Author: Elmato

Greetings most excellent gentlemen .

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.

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.

All the best

Jimmi

Flashpoint Miniatures

Hi all ! ,

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 .

All the best ,

Jimmi

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 .

I hope your 2023 has been good so far , and only gets better .

All the best ,

Jimmi

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.   

All the best for now

Jimmi

Flashpoint Miniatures .

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 .

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 173^rd 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.   

Keep it coming .

All the best

Jimmi

Hi Gents ,

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 .

More to follow

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

admin@flashpoint-miniatures.com

All the best . Happy Painting !

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. )  

Hi all ,

Thankyou for the running start back at the packing shed and production floor !  Great to back to the smell of urethane chemicals and hot tin and rubber ! … It smells like … Victory !

I’ve had some big orders arrive straightaway and am diligently getting them altogether regardless of some typical seasonal rain and flooding , Covid isolation (I am fine, just following the rules after close contacts) , and my air compressor limping through it’s last spincasting session.  

I have just added a few new things to the catalogue and I have a list here of what’s coming if you don’t see it in the shopfront already. There are a few additional changes happening too ; 

The biggest changes will be that the US Army , USMC and ANZ HQ Platoons will be reduced slightly in size , Combat engineers and Tracker dog elements reduced to one team (from two) , and a separate “Engineers” Platoon created with its’ own command and security details.

The original intention of the HQ Platoon packs was to offer some Company-HQ-level specialist teams ; particularly Combat Engineers. With developing gaming experience these Engineer Units have proved so useful on the table that I added another of each Engineer teams to the packs which along with extra Scouts, Snipers, Medics, Signalers and Heavy weapons, which now made the HQ packs a bit heftier in size than was intentioned. Accordingly I have now reduced the Engineer ‘Attachment’ to just one team and composed a Combat Engineer Platoon (and an ‘Assault Pioneer’ Platoon for the Aussies) which has it’s own Platoon Command and security elements ; and two additional teams of specialists. ( to make three teams when added to the team from the ‘HQ Platoon’ pack) . When you really need to search, and really need to destroy a large target area (or VC bunker system)  ; these are your best tools. The rest of the Rifle Platoons will be protecting these guys. 

ANZ Assault Pioneer Platoon ; (25 Pcs )

US / FWF Combat Engineers ; (25 Pcs )

Also ; two recently added packs are being ‘split’ to add flexibility in planning your specialist forces.

FWF Base Defenders ; A ; Machine Gun Posts . (four machine gun teams with Comms ; 12 Pcs)

FWF Base Defenders ; B ; Clearing Patrols (12 Pcs)

US Army Armoured Cavalry Platoons ; A : ACAV Track crews (crew for four M113 ACAVs) 

US Army Armoured Cavalry Platoons ; B ; Infantry dismounts. ( including a minesweeper team and machine gun team)

The newest offering a ‘NVA Rear Services Section’ is intended to deploy as unarmed Camp-watchers and Armed guards occupying Base camps or rear areas . .. These are the (live) targets for your SOG or Recon teams’ prisoner-snatch Missions.

NVA Binh Tram Group  , Rear Services Section : ( 12 Pcs )

And the oldest new offering is a generic pack of “Vehicle / Aircraft crew on foot” ; for the moments when; the crew has bailed out, shed their helmets ; picked up a machinegun and radio and are now needing to be rescued. …. These are the (live) targets for your SOG and SEALs Teams’ “Bright Light” Recovery Missions.   

Downed Pilots / Bailed Vehicle Crew on foot : (12 Pcs )

The next newest offering is the formula of “Rifle Squad” -sized packing Combat Squads. This has been asked for by players of smaller “skirmish-level” rules who don’t need more than a dozen figures to play out scenarios . 15mm is the smallest scale that skirmish games will “work” visually, and is the wargaming scale used in heaven.  It now seems such an oversight that I have not had smaller -squad sized offerings for Skirmish games before now.

…. Also for the players who enjoy larger Company game/scenarios ; it makes it convenient to add a few extra increments of rifle squads or security without having to purchase a whole platoon .

LVC Bareheaded rifle squad with obsolete weapons (12 Pcs )

LVC Coolie hat rifle squad with obsolete weapons (12 Pcs )

MVC rifle squad with AK47  (12 Pcs )

NVA rifle squad ; (12 Pcs )

ANZ Rifle squad ; (12 Pcs )

US Army Rifle squad ; (12 Pcs )

USMC Rifle Squad ; (12 Pcs )

ARVN Rifle squad ; (12 Pcs )

Not bored of new stuff yet ? … Terrain bundles ! ; the Village Terrain Bundle (TER 24) has been our most popular terrain Pack since it was released.

This is now the basis for expansion of the following Terrain bundles ;   

VC Forward Base camp (16pcs)  

VC Rear Base camp (16pcs )

… and something I’ve been playing with for a short while now ;

CIDG / PF Fortifications Bundle (16pcs ) 

Further combined bundles are planned to expand on FWF Firebase Fortifications. The FWF fortifications ‘collection’ has been intended to offer modular choices for temporary and permanent fortification. They are intended to mix and match to allow you to build up your FWF defensive positions as you expand your needs from simple Platoon -sized temporary ‘Remain Overnight’ dug-in positions , to Platoon -sized permanent defensive positions ; ’all the way’ … to a full scale Firebase with multiple Platoon-perimeter positions , plus a Mortar platoon position, and Artillery Battery positions with corresponding HQ and C3 (ie ; the Tactical Operations Centre ) defensive and Administration positions (think of ammo storage ) depicting the ‘targets’ for your opponent’s Company-sized Sapper attacks.  

A complicating design criteria for all of this is actually “popular basing conventions” ; ie ; the ‘old-school’ 3x3cm fireteam base  and the recently more popular 5x3cm fireteam base made commonplace with the FOW rule systems .  I have been mindful of the different basing conventions necessary when designing the pieces and composing the bundles, and have aimed to satisfy both sets of requirements.  

The “new” bundles are supplementing an already extensive selection of fortification choices, and list as follows ;

Platoon RON Positions (FOW bases) 9 Pcs

Platoon Dug-in Position A (3×3 bases) 12 Pcs

Platoon Dug-in Position B (FOW bases) 12 Pcs

Sandbagged Infantry Platoon position ; (12 Pcs )

Sandbagged Perimeter Defences  (20 Pcs ; drums, walls , obstacle stakes + wire  )

Sandbagged Infantry Company TOC (12 Pcs )  ;

Sandbagged Mortar Platoon (12 Pcs )

Sandbagged Firebase Battery position (10 Pcs )

Minefield Templates (6pcs ; 2x Minefield templates )

Wire Obstacles (10 pcs + wiring supplies (fuse wire and thin mounting wire)

…. Last on the list ; but absolutely not least ; is the “wire obstacles” fortifications pack of lengths of wiring stakes and a small supply of galvanized steel wire which is ideal for making wire obstacles in 15mm. I think this is a most innovative (genius) urethane terrain piece we’ve done… the 10cm-long ‘wiring stakes’ terrain piece is designed to snap in halves to make two 5cm pieces. It depicts pairs of vertical wiring stakes spaced out over a 10cm length of six depicted pairs of wiring stakes. The depicted wiring stakes have a mass at their base to drill a hole to allow the coiled galvanized sealing wire to be ‘wired’ onto the urethane base easily at up to six tie-down points.  It had been designed to be used as a stand-alone single wire obstacle, or to be based to create more complex wire barriers, damaged wire obstacles or combination field defenses.

… as you can see I’ve got a lot here that I’d like to share ; I’ve got the background workshop parts done , some of these combinations have been tested and ready for more than a year , I still need to list the products up on the website ; … and (because of some really bad weather here over the last month and a bit ) I’ve been having a little trouble getting a good internet connection for long enough at the right times to complete all of this, right now it is terrible. But it will pass , and I’ll get it done. There are peoples worse off than me .

Meanwhile I’ll continue getting orders out as well and quickly as I can. That’s always the first priority.

I hope to share more here on other news ; I’d like to offer pre-painted terrain / fortifications ; but have to ensure I have a reliable supply of the materials I would need . I’d like to offer some 3D printed pieces ; again this depends on supply of materials .

I hope all of this is helpful at this moment ; I’ve posted this ‘gday notice before I have all these items posted up in the ‘shopfront so if it’s not in the shop ; It’s coming soon . ..stable internet permitting . Hahaha.

More to follow

Jimmi