Tuesday 3 September 2013

I didnt get much reaction to my first 7 years war figures sales wise and though I wasnt expecting to set the world on fire I expected a few more sales.I didnt get them probably due to not having full regiments for a wargame unit  and maybe too expensive .They cost me a lot to get cast .I have decided to change tack .I will make my first great love of military uniforms The kaiserzeit.The German Imperial Army before they started shooting at us .All in full parade uniform .I'll start with cavalry as I have a horse already  .Hussars or Dragoons probably .They will of course match Stadden size .In fact I have a set of his Kaiser General Staff and the are wonderful.
This takes me back to the seventies  when I made quite a few imperials when I was just starting out .In fact my first ever sculpt was Dragoon wachtmeister in 54 mm .I sold it and started a lonely path sculpting away .
Martin

5 comments:

Der Alte Fritz said...

I would have bought some cuirassiers, but the lack of command figures (officer, trumpeter and standard bearer) kind of put me off. I mean, what good is a single trooper?

bluesbreaker said...

I know .It turned out a bit of a pain as I only sold a few and didnt want to flog a dead horse .I have to order as many officers as troopers etc as minimum and sales just didnt warrant it .Pity .I thought the general might sell more than two but maybe a bit pricey though at one point I virtually gave them away and still didnt sell any .You live and learn many thanks

bluesbreaker said...

Forgot to add, postage costs didnt help and are even worse now .I also added more weight than I needed by putting the horses on a thickish base.

Der Alte Fritz said...

Who does your casting for you? My caster is in the UK so perhaps I can help you out. If you had three command figures we could put up to four sets in one mould and have a second mould for just the trooper. Adding a second trooper variant would also help.

If you had a complete set of cuirassiers then I am fairly certain that you would see a healthy spike upwards in interest and sales.

In my experience, people won't care that much about the shipping cost. It is the availability of a set of figures that drives demand.

If nothing else, sell the rights to the figure to Peter Johnson so that he could add it to his range. I wish that you would do some hussar trumpeters to add to the Stadden hussars that you made.

Jim ( Fife & Drum Miniatures)

bluesbreaker said...

Many thanks Jim for your advice .I am a duck out of water with military figures now .I will do the complete set of curassiers and see how it goes .I am switching to green stuff as miliput is nothing like it used to be .Its oK for auto masters,horses etc but when I check the quality of my work from years ago its not quite the same .I have to cut back more than I used to when the grey green miliput was actually grey .Now its bright green and weird and also variable .
I have just been in contact with Tradition and was surprised it all now Tradition Scandanavia .I will ask them about modifying their hussars to make the whole troop.I can use their castings oreven some of mine ..
As to castings .I use SMTS in Hastings for my work .They do a good job on my 1/43 figures with no seams showing much a great price too .Maybe I will have to look into it more .Quality is great from them .
Your own Fife and drum project is very interesting ..The finance system was something I thought about a few weeks ago .My problem is I have too many fingers in other pies.
Nearly every model railway layout in the UK and some in the US have figures that were sculpted by me and that still makes up most of my work .Add in some model locomotive painting plus 1/43 racing cars .I also am not a great expert on military models .Although I have painted hundreds even thousands and sculpted quite a few I have no really deep expert knowledge of one subject though a good general knowledge widely spread and can get caught out easily by others if I am not careful .