Adventures in soldering…

My weekend work schedule didn’t go quite as expected. One of the casting projects took longer that I had hoped for, so I didn’t get to as much mold making as I had wanted to.

So let’s talk about what I did get to work on…

Since the casting project I was working had long spin times, I had some extra time for small projects while I was killing time (at some point you get ahead with cleaning and packing out when casting multi-part models). Well, I needed to assemble a few tanks (been on my list for a while, but they area pain to assemble (well, only if you don’t want them to fall apart if dropped). So, I popped down to the basement and grabbed my soldering iron and jar of soldering paste. After properly preparing the castings I set to the task of soldering the tracks to the hull (I was assembling some Bloodaxe T-34 tanks). Since this solder is in paste form, I spread it on like glue or paste. It set the pieces in place and then applied heat with the tip of my soldering iron. A quick pass down the visible seam was enough to hold the track in place. Next I flipped the model over and soldered the seams you can’t see (under the model). Here I was more aggressive with the application of heat. The results were very nice. All solder joints turned out to be nice and clean. I was even able to fill a few of the larger gaps with solder (no more sanding/filing than if I had used putty). These came out so well, that I thought I would give them the ultimate test…

I made one more tank and went upstairs, opened the window and dropped it (the tank, not the window) onto the patio. The result was that the tracks remained attached. The tank was a bit ‘mushed’ from the drop (as expected) but my solder joints held…

All in all, way better results than I could ever achieve or expect with glue.

Well, anyhow, that was my fun and exciting modeling task this weekend.

My, how time flies…

Or maybe more appropriate, given our recent weather patterns “time’s fun when you are having flies”…

Either way, the month of September has simply flown by! We have been doing a lot, yet not doing much. How can that be? Well, let’s just say that the shop has been busy and that orders are again flowing out the door in short order, but we haven’t yet pushed out our new initiatives. So while we are busy, we are not making as much progress on some projects as we would have liked.

As for order processing; Alison is back to full time in the workshop, and has been casting nearly everyday this week, so orders are again moving through the system in a timely manner. We do have a few issues to iron out – like our internet connection. With the new hardware, we thought things were all taken care of. Well, we were wrong in our thinking. We have been fighting with a very (very) slow connection. Lets just say that those of you with slow dial-up connections have better speed than we do with our high speed connection (ok, satellite isn’t super fast, but lets just say that we are seeing speeds that are about 97% slower than they should be!) If all goes well, things will get fixed today.

As for other projects; how about Operation Cloudburst?
OK, well, we can now tell you more about this one…

We are pleased to announce that HistoriFigs has acquired the Resistant Roosters brand and line of 15mm WWII figures. We are working on a larger announcement for early October – so more details then. But in the meantime let’s just say that we already have some new products in the works. We will continue to expand the line and hope to provide some additional support materials for several of the currently popular WWII rules sets.

Finnish Infantry

On the 40mm front – as hinted at last time there are some NEW 40mm figures in the pipeline. These new 40mm figures have been sculpted by Tony Aldrich – the subject being the American War of Independence. Our first offerings will be American Infantry circa Yorktown. These will be followed by their British opponents. The greens have been on the bench for a few weeks, but with a trip out west and the Labor Day holiday, I’ve waited to start on these until this weekend. I’ll be posting photos of the project as it progresses – greens and perhaps a photo article about the production process while I’m at it. (Maybe I can talk Tony into some in progress photos and notes when he starts the next sets) – look for some photos of the greens and first metal castings next week.

While on the subject of 40mm figures – I’ve put in some work on the next Scruby 40mm figures to be re-released. It looks like we will do the 40mm French Foreign Legion figures next – the patterns are just about completed, so perhaps I can get some of these out by mid-October. The other figures I’ve been working with are the British Colonials, so I hope to have those ready by Halloween. As soon as I finish the new Resistant Roosters section for the website, I’ll start on the Scruby 40mm section. We will have photos of every Scruby 40mm figure we re-release as well as some support materials for painting and war gaming.

So, as you can see (or have read) we have been quite busy, yet we still have plenty that is incomplete…

New specials coming in October – there will be special pricing on ALL Resistant Roosters product as well as introductory pricing on the all new 40mm American War of Independence figures.

I’ll be in the Boston area (for work) the first week in October (1st through the 4th) and I most likely will not have internet access (or maybe just some limited), so email response that week will be rather slow. If any of you are near or in Boston (I’m staying in Newton), and want to meet up for a chat, coffee, dinner, or some such drop me a line and perhaps we can arrange something (Monday looks to be my best night, but I’ll should be free by late afternoon most days). Anyhow, drop me a line if you’d like to meet.

Vacation Time

Time for a short vacation; I’ll be out of town this week, through Monday of next (05 Sep. through 10 Sep.). Alison will still be processing orders and will get out what she can, and we will be back to ‘normal’ operations by the middle of next week.

Speaking of normal operations, now that the first day of school has arrived, Alison will increase her casting hours and should be back to near full time in a week or so. This means that orders will flow through much more smoothly and quickly.

Fuzzy…

OK, so I’ve finally decided on a project that will expand the Scruby 30mm Colonial range. It isn’t big, as I will be doing all the sculpting, etc.

One of my war game projects is 30mm Colonials – Sudan, for historical games, and Mafrica, for non-historical games. Scruby had just a few Fuzzy figures in the range… Well I’m tired of painting the same two basic figures, so I’ve decided to update these a bit. I may stick with the standards of Sword and Spear, but I will branch out and make other changes.

The first thing I have in mind is to get rid of the Scruby shield and make something a bit more accurate – it will be a separate piece too. Perhaps I’ll do up a couple of different shields so we can have some variety.

The next will be to add a few different costumes. What I have in mind are: trousers, jibah and perhaps trousers and waistcoat. Of course we will keep the original kilt or loincloth that Scruby created.

From there, the only other thing I have in mind is an open handed version of the figures and an updating of the spear (give it a proper head). The sword could do with an update too, but I’m not too worried about that, the spear is just plain wrong, so it needs an update.

Oh, and I guess that I should update the camel rider too – but I may need to make this one form scratch, as I don’t have any dollies that will work…

No time frame on these, but I’ve got the bug now, so maybe I’ll have something to show before too long!