New specials added; in addition to free (domestic) shipping of Resistant Roosters product we have added the following limited time offers:
To see all of our current special offers (and expiration dates) be sure to visit the Current Specials page.
Well, this past weekend was a bit different (at least when compared to the last several months). We had a nice storm come through on Saturday; snow and ice. Unfortunately for me I had to go into Madison to work for a few hours. When I left the house things were not too bad (weather-wise), but they went downhill quickly once I got under way. At first nothing more than quickly deteriorating road conditions (but this is kind of expected). The biggest pain was the drivers who did not have their vehicle lights on. At one point I was behind a big rig with no lights and the trailer was covered with a white trap – very hard to see that it was in front of me and what it was doing…
So, we are moving along, slowly, but moving, when we hit a nice patch of ice. The group to pass through before me wasn’t as lucky as I was. In front of me was a multi-car mix-up (big rigs and cars); cars and truck facing every which way. OK, so time to slow down (even more) and stop. Well, the ice patch was slipperier than I thought. I started to slide. After a bit of brake, steer, coast – I was able to slalom through the accident and come out clean on the other side. From there traffic was just really slow. I made it to the office with no further problems (plenty going on around me, but I was “ok-fine”)…
After a couple hours in the office it was time to go home. Roads were maybe a wee bit better, but still bad. My trip home was uneventful. I did see that the accident that I just missed out on was still being cleaned up and that the interstate going south was still closed.
When I got home, I still had another couple of hours clearing our driveway and bringing in more fire wood. Basically Saturday was a wash figure-work wise. I got a little bit done in the evening, but not much.
Sunday was a bit better. I spent a few hours clearing the driveway and such. After that a short break and then it was time for figure work…
My projects for Sunday were centered on some Interwar Period vehicles for the Bloodaxe Miniatures line. Lance sent some of the first pieces that he has been working on. I started by looking at two of the French tanks (Char D2 Medium Tank and the FCM 36 Light Tank). I had planned n getting these into molds over the weekend, but decided that I wanted to do a bit of modification (and clean-up) on the patterns Lance sent. One of the goals is to lighten the castings – less metal means lower cost models. So I put those aside and took out two more models: Sd.Kfx 231 (rad6) and a Field Car (for use when a Kublewagon just isn’t right – a generic field car if you will). There really wasn’t a lot to do cleanup or modification-wise on these (ok, sure I could have done a number of things, but decided they were “ok” with minimal work). So these went into a mold. I should have the first production pieces in a day or two (depending on which night I decide to cast this week).
Now getting back to the tanks; at the end of the day I took out the FCM 36 and looked it over again. From here I took my trusty coarse burr and set up to mill out the hull. Lance casts in lead, so the models are soft and heavy. Lead is not the best metal to mill, but I can do it without too much trouble, so I set to work. After maybe 30 minutes I have a nice, clean and much lighter model. I removed enough metal to drop these to a projected (retail) price of $2.00 to $2.50 each (We shall see how close I am to the mark once I have a few production pieces). This is down from a projected (retail) price of $4.00 to $5.00 each. I expect that I will complete to reworking process by the weekend and if lucky I’ll have some production pieces early next week.
And now, to celebrate our recent snow and ice accumulation a limited time special offer…
Since the theme is snow or winter, we are offering a special 15% discount on the following three Resistant Roosters packs: FI-200 (Finnish Infantry Platoon in winter kit), FI-201 (Finnish HMG Platoon in winter kit) and AM-100 (US Infantry Platoon in greatcoat). This special 15% discount is good now through Friday (7 December 2007).
It has been a slow week here at HistoriFigs HQ. Not that there hasn’t been anything going on, just not a lot of excitement…
I decided that this would be a good week to slow down and take a look at all of the projects in the hopper (and there are a lot of projects in the works). As such things are a bit quite. Orders are being processed; a few website updates and mostly a bit of internal review…
Of late there has been a lot of activity in and around the Bloodaxe line of miniatures. Several website updates (with more to come), new releases working their way through the system, and a nice resurgence of interest in the line. To date we have been pleased with the response to the recent Russo-Japanese War and World War One releases. Next week, we will balance out the WWI offerings when we release the Germans.
This weekend, I plan to continue work on a few projects related to the Resistant Roosters line of figures, so look for some news early next week concerning a few pack reorganizations and a few additional offerings relating to existing figures.
Another project in the works is that we will be adding an online ordering system for each of our lines of miniatures. I’ve been working on a PayPal driven system (since it is easy). The first section of the website to receive this new ordering option will be the Resistant Roosters section, followed by the Bloodaxe website. If this all goes well, the Scruby figures will be added to the system (as we redesign the main website). There are just a few more kinks to work out so, I believe that we will launch online ordering around the first of December.
Ok and now on to our Thanksgiving Special. From now through midnight November 24th (that would be Saturday, so for postal orders be sure they are postmarked by midnight on Saturday, or let us know that you are sending an order by mail) all orders for Bloodaxe Miniatures will be postage free for US customers – Orders shipped to non-US addresses be shipped for a flat fee of $4.00. All figures listed on the Bloodaxe website are eligible for this offer (this includes the, now listed, pre-release WWI Germans – these will be shipped late next week).
Look for our Holiday Specials announcement on Sunday!
We’ve posted a few more photos on the Bloodaxe website. So far a few pictures of the Early Greek Hoplites are up; these will be followed by some photos of the WWII Germans and Russians.
The Early Greek Hoplites are from my Thessalain DBA army. The figures were painted a few years ago by Clif Castle – Visit the Gallery page to see some larger color photos.
Finally. After, oh lets not say how long, we have posted some pictures of the Bloodaxe Russo-Japanese War Japanese (pictured below) and World War One Russians…
I think we will re-shoot a few of these pictures, but for now they should give you an idea of what the figures look like.
The Japanese are some of Lance’s more recent work, while the Russians are some of his older work (but if I recall correctly some of these figures were re-done for this release).
Many folks have bee picking up the Russians to use in Russian Civil War games. I too plan to use some for the RCW. Additionally, we will be using these for our WWI game that will start to crank up this winter, so look for the Russians in fur cap as well as the first of the Germans some time in late December.
Why not pop over to the Bloodaxe website and take a peek?