We’ve been Very busy here at HistoriFigs HQ. As such we’ve been a little too lax in posting news items. In attempt to get caught up I’ll now try and briefly summarize what’s new and what projects are in the works.

First up: with the costs of almost everything on the rise we will soon need to raise prices for most products and services. We will do our best to keep the price increases as small as possible, but when our costs rise by nearly 30%, as in the case of metal, we have little choice but to increase prices. The first price increase impacts postage or shipping costs. Each of our product websites has been updated to reflect our new postage pricing…

Next: We are nearly ready to re-release the Scruby Science Fiction figures. All of the masters have been located and as soon as we have an open slot in the mold pipeline these will receive a new mold. Once the new mold is ready the figures will be listed on both the HistoriFigs and Blasted Planets sites. And now, for a sneak peek at the Scruby 25mm Science Fiction miniatures:

Scruby 25mm Science Fiction - Landing Party

On the Bloodaxe front we have some new 15mm Germans. This batch is wearing field caps rather than helmets. The patterns have been cast and they too are waiting in line for production molds. As soon as these are ready, the figures will be listed on the Bloodaxe Miniatures website. In the meantime, here is a small sampling of the new figures:

15mm WWII Germans in Field Cap

The 25mm Scruby Early Napoleonic figures are also waiting in line for molds. I’ve even added a few more figures to the list, so be sure to check back for more news concerning the release of the 25mm Early Napoleonic figures.

As I sat down at my painting table / workbench the other day I realized just how overloaded the table is with new products. To give you an idea of the figures waiting in the wings here is a short list for your reading pleasure:

N-Gauge Napoleonic Mounted Officers (figures are done, just waiting in line for a production mold)

There are several 54mm projects nearing completion (these are a grab bag mix, basically I grabbed a handful of figures that struck my fancy and have been working on master restorations). The plan is to release 4 to 6 (54mm) figures every month beginning in June.

On the 25mm front we have some long lost Colonials fighting there way back into production (some more cleanup and minor remodeling work remains).

For Blasted Planets, I’ve been working on some Cavalry figures. The first figures can be likened to Cossacks, but riding dino/lizard-like creatures rather than horses. I’m almost to the point where I’ll be able to share some preliminary pictures with you – but not quite, check back in a week or so for WIP pictures.

There is more, but we’ve covered enough for now, so I’ll warp thing sup for this posting and will try hard to get you another update next week…

HistoriFigs HQ has been buzzing with activity for the past several weeks. Some of the activity has been with casting, mold making and order fulfillment. Some of the activity revolved around equipment repair. And of course it wouldn’t be winter in Wisconsin without snow (and the related snow removal duties).

We’ve also started on a revamp of our various websites. The first site to receive the new treatment is the Blasted Planets site. At first glance the site may not look a whole lot different. However under the hood it is almost all new. For those who care about such things: we shifted from a shtml and javascript approach to a more modern ajax (javascript and jquery) approach. Anyhow, the Blasted Planets site was our most out of date site (from a product listing standpoint) as well as our smallest site; so it was the test subject for our new website design(s). The structure and code aren’t quite what I wanted (but close), so we will continue make adjustments as we work on the Resistant Roosters website.

We have a few more photos to shoot and upload and then we will announce the official launch the new Blasted Planets website as well as a new Blasted Planets contest…

Look for more news and information this coming weekend.

A while back (Thanksgiving weekend) we received an email from long time customer, Gary Zaharek. He was looking for along out of production, 25mm Colonial figure: “25mm Sudan Native advancing w./ shield and short spear held up high” to quote Gray’s email. After a bit of digging we narrowed this down to J-22 (I don’t have the original catalog description for this one and the hunt was on…

Days and weeks rolled by with little luck in locating the original master or any of the original pattern figures. Finally on Saturday morning, after loading the week’s firewood onto the back of the truck, I was able to locate the last two boxes of 25mm Colonial gravity molds (stashed int he corner of the pole barn). I loaded the boxes into the cab of the truck and carried on with the remained of the days chores.

It wasn’t until after dark that I had time to unload the truck (stacking the firewood first) and bring the boxes into the shop. Another hour or so went by while Liam and I were looking over a newly acquired map of the [Warhammer] Old World. With Liam occupied, reading yet another book, I took the next half and hour or so to sort out the contents of the boxes (of gravity molds). I hit the jackpot in the first few minutes of sorting when I uncovered an envelope labeled: “NIP – 25mm Sudanese Native Advancing with Spear and Shield“.   Opening the envelope was even better; This mold had been properly stored as the mold was not empty… Inside was a casting of the object of my search – J-22. The casting was fairly good. The was the usual flash, not too bad and easily cleaned. Since this was an original Scruby casting the metal is a lead alloy, which just made things even easier. Working with actual lead figures makes restoration of details as easy as pie…

OK, more on how I go about restoring these old figures to production in another post. I’ll even try and post the story as a sort of photo essay, so you can better see what I’m wring about.

For now, I’ll leave you with the first picture of J-22:

I now have three boxes of gravity molds for the 25mm Colonial line. The third contains the other lost figures I found while searching for J-22. More on this subject in the coming weeks.

As soon as I have an open slot in a Pattern mold I’ll start the process of adding J-22 to a production mold and will return what Gary refers to as “…the best of Jack’s  Sudan native figures…” to production.

The end of 2010 is almost here…

This year has been an interesting one to say the least. Not a lot of excitement around here, but not a lot of much else either. Real-life took a goodly portion of my time this past year, so we didn’t get to complete as many new projects as we wanted to. We will work hard in 2011 to make up for the lack of new releases in 2010. Not sure what all we will release, but we do have plenty of goodies to bring back into production as well as some new figures to release…

As previously mentioned we have some ‘lost’ 25mm Scruby figures to release in January. We also have some ‘new’ Blasted Planets figures nearing completion. The Bloodaxe line will see some new WWII Germans as well as some Spanish to go with our Moro Rebellion range…

Next time I’ll post some early pictures of some of the releases we are working on. In the meantime here is one more picture from the upcoming Early Napoleonic release:

J-144 – Italian, Cisalpine Republic, 1799, on guard

Pictures took a little longer than planned (weekend and holiday season madness)…

I’m still fiddling with how best to prepare figures for photography, so these still are not what I’d like, but they do show the figures.

J-50 - Boer infantryman, standing on guard

J-51 - Boer infantryman, standing, firing

J-52 - Boer infantryman, walking, rifle at trail

J-53 - Boer soldier (artillery/utilityman)

JC-54 - Boer rider, firing from saddle

JC-55 - Boer rider, holding rifle on thigh

Our next “Lost Figures” release will be: 25mm Early Napoleonic Soldiers

I’ve located masters for the following figures:

J-143 – Bavarian Musketeer, 1799, on guard

J-144 – Italian, Cisalpine Republic, 1799, on guard

J-147 – Russian Musketeer, 1794, on guard

JC-148 – Russian Cuirassier rider, 1794

J-149 – De Meuron’s Swiss (in light dragoon helmet), 1800, standing firing

J-150 – Hardy’s York Fusilier, 1800, advancing

And now for a sneak peek:

J-143 - Bavarian Musketeer, 1799, on guard

Look for these Napoleonic figures in January.