Of Cacti and Palm Trees

I have loaded palm trees and cacti into the webstore (Hobby Supplies-Flock and Foliage-trees ). The photos above are buried as second and third pictures when you view the product. I put them up here because I thought they were kinda neat.

Hanomag Happy!

Tonight I get to start on something a bit fun. I am going to assemble and paint the Warlord Bolt Action Hanomag. I have my Osprey Vanguard, the kit itself, some Verlinden Lead foil (for tarps and such), and some Verlinden wire mesh for Camo netting. Yee Haw!

When I first opened the box, I was deceived by the simplicity of this one. It really consists of two main urethane castings and a small bag of metal. However the detail is really nice. I especially like the interior of the passenger compartment. The urethane castings are excellent (I am a stickler for such things!) It also comes with a gunner and two MG42s. I am looking forward to this little project and happy it doesn't come in a zillion pieces for a change. I will update the blog on my progress as I go along.

Yesterdays Painting and Variety

Foundry and Warlord Figures painted and put in place to show our General Purpose Range is truly that!

I painted most of the figures and one of those Family Plots yesterday with Atlas brushes.

Paint Brushes and Blogs

I told Barb when we started that I didn't want to put up anything in the shop that I didn't believe in or used myself. For the convenience of our customers, paint brushes seemed a reasonable thing. Especially bigger ones that were good for painting scenery and our terrain kits. So off I went to find brushes. Now I tried lots of the gaming "brands" over the years with rare satisfaction. Most of them are not very good and certainly not worth the usual premium price for the life you get out of them. What to do, what to do...

In the old days I would have looked through magazines for reviews, but today its the "blog o sphere". I came across this:

http://wargameguru.weebly.com/in-focus-review---atlas-brush-company-inc.html

Then I ordered some Atlas brushes from one of my suppliers and gave them a try. They match the review very well. They are not the the best Sable figure painting brushes in the world (actually I do like the Foundry ones-$$$), but they are the equal of any sold "gaming brand" wise and they are very reasonably priced. I also liked the company bio. Given this new business thing, I am going through brushes very quickly. These serve my needs nicely. I like the Ox hair flat brush set for doing scenery. The red sable set served very well to paint figures today. If I forget to clean these things in the rush to get something done, I'm not hesitant to throw them out and use another (its that great price thing again). The cheap brands in craft stores always fall apart on me.

Well, I am going to carry these Atlas brushes in the store. I don't know if this "try it before you sell it" thing is going to work as a business model in such a brand driven world, but I'll give it a good shot. Of course, the folks that make these brushes would say they are a "brand" too!

If there are brushes you really like, please send us all a message. If you haven't tried these, please do.

Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of what I painted with them.

More loaded

We have loaded lots more into the webstore with more to come. By the end of the week we should have all the navigation worked out too. Then I can finish the new releases for August.

IT'S ALIVE!

The Website is Alive!

Please fell free to vist and BUY something!

Your feedback is deeply appreciated so tell us what you think and what you would like to see more of.

We are just getting started and thier is lots more to come.

Barb and Ernie

http://www.architectsofwar.com/

6mm Black Powder

I got out of the shop tonight!

Huzzah! Thanks to my friend Miles who put together a game, I got to play Black Powder with 6mm ACW figures. Good fun. Might even convince me to do some 6mm terrain...
Thanks Miles.

I'm sure he will eventually post something on his blog, http://lairoftheubergeek.blogspot.com.

I must say Black Powder worked well at this scale and I look forward to his fall campaign.

Ernie

Shhhhhh.

Don't say anything, but we should be live tomorrow with the website. While the shopping cart won't be completely populated with all we carry, and we won't have the hobby How to Section loaded with much, you will be able to order our terrain kits, Perry Miniatures and a few other odds and bobs as well as take a good look around.

I'm not supposed to make any kind of big deal about it because we are doing a "soft launch" (I don't really know what that means). Hopefully by the time Barb reads this we will be live and all will be working and I won't get into any trouble. Check after 12 noon EST tomorrow at architectsofwar.com. Quietly I guess.

We'd love your feedback so please email us.

Ernie

You Know You Are a Die Hard When...

You get back from Historicon, try to take a day off after working 34 straight, and "relax" by laying out your next army. Well two really, and they are going to be really big. Barb still says I am obsessed but I think she exaggerates. I mean, they aren't 54mm or something crazy.

Hmmm, 54mm...

Thank You to All at Historicon 2010

Wow, what a show. After five years, Barb and I really enjoyed being back. We saw lots of old friends and definitely made some new ones. It was particularly nice to be welcomed back by some of the other vendors like Steve from Age of Glory, Rob from Eureka USA, Joel from Old Glory, and the Marx Man.

The two biggest "highlights" for us had to be the 'Village Giveaway" on Sunday and the Black Powder Game on Saturday.

The winner of our Mediterranean Village Give Away was Joe Severa. Congratulations and thanks to all those who signed up for our forthcoming newsletter for a chance to win.

The Black Powder game was fantastic fun. Hauling 24 feet of Portuguese terrain and thousands of Napoleonic figures to Historicon with temperatures near 100 degrees was absolutely worth it when I got to see all the smiles around the table from both spectators and players. We won a PELA award from the HMGS. Nice. This is the first "convention" game I have put on in at least 10 years and I really look forward to doing it again. Of course having Michael and Alan Perry and John Stallard referee the game sure did help a lot!

Those three gentleman are not only talented sculptors, company owners, gamers, etc. but they are three of the nicest people you can meet. It was really good to see them again and do a project together. We enjoyed it so much that I am sure the future will see us do something again.

Both Barb and I really preferred the Valley Forge Convention Center to Lancaster and hope to go back there. The HMGS folks running the show did a fantastic job on this one. Thanks to all of them. Without their efforts I wonder if America would have any kind of Historical Miniatures Show on this scale. We are lucky as vendors and hobbyist to have it.

We took yesterday off, but its back to work for us now. Hopefully our website will be live very, very shortly. Wish us luck and we hope to see you at a future show soon.

Ernie

What to Do with a whole Village?

Right. I have to provide 24 feet of terrain for the Historicon game coming this Saturday. So here is a village that sits at one end of the table. (Sorry about the pictures, just shot in a hurry. Hopefully I'll get some better picks at the convention). The game is a Napoleonic game set in Spain using Black Powder as the rule set.

Now the quandary is what to do with it after the game. The buildings are not "ours" nor are a few of the smaller details. We will be doing our own buildings for this period so this thing is gonna take up needed room. The stone walls are ours, but the buildings are Grand Manner and Old Glory. It's a very well detailed little set and is also meant to illustrate what you can really do with Woodland Scenics products. It's about 24 inches square and splits in the middle. The buildings are removable.

So, do I sell it? Give it away to those that register on the web? How do you get rid of a whole village?

His and Her Furniture

We are working on buildings for our World Wars range and we are developing some interior details for some of them. This meant I had to sculpt a sofa, love seat, chair, etc. The first pass Barb thought looked too "rough" so I did another set. Now it will be awhile before the full products see the light of day, but we cast some up to take to Historicon to solve a debate. Barb has her furniture and I have mine. We will let the buying public decide by seeing which set sells at Historicon. (if people really want some of this stuff we can put it in the web store too).

So the pictures are above and you can decide which set is which and which set you would buy!

It's a Wonderful Life

Paint, paint, paint, the samples must be done!

Barb and I are working like crazy, sixteen hours a day and sometimes a little more. Launching a business is never easy.

So, here comes Historicon and the imminent launch of our website (a HUGE task) and we simply can't seem to get it all done. Out of the blue it seemed, we suddenly had lots of help, my daughter and son-in-law along some new friends. Special family and friends. They have been supportive, helpful and even stood for long hours painting, dry brushing, packing, weighing products, putting them in the shopping cart, getting our cast metal to us, etc.

We are eternally grateful for their help. Miles Reidy, Mike Marchant, Bob Giglio, Michael Noe, Dan Mazmanian, you are our friends. We can't thank you enough. And my old freind, who was always there with words of encouragment, John Stallard.

In the midst of it all, you stood up with and for us. Thank you very much. It was like a scene from a movie.

Whether this venture works or not, it's a Wonderful Life.