I just wanted to record my thanks for an amazing delivery service.
I ordered several packs on 1st May and they have just arrived
this morning (4th May). Fantastic stuff.
The recent emphasis put on speeding up delivery is definitely
working so a big thank you.
Phil
Yep Phil.
It's not hard to find praise for Leon and crew. I too marvel at the super high quality of service they provide. They are above first class in my book!
Terry
+10 :) :D
Agreed.
Ordered 450 figures on Sunday 30 April, arrived Friday 4 May. You know, with that 10 day estimate Pendraken give.
One hopes that this speed is due to increased efficiency (i.e. the Dark Lord has bought a bigger whip) rather than there being so few orders that the packing dwarves are sat around playing cribbage and fighting over the scarce tasks that punctuate their work day.
I seem to recall from another thread that there are more casting dwarves
If my recollection of who does the packing is correct FSN owes M'Lady an abject apology
Thanks for the post, good to hear they arrived quickly. It's nice at this end to be getting things out quicker now, but we've still got a lot to do. The new casting guys are slowly getting trained on more ranges but there's still some areas which they're not able to do (mainly 20th century stuff and WWII specifically). Orders for those ranges will still take a little longer for the timebeing.
Quote from: paulr on 05 May 2018, 09:33:46 PM
If my recollection of who does the packing is correct FSN owes M'Lady an abject apology
I don't think Milady sullies her exquisite fingers with those very long, pointed and steel tipped fingernails, on manual labour. Surely she spends her days reclining on plumped cushions eating grapes and small birds.
Quote from: Leon on 06 May 2018, 01:06:15 AM
The new casting guys are slowly getting trained on more ranges but there's still some areas which they're not able to do (mainly 20th century stuff and WWII specifically). Orders for those ranges will still take a little longer for the timebeing.
Now that's interesting. From the outside one assumes that casting is casting - unless you mean vehicle?
Is there a settee with that casting?
Quote from: fsn on 06 May 2018, 06:28:53 AM
Now that's interesting. From the outside one assumes that casting is casting - unless you mean vehicle?
Generally casting is casting, although certain moulds and figures will have their own 'personality' and need a slight change in the way you use them. The training issue is more due to the size and scope of our ranges now and slowly bringing the new guys up to speed on them all. Some ranges are easy, anything that's purely 30 foot / 15 cavalry is self-explanatory really, the mould contains 35-ish foot figures so clip off 30 of them. But when you get into things like artillery it can get trickier. The crew would be in one mould and the guns in another, so they need to know which moulds they're using for each code. We're slowly building up a 'Casting Bible' as well, with the codes, contents and pictures listed so that the guys can refer to those if they're ever unsure.
With the 20th C. ranges, sadly the moulds aren't organised as well as they could be, so the artillery pieces would be in one mould and the crew in another. In some cases a vehicle hull will be in one mould and then the turret in another, so there's a lot more going on. Currently Dave's the only one who really knows where everything is so we leave the WWII casting to him. We've got one of the guys trained on SCW and Vietnam/Indo-China, and now learning WWI, so we're making progress.
Quotethe mould contains 35-ish foot figures so clip off 30 of them.
Have you let a secret slip there? Is this how you are able to offer slight mix variations, like when you said you could amend the number of command in cavalry packs? I'm assuming the spares are to make up numbers if some are miscast. I don't want to take advantage, I know margins are tight, but obviously packaging doesn't always match desired basing.
Interesting stuff, Leon. Always an education.
Could you do me a favour? Instead of "Casting Bible", could you call it a "grimoire"? It also needs to be written on parchment - sheep if you want, but other mammals are available - with lots of drawings done with quill and oak-gall ink. Leather bound, of course.
Nurse, he's out of bed again.
I've got his special jacket ...
Quote from: fsn on 07 May 2018, 07:17:03 AM
Interesting stuff, Leon. Always an education.
Could you do me a favour? Instead of "Casting Bible", could you call it a "grimoire"? It also needs to be written on parchment - sheep if you want, but other mammals are available - with lots of drawings done with quill and oak-gall ink. Leather bound, of course.
Bound in the skin of the Dark Lord's rival's?
Or perhaps in the skin of the casting dwarf slowest to learn the caster's art? "Pour encourager les autres," n'est pas? :D :D :D
Seriously though, fascinating insights into the processes by which our little metal friends are created!
Quote from: Last Hussar on 07 May 2018, 06:09:49 AM
Have you let a secret slip there? Is this how you are able to offer slight mix variations, like when you said you could amend the number of command in cavalry packs? I'm assuming the spares are to make up numbers if some are miscast. I don't want to take advantage, I know margins are tight, but obviously packaging doesn't always match desired basing.
I don't think it's a secret, I'm sure I've mentioned it on here before. The moulds all contain a few more figures than a pack contains, so that we've got spares in case of miscasts. Something like the SYW codes would have about 30 foot figures and 6 command figures, so that we've got a spare set of command if any of them miscast. When it comes to custom orders, some are easier than others. If you need 32 figures in your pack, it's not that difficult to supply 2 more from the same mould. But if you want 3 command sets in your pack, then we need to spin it again to get enough. And if you just want 20 Prussian foot officers, then it's 10 spins and about 30-40 minutes of work!
Quote from: fsn on 07 May 2018, 07:17:03 AM
Could you do me a favour? Instead of "Casting Bible", could you call it a "grimoire"? It also needs to be written on parchment - sheep if you want, but other mammals are available - with lots of drawings done with quill and oak-gall ink. Leather bound, of course.
I'll see what I can do...
I'm all in favour of the 'grimoire', with just one teeny tiny adjustment in material.
Google says its about 2h30 from you to Runcorn...
If you're suggesting what I think you're suggesting, then I can think of no greater honour! :D