Category Archives: news

MICRO ART STUDIO, Company Split

Micro Art Studio, makers of Discworld miniatures and fine resin bases, among other popular products, recently announced the dissolution of their partnership.  From the main page of the Micro Art Studio store:

As you may (or may not know) Micro Art Studio is a mutual property of Grzegorz Tomaszewski and Sebastian Makowski. Since in the last time they didn’t get well with each other a decision to split the company has been made. Due to this fact by the end of June Micro Art Studio will be split into two separate companies.

The one ran by Sebastian Makowski will retain Micro Art Studio name, website, facebook account and license rights to Discworld, Infinity and Wolsung brands.
The one ran by Grzegorz Tomaszewski will have new website, new name – Basicks and will retain many patterns of bases and convertion parts.

The full list of changes may be found here:
http://www.microartstudio.com/_Products/Micro_Art_Studio-Product_changes.pdf

Soon, all of the items owned now by Mr Tomaszewski will be removed from Micro Art Studio store and will be available on his website. Orders made until Saturday 30th of June will be processed normally.

Please do bookmark this websites:
Grzegorz Tomaszewski’s Basicks – http://basicks.eu
Sebastian Makowski’s Micro Art Studio – http://microartstudio.com

Best regards,
Micro Art Studio Team
Basicks Team

Breakups like this are painful to learn about, and I hope they find a way to resolve their differences at some point down the road.  In the meantime, I wish them all the best and nothing but success in their new private ventures.

MANNIKIN STUDIOS, Grimm’s Owl preview

Mannikin Studios recently posted  a preview of the next model in their fae tree series.  This release is their second fae tree based on Arthur Rackham’s artwork for The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm.

RACKHAM MINIATURES, Confrontation Lives!

CoolMiniorNot has just posted news that Legacy Miniatures has acquired the rights to bring back into production the metal Confrontation miniatures.  From their website:

Legacy Miniatures is excited to announce that they have secured the license to the entire Confrontation back catalog, and will immediately start producing previously released and unreleased figures from this amazing and sorely missed miniatures line.

Confrontation was a game published by Rackham Entertainment until it entered liquidation in 2009, and some of the most amazing 28mm figures in the world ceased to be available at that time. Cyanide Studios, a prominent French video game developer, has acquired the Confrontation IP and has licensed the miniatures to Legacy Miniatures.

“We’re incredibly pleased”, said Vincent Fontaine Artistic Director of Legacy Miniatures and former Paint Director of Rackham Entertainment. “We’re starting out slowly and doing about 2 to 4 releases a month, some miniatures that never saw production before Rackham closed its doors.”

For more information, read the rest of the announcement here.

TGN 2011 FUNDRAISER

Have you ever used Tabletop Gaming News?  Like many of you, I visit the site several times throughout the day.  There’s no other site on the Internet quite like it.  Many of us rely on Tabletop Gaming News for the latest information in the industry, and likewise the industry needs Tabletop Gaming News to ensure that news of their latest releases and updates reach as broad an audience as possible.

Now it’s time to give back.  TGN is currently running a fundraiser to expand operations and make the site and the information they make available more useful to their readers.

This month was a highpoint for TGN in terms of traffic (over half a million page views), unique visitors (69,000) and even in terms of news items post (140 a week on average). Tabletop Gaming News is primarily a two-person operation with Grant Hill handling our reviews and myself handling the news posting and other duties. Both Grant and myself are, in our real lives, quite busy. Grant has a PhD in Chemistry and is working at establishing himself in the academic world (and also has a young child and wife) and I spend most of my time herding my posse of twin three year old girls. A job that never seems to run out of new challenges 🙂

While this is a somewhat workable solution in terms of keeping TGN running in the manner that it currently does it means that there is not a lot of time to expand TGN, update it based on reader feedback and also to expand the news sources on the site. To that end I am starting a fundraiser to raise funds to help expand TGN, expand the content on the site and also to allow us to pay for people to help bring content to the site. But we’re not just asking our readership to help us build funds to expand the site we also have, thanks to the generosity of some of the companies in the industry, a rather rich cache of goodies to give out to contributors as prizes.

You read that last line correctly, prizes!  Tre Manor of Red Box Games, for example, is offering $50 store vouchers to two lucky donors for anything in the RBG store, and Mannikin Studios has pledged a complete collection of all four releases currently available from their website (Grimm’s Cat, Father Christmas, Rip Van Winkle, and Bylot).  Still not tempted?  Here’s the complete list:

This is a great opportunity to give back to the community and support those who endeavor to provide the latest and best information about the miniatures industry, and, by extension, make your hobby more enjoyable.  Please show your support by donating today!  Even a little can go a long way.

TERCIO CREATIVO, El Padre Calixto

Tercio Creativo have just announced that their latest model, El Padre Calixto, is now available from their website.

Tengu Models, temporarily offline

Tengu Models is temporarily out of commission.  From their website:

28/02/2011 Due to unforeseen circumstances I’m going to be unable to process orders for a while to come. Because of this I’ve decided to close the site for a short time. I’m hoping to have things up and running again as soon as possible. All current orders will be processed and posted asap. cheers Iain

Here’s to hoping they’re back up and running soon.

Mannikin Miniatures

Perhaps some of you noticed the addition of a new page, Mannikin Miniatures ©.  I’ll make an announcement about the new venture soon, and the Web site will be up and running by November at the latest.  In the meantime, check here for updates, or visit the Dragon Painting forum, where you’re sure to find me conversing under my alias, yamaneko.

Figone, now live

Figone Minotaure (sculpted by Allan Carrasco, painted by Jérémie Bonamant Teboul)

The Figone Web site and store is now live:

BOOM boom BOOM boom BOOM boom

FIGONE heart beats since few minutes!

We let you discover what this new publisher of figurine, to assemble and paint, has prepared during lonnnnnnnnnnnngs months.

In addition to the full product line of Artefactory and Nemrod that you already know, Figone is also:

  • Six new “FIGONE” miniatures plus four sceneries presented below (individually available or in a special pack presented on the left)
  • The new range of Jacques-Alexandre Gillois named “Miniature Factory“, which starts with four references,
  • Six brand new exclusivity from “Degra figurine
  • The range “BC Creation” that only few of you already knew,
  • The bust of the “Troll Companion” sculpted by Allan Carrasco for the figurines club “The Company of Trolls
  • And much more soon …

Are you looking to get some sensation under your brush or free your form? Do you want to change your perception of light or amplify your emotions through the use of color? Do you want to bend your mind to the laws of matter or perhaps rule over matter through the laws of your mind?

Give reason to your senses, buzz like a flower landing on a bee (or the reverse, we forget…), abandon your battery or motorized machines, discard your stuffed ladybugs or other artifices… and sink your teeth into FIGONE, a reunion between people who are mad about miniatures, games and imagination?

Enjoy your visit
Team FIGONE

Visit the Figone Web site for more information and to check out their stunning offerings.

Unseen Lerker, new gaming magazine

Unseen Lerker, vol.1, no. 1

There’s a new player in the gaming magazine industry, Unseen Lerker:

Unseen Lerker is a brand new magazine which covers not
only on Warhammer, the game of fantasy battles, but also on
related gaming experiences like computer games, board
games and alternative, often ridiculous sports that likeminded
readers such as yourselves might be interested in. We
hope to not only give you the gaming experience you crave,
but also challenge you to go venture outside your comfort
zone a little and try out some new things you might not have
come across before.

I wish them all the best of luck.  Launching a gaming magazine is going to be a tough venture, and judging by the sample quoted above, they still have a lot to learn about writing.  That being said, I applaud their efforts, and look forward to watching them grow with each issue.

Jean Bey is No Longer with Rackham

As reported on dragonpainting.net and awaiting confirmation by TGN, Jean Bey is no longer with Rackham:

Hi my Friends,

After several months of silence, it is time for me to give you some news: as of yesterday, I’m officially and definitively no longer part of the company.

I want to say thank you to all of you, for all your support, your confidence and your passion for CONFRONTATION and AT-43 all these years, and for some of you for more than 10 years! I have really liked being on board with you, meeting some of you each year at conventions, sharing with you every day all this passion for the CONFRONTATION and AT-43 minis lines and gaming universes.

CONFRONTATION has definitively changed the face of the 30mm miniatures industry and the way of playing a miniatures game forever by becoming a standard. Nothing would happen without you and as the creator of the game and the miniatures lines, I want to personally say that you have been the best supporters a creator can have. You are great!

See you soon again!

Thanks for all guys.

Jean.

NB: Carlo, send me an email when you come to visit Paris. Scott, Aaron, Francis, Antoine, Tracy, Duncan, Nicolas, Johan, and a lot more you have been fantastic partners.

RedStar Miniatures

Red Star Miniatures

RedStar Miniatures

I‘m not really into this sort of thing, but so far these guys seem to be doing everything right.  Click on the image to be taken to their site to read their mission statement and see some of their impressive WIPs.

Agincourt Revisited

Battle of Agincourt

The Battle of Agincourt under scrutiny

The New York Times is reporting that King Henry V may not have been so outnumbered at the famous battle after all:

“Agincourt’s status as perhaps the greatest victory against overwhelming odds in military history — and a keystone of the English self-image — has been called into doubt by a group of historians in Britain and France who have painstakingly combed an array of military and tax records from that time and now take a skeptical view of the figures handed down by medieval chroniclers.” [read more here]

Partial Settlement in D&D IP Infringement Case

The 4e D&D Player's Handbook

The 4e D&D Player's Handbook

I may have the dates mixed up, but I think this explains why Wizards suddenly pulled all their material from DriveThruRPG:

“SEATTLE (AP) — Two of eight people accused in lawsuits of illegally distributing Dungeons & Dragons handbooks over the Internet have settled, and the maker of the pioneering role-playing game is seeking a default judgment against a third.

“In one of three lawsuits brought by Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc., U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Zilly on Friday accepted a settlement in which Thomas Patrick Nolan of Milton, Fla., agreed to a judgment against him of $125,000.”  [read more here]

I bought a few PDF versions of 1e material (the original trilogy of AD&D books, the basic set, etc.) from DTRPG a year or two ago, because I wanted digital versions to supplement my print collection.  Ease of access on the go and my obsession for archiving compelled me to make my purchases.  Sadly, that is no longer an option.

Olleys Armies Update

Click on the image to visit the new OA site

Click on the image to visit the new OA site

Olleys Armies is in the midst of a revival.  Be sure to check out their Web site from time to time as more content is added over the coming weeks (months).

Settlement, Finally…Hobbit’s a Go

Anthony McCartney, writing for the AP, reports that the long-standing feud between New Line and the Tolkien estate is finally over:

The heirs of J.R.R. Tolkien and a movie studio that produced the blockbuster “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy have settled a lawsuit over the films’ profits, it was announced Tuesday.