Pendraken Miniatures Forum

Leon has kindly agreed to join an online discussion on the evening of 11 June (UK time). He will be discussing these topics:

• UK show scene / post-Covid
• State of Wargaming businesses (sale/closing of Timecast and Epsilon, as well as Front Rank, ERM and potentially others...)
• Challenges of publishing rules
• New shop and games room
• Impact of Covid on gaming and buying habits
• Requests/popular ranges

plus answering questions.

We would welcome suggestions for questions either in this thread or via PM. We may even have time for some live questions on the night.

If you would like to join us for the discussion please PM your email address to me. This will give us an indication of how many want to attend and allow us to email you the meeting invitation.

We will be using Webex for the meeting which you will be able to join from your browser. Let us know if you have any questions about the meeting.

We will be holding a poll at the end of May to decide the start time.

Are Timecast closing?

I might need to dip in for some additional terrain.

Steve, see this thread for more info on Timecast https://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,21597.0.html (https://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,21597.0.html)

I'll stick it in the diary!

QuoteSteve, see this thread for more info on Timecast https://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,21597.0.html (https://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,21597.0.html)

Thanks.

I was in hospital for surgery that day.
Clearly missed some big news.

Timecast hopefully will find a buyer.

Front Rank are now owned by Gripping Beast so still around and I think Alec is intending to still do the Sculpting without the pressure of running the business. Seeing as the asking price was somewhat over £200k, I can only assume Gripping Beast are doing pretty well at the moment.

I think ERM was due to retirement. As regards how the hobby is doing, it will be interesting to hear from Leon's perspective as I know most companies did OK during the pandemic, but with the global downturn and rise in cost of living expenses there may well be a knock on with disposable income.

Quote from: Sean Clark on 10 May 2022, 12:00:57 PMAs regards how the hobby is doing, it will be interesting to hear from Leon's perspective as I know most companies did OK during the pandemic, but with the global downturn and rise in cost of living expenses there may well be a knock on with disposable income.

In general terms I think that the prices of energy and metal are two significant issues for the foreseeable future.  Prices are bound to go up I think.

ERM was a combination of retirement / ill health.


I don't think three closures / sales should be read as a crisis in the business.
Consider the profile of the typical hobby-serving business; often a hobbyist himself (herself) working as a "side hustle".
Such one man bands are liable to closure due to any number of circumstances.

The time to be worried is if established businesses similar Front Rank or Timecast are unable to find buyers.

I was surprised at the news on 4Ground - given how they were producing lots of stuff for smaller designers/ranges, and seeing people always buying their stuff at shows and in blog posts I assumed they were solid!

I Think the problem with some of the companies is they get sold to US companies and become harder/more expensive to obtain.

Quote from: John Cook on 10 May 2022, 12:52:53 PMIn general terms I think that the prices of energy and metal are two significant issues for the foreseeable future.  Prices are bound to go up I think.

Yes, I think we as the customers need to be willing to pay more to keep companies viable, if we want them to be there in the future. Wargaming is essentially a cheap hobby. More so if we only bought what we were actually going to get on he table within 12 months. :) (well certainly in my case)

Really looking forward to this!  With the shows all missing during Covid I think I've missed chatting to folks properly.

Thanks to those who have already let me know they want to join the discussion

If you are interested in joining us please PM me

We are still interested in suggestions for questions

QuoteLeon has kindly agreed to join an online discussion on the evening of 11 June (UK time). He will be discussing these topics:

• UK show scene / post-Covid
• State of Wargaming businesses (sale/closing of Timecast and Epsilon, as well as Front Rank, ERM and potentially others...)
• Challenges of publishing rules
• New shop and games room
• Impact of Covid on gaming and buying habits
• Requests/popular ranges

plus answering questions.

We would welcome suggestions for questions either in this thread or via PM. We may even have time for some live questions on the night.

If you would like to join us for the discussion please PM your email address to me. This will give us an indication of how many want to attend and allow us to email you the meeting invitation.

We will be using Webex for the meeting which you will be able to join from your browser. Let us know if you have any questions about the meeting.

We will be holding a poll at the end of May to decide the start time.

With 11 June rapidly approaching I've added a poll to decide the start time of the online discussion

If you are planning to join us please PM me with your email address, so we can send you the invitation

You can vote for your preferred time or for both if you don't have a preference

Will there be an option to access it afterwards?

Hi Andy, this is a live event and we aren't planning to record it

Potential for questions or topics to be covered;

1) 3D printing - it is presently still a bit of an exotic area of figure / terrain production, but seemingly becoming increasingly integrated with the hobby scene. How does Leon see this impacting on businesses such as his in the next 5 - 10 years. As a point of interest, I have no interest or intention in owning the technology.

2) Is the likes of Victrix and Warlord Games entering the smaller scales market in plastic having an impact on the traditional small figure manufacturers. I note that Kallistra seemed to do quite well from selling ACW support material that was seen as being cheaper alternative to Warlord Games non-plastic offerings.

3) Has shipping / customs / Brexit changes made it harder to sell overseas directly to customers. I know from a boardgamers perspective that in the UK, buying directly from America has become expensive, thank goodness for UK distributors.

just some thoughts, cheers Norm.

Thanks Norm, some interesting questions, I've added them to my list :)

If you PM me your email address we'll send you an invitation so you can join the discussion and hear the answers

We have a very slight preference for the 8-10pm time a the moment, the poll closes tomorrow

Remember to PM with your email address if you want to join us for our discussion with Leon

The weekend is fast approaching and there are a couple of different time zones involved in setting up the invitations so please PM me by Friday

The invites have gone out to all those that have signed up. If you did not receive your Webex invite please PM me and I'll resend. You still have a couple days to PM Paul if you want to join (or you can PM me). This is a great opportunity to hear Leon talk about all things Pendraken.

Thanks to Leon and those who made it to a very interesting and entertaining dicussion that ran about 45 minutes over time :)

I'll second that.

And thanks to Bill and Paul who organised it!

A fascinating and enjoyable evening, thank you gentlemen.

Thirded.
Although if there is a next time I'll have to remember to switch the not used very often laptop on the day before to get all those d..d updates out of the way. Hope my lurking on a listening only desktop PC wasn't too weird for everyone. 

I was delighted you could joins us, even if only as a disembodied thumbs-up.

Glad you were able to join us. 

You will have  gathered I am as much of a chatterbox in real life as I am on here :)

Thank you again Leon. Very enjoyable! No worries, DD, glad you made it.

Thanks for the chat guys, I really enjoyed that!