Hello everyone,

I would just like to pick up on one of the threads and introduce Foxwood Figures to you.

My name is Terry Warren and along with my wife Jackie have set up this new business. I think the copied details from our eBay advert says it all but, to briefly reiterate, I have an ongoing health condition that forced the early retirement and sale of our former business in financial services.

My condition is such that, whilst it won’t kill me, it does leave me in continuous pain. There is no current cure so the best way to handle the condition is by managing your days; in other words, by keeping yourself busy and distracted from the pain. However, it is a chronic fatigue condition as well, so daily activity is limited.

The secret is therefore to spend your time doing something you are really interested in – and as a lifelong modeller (of just about average ability!), one of the options we considered was “living the dream” (well for me anyway!) of running our own model figure business. One thing lead to another and, one year on, here we are.

The really important thing to note though is that my health dictates that I can never again work a full day. So Foxwood will be run on a part time basis and will therefore have to be a little different to many of our competitors.

We have launched with a new 120mm figure and hope to release more over the forthcoming years (mainly British figures - Empire, Colonial and Commonwealth). But the commissioning and introduction of brand new figures means that it will be a very long time before we, as a part time business, can recuperate our money. (For example, I won’t be well enough, at least for the time being, to do any model shows and indeed, we have delayed launching with a website because I cannot always make it to the casting shed on a regular basis and don’t therefore want to receive orders that we are unable to process).

So we have decided on a slightly different course and have also bought a number of “past companies” figures and aim to re-release these over a period of time. These will be sold as mainly basic castings without the associated cost of expensive boxes, commissioned painted figure pictures etc. Indeed, we are going to recycle packing and wrapping materials on most of the range; our belief is that the important thing is the kit itself. After all, the packing is thrown away once the kit has been made. So we are going to offer a “value modelling” range on these figures. This means that we can keep our costs down and actually be able to make these figures available again.

But please understand that our runs will be limited runs so we may not always carry stock of all the figures we own.

Having said that, we are still exploring a number of possibilities to increase supply. For example, resin casting is quite time consuming. But if we can outsource casting –at least for the time being – then we may be able to produce more of our range and make them more widely available. So is there anybody out there who can let me have details of competitive casting services?

Similarly, we need to recast a large number of our white metal masters and new white metal moulds for our weapons and packs for our 120mm range. So if their are any mould makers out there please contact me. We will also be interested in resin mould makers too.

We are also still looking to expand our range of figures. One option we are considering is to employ somebody to come in and casts for us on, initially on a part-time basis. But to do this, we will need to offer an extensive range of figures. So does anyone know of any other masters or figure ranges that may be available? For example, what happened to the Ceremonial Studios range? Or the Fusilier range (Steve -where are you?). Or any of the many others who no longer trade.

Similarly, we will be happy to talk to aspiring sculptors who may be looking for a break. Send us details of your work and let’s see.

One of the ranges we have acquired is the “All the Queens Men” (AQM) 80mm and above range (with options on the 54mm range). Now, some of these are more “parade ground” figures but most make up into useful models. But we have already been approached to supply some painted figures from this range. So we may explore this side as well – but will need figure painters to make this work (really talking toy soldier level here - King & Country for example).

So, in summary, we have launched. From here we are going to build slowly and, for the time being, will only sell through our eBay account (or directly if the customer is prepared to be patient). Meanwhile, if any of you can help with some of these queries then please contact me

Welcome aboard Terry

Cheers to a promising and successful venture!

Welcome Terry.

Good to see the return of old (but good) figures.
Are you thinking of expanding to Roll Call and many other for the late XIX, early XX?

Best of luck.

Cheers,

P.S. As soon as possible send me a list of what you have.

Welcome!

Terry - Best wishes on your venture! I look forward to seeing what you offer!

All the best,
Dan