Painting competition

I’ve been toying with this idea for a while now and the tipping point came at the end of last week when I found out that some of you (Giles take a bow) have actually got a lot further than me and have completed painting and basing all the figures in the pack.

So here goes… This is the formal announcement of the start of the BfK Limited Edition Figures painting competition. At the moment, it’s a “just for the fun of it” competition with the only guaranteed prize for the winner being the honour of victory and the accompanying bragging rights. If, however, I can come up with a suitably apt prize (or some kind sponsor donates one) then the stakes may get raised. l’ll let you know if that comes to pass.

Of course, I know you are all honourable BfKers but a few simple rules of engagement are in order:

1). The competition entry must comprise the four figures and campfire/marmite castings from the BfK 2012 Limited Edition Figures pack. Many of you already have one or more of these packs in your hot little hands but those of you who haven’t can still order them from me.

2). You may base the figures individually, or on one or more bases of whatever dimensions suit your preferences.

3). All the painting, varnishing and basing must be substantially your own work. If you use something that isn’t (such as a pre-printed flag or decals, you should declare it as part of your entry).

4). The closing date for entries is 31 May 2013. I think that just over two months should be plenty of time but squeal in the comments if you think I’m being to restrictive.

5). Entries should be submitted in the form of a single jpg image file of width exactly 550 pixels and up to 550 pixels deep. The image may be a collage of multiple photographs. You can send them to me via e-mail attachments or suggest other ways. For example, I may set up a Dropbox folder where you can upload your entries.

6). Judging will be by a voting poll on BfK to be held shortly after the closing date. I will keep the poll open for about a week and anonymise the entries.

I can’t think of anything else essential at this stage but feel free to post questions as comments below. It only remains for me to wish you “bon chances, mes amis!”.

Brand new Calpe website

New Calpe Miniatures website.

When Peter F and I first put together the Calpe Miniatures website more years ago that I care to remember, the fact that a wargames miniatures company (let alone one run by sole trader) had a website at all was something special in itself without worrying about what people could actually do with it. But time has passed and customer expectation has grown exponentially: more pictures, online ordering, more frequent news updates and so on…

Over time, keeping up with that has been harder and harder to do – especially since my “real world” commitments have grown and mean that I no longer have the time and resources to devote that the Calpe website deserves. For some time now, Peter has been exploring ways to solve this conundrum and the result is that we’ve moved the Calpe website to a new place with new functionality and new ways of keeping it up to date that will make life easier for Peter and better for his customers. It also means that I will no longer need to worry about looking after the website because the new one provides tools for Peter to do that himself.

The observant among you will notice that many of the older Calpe ranges are not on the new site. Fear not, there’s a plan for them. To quote from the introduction on the new site: “There [will be] a link to the old website where you can still purchase the old range of Prussian figures. From now on, the old range will be known as the ‘Calpe Veterans’, while the new figures will come under the title of ‘Calpe System’ figures.” That’s still being set up at the moment and I’ll let you know when it’s available.

Lastly, this doesn’t mean the end of my involvement with Calpe Miniatures and you can still expect to get advance inside information from Calpe Towers right here. The next report is likely to be in the immediate aftermath of Salute 2013 (if not sooner).

So go and emjoy the new site and all that it offers!

Prize draw winners

I’m overdue with making the draw for the four lucky winners in the BfK Limited Edition Figures prize draw. As I expect you’ll remember, each lucky winner will get one figure from the pack painted, varnished and based by me. I’ll sign the underside of the base of each figure and, logistics permitting, I’ll see if I can get Peter F to sign them too.

So, without further ado, the lucky winners are:

• Robert Groves
• Kawe Weissi-Zadeh
• John Snead
• Jonathan Marcus

Congratulations to the four of you. Now you have the exquisite agony of following along with my series of paint-in postings in the knowledge that it’s your figures that are being painted! In the normal run of things, you will each receive a figure selected at random by me. If, however, any of you four have a special preference then feel free to let me know. I can’t guarantee you’ll get the figure you want because I’m only painting one of each for the prizes but I’ll see what I can do to make as many of you as happy with the outcome as possible.

On an administrative note, having had a second batch of figures cast up by Peter F, I’ve now dispatched almost all of the orders that have been paid for (only two outstanding to post this week). However, there are several of you who expressed an interest in ordering packs but haven’t paid yet. If you’re still interested in receiving packs, I urge you to review the payment instructions I’ve e-mailed to you. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll assume you’re no longer interested and sell the packs set aside for you to other customers.

The box of delights

Box of BfK Limited Edition Figures from Peter F.

Phew! It’s hard work to keep up with this but I thought I should give you all a progress update on the BfK Limited Edition Figures project. As you can see from the photo, I’ve received a wonderful box full of cast packs of figures from Peter F., which he managed to get done before setting off on his Christmas holiday.

I’ve gradually been working through e-mailing everybody who has placed orders to sort out payment details. There are only a couple of people left to contact, so thank you for your patience. The other thing I have started doing is carefully packing the orders in bubble wrap and padded envelopes, labelling them up and getting them ready for a monster trip to the Post Office. To be honest, this is more likely to turn into several smaller, more manageable, trips. Packing is a surprisingly time consuming process (and I speak as somebody who had anticipated that considerable effort would be required) which has given me a keen appreciation for what it must be like for small wargames figures companies who have to do all their own picking, packing and postage to fulfil orders – not to mention keep on sculpting and casting new figures to add to the range and satisfy our insatiable appetites for new toys.

Please bear with me as I work my way through all this. I’ve got orders from 15 different countries, so some of you are unlikely to receive your parcels in time for Christmas but I’ll do the best I can to get them all on their way this week.

First batch of orders ready for a trip to the Post Office.

After the hard labour is done, I shall be moving on to the much more pleasurable activity of painting up a pack myself. This first pack is destined to make up the figures for the prize draw and enable me to write the promised painting guide. My plan is to make detailed step-by-step postings as a I go along, so you can all join in and paint along with me if you like. Regular BfKers will know that my painting rate is normally exceedingly slow, so you don’t need to worry about not being able to keep up if your figures don’t arrive quickly! I’m toying with the idea having a small painting competition based around this phase of the project but that needs some thinking through – not to mention the question of a prize for the winner.

Lastly, mention of the painting guide reminds that I have an appeal for help. I’m trying to track down two specific Knötel plates:

• Band XVI, Plate 34: French Artillery Train Trumpeter 1st Company, 9th Battalion 1812-13;
• Band XVIII, Plate 29: French Baggage Train 1807.

Both of these contain details that will help me prepare the painting guide. So if you are able to help locate them, that would make me very happy.