HistoriFigs News

Slowly the wheels turn, or something like that. We are getting closer to making the ’switch’. Meaning that I’ve made some good progress in the migration of data from this site (HistoriFigs.com/news) to the ‘new’ Table Top Talk site. My biggest problem was that this site was running v1.5.2 of WordPress and Table Top Talk is running v2.5.1. I had no luck in doing a straight migration of the data (tried numerous things, and when it got to the point where I was writing too much code to make it happen, I decided to take an easier route - upgrade this site to the current version 9of WordPress) and let the upgrade process migrate my database - at which point I could simply ‘do’ an export followed by an import…

So, if you happen to visit TableTopTalk.com you will see a version of this same WordPress site (maybe a post or two behind). As soon as I have a bit more time to sort out the page layout, we will flip the switch and you all will be redirected to the Table Top Talk website.

OK, now that I’ve made you wade through the Table Top Talk information, we shall reward you with some eye candy - Ghastly & Co. Roman Zombies as painted by Jeff at Dansville Wargamers.

This past weekend was my birthday weekend, and while I slaved away in the mold making shop I still didn’t get everything done that I had on my planned list of projects. I made progress, but just not as much as I should have. It shouldn’t be too bad, as I think I can make up most of the time this week…

It being my birthday, the timing of a new game release from Victory Point Games couldn’t have been better. A friend of mine remembered that I am intrigued by all things related to the Arab-Israeli Wars, as such he gave me a copy of the new game Israeli Independence. In a nutshell this is an introductory level solitaire wargame that tells the saga of the First Arab-Israeli War; Israel’s War for Independence. The game comes with 2 pages of rules, an 8 1/2″ x 11″ map sheet, 8 x 5/8″ counters and a deck of 24 cards (player supplies a single d6).

Game play is pretty straight forward: Draw a card (cards show which Arab armies move as well as how many offensives (and any die roll modifiers) the Israeli player may make.. Move the Arab armies (if any Arab armies have reached West Jerusalem the game is over), The player (you play the part of the Israelis) launches any offensives (pushing back Arab armies if successful). These steps are repeated until the card deck has been exhausted or until an Arab army reaches West Jerusalem.

It is hard to win this game - not impossible, but hard. My first game was an Israeli (marginal) victory, then next 3 were Arab victories. I’ve lost count of how many games I’ve played, but there are for sure more Arab victories. I’ve hard one or two crushing victories as well as a few crushing defeats. Most games have been marginal victories fr the Arabs - overall I’m thinking this is actually quit balanced.

I really like this game - it is simple, yet I do not think anyone will ever master the game. There is just enough randomness in the die rolling and cards to keep you on your toes. Sure at some point you will know what all of the cards are, but you will have no way of knowing when each will be turned up - so, while you may know what types of things to expect, you will never know when to expect them, and then we mix in the die rolls and I believe that there will be no perfect strategy for this one. I know that I’ll be playing this one for quite some time, I even have a few ideas for additional variant rules (just in case I need to shake things up a bit). For more information on this and other Victory Point Games offerings be sure to visit the Victory Point Games website.

In other news, Table Top Talk should be coming back online sometime this month. The gating task is the migration of HistoriFigs News times to the new TTT site. The new TTT will become our news site, and as it grows it will be come a hobby news site - with extra pages for game and history related articles. Our other project, an online store is progressing. We are still evaluating various pieces of software, but should have things narrowed down before too much longer. Our last, behind the scenes, project is a consolidation of all websites to a single hosting provider - this should be completed some time this summer.

OK, maybe this is a boring topic, or maybe it will be interesting…

With several of projects lined up I’ve been spend spending a bit of time sorting out mold layouts. Time spent sorting things out has also pushed out the release of the updated Late War Panzergrenadiers (Resistant Roosters) release. We had planned to release this week, but the release has been pushed out to the 15th…

I felt it was better to delay the release a wee bit than to use an inefficient mold layout - efficiency helps keep costs down (and with rising costs for almost everything we need to trim when and where we can).

And now back to my topic: Mold Layouts. Figuring out how to layout a mold is an important, yet fun task. Bad mold layouts make production harder and less efficient. For projects like 15mm WWII infantry figures we have some known parameters - like we know that we can fit 20 cavities into a single 9″ mold. OK, we might a few more or less, fewer if poses are prone and more if all a marching or at attention pose. The next thing we need to know is how these figures will be packed out. Set package configurations (like Resistant Roosters products) or random selections (more like Bloodaxe offerings). Random selections are easy, just group by pose and decide how many molds you want - typically based on expected sales and costs. If we have set pack configurations we need to layout the pack contents and decide how many of each pose are needed to make up the various packs/sets. Typically I pull up Excel and start plugging in values (pose ID, # needed in sets W, X and Y). Then we do some sorting, then we add some fudge factors (spins don’t always produce 100%, so we add Z figures per pose to the mix - After I’ve cast the pattern I’ll have a handle on any problematic poses and will adjust the fudge actor accordingly). By now we should have a good picture of how we want to break tings down by mold - now we add a mold ID and do some more sorting and in the end wind up with a table that looks kind of like this:

Typically I’ll step back and de-focus, so that I can take another look from a different perspective - if things still make sens we are set and ready to make molds. If I ’see’ some other possibilities I repeat the process until I’m happy with the mold map.

Sometimes this process goes quickly - Few figures and maybe some random selections. Sometime it takes longer - more poses, specific selections and a variety of types (marching, prone, one piece horse and rider or MG and gunner).

And thus concludes todays lesson in the types of things we do around here - ope it wasn’t too boring! If you would like to know more about how we do things, feel free to write, or visit - we are more than happy to discuss how we ‘do’ things.

HistoriFigs will be attending Barracks Battles ‘08 - May 16, 17, and 18, 2008.

Barracks Battles is hosted by the Big Muddy Historical Gaming Alliance (BMHGA) and is being held at the St. Louis Mills Mall (5555 St. Louis Mills Blvd., Hazelwood, MO 63042).

Visit the Barracks Battles ‘08 website.

With the rising costs of gasoline and all things travel related, this will likely be our last convention for the spring/summer of 2008. The next convention on our calendar is Rock-Con in October, so if you happen to be in the area, be sure to stop by and say howdy. We will have on hand the full Resistant Roosters line of miniatures as well as the complete catalog for the Bloodaxe Miniatures and Blasted Planets lines. We will also have our usual smattering of Scruby Miniatures as well as our own HistoriFigs figures.

Announcing our newly expanded Late War Panzergrenadier offerings…

• More than 20 new figures/poses
• Three brand new Platoon/HQ packs
• A Company Box


GE-100 Panzergrenadier Platoon $18.50
GE-101 Company HQ $12.00
GE-102 Mortar Platoon $12.00
GE-103 MG Platoon $12.50
GE-104 Company Box $61.50
Includes: Company HQ,
2 x Panzergrenadier/Grenadier Platoons,
1 x Mortar Platoon 1 x MG Platoon and more…

• Release scheduled for 15 May 2008
• Order now (or before 15 May 2008) and receive free shipping (no minimum order)

Visit the “new” Resistant Roosters website - www.resistantroosters.com - for the latest product listings.

Note: the website is still under construction and will be greatly expanded in the coming month.

I knew there would be another few releases for April, and here they are:

• WWI Russian Mounted Officer
• WWI German Mounted Officer
• Soviet Cavalry (w/lance) in Budenka Cap (1919-1941)

I have to admit that the photos for these came out rather badly, so I will need to replace them, but in the meantime here are a couple of shots to give you an idea of what the new figures look like:

Look for more news tomorrow…

In some ways this week has flown by, in others it has been dragging along sloooowly. Perhaps it is just that my allergies are acting up a bit more than usual? Well, anyhow on to the topic for today’s news - a recap of April releases for the Bloodaxe Miniatures line.

We didn’t get as much done as we had hoped for, but still a few new releases. First up are some additions to the Moro Rebellion range. Added this week are:

• U.S. Infantry Officers
• U.S. Infantry Utiltiy Man
• U.S. Infantry, Colt MG with crew of 2

The Moro figures are now ready to mold - the last few repairs/modifications have been completed. Look for these in early May. Additoanlly we have in hand greens for the Philippine Insurgents - these are targeted for a mid May release.

Next up are the first of our Interwar period Infantry figures. New for April are:

• Soviet Infantry in Budenka Cap (1919-1941)
• Soviet Infantry Officer in Budenka Cap (1919-1941)
• Soviet Maxim Gun & Crew in Budenka Cap (1919-1941)

A Cavalryman with lance will be released shortly. I suspect that we will add a few more figures to this set - artillery/utility men have already been requested. These figures can be used for your RCW armies as well as as early war Soviets (good through 1941)…

Lastly we have our three “generic” Engineer figures. These fellows will be good for most any 19th or 20th century setting as they are not in uniform. The thinking was that one never needs very many engineers, so why not make a simple, generic set that can be used for multiple purposes - for color, just include a uniformed soldier on the same stand…

We might slip a few more miscellaneous pieces this month, but this list about does it for the Bloodaxe Miniatures line for the month of April.

Check back next week for news about new releases for the Resistant Roosters line and our Spring Cleaning Sale.

I’ve been back from Little Wars for a week now and have not written a thing, so today I’ll take this opportunity to talk about two new and exciting things.

First I’d like to share a bit about our news friends – Dansville Wargamers ; the table next to ours at Little Wars was manned by fine group of painters: brothers Chris and Andy Sebolt and Jeff Gatlin. Together they form Dansville Wargamers (located in Dansville MI). Over the course of the weekend we talked much about painting and such. Friday evening they picked out a random selection from our upcoming v2 release of Late War Panzergrenadiers. Jeff’s paintbrush set to work and by late Saturday we had our first look at some painted figures…

Well, after a bit more discussion it was decided that the fine folks at Dansville Wargamers will paint samples for each figure in the Resistant Roosters line. This won’t happen overnight, but soon, they will have in hand samples of each figure currently in production (along with a few that will be soon). As these are completed, Alison will photograph in logical groups and we will place the photos online at: http://resistantroosters.com

Did I just write http://resistantroosters.com ? Why, yes, yes I did. That is correct, a new website can be found at: http://resistantroosters.com. We are not done with the site just yet, but it does contain listing for all of the Resistant Roosters products. This will be the first site to point to our new e-Store once Alison gets things working. I’ve setup a development system for her to use and work should begin shortly.

Earlier, I mentioned new Resistant Roosters figures – Late War Panzergrenadiers to be more precise. It is true we do have new figures and they are just about ready to go into production. Yesterday I finished casting the last of the pattern figures and will begin making production molds this week. As these are an extension of the existing LW Panzergrenadiers we will be re-molding the original figures at the same time and will release them all together in a new v2 release – Late War Panzergrenadiers/Grenadiers. Look for more information as the week progresses.

There is more news, but I’ll wrap it up for today – Look for more releases in the Bloodaxe line as well as some progress reports later in the week. In the meantime why not pop over and checkout the Dansville Wargamers website?

http://dansvillewargamers.com

It has been some time since we announced that we were going to re-organize the Table Top Talk website – and since the initial announcement nothing more…

I think I’ve got the basic plan mostly solidified. So, without further delay, here is what I’m working on:

1) Table Top Talk (tabletoptalk.com) will transition from a message board system to more of a blog format.

This will be considered phase one. We will archive the discussions and post as zipped text files (in case anyone wants to read them). We will also post frequently read articles as web pages.

2) Wargamers Corner will merge with Table Top Talk. The articles will transition to the new site as web pages. This will be considered phase two.

3) Phase three will see HistoriFigs News folded into Table Top Talk (the current news page will forward to the Table Top Talk website).

All of these changes should bring us closer to my vision for Table Top Talk – more of a traditional war game publication, but presented in a modern electronic format.

At some point we will likely be looking for a few associate editors – editing a war game information site is not a small task, so I’m very sure that I will need some help (so if you think you might be interested in lending a hand, se sure to let me know).

Don’t forget, we will be attending Little Wars this weekend, so be sure to drop by and say howdy. We will have previews of the new Resistant Roosters late war Panzergrenadier figures (Company HQ, Mortar Platoon, MG Platoon) as well as previews of the new 40mm AWI figures. We will also be offering some specials for convention attendees, so you will find a few bargains too.

Did I forget to mention that we will be doing a random give away? Not sure exactly how this will work, but I’ll have a box-o-goodies to give away at the convention, so drop by and maybe you will be one of the lucky ones…

That should about do it for March news. Be sure to check-in next week for some new specials (I got a little carried away when casting so, we are over stocked an a few items, so we will be offering some fantastic deals).

Well, another month’s worth of 2008 is just about to become history. March has been a busy one for us – I know, hard to tell based on the lack of news postings…

Lots of production and custom work this month; I’ve been just busy enough that I’ve not had time to take and post proper photos. Alison has been busy in the shop, with the only big interruption being last week when Liam was on spring break.

The close of March (and Q1) brings with it a few changes. While we were able to negotiate a very good price for metal, other supplies have continued to demonstrate price increases. As such we will be raising a few prices in April.

Starting 1 April 2008, we have some new prices for mold making services. The price for our standard 9” organic rubber production molds will be $45 each (this is an increase from the $40 mark we have held for the past few years). Pattern figures will be billed at a rate of $50 per pound. These used to be included in the price of a Pattern mold. Pattern mold prices will remain unchanged.

We have a price increase for the Scruby N-Gauge WWII vehicles. The prices posted on the website were more than 3 years out of date. We have reviewed the pricing for all vehicle models and have posted the new prices (tanks $3.00, trucks & half-tracks $1.75 & jeeps/Kfz-1 $0.75 each).

The remainder of our prices will remain as currently posted on the website(s).

I don’t normally review sales until much closer to the end of the year, but I’ve been seeing an interesting trend this year, so I thought I would share it with you. Typically we have been seeing the bulk of our sales dollars coming from 15mm figures (ours and contract casting). Sales of 40mm and larger always have been a very small part of the picture. The first quarter of 2008 is interesting in that sales of 40mm and larger figures is accounting for a much larger percentage of sales (dollars and units). Sales of 15mm figures remain in the number 1 spot, but the larger scales have nearly pulled even. I’d be very happy to see this trend continue, as it would allow us to continue to invest (time and money) into the 40 and 54mm lines. The thing that makes this sales surge extra interesting is that we do not advertise the availability of the 54mm figures…

OK, well, enough of that – it is interesting to me, but perhaps you would rather hear more about other things, such as new Resistant Roosters releases. Well the expanded late war Panzergrenadier offerings are well under way. The first pattern mold was finished last weekend and the second should be completed by tomorrow afternoon. I am still planning for a (limited) release at Little Wars next weekend. On the 40mm front, now that I’ve cleared the decks of contract work I’ll be making a push with the 40mm AWI, so we will see these in April.

On the gaming front, I’ve been quite scattered. Working on projects from 18th century to Warhammer 40K – I have been working mostly on figures for use with Blitzkrieg Commander. Coming in second are my expansions of some classic Warhammer armies (Fantasy and 40K). I’ve also revived one of my Napoleonic projects. Lucky for me this one does not require any painting of figures (at least not right away). The project uses the Scruby N-Gauge figures and Mike Frank’s “Nap Division” rules. Right now, I’m working up a reference sheet to be used while players are learning the game. Mike’s rules are not complete (he kept most details in his head), so I’m needing to work with his rules sheets along with his had written notes on these sheets (I’ve not played the rules in 4 or more years). So, if all goes well I’ll be hosting a game in Portage in May or June.

Lastly, next weekend we will be attending Little Wars in Illinois, so if you plan to attend be sure to drop by our table and say howdy…