January Newsletter!

Started by Leon, 27 January 2018, 09:43:05 PM

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Leon

27 January 2018, 09:43:05 PM Last Edit: 27 January 2018, 09:46:50 PM by Leon


Welcome to the Pendraken Miniatures newsletter!

And welcome to our first update of 2018!  We hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas and New Year, hopefully made all the better with some 10mm goodies in your stocking!


Price Increase!

We'll get the bad news out of the way first, we'll be having a small price increase across our figure ranges on February 1st.  The increase is around 6% and will take a pack of 30 foot / 15 cavalry from £4.95 up to £5.25.  Smaller 10-man packs will go from £1.65 up to £1.75, vehicles from £2.80 up to £2.95.  This increase is due to a variety of reasons, but the main one is the addition of two new casting staff to the Pendraken team, one who started just before Christmas and another at the start of this month.  This will allow us to share the casting out a bit better and we should be able to get your orders complete and sent out to you a lot quicker.  Our plan is to get down to a 7-day turnaround by the end of the year.

More info on the increase can be found here and make sure to get your orders placed before the 1st!




Plans for 2018!

As always at Pendraken HQ, there's a lot going on and even more planned for the next few months.  We've got a lot of ranges sitting in the sculpting drawers here waiting to be moulded, so we've taken the decision to halt sculpting work for a period of around 3 months, to give us time to get all of these sculpts moulded up and released.  There's the Aztecs, 1860 Italians and a load of WWI to be released, plus the Indian Mutiny and Korean War ranges waiting on a few more sculpts to finish them off.  And whilst all that is going on, we're working on the revised BKC-III as well.

For all the info on our plans, have a look here.


Latest Releases!

We managed to sneak out a few last releases before we finished for Christmas, including:

> Napoleonic Brunswickers - Complete range, including foot, cavalry, artillery and personalities.




> Dugouts - We added 6 different varieties of dugouts, suitable for all manner of games.




> Eastern Front - John at Ironclad did us a couple of conversions to provide thatched roof versions of our Russian houses.

> Epsilon - Oscar at Epsilon has been busy again, adding a new Fantasy and two new Spanish houses.

Our first releases for 2018 will be the Aztecs in the next fortnight, followed up quickly by some new Napoleonic Hanoverians and KGL at the end of February.


In The Pipeline!

Our only previews this month are the first batch of sculpts for the Indian Mutiny range.  We've got another load of these at Pendraken HQ ready to be photo'd as well, so we'll get that done after the York show.  




Shows!

The 2018 show season kicks off next weekend with the excellent Vapnartak show in York, on Sunday 4th February.  The website deadline for pre-orders is just about past now, so if there's anything you'd like bringing along you'll need to drop us an email as soon as possible and we'll do our best to get them ready in time.

After that, our next trip out will be down to the rapidly expanding Hammerhead show at Newark Showground on March 3rd.  Pre-orders for this can be placed through the website until Friday 23rd February, so make sure to get them placed in time.

All of our show dates for this year can be found here.


Minibits Corner!

Things have been busy on the Minibits side of things as well, with another batch of RedVectors products about ready to be released in the next few weeks, covering African and Afghan buildings in 15mm, 20mm and 28mm varieties.  We'll get pics of those sorted and up onto the website asap.


Website Photos!

One of our other main targets for 2018 is to make some real progress on the number of photographs on our website.  We've got all of the late 19th C. ranges (French, Austrian, Prussian, Wurttemburg) ready to go over to Kev and then we'll also have some more batches of vehicles going down to the talented JAD Designs.  And whilst those figures get a nice paintjob, we'll be blackwashing some more ranges at Pendraken HQ for basic photos, including the Schleswig-Holstein Danish and Prussians, along with the entire Spanish Civil War range.


And Relax!

That should be enough to get us started for 2018!  We'll have loads more releases and previews coming over the next few months, so lots of shiny temptation coming your way!

And finally as we mentioned right at the top, I hope everyone will join us in welcoming Scott and Mike to the Pendraken team!

8)
www.pendraken.co.uk - Now home to over 7000 products, including 4500 items for 10mm wargaming, plus MDF bases, Battlescale buildings, I-94 decals, Litko Gaming Aids, Militia Miniatures, Raiden Miniatures 1/285th aircraft, Red Vectors MDF products, Vallejo paints and much, much more!

paulr

A busy start to the year, I can't believe next weekend is February :o

Welcome Scott and Mike :-h
Check any staff id bracelet for chains before putting them on ;)
Lord Lensman of Wellington
2018 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!
2022 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!
2023 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

Techno


Steve J

Welcome to Scott and Mike and some nice plans going forward for this year :)

fsn

28 January 2018, 08:59:36 AM #4 Last Edit: 28 January 2018, 09:25:05 AM by fsn
Scott and Mike eh? I notice there isn't a job title alongside their names, and that makes me wonder ...

"What's wrong?" cooed Milady, absently stroking the Dark Lord's forearm, but being careful to ignore the Hairy Wart of Dreadfulness.
"Oh nothing." His Sombre Majesty returned, but he sighed and put his chin on his hand in a disconsolate manner.
"Come, come" The Lady of the Evening* persisted. "You're all out of sorts. Shall I wheel in a casting dwarf for scourging?"  
"No." He sighed.
"Do you want to connect Dave's shackles back to the mains?" The Imperial Sable Head perked up, but the Dark Lord gave another sigh.
"No. Maybe later."
"Do you want to announce an unexpected delay in the release of the Aztecs?"
"I'd love to but for some reason other forum members have got excited about it. I suppose we'll actually have to get Techno to make some now." The Dark Lord gave his deepest sigh yet.

"That's the problem you see, there's just to much to do." He continued. "I get up before Dawn ..."
"Yes, I've been meaning to talk to you about her ..." interjected She Who Knows
"Yes ... anyway, then it's update the Forum, a quick scourge of the Night Dwarves, then visitation to Techno to add to his woes,"
"You don't seem to be enjoying that as much as you used to."
"No. It was fun when I got him to drill into his own finger, but it all seems a bit much lately ..."
"You could always visit someone else for a while?" she suggested.
"Suppose so. But then there's more scourging, then pedicure ..."
"Very essential ... " she added, mentally reminding herself to buy yet another set of sheets.
"Scourging, design studio, pilates, then more scourging until bedtime. I haven't a moment to myself. Haven't played XBox in ages." Milday coughed discretely, but in warning.
"And of course I am forced to neglect you and the children ... all five?" He looked questioningly at his spouse
"Six?" She shook her head. The Dark Lord did a quick check on his fingers. There was Arak the Destroyer, Junna Foul Bane (his bane was really foul when he was a baby), Mangor the Magnificent, the twins Panic and Fear, and little Bethany Heart Wrencher.  
"Nathan - you always forget Nathan " she chided.
"Nathan. Oh yes. All seven ... including Nathan." To be honest, the Dark Lord couldn't remember Nathan. He knew he shouldn't have let Dave name him. Milday pursed her lips.
"Perhaps you need some acolytes."
"No thanks, I'll only get a headache."
"Acolytes ... worshipers ... some help." Milady reflected that her campaign to educate her Sable Spouse had some distance to go.
"Ohhh." He said uncertainly.
"Look, get a couple of lads in to give you a hand. It doesn't take much training to do he scourging ... "
"Well it's not as easy as it looks." The Dark Lord protested. "It's a bit like plastering." His spouse would not be deflected.
"You can show them how to do it, perhaps there's some sort of apprenticeship or something ..."
"You know, my Love, that's not a bad idea. The could give a hand in despatch or do some photos for the website or something too..."
"They might" she purred "even be able to rid you of troublesome Forum Members." The Dark Lord clapped his hands in glee.  

And so in the blink of a purple dragon's eye** -   Scott and Mike.


*This honorific represents that Milady is not quite as dark as the Dark Lord ... not that she's some kind of common streetwalker. Shame on you all!
** About 2 weeks. Purple dragons blink very slowly.
Lord Oik of Runcorn (You may refer to me as Milord Oik)

Oik of the Year 2013, 2014; Prize for originality and 'having a go, bless him', 2015
3 votes in the 2016 Painting Competition!; 2017-2019 The Wilderness years
Oik of the Year 2020; 7 votes in the 2021 Painting Competition
11 votes in the 2022 Painting Competition (Double figures!)
2023 - the year of Gerald: 2024 - Silver Medal (Cavalry)
2024 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

Leman

Sounds like a very promising year in prospect.
The artist formerly known as Dour Puritan!

Ithoriel

A warm welcome to Scott and Mike (do they know what they are letting themselves in for?) and a "very nice" to those new additions to the catalogue.
There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

Techno

Quote from: fsn on 28 January 2018, 08:59:36 AM

"Do you want to announce an unexpected delay in the release of the Aztecs?"
"I'd love to but for some reason other forum members have got excited about it. I suppose we'll actually have to get Techno to make some now." The Dark Lord gave his deepest sigh yet.


Stop winding Kitty up, Nobby.  ;D ;D ;D ;D

Cheers - Phil

Orcs

28 January 2018, 09:31:17 PM #8 Last Edit: 28 January 2018, 09:47:07 PM by Orcs
Quote from: Ithoriel on 28 January 2018, 03:29:22 PM
A warm welcome to Scott and Mike (do they know what they are letting themselves in for?) and a "very nice" to those new additions to the catalogue.

So Its Scott and Mike who we have to blame for the increased figure cost. So if I project last years   spend (did I really spend that little?)  into this coming year they are going to cost me an extra  £10.25 between them.  :o  

Leon please can you tell them that they need to post me £5 each ( I will let them off the 25p) to cover the money they are going to "OWE" me this year.  :)



The cynics are right nine times out of ten. -Mencken, H. L.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. - Robert Louis Stevenson

paulr

Quote from: Ithoriel on 28 January 2018, 03:29:22 PM
A warm welcome to Scott and Mike (do they know what they are letting themselves in for?) and a "very nice" to those new additions to the catalogue.

If they've read FSN's post then they might have some idea :) ;) :D ;D
Lord Lensman of Wellington
2018 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!
2022 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!
2023 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

Leon

Quote from: Orcs on 28 January 2018, 09:31:17 PM
Leon please can you tell them that they need to post me £5 each ( I will let them off the 25p) to cover the money they are going to "OWE" me this year.  :)

No worries, will do!  Scott actually helps on Colonel Bill's stand at the shows, so I'll just point you in his direction instead...
www.pendraken.co.uk - Now home to over 7000 products, including 4500 items for 10mm wargaming, plus MDF bases, Battlescale buildings, I-94 decals, Litko Gaming Aids, Militia Miniatures, Raiden Miniatures 1/285th aircraft, Red Vectors MDF products, Vallejo paints and much, much more!

Orcs

Quote from: fsn on 28 January 2018, 08:59:36 AM
The Lady of the Evening*   

*This honorific represents that Milady is not quite as dark as the Dark Lord ... not that she's some kind of common streetwalker. Shame on you all!


Nobby you are pushing your luck! If M'lady sees this she will ensure every pack you order has only prone or kneeling figures for months to come.
The cynics are right nine times out of ten. -Mencken, H. L.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. - Robert Louis Stevenson

fsn

Surely Not! Milday is fair and true; with an intelligent eye* and always a word of Wisden** on her perfect lips. She is forgiving and will look into my heart*** and see I mean Her Perfectitude no ill!







* we don't talk about the other one
** Mad cricket fan, she is
*** when she's ripped it from my chest
Lord Oik of Runcorn (You may refer to me as Milord Oik)

Oik of the Year 2013, 2014; Prize for originality and 'having a go, bless him', 2015
3 votes in the 2016 Painting Competition!; 2017-2019 The Wilderness years
Oik of the Year 2020; 7 votes in the 2021 Painting Competition
11 votes in the 2022 Painting Competition (Double figures!)
2023 - the year of Gerald: 2024 - Silver Medal (Cavalry)
2024 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

FOG IN CHANNEL - EUROPE CUT OFF
Lord Kermit of Birkenhead
Muppet of the year 2019, 2020 and 2021

FierceKitty

I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.