This morning I was doing a bit of layout work on our upcoming reprint of The Strategy Tactical Wargame…

I’m pretty sure I’m going to go with a single column of text (rather than the two column layout I was working on). The idea with a single column is that I can go with a more eye friendly font face and size. As such, my current thinking is to go with typeface that looks more like the original – but something a bit more crisp than what you would get from an old fashioned typewriter. I’m also looking at doing this printed version as a large type edition. Not really big type, but something a bit larger than your average magazine or rules booklet.

So far the layout is looking good – kind of old school in appearance. The drawings are still my sticking point, but I think I now have good scans that I can cleanup without too much trouble. So, right now I’m looking at a 32 page printed book, comb bound with heavy stock cover. I know, comb binding is not everyones favorite, but it has the advantage of being something we can assemble in the office. This will allow for cost effective shorter print runs.

If I can stay on task we should have a few sample pages to show late next week. We should also have some pricing nailed down by that time too.

Be sure to check back late next week for an update on this project, and who know, maybe I’ll have made progress on my photo article covering a typical weekend at HistoriFigs HQ?

Lastly, our stock of Mafrica Map posters is getting short, so if you have been wanting one of these now is the time to order. Check our Table Top Talk Press page for ordering  information.

A few quick updates today…

1. The Mafrica Disaster!
   In short, the 4th print run is ‘On Hold’ – our printer has gone out of business.
   The ‘off-color’ prints may be the ‘only’ prints we have available – a decision will be made on the state of these prints by the end of next week.
   When we do our next print run we will be looking at much higher costs, this will result in a much higher price for printed maps…
2. Resistant Roosters
   1. AM-100 – US Infantry Platoon in Greatcoats. These figures are going out of production. These will remain listed through the end of January 2012, at which time the listing will be removed form the website.
      At some point these will return to production, but when is unclear at this time. At least two (2) of the figures need to be re-mastered and we need to decide how best to expand the figure offerings (more poses and support weapons) . Extending the figure offerings may well require a redesign of the entire set.
   2. GE-100 – Panzergrenadier/Grenadier Platoon. This pack will be delisted for a short period of time. The original molds have reached end of life and we will be making new molds. We expect to re-list this pack by the end of February 2012.
   3. GE-400 – Fallschirmjäger Platoon (Late War – Ardennes) . Stock is running low for this pack. This set was molded while we were int he process of moving, thus the molds were not made in house. We are in the process of reviewing the molds, but have not had the best of luck with these molds in the past. If these molds need replacement, the figures will be de-listed (out of production) until late 2012, possibly early 2013. More news as stock runs out, or progress is made on the mold review.
3. Scruby 54mm
   We are currently reviewing our molding priorities for 2012. As of last weekend, we are looking at adding more ACW figures. In addition to the ACW we are looking at set of figures for the American Revolution along with some additional Napoleonic and the first British Colonial offerings. Once we get the ball rolling on the 54mm re-molding, we expect to complete one or two molds per month.This should equate to 3 or 4 newly remolded figures per month.
4. Scruby War Game Scale Remolds
   This project is moving a little more slowly than I would like – mainly due to my current work schedule. Once we clear our current [software] release, my time will free up and I’ll be able to get back to sorting, repairing and re-mastering of select war game scale figures for remolding.
5. Scruby War Game Publications
   With our recent ‘bad luck’ printing maps, we are taking a more serious look at producing eBook versions of the various publications and rule sets. If we go the eBook route we would produce eBooks in two formats: .mobi (for the Kindle) and ePub (iPad, and others) . We have most of the text in an electronic format already, and formatting issues/concerns for eBooks are different (and easier to deal with) from printed books. So, this means it is far more likely that we can complete the eBooks within a resaonable time frame. More on this topic in February.
6. New Releases
   Lots of new figures for the Blasted Planets line are awaiting molds. Sadly there are 50+ mold projects in the pipeline, this means we can’t yet set release dates for these new releases.

   We also have a handful of other new figures/products to release in 2012 – as these get closer to production we will be sure to give you more details.

Yikes! It looks like this short update became much longer than expected. Perhaps I need to post more often?
I’ll close now before I drag on too much longer. Look for another update late next week…

It has been a week or so since my last post, so I thought I should post a quick update on a few projects were are working on…

• Mafrica Maps
  • Re-print is still in progress. Printer had promised by today, but job is still incomplete
• ACW Re-molding
  • I’m sorting out a few lists, which will be followed by sorting of masters and patterns
  • First up will be the 30mm range, followed by N-gauge and 25mm
  • As I nail down figure lists and masters we will be posting our pre-order offering – details next week
• New Blasted Planets Figures
  • A couple months ago, Lance sent a batch of masters for some new Blasted Planets figures – I’m finally finding time to mold some of these
  • Look for some Human Infantry in Greatcoats – I expect we will have these ready in a couple weeks time
  • More goodies to follow in late February or early March

OK, so there we have it – not pretty, but it is an update.

Look for more next week…

Major edit to previous post…

We hit a bit of a snag on our recent Mafrica print run. In short the resulting prints were not as expected.
I’ll skip all the technical details, but needless to say, a software (or driver) update somewhere along the line appears to be the culprit.

This picture shows the problem.

Left: what the print should look like. The Right: as printed.

After several longish phone conversations, we were resolved to go the long nasty route to settle the issue. But, within 10 minutes of my last call, the owner of the printing company called me to say that he will take care of this problem.

So, now I’m happy to say that we still have a printer and that we will be receiving a new set of maps late next week.

We are sorry this has taken so long, but now you can see why we didn’t want to charge folks before we had good prints in hand.
Thank you to all who wrote in to pre-order, you should have your maps in hand before the 15th of January (overseas deliveries will take a little longer)

As part of our 2012 cost cutting program, we have switched to a smaller Post Office Box, this has resulted in a new mailing address. The new adress is:

HistoriFigs
P.O. Box 744
Portage, WI 53901

Over then next few days we will finish updating online documents and web sites.

More news as we roll along…