Wednesday 27 October 2021

SELWG Swag 2021


Just a quick post today, showing you my haul of goodies I picked up at SELWG the week before last.

My first purchase of the day we're the two building on either side of the pic, from the Bring & Buy for a tenner. They need a little tlc, but that shouldn't take too long. They're made from what looks like resin then glued together? Not sure who makes these? Any ideas anyone?

I've been after both of the books for a while, the Osprey was a no brainer of course and the other I've had saved on Amazon for over a year, but never took the plunge. But for £8 how could I resist?

Dice from Coritani, to add to the collection. Just need to throw them in anger now!

Army Painter Ink, I have experimented in making my own, but they just don't seem to match the quality for AP....sigh!

Lots of scenery items from Iron Gate Scenery.  I won one of their building a few years ago, in a competition and have been watching there ever expanding ranges grow. I bought a boat, a prison wagon and a forge set amongst other things. So look out for them in the Painting Challenge in December.

I bought some Reiver Castings figures from Rob at Northumberland painting Service, some Austrian Cuirassiers for my Vienna project using Donnybrook (as if you didn't guess?) I meant to buy some Grenadiers as well, but it completely slipped my mind? Must be getting old?

Finally I was a bit miffed with Warlord Games, they who along with Skytrex are now selling Trent Miniatures after the sad passing of Duncan McFarlane. They had a few packs from some of the ranges up for sale, so I picked up a four packs and nearly fell over when told the price. A pack of 8 figures had gone up £4!!! "The price of lead has gone up" the trader explained! I had to stop myself from saying "well you know where you can stick them then don't ya?"
But after I'd calmed down, I had to go skulking back and buy some of the original packs I'd picked up, because I needed these to match in with units I've already got. 
Obviously I do understand that the ranges had to be bought from Duncan's estate and then made, but a 35% price hike is taking the pi$$!
I do need a few more packs to finish off the units I have already, but will have to seriously think about expanding the armies anymore after that, which is a shame.
Moan over!




 

43 comments:

  1. Nice haul, Ray! Prices are rising quickly everywhere.

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  2. Yes, nice haul!
    Price of everything has gone up. Our gas has almost doubled since January.

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  3. Looks like you hit the jackpot!
    Neil

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  4. Looking forward to the return of a shopping spree at a games show/convention. In the meantime, it's good to draw vicarious pleasure from seeing your loot!

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  5. Hello Ray, although I do not endorse or subscribe to Warlord's approach in any way I would like to share some information here with you and your followers which may put some things in context. During Covid 19 I experienced enormous supply problems with castings. I subcontracted all of my casting and a combination of Covid restriction and higher demand for the caster's own products cut me off entirely - no stock and virtual shutdown. I lost a lot of orders between April 2019 and August 2020. I solved the problem by buying my own casting machine which I imported from the US at huge expense and taught myself to cast. That got me into the world of casting (which is a parallel universe). I bought 100 Kg of metal last year and than cost me about £900 ex vat. I have just received an order from the same supplier, same metal grade - 50 Kg which cost £990 ex vat. There is a world shortage of Tin. Even the metal supplier was embarrassed at the price hike. Consequence of Covid, port confusion, higher industrial demand, logistics blockages, Brexit etc. You might appreciate what this doesto a cottage industry. Material prices increasing by over 100% in less than 12 months. I have thus far resisted passing on any price increase but, this is not sustainable. It then becomes economic nonsense to try and run a business like ours. I may have to do something on prices soon, admittedly not 35% but I do not employ 100 people like Warlord. I guess customers will ultimately vote with their feet.

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    1. Thanks for the info Barry, it does help put it all onto perspective. I'm sure Warfare will do just fine, even with a rise in prices.

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  6. Great haul indeed Ray, you have just helped me convince my wife that I am not the only one who lives by the motto that one can never have enough dice...

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  7. A nice varied collection of purchases there Ray. I agree, a four pound price hike on an eight-pack of figures seems a lot. We keep getting told about container shortages also helping to drive prices up and someone somewhere must be hoarding them.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence. It is quite steep, to put it mildly!

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  8. Quite a haul Ray. I had not seen Iron Gate before, I don't think. Some items look useful. Totally understand your shock at the prices. I had a rant myself about eBay figure prices.

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    1. Iron Gate make some great additions, for sure.

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  9. You've got a lot of great stuff. Well done sir!

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  10. A grand haul there Ray, should keep you busy for a while. Sad to hear about Warlord's price hike on Trent Miniatures, but nothing they do should surprise us really. I'm glad I got all I needed when Duncan was still with us.

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  11. Nice haul Ray, I think you did well with those buildings.

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    1. They're quite nice, they just need a little work.

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  12. Ray, the buildings are ours from several years ago. We still have the moulds but don't use them.
    Rob, Reiver Castings

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    1. Not seen them before Rob? Are they on your website?

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  13. Thanks for the heads up on the Trent stuff Ray, that not good - do you think we will ever see an expansion to the Haiti Range?
    Cheers
    Stu

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    1. According the the guy I spoke to, they will expand the range. Just a shame they're so expensive now.

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  14. That’s a lot of booty Ray! Have to agree with most people here that prices are going up everywhere across the board unfortunately.

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    1. Petrol, electricity, gas, food and lead! Bad news all round really.

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  15. Nice haul Ray. As others have said, nothing Warlord does around price hiking or knocking out an opposition company would surprise me. I have noticed I have had quite a few emails from them recently promoting special deals and winding back some of their earlier freight price hikes - maybe they lost a few customers when they did all that six or eight months ago? I am just hoping that Gripping Beast dont do something similar with Front Rank......

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    1. I really like Front Rank's SYW range, be a shame to lose that.

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    2. Yeh me too. One of the great things about Front Rank is you can buy individual figures, so you only buy what you actually need. None of this blister pack crap.

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  16. Great haul Ray - nicely done! Have to say, ordering from Warlord is hard enough with the cost of postage to Australia, but the prices of metal figures are becoming prohibitive. At this rate, wargaming will once again become the province of the gentleman dilettante!

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