Author: Elmato

I am hoping you have a safe , healthy and Merry Christmas and New Year period in the next few weeks .

I am taking a break over the Christmas new year period so won’t be patrolling the Flashpoint Miniatures shop for a few weeks into January . You are welcome to place orders but I will not be processing them until January but I will process them in the order that they come in . …. After a busy few months , I need to be looking forward to doing another round of cleaning and restocking and renewing.

…. This time last year (December 2019) we were worried about burning down in huge Australian wildfires, since then things have only got weirder. I have heard many personal stories over the last year , enough to know that I have had it pretty easy compared to some ,… Nonetheless in every measure this has been an ‘unprecedented year’, I hope you are all doing Ok. I feel pretty fortunate to live where I do at this moment. Thankyou friends and customers who have been a big base of support and comradely good fellowship over the last year .

I have a few orders on the table still to post, but after that I’ll be cleaning and restocking , maybe some painting and hopefully getting in a few games myself .

I’d like to offer some new ‘character’ packs, squad-sized packs, plus a few terrain items from next year. I’ve had these “ready” for a little while but not had a ‘quiet time’ (understatement)  to redo the website shop to fit them in somewhere. I’ve also got a few reorganization -jobs on existing packs in result of some excellent feedback / discussions over the last year of trials. Some of you will have seen the “overstrength” HQ packs in the last few months already, as some new ideas have been trialled . The feedback has been pretty good . Hahaha!  

But most of all I am looking forward to some time off over the next few weeks to spend with my young family and we will be back soon .

All the best for the holiday season .

Jimmi

Flashpoint Miniatures  

I hope this finds you well, safe and happy.

I am back from cleaning, counting and sorting, I have restocked and have cleared the decks of waiting pre-orders and have been firing the forges up again. For all sorts of reasons (my other job is as a health professional and my other job is a landholding farmer ..both very busy right now too) … I have not completed as many behind-the-scenes-tasks as I would have liked to, but I have had a few enquiries asking if I am Ok and ; yes ! .. I am ready, reinforced and resupplied to be processing new orders.

Thankyou to our patient customers over the last few months, things (like postal services) are taking longer than they usually do. But we have been fortunate to post and freight orders away in a timely way and (so far) to account for everything heading your way. Likewise some of your bigger purchasing projects / ‘pre-orders’ have stretched me and in some cases ‘destocked’ me as soon as I’ve restocked ! hahaha! …  but I welcome seeing your projects and will accommodate your special and sometimes larger requests as I can.  

Thankyou to our old and new friends who have shared some great pics of what their lockdown projects have entailed. There has been some great work getting done. I very much enjoy how other people make their armies and terrain come to life. I learn a lot from seeing other ideas and approaches that I would not have thought of. There is a great value in sharing ideas, I hope you enjoy this too. Find the Vietnam Wargming communities through here https://www.facebook.com/groups/FieldsofFireRedux/ and here https://fieldsoffire.forumotion.com/

I have lots to share ! , there will be a few tweaks here and there to what we are offering in the larger platoon packs, … all good . I want to offer some ‘rifle squad packs’ to be able to buy line infantrymen in a more flexible way, and offer some heavy weapons and specialist troops in a similar way. I am also hoping to bundle up some firebase fortifications and introduce appropriate terrain bundles for VC or NVA basecamps, and more to follow.

So please, Yes !  I welcome you to say hi and see if there’s anything I can help you with. These are interesting times and a great opportunity to get some interesting wargaming projects done.

Ventilate your painting space often. Get up and walk around and talk to other humans and family members occasionally.

Keep staying well safe and happy. Remember to breathe and drink water regularly.

All the best for now

Jimmi  

Hi all ,

I hope your lockdown experience is treating you nicely , and you are maybe even getting your chosen projects done. I’ve been really busy here in the packing shed over the last two months ! .. Thankyou !

I have made some new friends and seen some interesting new projects over the last few months , and I really enjoy seeing how you are painting and deploying your Flashpoint miniatures and terrain. There are some really cool wargaming and scenery making projects out there to be shared .

We have a few “new” things we would like to get finished , so are closing the shop for a few weeks to finish what we need to , do some restocking (we hadn’t been able to keep up with, because we have been too busy packing and mailing stuff out the door) , get a bit of ‘painting’ done (you will see) , and prepare for some busy times ahead. I plan to open the shop at the start of July. I have only two orders to finish and get out the door .

I sincerely hope you are all travelling well and happy through these lifetime events retaining your physical and mental health as well as a good attitude to life the universe and everything. I am lucky to have my young family around me, I still get to do plenty of walking, and I have plenty to get done. I watch the news but don’t get too carried away by things. I think this helps.

Some good news !!

… If you are looking to connect to other avid Vietnam Wargamers an old favourite veteran wargaming website has recently risen like a Phoenix , you can visit it here ; https://fieldsoffire.forumotion.com/ ; be careful of the guys in Hawaiian shirts.

… If you are active on Facebook you can find the FB group here ; https://www.facebook.com/groups/FieldsofFireRedux/ ; and you can find links to the FB sites of the popular rules such as ‘NAM and ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’.

Hope to see you out there

want to say ‘Hi’ ? my best contact email is jimmi@flashpoint-miniatures.com

All the best for now

Jimmi

Flashpoint Miniatures

Hi all !

Hahaha ! .. spoke too soon !  Armageddon season is not done with us yet !

I hope this finds you well, safe and happy, and maintaining your sense of humour !

I hope you remain well, safe and happy, and maintain your best thoughts and intentions.

Luckily, we live in ‘back-country Australia, and we are now in our sixth month of existential crisis (drought, fires, floods, plague) and am getting better organized, leaner and creative as we need to evolve. There are now all sorts of movement restrictions where I am, but at this moment I am well stocked and supplied to be able to continue manufacture items, and able to freight via Australia Post easily enough. So I can still accept orders and send until this changes.

While I am here may I suggest (especially for customers from the USA) to elect to send your parcels via Express Post (if you can afford it) for the short term. My advice is because of the way that the US handles incoming mail.

Although , saying this ; I’ve just had a run of ‘Panic buying’ (hahaha!) as some of my regular customers who have emptied the shelves of some items that I will need to manufacture before they will be back ‘in stock’. If your megalomaniac lockdown plans require something that is listed as ‘out of stock’ let me know and I can make effort to get to it sooner. I will understand the importance and urgency of your plans.

What projects do you have planned for the lockdown ??

We are in our second week here in Australia and I’ve only just been able (D+8) to sit down and get some project management organized. Hahaha!  …Look forward to me doing a US Cavalry Platoon , and a NVA Sapper Company, and finishing off my ‘urban’ buildings , and a VC Base Camp complex , these are all “want to do” projects for some time now. I will look to share as I get it done.

Please feel free to say G’day and show me what you are doing.   

Otherwise , Happy painting ! Happy gaming ! enjoy your chance to ‘lock in’ and get some great projects done . Share as you go. Remember to get up and stretch and exercise (involving some deep breathing), practice to visually focus on distant objects periodically too , It does make you more productive on the painting desk and will only be beneficial to your health and mental health otherwise to establish it as a habit in the longterm .

Remember to check on your loved ones, stay connected and take care of yourselves * .

We are all in this together , separately .

If you interested to meet a nice collection of gentlemen Vietnam wargamers come and join us on FaceBook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/FieldsofFireRedux/ 

All the best,

Am keen to hear what you might get up to

Jimmi 

* But not too much that you get soft and poorly motivated.

Comfort is a slow death. Pain is just weakness leaving the body. ….Hahaha!

Well we didn’t burn down , thanks to the herculean efforts of our local Rural Fire Brigades. Our local area has had two waves of decent rain about a week apart and as of a few days ago,  we have no fires in our local area for the first time since August last year. The vegetation around where I live out in the mountain forests on the East coast of Australia has greened up from a tinder dry yellow, and local waterways are running again. Looks like we will survive the Armageddon season for this year. … I hope I’m not calling it too early.

I’ve had the chance to do some serious cleaning and re-organisation of the Flashpoint production shed (including taking out the firefighting gear and storing it away) and have already been shipping a few orders that came in over the last weeks. I’ve had a chance to replace some worn-out molds and try a few new things inspired by last year’s experiments with 3D printing. I’ve still got a little bit of restocking to do, but it will happen quickly from now.

Thankyou for all the best wishes and patience during this time. I’ve used the “time off”(hahaha!) to get some important and vital behind-the-scenes jobs done that have been languishing over the last year while we’ve been pretty busy here. …Looking forward to the rest of 2020 , should be easier from here .

Hi all , after a very short few weeks off , your very own Captain of Industry is once again filling orders and making new stuff . In fact, I even managed to complete a few stalled projects, got some new ones happening, have done some restocking, and have jumped into the 3D printing universe where my head still gapes with wonder .

The recently added ARVN HQ , and MIKE Force HQ Units have been very popular and are now back in stock. Likewise the NVA Sappers and LVC HQ Cadre have been recently very popular .

The ‘Palm Forest’, ‘Jungle Forest’and ‘Wet jungle’ Packs have been expanded (in size and variety) by about half , for only a few dollars more , and I claim to be the best-priced batches of diverse plastic-scenery trees and shrubbery for 15mm Vietnam gaming you can find.

I’ve also recast some of the items in the urethane scenery range , and expanded favourite molds to produce better. I am particularly happy with the new ‘Civilian Village fence sections’ repack of the “fences and animal pens”. I now produce this as six 10 cm. fence sections. ( to use two of these to make an animal pen on a 5x6cm base is a ten minute task with shears and superglue, and paints easily ) .. And the on-table utility of the 10cm fence sections for scenery development has been a tabletop experience. I’ve also seen these used to mark camo hides and speedtrails for LVC , I have used them for stilts to lift hooches and platforms off the ground , and have been collecting a pile to make a pallisade fence set of defences for a MIKE Force project .

The rules writing project is happily evolving . I know I keep saying this , but they will be in a fit state to share very soon. We have had a recent re-restructure of the presentation of the rules and edited / moved a fair bit of ‘scenario development’ rules from the front sections into an appendix of it’s own. I think this is a big improvement and reads easier and quicker towards the game itself. We have been experimenting with ‘irregular’ scenarios (think Green Berets training CIDGs and Striker Units, or MVC Cadre developing LVC fighters and VC infrastucture units ) and how to develop them with ‘tactical campaign’ rules. The purpose to be a ‘development vs combat’ -balanced campaign model that ‘works’ from either perspective . The aim of the game leaning towards development in size and skill of your regional forces as a Commander. (or as an Advisor if you crave frustration . .) I hope the time and care we are taking to put this together will reflect in a great set of simple-to-use rules, to tackle some complicated-as-hell situations (we will provide some too ) ; and bring some big interesting games and weekends to come. I’ll keep you posted here.

If you haven’t already please come and find the new front bar of the old ‘Fields of Fire’ Forum , where all things Vietnam Wargaming are discussed and shared . There are plenty of good resources and great people to find here. https://www.facebook.com/groups/FieldsofFireRedux/

all the best ,

Jimmi

Hi all ,

I’ve just had a minor impact accident, and have hurt my shoulder enough that I’m taking two weeks off to recover .

Hahaha!

I’m Ok , but I need to give my shoulder a break , and get it happy again.

I’ll get done the few orders I have already here before me now , and take it easy for a short bit .

All the best

Jimmi

Hi all , I hope this finds you well and productive .

We’ve just got one of our most popular sets of items back in the shop , the forest packs ; ‘Palm forest’ ; ‘Jungle forest’ and ‘Wet forest’ packs are back in stock and enlarged by half , to make the best value tree assortments possible.

also, .. the ‘Village bundle’ and ‘Village fences’ terrain items are back in stock. Now with more and versatile pieces than before. The village fences is now available in packs of six which in intended to be used for village fencing and animal pen construction , but also for camouflage hides or pallisades for your CIDG/RF/PF  fortifications.

also…

the ‘ Hatchett force’/MIKE force /Stryker Platoon pack , and the MACV/SOG RT  pack have been increased to 24 figures and many other packs including the recently added ‘Firebase Defenders’ pack have increased or adjusted accordingly. This has been an exciting time as many packs have had improvements planned for some time and useful feedback has been returned on recently-added packs . This is the largest overhaul of Flashpoint Miniatures’ contents since 2017.   We have a few new things ready to present ; an ‘ARVN HQ’  pack that has been ready for a while , ‘NVA Counter Recon’ troops, and maybe even some Khmer Rouge are near .

 

stay in the current !

more to follow soon .

out for now

 

Jimmi

 

Hi all,

Well , my planned “quiet period” over January didn’t happen , hahaha !

I am taking a break until the end of April to do some ‘behind the scenes’ upgrades (and restocking) , get some commissioned jobs finished , and get some of my own personal wargaming tasks done in time for my next big meeting coming soon.  Might even get outside. ..Woohoo !

Thankyou for the last three months of some great projects out there and a busy few months at Flashpoint Miniatures. Thankyou for the feedback on some of the new packs ; particularly the MIKE/Hatchett force and MACV /SOG Operators. I’ll be “expanding” these two packs as suggested , and also adding some ‘linking’ HQ Packs to enable you to deploy expanding formations for bigger “Raid” (or “Rescue”) scenarios. Likewise the NVA are about to receive a “Counter Recon Team” with tracker dogs and more. (based on the histories of John Plaster) . I am also looking to offer ‘squad’ -sized packs of figures to help to bulk out your formations

I also have a few new (and old) projects that are about to see the light !

… Plus I’ve been able to restock items I’ve been ‘out of stock’ for a little bit . Like our super popular trees packs , of which actually have been wholesale ‘bought-out’ even before making it to the shopfront here. We are adding a few new ‘trees packs’ and terrain items. I’ve been shopping around to find some of the best products and bargains on the internet.  I think you’ll like.

But first , a short break.

The website will continue to happily accept your orders, but I will be unlikely to be shipping any new orders out until after April . I’ll still be around (mostly) so am happy to chat .

 

Jimmi