I hope no one minds me asking this here...

I'm looking to order a significant number of Tumbling Dice 1/4,800 Napoleonic ships and was wondering if anyone has any feedback on the company and/or the ships?

I have found a few comments in the forum on their 1/600 scale planes which look to be fairly positive 

I've also seen a number of photos of the ships and they look to meet my needs 

I have only ever seen him at shows, but he strikes me as a nice bloke who takes a genuine interest in his customers and is happy to chat. He is always at the Phalanx show (June) if that helps. I cannot comment on his small scales, but have seen his Langton stuff in his display case and that looks very nice.

I did buy Mig Alley off him about 8 years ago, which is a £10 game with micro type aircraft and i was happy with what I got.

Have a look on boardgamegeek for games like flying colours and serpents of the sea by gmt. I seem to recall lots of pictures where the counters were substituted by small scale ships, wich i think were tumbling dice models.

Paul is an absolute gent,
I've known him for years, he's always friendly, always full of ideas.
He's not very internet savvy but his service is great. Best to phone or email in advance!

He used to work for Asgard miniatures many many years ago!

Quote from: mad lemmey on 13 April 2015, 07:59:50 AM
Paul is an absolute gent,
I've known him for years, he's always friendly, always full of ideas.
He's not very internet savvy but his service is great. Best to phone or email in advance!

He used to work for Asgard miniatures many many years ago!

^^^^ THIS. In spades. Lovely models, great guy and (when he's not knee deep in customers) a delight to talk to.

From conversations about business practices of other companies, that I won't name, he's definitely in favour of wargame models rather than collectors pieces That shows in the models, instantly identifiable if you know the period but with no fiddly detail that would get snapped off or lost under a coat of paint.

I have WW1 and WW2 aircraft and a couple of Armada period fleets.

Don't know him personally, but I have bought a lot of his minis! Especially the 1/600 aircraft (some of which are better than others), but as it happens I have the 1/4800 ships on my work table as we speak. I intend to tidy them up & paint them for the Pz8 rules.

You would need a damn steady hand to paint 3 lines of gunports on the 3-decker, and cleaning up the seam down the middle of the sails will be a pig, especially with some of the smallest 3-deckers, but detail is just lovely. Despite being sold as generic 1, 2 or 3 deckers (plus small craft), there are actually lots of variation between these. There are at least 2 different 3-deckers, and quite a few different 2-deckers. Some of the 2-deckers are considerably smaller than others (which makes the masts tighter together & the sails harder to clean up...) The little ships are great too - including 3-masted Sloops only 14mm long and 12mm tall! Even the biggest of the ships is just 23x18!

Bought a very nice stan-in for the Rolf Krake from him at York. Very nice little steam monitor with masts.

I have lots of the TD 1/600 aircraft - bought online and at shows.

I've never had a problem, always very helpful - the webstore is a bit primitive but the orders get through.

Thanks all

I have exchanged a few emails with him as I want to 'tweak' the composition of the Trafalgar and Squadron packs I'm looking to order to share with Pierre the Shy 

He definitely seems a very helpful chap and the pictures of the models do look 'the business'

It is good to get confirmation that some of my limited wargaming budget will be going to another absolute gent, sorry Leon

Quote from: Wulf on 13 April 2015, 10:22:51 AM
Don't know him personally, but I have bought a lot of his minis! Especially the 1/600 aircraft (some of which are better than others), but as it happens I have the 1/4800 ships on my work table as we speak. I intend to tidy them up & paint them for the Pz8 rules.

You would need a damn steady hand to paint 3 lines of gunports on the 3-decker, and cleaning up the seam down the middle of the sails will be a pig, especially with some of the smallest 3-deckers, but detail is just lovely. Despite being sold as generic 1, 2 or 3 deckers (plus small craft), there are actually lots of variation between these. There are at least 2 different 3-deckers, and quite a few different 2-deckers. Some of the 2-deckers are considerably smaller than others (which makes the masts tighter together & the sails harder to clean up...) The little ships are great too - including 3-masted Sloops only 14mm long and 12mm tall! Even the biggest of the ships is just 23x18!

A step by step pictorial report on your approach and progress would be interesting and useful 

Or some comments on lessons learned... e.g. how are you cleaning up the seam on the sails; knife, file, ...

I'm not sure yet what approach I will take to painting these, my normal approach is to undercoat grey, paint, wash and then highlight

It's a bit late for a pictorial, I'm about finished 

The big problem is the seam down the middle of the sails. Apart from the bigger 2-deckers, and the 3-deckers, there's barely space between the masts to get a knife blade in there, let alone a file, so that's still to do. I figure a long process with the point of a long, thin, very pointy blade...

I did use a tiny bladedscrewdriver designed for electrical/computer work to poke through down at the base of some masts - a knife point would have done the trick, but the screwdriver let me put quite a bit of pressure on it without fear of breaking, and created a flat edge. A lot of the ships have the lowest sail on mainmast & Mizzen furled, and the bulge of that sail means there's a 'hole' between masts down at the bottom, but no gap above it to get a knife or file down that far from the top.

A Dremmel..... using a tiny burr ?
(Said he, not quite being able to picture what's required.)
Cheers - Phil

Quote from: Wulf on 13 April 2015, 10:22:51 AM
3-masted Sloops only 14mm long

Quote from: Techno on 14 April 2015, 06:34:57 AM
A Dremmel..... using a tiny burr ?
(Said he, not quite being able to picture what's required.)
Cheers - Phil

3 Masts, all with sails, a fast spinning dremmel and my fingers all in a space 14mm long



I'm not sure if that would end well

Can you fix the ships to corks with green stuff, Paul ?
Give you something easier to grip, rather than just the model itself.
But if you wouldn't be comfortable......Perhaps not a good idea. 
Cheers - Phil

Although I have no knowledge of the models themselves, I might hazard a guess that in such situations as described above to suggest that I have found using the smallest bur fixed in a modellers Archimede's screwdriver to be the solution.  (A dremmel is somewhat too cumbursome at times and also being electrically powered can have a disasterous effect with just a moments loss of concentration.)