Updates
Well what has been happening lately?
Latest News
Busy busy busy ...... the only way to describe what has been going on! Lee has started a new career as a teacher, and we now have another manager Colin Speed, a friend of ours from the UK, who has fallen in love with Thailand and has decided to settle in the country.
He has been very busy clearing all outstanding orders, and our stock. We have a very large number of figures covering a range of conflicts and ranges available for sale direct from Thailand and in the UK. We have produced a large number of orders, and our books are now re-opened for fresh orders. We are happy to report that we have an increasing number of customers from the USA, many of them, happily, returning customers.
Colin is available at the factory most days, so if you wish to ask about our painting schedules, please drop us a line or call!
For those of you anxiously awaiting news of your orders, or wishing to view new stock I have an update. Graham flew out to Thailand early in the new Year to help Lee sort out a number of bureacratic problems we had hit regarding customs declarations and duties.
For some reason unknown to us it had suddenly been decided that a scientific section of the government needed to ensure that the metal used in the figures was non-toxic. Consequently we had to pay the expenses for said laboratory to carry out tests on a number of sample figures. Without the certificate we could not get customs clearance. We now have said certificate and the shipping list is in preparation.
Hopefully the shipment will be on the way to the UK next week, as well as a number of orders winging their way to Australia and the USA.
Thanks to everyone for their patience, and thanks for your friendly welcome to Lee. he is not a wargamer, not a military history buff, and he has found your comments, encouragement and advice a great help.
Who ever said life was simple......... ?
10mm Napoleonics from Magister Militum
Since the last update there have been all sorts of changes in the company. First and foremost we lost our Thai manager. He strove bravely to make sense of western history, and then get his head round specialist military history, and then translate volumes of books in a foreign language to obtain uniforms details to complete your orders. The poor guy was pretty frazzled. The final straw was when a customer from Hell, who had changed his complex order three times delaying completion by two weeks, demanded we sent his figures by express mail for free, and then refused to pay his bill, and started to threaten our staff. Thais are not used to such bullying behaviour and we as a company will not tolerate it. That customer is now an ex-customer, and examples of his e mails have been passed to other painting services, from who we found this idiot was a well known troublemaker. Unfortunately our manager felt he could not continue. And we thought all our customers would be perfect gentlemen (and ladies)! Happily such experiences are rare, but they do occur. In the past we have been accused of exploiting our workers, paying them a bowl of rice a day; or of using child labour, something we would never contemplate. Such comments simply illustrate the profound or malicious ignorance of some people.
10mm Romans
Our new manager though may well be a little more robust in dealing with such problems, as he has recently left the US Army following service in the Gulf. He is Lee Whitfield, from Virginia, he is not a wargamer and never has been. he is though well versed in maintaining systems and discipline. In fact the whole of Thailand was so overjoyed at the news of his arrival that they decided to overthrow their government in celebration!
The Coup d'etat did not in itself cause us any problems, except for the delays that have been incurred in the receipt and shipping of large orders. Twice now shipments have been delayed by customs officials, and this has of course had a knock on effect to production. Lee is working hard at the moment to clear the orders that have grown in the basing and packing room and we hope to send off a shipment early next week to the UK, with another two weeks later.
At the moment the painters are completing a huge trade and personal order from the USA, as well as various other orders in 10, 15 and 28mm from around the World. We are also concentrating on building up 15mm stock for the shows in the run in to Christmas in Antwerp, Reading and Milan. So if you are waiting for that special unit to arrive, please be a little patient.
Front Rank Prussian Engineer
It is though probably a good time to remind customers and potential customers that to provide you with a high class service we really need your cooperation. Please ensure that you provide full instructions with your order, uniform details and pictures are a real help, and prevent delays while we research our own database and volumes. Also please give clear and full basing instructions; how many single based figures, how many figures to a normal base, where do you want the sergeant figure placing, and what finish do you want to the base, desert, semi arid or green? Completing one of our order forms really helps our record keeping and saves on time.