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G’day all ! … Jimmi here August 2021

Hi all ! .. I hope this finds you safe and healthy wherever you are …hopefully you are also cool and dry.

Well , as the wisest sergeants say ; even the best-laid plans don’t survive first-contact.

It has been several weeks since I temporarily closed down the shop to reorganize what we do and how we do it, give the place a clean, and sort / recycle a lot of the mess and “spares” we had accumulated over the last five to eight years or so since the last overhaul. I have been doing some casting production experiments with a new metal (a lead-free pewter) of better quality than I have been using to date. I am really impressed with the results, and feel this has lifted the standards of our metal miniatures a little further. 

I have also been doing experiments with 3D printing (actually since mid-2019) to see what it can offer. I think the biggest lesson it has taught me is that robust 15mm metal wargaming figures are here to stay.  I have looked at the idea of supplying 3D printed vehicle and terrain subjects for sale ; and after doing a few “mates-rates” projects to see how this would work (including results , production time and costs) …I’m not convinced this is a viable or preferrable alternative to how we already produce the terrain and the vehicle subjects we already do. In short ; the urethane casting method we use for terrain and vehicles is cheaper, faster, less toxic, much tougher and more presentable. However …. I do have some 3D printing plans I would like to take further,  and have problem-solved a few obstacles to be able to offer some much sought-after items. More on this soon.

I had primarily planned by this moment to have totally recalibrated a majority of the metal figure stock items I have to offer. Essentially, some excellent Player feedback had asked for availability of smaller figure-packs than the Platoon sized packs we offer, plus to extend the specialist items we do. … this means planning, assembling, weighing, photographing and listing on the website each of the new items and ‘adjusted’ stock items.   

We have started at ‘standard’ rifle-squad packs (eg; US Rifle squad ) and have added a greater range of smaller specialist packs (eg. FWF Engineers ) to force-build with more game flexibility, without having to buy additional HQ packs just for some additional critical teams or rifle squads. This was particularly the intention with the US Special Forces packs (think MACV-SOG Recon “Spike Teams” relative to “Bright Light” search-and-rescue teams) where players were asking to expand their combat forces in directions I had not considered beforehand. Once I had immersed into this rabbit-hole (my happy place! )…. I really enjoyed adjusting the composition of most of our entire figure range, and am pleased (and so is initial feedback) with the results. This has added to our catalogue of metal miniatures considerably. I’ll be posting this up just as soon as I have all the data to present.

Concurrently we have a few new urethane terrain pieces (eg. vehicle emplacements and wire obstacles ) , and the return of some old favorite terrain pieces (eg. sandbagged walls), the discontinuance of a few items that I can no longer so-reliably supply (eg. Plastic trees from China) and the non-showing of a few more items (eg; mdf urban terrain pieces) that I was hoping to begin to supply.

So .. it may not look like it , but I have been a busy boy, and there is still a bit more to do before I can show it off.

So Yes ! … Flashpoint Miniatures is alive and thriving !  … I have been working effectively, but as these things unfold I have found so much more that I want to do , and have been using the time to set up Flashpoint miniatures for another five years of awesomeness in 15mm Wargaming pieces.

And if you are reading this, ..yes ! … I have two short letters to write and I will be casting up a few “walled cemetery” bundles that have been requested via email . There has been a steady stream of requests like this always in the background. Thankyou for your continued support , friendship and custom.

Otherwise, we are all good here in our mountain hideaway. The CoVid situation in Australia is increasing here again after a few months of respite, so I am inclined to be laying low right now. The ground and skies are really only just drying up now from the repeated soakings we had earlier on in the year, and I am still to complete some major drainage repair and improvements to the land where the production factory is located. Murphy’s law says that I will get the drainage ready just in time for the next fire season.  Hahahaha. 

Hope this is useful .

See you again very soon.

All the best Jimmi