifle and HQ platoons in “early war” (with M14s predominately) , “Mid war” (essentially what I’m presenting now as a standard packing) , and “late war” (more bush hats and bareheaded figures). I have done this as custom-packing jobs already, (including a two Rifle Company and HQ “early 173rd Airborne” force) , but not really listed these as a regular item because I am flat out as it is with what I am offering already. … but I can do (and enjoy doing ) special packings especially for big orders.
I have recently added a US Army ‘Cavalry Platoon’ as a specialist US Army platoon which is conceptualized to crew a four ACAV-M113 Scout Platoon. This essentially has two components ; the ‘crew’ figures (; M60 gunners , Vehicle commanders and drivers ) and the ‘dismounted’ figures which first prompted the pack. I am looking to divide this pack into these two parts to make them more accessible, intentionally particularly useful for the players who are 3D printing vehicles
I intend to add a US Army ‘Air-Cavalry “Blues” Platoon’ ; of a planned total of about 20 figures (Including casualty figures) ; this has been another longstanding project I want to complete with Flashpoint figures. These will be ‘planned’ / modelled from the book “Unacceptable Loss” which fielded 18-man ‘Scout’ Platoons which were essentially three five man recon patrols (with a M60 each) and a three man Platoon HQ of a Platoon Commander with RTO and Medic .
What I have been mucking around with recently has been the MACV-SOG ‘patrols’ that I had originally planned out as a ; ‘Recon teams / Rescue teams’ pack . ..but after a little bit of outside advice , have now got a few different versions of MACV-SOG patrols planned , an ‘orthodox’ version (with US weapons) an ‘Enemy equipment + uniforms’ version , and a new packing of “Hatchett force Platoon” as a “exploitation” force , or you want to plan for something along the lines of Operation Tailwind. So at the current moment I have plans for two quite different looking MACV-SOG packs and a Hatchett Force Platoon pack for your deniable operational needs.
The MIKE Force Pack and MIKE Force HQ pack will be tweaked to remain a bit different still ; primarily representing the smaller stature Montagnards (with some unique figures) it will be intended to be useful along side the Montagnard CIDG Pack and “fortified Hamlet’ terrain bundle , plus the ‘Green Berets’ pack . The MIKE Force HQ will be intended to add a few heavy weapons and specialists for the bigger jobs that your MIKE Force Companies might be asked to perform, but right now it is a massive 48-figure pack , so it is listed as ‘out of stock’ temporarily to rethink it’s composition so we can make sure it will fit into the helicopter platoon that needs to carry it into battle.
At this moment I have a ‘Popular Force’ Village Patrols pack nearly finished on my painting desk . Nearly at the other end of the spectrum from the boutique special forces packs ; this has been a fundamental rethink of the ‘Ruff-Puffs’ pack. I’ve made a point of re-using some of the figures from the ‘Local Force VC’ pack to represent the ‘Government’s Part-time militia’ who along with the ‘strategic Hamlet fortifications’ terrain bundle will likely spend their tabletop career defending their village from the Commie Hordes. …I’ve actually thought of a gimmick for this pack which I might try out ; two different command groups supplied either by request or at random ; one command group ostensibly pro-Government and the other pro-Communist (the LVC got to get BARs from somewhere). I like how this idea has progressed from feedback from collectors.
I hope this is helpful for seeing the behind-the scenes machinations of what I’ve been up to apart from just manufacturing and filling orders. I have also been active with game design , writing, and trying out some new product ideas, I am using my time well and welcome the friendship , discussion and feedback that you gents keep coming . Even if I don’t know the Markings for Aussie APC Squadrons (I do now) this is exactly the questions and discussions that make this interesting.
Day one , August 2022 , since my last post here I’ve been waylaid with the dreaded Covid and non-Covid ‘lergies , and navigated through a bunch of road-block distractions , (including my day job) but arrived here with Flashpoint Miniatures in good shape . Some of you would already know I am taking and shipping orders, and have already dispatched a few Companies -worth of NVA , MVC and USMC metal figures , plus urethane terrain must-haves in the forms of our (newly returned) ‘Village terrain Bundle’ , plus Hooches and Sampans and bundle items such as the VC/NVA Base camps.
Our ‘design team’ has been debating over the inclusion of bundled items into planned ‘Defense packs’ which are scenario oriented . How to plan these selections so they are modular and offer best versatility for the expanding player and are scenario – specific to facilitate a greater breadth of Vietnam wargame scenarios . How to table a typical ‘rural civilian village’ ? …in the highlands ? , in the lowlands ? in the ‘Delta ? ,….How to table a civilian village and turn it into a RF ‘Strategic Hamlet ‘ or a CIDG A-Camp , or maybe a VC Forward Base camp or Rear Base camp ? , … without too many pieces ?? …. What are the fortifications and the ‘liability pieces’ of your camp setup ? … This has been the beer fueled research of our design team that we now bring to the table . Many of our urethane terrain items have had new moulds done and additional ‘detailing’ pieces added. For example ; our ‘village bundle’ and ‘thatched hooches’ packs now also have gravemarkers as a detail piece, our sampans carry more cargo pieces and tyre buffers. I am about to list the soon-to-be-released ‘Wire Obstacles kit ‘ which has been supplementing ‘FWF Fortifications’ Orders for a few months now and has received great feedback . We are restocked for this and it will be coming soon. I have more bunkers planned , and more boats planned too , but we have been having some great research discussion on the nature of both FWF Fortification and VC Fortification ‘bundles’ .
Can I say here that we are using a new casting metal supplier (actually since the beginning of Covid , ie; mid 2020), and even though costs have gone up on this precious metal , the non-lead pewter mix we are using right now is the best casting metal experience I’ve had in just short of ten years of spincasting ; I am producing some beautiful metal figures and they seem to cast out in good numbers , so even though it is (more recently) more expensive, it has improved the average quality and availability of the 15mm metal figures which is our basic offering . We have so many excellent metal figures and gaming accessories we are still finding out how to share them all . Our ‘research team’ just put together six different “MACV-SOG teams ‘ packs that don’t look much at all like each other . ..coming soon .
So thankyou to my friends, fellow researchers and customers, for keeping us here and keeping it interesting .
Hi all , I hope you are well and happy where you are . We are at the beginning of winter where I am , and have the first few consecutive days of sunshine ( /no rain) for as far back as I can remember for this year . If you have read my updates here or chatted with me via email or on forums you will know my region has had heavy rain and flooding since about mid February . Flashpoint Miniatures is Ok , we prepared for the predicted flood season back in December , and have escaped the immediate effects other than the roads around us washing away . I’ve managed to keep the factory and shop open and running well , and you have kept me busy through this time , Thankyou . These last months have seen some really interesting large projects come across the Flashpoint packing table and I feel like a monkey swinging from big order to big order , but it has worked out well . Thankyou again.
However , now the sun is shining and the ground is drying up , I have to get outside and do some repairs and cleaning up on the Flashpoint country estate, I need to re-do some of the new urethane terrain moulds (which I did back there a few months ago , but failed due to a dodgy batch of casting silicone ) , and I need to do sort some inventory and need to generally re-stock . So I am closing up the shopfront for a few weeks so I can get this done while I have the chance.
Allow me to have a short time to get some jobs done , and I’ll be back soon enough . If you place orders at this time I likely won’t get to them until the end of June . If you have any questions or needs ; best to get in touch with me here at
Greeting gents ; again thankyou for a busier-than-ever last month !!
I’ve been flat out busy getting orders ready and posted over the last month such that I have not been able to update the website shop on the new items like I’ve wanted to . I have been so busy with incoming orders in the last month that I am now destocked on a few items (US Army infantry Platoons have been the most popular ) , and need to manufacture some more. I will get waiting orders out the door and into the post first and then fire up the forges .
I have had more than a few queries about upcoming and listed ‘out of stock’ items and I can assure you they are on the way and I’d like to / need to be taking ‘product photos’ so I can share the awesomeness on the website shopfront.
Since my last post (at the start of March 2022) where I mentioned the ‘seasonal flooding’ that was slowing me down a little , well we have had some more of the same. The flooding in late February was labelled a “once in 500 year event*” and destroyed the regional small city closest to me , and within the month we have had more of the same level of rain and floods. … and more on the way apparently. ….So these “once in a 100 year” floods seem to be happening on a monthly basis this rain season.
No problems ; we are high and dry where we are so far , but it has made it a bit slower to get Flashpoint jobs finished in between other basic tasks I need to be doing (like digging drains and shovelling my driveway back up the hill) . I request your patience here for a little bit until the weather dries out. Supply in and Postage out is working ok one the roads are open , the workshop and packing shed is remaining dry and happy.
I am keen to share some more on-the-horizon projects such as prepainted terrain items / bundles , undercoated 3D printed vehicles, Riverine boats , but I’ll focus on getting the basics done for now , and core items like US Army infantry back in supply.
I am still most happy with the “Wire Obstacles” item coming up that has had some early praises , but is yet to be listed in the shopfront , so I need to get first things done first .
All the best , happy gaming .
Jimmi
(* Australia has only been settled by ‘whites for just a bit over 200 years ; so to say that a flood is a “once in 500 year event” seems a bit historically presumptuous ; just ‘sayin. )
