Category: News

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Not your normal Black Friday.

Once again, Master Crafted Miniatures isn’t holding a Black Friday sale. Instead, the proceeds from all sales Friday & Saturday (24th & 25th) will be donated to the Anthony Nolan and DKMS charities, fighting against blood cancer and working to improve the lives of those affected.

Give blood. Whilst you’re there, get them to test you for platelet donation, as few of us have high enough platelet counts to do this. Register as a stem cell donor. You may never be called upon but, if you are, you will be saving a life.

So, if you buy through the MCM store on Friday 24th or Saturday 25th of November, you’ll get yourself some stuff for our funny little hobby, and help save lives at the same time. If I have nothing you want, try to donate. But, whatever else you do, register:



Next up is an announcement about price increases. On Black Friday? I know. Madness.

Whilst I struggle to keep up on my own, Master Crafted Miniatures is doing well. I don’t want to stand still, however. I want to grow the business, expanding what I can offer.
Whilst it isn’t required, some of the things I would like to do are benefited by becoming VAT registered. Unfortunately, registering means I also have to charge VAT. Rather than simply add VAT on to current prices, I will be taking a small hit on profits across the range; sharing the burden with my customers.

MCM has never increased prices during its 4-year life, despite increases in running costs. The current prices are very competitive, so I think a small increase is understandable. On average, those of you outside the UK will still be paying less than you were before the EU referendum!

Not everything is increasing by the same percentage, with some prices not increasing at all, so I have put together this comprehensive list of the new prices:

I’m not doing this immediately. Prices will remain the same until Monday 27th. Feel free to back-order during this period and I’ll get your order out ASAP.
I’ll then have to make the site unavailable for a short time whilst I implement the changes.

Thanks to all my customers for their support over the years. I’ve got some exciting plans lined up & I’m looking forward to the future!

Ben.

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Star God v3 up for Pre-Order

I’m quite fond of the old Star God figure. It was the first full figure I produced through 3D-printing and resin-casting. It’s gone through a couple of versions already and, as the moulds for v2 were at the end of their life, I decided to take the opportunity to replace the physically-sculpted base with a digital one and a re-print of the components to make them easier to mould & cast. I also very slightly reposed the arms. The master mould has gone well, though highlighted a couple of potential problems, so I’ll be making the production moulds ASAP. I’m opening up pre-orders which I will fulfil starting next week, the 2nd of October.

Along with these pre-orders, I’m releasing a few existing pad designs I’ve brought over to tru/art-scale size. Cogs Veteran join the line-up, and all but the Spiked Veteran design get a Damaged variant. Hopefully, these will be of use!

I teased before the weekend that these would all release at the weekend and this post is going up on Monday. I did make them all available at about 22:00 last night, so technically I didn’t lie!

Ben.

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Master Crafted Miniatures has a new home!

Master Crafted Miniatures has a new home at The Maker’s Guild!
Working from home may sound great but, after about four years, I’m starting to go a little crazy with only myself for company during the working day. I’m excited to be moving to a shared working environment at the Maker’s Guild in Portsmouth and hoping this will lead to more productivity and creativity.
With the workshop staying where it is for now, occupying half my garage, I’m expecting to spend 3-4 days a week at the new space. I’m yet to figure out the implications for order dispatching, though it is likely to remain at twice a week (theoretically Tuesday and Friday).
Also, after a long drought, some new releases are coming very soon!
Ben 🙂
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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:

Next, some simple pads to help those wanting to paint divided schemes with a crisp line, every time:

Lastly, at least for now, a non-veteran version of my most popular design, and some retro/throwback skulls:

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New Magnets & Orders Being Dispatched

New Year, and some new magnets hit the store. All .5mm thick, in 1, 2 & 3mm diameter varieties. Some 2mm diameter magnets are also on sale to clear.

Anyone who ordered over the festive period, your orders are going out – unless you ordered Hellmask heads or the ever-popular piked veteran pads. I have made extra moulds and will try to catch up with these ASAP!