Salute 2017

In little more than two weeks, I will be attending Salute – this time as a trader. Details down below; but first, some self-indulgent rambling!

This is something I have wanted to do for a while, but I have been reluctant to commit. This is due to the fact that the Master Crafted Miniatures store is largely a side-project; the majority of my time being spent sculpting for companies such as GCT, Mantic, and Palladium. I’m also heading up the sculpting team on Rogue Heroes’ project set in the Rifts universe. All of this means I have had precious little time in which I could work on developing my own range and preparing for such a big show.

Nonetheless, I decided this year was the year to give it a try. I could have attended a few smaller shows beforehand, in order to get an idea of what I am getting into, but I instead opted for the baptism of fire! Not particularly sensible, perhaps, but pressure is a mean motivator.

There’s so much to consider prior to one’s first show. How much stock will I need? How will I display it? What size van to rent? Where to stay? How many display cabinets? How many helpers? Can I take card payments? What promotional material? Banners? Flyers? Branded bags? Clearly, I need t-shirts! Some of this allows me to indulge my hobby of 2D design. I’m not fast, nor particularly good at it, but I enjoy the process and tend to produce something reasonable for my efforts.

At this point I’d like to point out that, other than the 3D-printing of my sculpts, the third-party stuff I like to stock, and those rather nice Star God paint jobs, everything you see from Master Crafted Miniatures is produced by myself. This means the logo, website, renders, photographs, mould-making, casting, packaging, order-fulfilment, and everything in between is all down to me. If I don’t do it, it doesn’t get done. Hopefully, this goes someway to explain the infrequency of new releases, as well as erratic restocks and delays to dispatch of your orders.

I have a small stand at Salute 2017, located at TL14. I’ll have as many of my products as possible, as well as miniatures from Maow, Golem, and Happy Games Factory’s Eden (though you should check their stand out at TK02). I’ll also have a few new releases, which may be very limited in number. It rather depends on how much casting I can get done in the fortnight running up to the event. A couple of the prints haven’t even arrived yet, but I know they’re on their way! I will be able to take card payments through PayPal as long as my phone battery lasts (I have a backup too!).

So, here’s a peek at some of the new releases at Salute, with a new set of hands, and some more Japanese-themed scenery, still to come.

First-up, a little experiment with shields: