Filthy Toerags

I've had a smashing time this past week in Hunstanton, a lovely little place on the Norfolk coast with one of the only beaches that faces west in the east (if that makes sense); beautiful weather, sand on my feet, surf to listen to. Perfect to forget about work, let my mind settle and organise itself, and generate ideas.

Somebody else had a smashing time while I was away, too: I came back to four broken windows at Mierce Towers. Never let it be said that God (Loki?) doesn't have a mean streak!

So yes: some filthy toerags thought it would be great to throw stones at the windows of Mierce Towers while I was away in Sunny Hunny, smashing four. Thankfully the lads were here and we have roller-shutters on the inside of the workshop (a legacy of the place once housing a post office), so we weren't broken into; but bloody hell, it's annoying. After speaking to the police ("No, we won't send anybody out, we'll ring you") to get a crime number, now I have to be on hold with an insurance company for hours, and probably have to wait three months before I receive a payout.

Sigh. Good job it's nearly summer.

So, a little request: any orders you guys could make would be greatly appreciated in the next few days, as I'd really like to try and get our windows replaced as soon as possible - and they're not cheap!

More Warlords

Let's talk about nicer things. Rafael Callegari has completed Alexandra, Euryalia and Ophios for the 100 Warlords kickstarter project, and has begun work on Cadwaladr and Ingjald, so they shouldn't take too long.

Alexandra the Saviour

Euryalia

Helmed Ophios

I'm still waiting for the first wips from Cleyton Amorim for Kraan and Eorcenbehrt, so I'll show you those as soon as I can!

Two Heads are Better Than One

Ivan Flaman has completed Gogamagogg for the Albainn, and frankly I love him to bits! What a fantastic bigature! He gave him a much bigger belly and corrected a few issues, and now he is looking brilliant.

We should be able to get Gogamagogg in rubber next week and cast the week after; there's been a bit of a rubber shortage recently, so we've not moved as fast as we'd hoped on the brutal beasts into cast resin front. But hopefully next week it will be full speed ahead!

Ivan's next job will be to finish off this behemoth... or should I say, paracerox?

VEE EM ESS

You may have noticed that I've added another hobby brand to the site, VMS, and those guys produce some amazing glues, mediums, auxiliaries, textures and pigments for modelling of a very, very high quality; we can definitely recommended their Flexy 5K superglue that is specially designed for cast resin and 3d printed miniatures.

I've been using it myself on my rat host and I can honestly say it's some of the best out there. Some superglues don't really adhere very well (or, in Timoth's parlance, is as good as cuckoo spit) or get very brittle. This stuff is definitely amongst the best!

Pro Arte and More

A couple of weeks back I attended the Key Model World show at the NEC in Birmingham, mainly because it was a good day out; you never know what you're going to find at such shows, and while it was mostly to do with model trains there was plenty of hobby stuff that is relevant to miniatures and gaming in general.

To cut a long story short I found a fantastic range of brushes from a Yaaarkshire company called Pro Arte, specially designed for miniatures, and I'll be getting those in stock very soon. I've been using them myself and I have to say I think they're brilliant.

I know what you're thinking; brushes are brushes, are brushes; there's very little micro-evolution, let alone macro-evolution, in the paintbrush world. But I would simply say, these feel very nice in the hand, the tips are excellent and the brush hairs don't splay out after a few uses, unlike some. Try them out - you won't regret it!

I should get the Pro Arte brushes on the store early next week, if not earlier, so watch out for a mailshot or news blog post on those.

As I've said before, I'll be adding more hobby ranges each week. I was hoping to get The Army Painter up next but I need to dot a few i's and cross a few t's first; what I will probably do before that is get the Expo Tools up on the site. The Vallejo tools are good as far as they go, but Expo's range give you pretty much every modelling tool you can think of, and lots more than that!

I must also get those Vallejo sets done for each kindred. So much to do, so little time (especially when you go on holiday). I'm not a workaholic. I'm not a workaholic...

Up, Cross and Pop

What else have I been up to? Well, shopify has an amazing range of apps and I've been exploring those over the last few weeks. Some of you have probably already been bothered by the popups - you must let me know if they're getting too annoying - and I've added an app to cross- and up-sell, too: so that, for example, when you're at the basket stage, you get a "don't forget" section with some hobby essentials like superglue and whatnot.

Next up I'll find some apps that post automagically on social media - I've found one that's good as far as it goes, but isn't good enough - and one thing on my list is an app that posts products on eBay, Etsy, Facebook market place, and so on... that should be interesting and will hopefully grab more customers.

That's it for now then, ladeez and gennelmen: until next time, keep it Mierce!