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

Greetings to all ! , I hope this finds you well and happy and productive wherever you are . I hope you are well placed for 2022 ! This month is getting away from me already , Day 19 !

Thankyou for all your best wishes and correspondence over the last few weeks and months ! I am privileged to hear and share stories from all over the globe . I feel fortunate for my circumstances here in my Mountain valley relative to many other situations. Regardless of some trying circumstances , there are some great 15mm Vietnam wargaming projects getting done out there , thankyou for sharing . I have had some collectors being pretty busy in new directions. .

I’ve been slow to get what is now (in retrospect) a huge bunch of new items together . Eleven “Squad” packs , eight “Specialist Platoons” and six new “Terrain Bundles” (mostly fortifications) have been occupying the headspace and tablespace at the moment ,, for starters because they are production-ready . There is a considerable amount of new items ready to be released , and some old favourites are back . Two of the ‘pilot’ specialist Platoons (Base Defenders and US Cavalry) have been really well received over the last year, so we are encouraged we are on the right track here .

So ; all very good for now ; am moving forward , and many new things to share in a ‘sec . Let me get back to it .

Stay tuned

More to follow

Jimmi

Greeting Gents ; I hope this finds you well and happy .

Well I’ve just had about 9 weeks in some level of domestic administrative hell here ; so nearly everything I thought I would have done at this stage is still waiting . I should not have mocked Murphy’s law in the last post.  I apologise to Murphy .

? New item ? …. the Observation guntruck !

… you name it ; injuries (not mine) , no running water , CoVid lockdowns , a house electrical fire (all OK! ), large python removals , made-in-China internet hackers, some big winds, normal phone-and-internet provider problems (big winds didn’t help) , school holidays… and the return of high fire danger conditions , have all dominated my attention in the last few months.

I had to let my self-appointed security manager go !

Regardless , I’ve still managed to get stuff done and get a few special requests away .

.. so all good ; will keep moving forward .  … these obstacles are all the small stuff .

Right now I have no internet at my home or office ; so I’ve had to come into public library in our local town to post this . Accordingly I will still be a little more ‘away from the Keyboard’ until our local phone-and-internet provider extracts their firmly-wedged digit.

I have one more week of kids home on school holidays , and then I’ll be able to finish off these remaining Flashpoint reorganization projects, get back to some semblance of normalish routine and actually be able to let you know about it .

Thankyou for your comradely-good-fellowship over this time . Thanks for all the great conversations out there and continued custom, support and best wishes . .. Great to see what you are doing !

Out for now .

Jimmi

Flashpoint Delta Force and Rangers doing their best ‘smash-and-grab’ !

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

Greetings Gentlemen !

I hope these times and days are finding you well , safe and happy !

I am still working on the behind-the-scenes details of re-cleaning and re-engineering some of what we do , but am not anywhere close to where I thought I would be a few weeks ago. I have been continually hampered by mother nature and brother logistics, but I am moving forward cheerfully enough. Hahaha !

I have marked everything in the Flashpoint Shop as “out of stock” while I work on new items for the range of figure packs. I will be back on deck with a bunch of new and ‘old-favorite’ items just as soon as I can. I am using this moment to make some fundamental changes to what and how we supply our ranges of Vietnam War and Ultramodern (now ‘Post-Ultramodern’ ??) metal figures , and urethane terrain-piece bundles.

Plus we have some new factory equipment and we need to get it working nicely. I am looking forward to exploring this, and it will allow for expanded possibilities on what we can offer.

We will likely not be continuing to supply the “made-in-China” trees and palm trees we used to, as this seems to have become difficult and unreliable.  I was hoping to also introduce a range of really nice MDF lasercut urban terrain pieces , but my mainland-Chinese-based supplier for this ( a lovely chap doing this a hobby side-project , but living where there has been mass-CoVid and big flooding for the best part of a year now ) seems to have gone quiet.

We will have to wait and see. I hope everything works out for the best. … It usually does.

I will let you know here and at the usual on-line hangouts for more news and details as I have it ready.

I might even get something painted ! Hahaha !  .. I hope you do too !

All the best from down under , I hope all stays well where you are .

Jimmi

Greeting 15mm Vietnam Wargaming Gentlemen ,  to 2021 . !

Happy New Year to all !  I am hoping that you are well, safe and happy (in a healthy way) at this time.

Thankyou for your well wishes and comradely good fellowship over the last few weeks and months and year or so ( going back seven or eight) . I am fortunate that I get o ‘chat’ with / to a lot of people across various countries , situations and experiences. From ordinary people across Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, England , Ireland, Scotland , USA , Canada , Spain., France , Netherlands, Germany , Poland, Czech R , Bahrain, Delhi, Singapore , Jakarta, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan , Sth Korea, Japan and Vietnam I regularly hear first-hand street-level news from (and get to ask questions) .

I hear that for the most of it my friends across the world are doing ok with respect to the challenges of health, lockdowns, job changes, finances, managing children or dependents and general clarity/sanity. There have been a few losses along the way , (…mostly to sanity hahaha! ) but overall I would like to believe we are all doing well enough to get through these challenging times in good shape. Despite the bad press. Remember to look after yourself (in a healthy way) and look in on the humans around you too . Hygiene (including mental hygiene) is important.

I am back on deck in the Flashpoint Factory and Shop after a few weeks of prioritizing digging drainage and repairing landslips after recent heavy rain and flooding where I am . The workshop has had a great clean (hahaha!)  , and I have some new items to post up in the shop. I am still responding to some mail / email from over my (waterlogged ditch-digging) holidays , there has been a bit ! …. thankyou Gents  !

Lots of great stuff to share !  I am looking forward to what positives this year has in store !

If you haven’t already found this Community please come and say hello. This the watering hole of the most experienced collective of Gentlemen Vietnam Wargamers and generally good chaps in the internet chat rooms ;  

https://fieldsoffire.forumotion.com/

and/ or for those surrendered to the social media platform of Facebook ,  you can find many of the old faces and some new ones too at an alternate RV here  ;

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FieldsofFireRedux

or send me an email here (which gets to me sooner than leaving a comment through the shop website )  

jimmi@flashpoint-miniatures.com

All the very best for 2021 !

See you out there .    Good gaming  !  

Jimmi