PART I: INTRODUCTION: Selling historical miniatures can be a daunting yet profitable venture if you are willing to support and display your historical miniatures inventory properly. It is an endeavor that requires diligence, knowledge and commitment but the payoff can be that you create a new customer segment that will become loyal and long-term customers to your store. In these pages, we will discuss the many reasons why you may not want to venture into the historical miniature retailing business and then, if we haven't scared you off, we will discuss the benefits of carrying historical miniatures and how you can start selling historical miniatures in order to maximize your sales. There's money to be made in this segment of the industry, but not every retailer is ready for the challenges that historical miniatures pose. PART II: WHY YOU SHOULD NOT SELL HISTORICAL MINIATURES When you are faced with the decision to carry historical miniatures, you need to consider the many reasons why historical miniatures might not be the right choice for you and your store. Below, we discuss the more important reasons that might dissuade you from carrying historical miniatures in your store. LACK OF KNOWLEDGE Historical miniatures require a detailed understanding of the military history of the periods that you choose to cover, as well as an actual understanding of many different rules sets and scales. If you choose to carry Napoleonic figures, then you must also understand which rules you wish to support. This decision will determine which scales you wish to carry. Rules sets, scales, manufacturer lines are intertwined. You will be asked to navigate amongst these to decide which combination suits your store best. Often figures from different lines but nominally of the same scale will turn out not to be compatible. You will be asked to understand this fact and to help your customers to mix and match figures since most lines do not cover every figure in every army. Very often you will be asked extremely detailed questions regarding weaponry and uniforms. You cannot fake knowledge in this area. You will either have to know the answer yourself or you will have to know where to go to get this information. LARGE NUMBER OF SKUs We estimate that Reaper Miniatures comprises somewhere between 800 and 1000 SKUs if you attempted to carry their entire line of figures, paints and brushes. In comparison, Old Glory Miniatures, the largest historical miniature manufacturer in North America, has 3500 active SKUs and these SKUs tend to each be five to ten times more expensive than the average Reaper SKU. They also tend to turn at a slower rate than fantasy, science fiction, and Games Workshop figures. These historical miniature SKUs can pose a heavy inventory burden if you attempt to carry each one. You must manage your inventory cautiously in order to maximize profits. You have to understand your lines so that you can determine which individual SKUs to carry and in what quantities. All other SKUs should be reserved for "Special Order Only" status. SUBSTANDARD PRODUCTION QUALITY AND PACKAGING It's a truism that many historical miniature manufacturers would be considered "Garage" operations, especially ones operating outside North America. That means that graphics for the blister cards, layout and design of rules sets, and even sculpting is not up to the standards set by companies such as Reaper and Games Workshop. Even the larger companies tend to create blisters with unexciting graphics. Some companies use plastic bags for their packaging, a practice that rapidly leads to shopworn conditions and tends not to display items in the most attractive manner possible. There is also a lack of barcoding for most miniature lines. POOR INVOICING We've evaluated several samples of fairly typical invoicing from different historical miniature manufacturers and distributors. They range from completely awful to fairly professional. We've seen handwritten invoices that look like drug prescriptions written by drunken doctors. We've seen manufacturers use our order sheet with check marks added to indicate what was sent, sometimes multiple checkmarks to note multiples of an item. It is not uncommon to find invoices that simply list number of blisters at specific prices. Even if you do not use a POS system, you will have to find catalogs or use manufacturer websites to figure out pricing for each blister. Not all historical miniature companies are this amateurish but enough are that you will find that you are investing a lot of time and effort into simply receiving your shipments and then paying for them. LACK OF COMMUNICATION Many historical miniature companies use few tools to communicate effectively with retailers. Sometimes they lack websites or online support. Often their catalogs are updated sporadically and consist primarily of text listing with no pictures. It can be difficult to find out about new releases. Unsurprisingly, the companies that make the effort to communicate and to put out effective catalogs tend to be the more successful companies. SPACE Racking your historical miniature lines is space intensive. It is nearly impossible to keep them in any kind of numerical order and you will have to settle for racking them according to nationality or army. There seems to be no standard packaging size so that certain types of display methods may become impractical. We have found that pegboard or gridwall works best for racking historical miniatures since it give us a flexibility lacking in other types of display. INTERNET AND DIRECT TO CONSUMER SALES Many historical miniature companies thrive on Internet and direct-to-consumer sales. They also use the large conventions to conduct much of their business with consumers. As a result, many historical miniature gamers have been trained to search for the gaming product they wish to purchase outside of retail establishments. For whatever reason, historical miniature consumers have also been taught to be extremely price conscious and very often base their purchasing decisions solely on price. It can be an uphill battle to train your local historical miniature gamers out of this habit. All in all, the historical miniature games market can be unfriendly toward the retailer, an unfortunate trend since the historical miniature market is in danger of shrinking due to the graying of the hobby. Historical miniature companies need retailers to help evangelize their part of the game hobby. DISCOUNT STRUCTURE For the most part, a 40% discount from the manufacturer to the retailer is the rule. Sometimes you will see historical miniature companies offer sliding discounts based on volume so that you can achieve a better, or worse, discount. You should expect 40% to be the "normal" discount. In other circumstances, many retailers would simply sell the product higher than Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) but historical miniature consumers are price conscious and willing to purchase product through online discounters. Retailers should be cautious when considering marking product above a published MSRP. DIFFICULTY IN OBTAINING INVENTORY Very few game distributors carry historical miniatures. You will be dealing with small distributors who specialize in carrying historical miniatures or ordering direct from historical miniature manufacturers. Often, historical miniature manufacturers also serve as distributors for smaller or foreign manufacturers whose stock may be difficult for them to obtain. You will also be dealing with having to make minimum orders that can be difficult if your player base is small. Turn around from ordering time to shipping can be measured in weeks, and sometimes months, instead of in days. FREQUENT OUT-OF-STOCKS Historical miniature manufacturers often use a "cast when ordered" method of filling orders. Some molds are always out of production. Often, the historical miniature distributors cannot order or keep in stock a large selection with any depth at any one time. It is rare to get close to 100% of an order. If you compound this with the difficulty in making frequent orders, you, and your customers, can be frustrated with an inability to obtain the desired product in a timely manner. CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS Historical miniature gamers are like any of your other customers-they want what they want and they want it now. It can be difficult to tell them that the item they want won't make it to the store for a few weeks or sometimes longer so that you find yourself caught on the horns of a dilemma: you can attempt to carry the entire figure range of the scales and periods that you are supporting and risk being overstocked on a sizable part of your inventory or you can try to stock only the essential SKUs for each line and risk losing business because your customers cannot wait. In this last instance, you risk your customers finding other venues for the desired product. HISTORICAL MINIATURE GAMING IS FADDISH IN NATURE Historical miniature gamers are extremely faddish in nature. A group will pick up a rules set and suddenly 15mm ACW figures will be the hot period and scale. Someone will see "Pirates of the Caribbean" and everyone will want pirate figures. The year "Gladiator" was released saw a huge surge in interest in gladiator figures and rules sets. While this faddishness can be good for the store since it increases your repeat business in your historical miniature customer base, it can lead to a situation where you are overstocked on some periods and scales that are no longer in fashion.  PART III: WHY YOU SHOULD SELL HISTORICAL MINIATURES So you've read all the reasons why you might not want to sell historical miniatures and you are still reading. We haven't dissuaded you from an interest in carrying historical miniatures. If you have looked at your space, at the inventory you want to carry and have someone (either yourself or an employee) with the knowledge and the ability to sell historical miniatures profitably, let's move on to the advantages in selling historical miniatures in your store. HISTORICAL MINIATURES CAN COMPRISE A GOOD PERCENTAGE OF YOUR SALES If you do your homework well and you are willing to take all the steps necessary to maximize your exposure in the historical miniatures market, it would not be unrealistic to expect to grow the percentage of historical miniatures sales to approximately 10% (or higher) of your gross annual sales. That figure is obtainable if you decide to go all out in this market. You can have pleasant returns on your investment even if you decide to carry only a few lines, periods and scales. DIVERSIFY YOUR CUSTOMER BASE Most of us are looking for ways to proof our stores against the changing popularity of various gaming genres. When we diversify our product offerings, we appeal to new customers who might not have shopped in our store before. The historical miniature genre is not a game genre that most stores do and many of the ones who do carry historical miniatures do not do it well. You have an opportunity to appeal to a customer base traditionally underserved by game retailers. DEVELOP CROSS INTERESTS BETWEEN GENRES Many of your customers like to try new game systems. While you do not wish to add more product merely to serve only your existing customer base, you do want to make sure that if your existing customers grow bored with their preferred game system that you can offer them other game product that might interest them. Many historical miniature gamers also play historical board games. Some Games Workshop players have been known to try historical miniatures because of the "Warhammer Ancients" and beyond books. By keeping your customers looking at your entire product mix, you keep your store interesting and vital. DEVELOP MAIL ORDER SALES If you are looking for a way to drive more sales through your online store, historical miniatures may be a good choice for you. Many historical miniature gamers use the Internet to find retailers who sell historical miniatures. They also talk amongst each other and tell each other the places they use to obtain their game materials. You can tap into this market by using your website to promote sales. PERIPHERAL SALES Like any other gaming genre, you cannot sell only historical miniatures and rules sets. You need to stock accessories such as painted armies, decals, bases, terrain, books, magazines, tools, paint, brushes, glue and even dice. You can create sales in all of these categories through historical miniatures and it is the accessories that stay evergreen. They are always necessary and they never go out of fashion. Historical miniature gamers are fanatical about details and use a ton of reference material that they will wish to buy at your store. EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE FOR SCHOOLS At the middle school and high school level, many history/social studies classes assign class projects. These class projects often entail building dioramas or other types of visual aids. If you can promote your store to your local teachers, they will recommend you to their students. These students often are individuals who have never visited your store before and they present you with a golden opportunity to introduce them into our hobby. FADDISH NATURE KEEPS CUSTOMERS COMING BACK Just as the faddish nature of historical miniatures can be a drawback, it can also be a benefit. If you have been sensible in your inventory and you can keep ahead of your customers changing interests, you can use this phenomenon to turn your customers into repeat business. As tastes change, they will need to buy new rules sets, purchase new armies in new periods, change scales and rebase existing armies. You can use this impulse to keep sales steady at your store. PART IV: DEALING WITH FOREIGN HISTORICAL MINIATURE COMPANIES When you start looking at your options for carrying historical miniatures in your store, you might notice that there are a vast number of foreign historical miniature companies that you can do business with. Unless you already are experienced in dealing with historical miniature companies, we advise against you jumping into these waters as your first experiment in carrying historical miniatures. Dealing with foreign companies can be extremely difficult and frustrating and can take up much of your valuable time that you would like to devote to other endeavors at your store. Of course, the up side to dealing with foreign historical miniature companies is that you are likely to be carrying product not carried by any of your competitors. This fact alone should add to your desirability as a destination store for historical miniature gamers. A DIFFERENT ATTITUDE Americans have a different attitude towards business than Europeans do. We are not saying that our attitude is better or worse but only that it is different. Our expectations of turnaround times, business practices, professionalism and every other aspect of how we do business may not always mesh well with the foreign companies with which we wish to do business. While this issue can be considered intangible it can still have a large impact on your satisfaction as a retailer. You must keep in mind that business seems to be conducted at a slower, "less competitive" pace than you might expect. Often business transactions and communication can take days, or even weeks,, rather than hours. You must be willing to adjust to this pace if you wish to deal with foreign historical miniature companies. COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS Communicating with someone even two or three time zones away can be frustrating. Try communicating with someone who is just going to bed as you are getting to work and you can understand how difficult even a simple phone call can be. Often, websites and email addresses (methods of communicating that we may take for granted) or not available. Sometimes, fax numbers are non-existent or do not seem to work properly. Add these problems all together and simply trying to communicate with an historical miniature company leads to gigantic headaches. Notice that we haven't said communicating, as in talking with a real, live person. We are saying that attempting to communicate in the first place can be a huge hurdle. TURNAROUND TIME FOR ORDERS Remember how we talked about a turnaround time of weeks rather than days for orders from domestic historical miniature companies? Now let's extend that time frame even further out. Why so slow? A slower pace in general in doing business is one cause. Transportation of goods is another. Customs is a third. The tightening of security due to 9-11 makes shipping unpredictable to say the least. Many shipments can be held in customs for long periods of time for no apparent reason. Luckily most foreign historical miniature companies deal with the customs aspect of the business from their end. That's the bright spot in the rather depressing length of time it can take to receive orders from overseas. FREIGHT COSTS You should expect to pay freight on your shipments. That's a lot of metal being shipped across seas and you can expect the cost to be upwards of 25% of your order total added onto the cost. You will want to add this cost onto the price that you charge. MSRP, if advertised, is often in a foreign currency so you may not find that charging to cover freight is an issue for your customers. RETURN POLICIES So, you've successfully set up an account with a foreign historical miniature company and you've ordered product. A month later you receive your shipment and there are mistakes. Either you were sent items you didn't order or you were sent too many or not enough of a particular SKU. You weren't sent items that you were billed for. In any case, you have to contact the company and straighten the situation out. You must communicate again. And often, they won't show much alacrity in taking care of the errors so that you will have to contact them on multiple occasions to correct simple mistakes. This part of the business can actually be the most frustrating for a retailer. BILLING ISSUES So how do you pay for your order? Very often the only way is with a credit card in a foreign currency. We know of one company that routinely bills for all the items ordered even if they were not sent, figuring that they can work out a refund later. At other times, you will be billed for shipments when the company receives your order, not when the product ships so that you will see a charge on your credit card a month before you have the product in hand to sell to your customers. This method of billing can seriously affect your cash flow. CONVERSION ISSUES/FLUCTUATING PRICES As you may be aware, the cost of foreign goods will fluctuate based on the strength of the dollar. You will find that you must constantly adjust the price of your historical miniatures, especially if you use a POS system where each item is listed. Since most companies will send you invoices using their currency prices, you will also need to find a currency converter and use it when pricing your product. HISTORICAL MINIATURE DISTRIBUTORS HANDLING FOREIGN COMPANIES Often manufacturers from outside North America have difficulty in grasping the size of the continent. It's not something that can be explained to them. Very often these manufacturers will enter into exclusives with small outfits, sometimes no more than retail stores themselves, who do not have the ability to distribute these lines properly. Beware of these situations since you will find that supply is routinely not obtainable. There are reputable and professional historical miniature companies that you can deal with and be happy with the service provided so if you decide to venture into this market, you should do your homework. PART V: How Do You Get Started? You've analyzed the benefits and drawbacks of carrying historical miniatures in your store. You've taken stock of your ability and your resources and you still have the desire to carry historical miniatures. Now, you want to know how exactly do you get started. Following, we've provided some suggestions on getting started. These are general guidelines. Feel free to deviate in any way you feel necessary. DECIDE How DEEPLY YOU WISH TO DELVE INTO HISTORICAL MINIATURE RETAILING You can decide to dive straight into these waters and bring in every historical miniature line you wish to carry straight off the bat. This method does have the advantage of announcing to your customers that you are a historical miniature retailer. The disadvantages are huge, though. Most retailers do not have the ability to buy into a gaming genre so heavily and if you find that you were mistaken in your ability to sell historical miniatures, you will made a huge investment with little hope of recouping your losses. The other method of slowly building up your historical miniature selection slowly limits your risk but you make struggle for a while in convincing historical miniature gamers that you serious in your attempts. Their loyalty may take time. CONTACT YOUR LOCAL HISTORICAL GAMERS It makes no sense to us to carry historical miniatures if you don't have a base of historical miniature gamers to draw on. If you plan on selling historical miniatures online then, obviously, the geographic region you can pull from is much greater but, for the most part, you need to look at your local gamers. Talk to them. Find out what they are playing. Find out where they are buying. If you have gaming space, make it available. In essence, we want you to have your finger on the pulse of historical miniature gaming. When you know what your prospective historical miniature customers are playing, you will know what to carry. DECIDE WHICH SCALES, PERIODS AND RULES YOU WISH TO CARRY While it may sound attractive to you to be a completist and carry all lines, scales and rules set from a given manufacturer, you will find that you will have to make choices. Very few retailers have the ability to carry everything offered from even one large historical miniature company. Just like you might carry the classic Battletech miniatures but not the fantasy line of figures from Iron Wind Metals, you will find that you will be making these same decisions in regards to the historical miniature lines you wish to support. It is always good to keep in stock the basic troop types with enough special troops to convince your customers that you are serious about supporting their hobby but leave the truly one-of-akind figures go to "Special Order Only" status. CONTACT THE HISTORICAL MINIATURE COMPANIES YOU PLAN TO CARRY That's a given, isn't it? And to make your job easier, we've provided contact numbers as part of this handout. When you contact these companies, they should give you all the information you need on discounts, pricing, shipping times, freight, etc. Do not be afraid to ask questions. DON'T FORGET ABOUT CATALOGS Since you probably will not be carrying the complete line for any manufacturer, you will want to keep plenty of catalogs on hand to help your customers decide what they will want to special order from you. Special orders will become your friends. They will help you figure out what to carry and they will help you make minimums on the lines you want to reorder on a regular basis. It is our opinion that it is better to reorder on a regular basis than it is to wait long periods of time to make large orders. When you reorder frequently, you will be making sure that the more popular items stay in stock. Having a good stock will make you attractive to your historical miniature customers. Also, be honest about your turnaround times. If it will take two weeks for you to get in that special order, then tell your customer so that his expectations are not unreasonable. MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE THE RIGHT SPACE Don't bring in historical miniatures without first deciding where you will be stocking them. Historical miniature gamers like to browse product and can spend hours in your historical miniature gaming section. Make sure that you provide a space that is conducive to their needs. Make sure that it is well-lit. You will also need to accommodate different blister sizes and you will need to decide if you want to rack your product by manufacturer, by scale or by period. Be ready before your stock arrives. DON'T FORGET THE RULES SETS If you want to carry historical miniatures, you must carry rules sets. You will find that there can be a bewildering number to choose from and that some rules sets can apply to the same period but cover a different figure scale or a different scale of battle. You will also find that historical miniature companies love to put out rules sets. Rules set may be as professionally produced as "Warhammer Ancients" are they may have been photocopied and stapled by hand with public domain illustrations. Another wrinkle is that good rules sets often go out of print. OOP rules can make it difficult for new gamers to enter the hobby. DON'T FORGET THE PERIPHERALS If you only carry miniatures and rules sets, you are doing yourself a disservice. A good portion of your sales with historical miniature gamers will come from paints, modeling tools and reference guides. If you do not carry these, you will not be supporting your lines adequately and not be as profitable as you could wish. You should already be carrying many of these peripheral items to support other types of miniatures and many of them you can get through your regular game distributors. A nice side benefit is that you may increase your discount with these distributors because you are increasing your business with them. SUPPORT YOUR EFFORT WITH EVENTS If you already run events for other gaming genres, you need to do so with your historical miniature gamers. Maybe you hold painting seminars, run tournaments or host the local historical miniature gaming club. You want to drive sales with your events and you want to have an avenue of communication that allows you to gauge the interest of your customers. ADVERTISE WHERE THE HISTORICAL MINIATURE GAMERS WILL FIND You You can advertise in historical miniature magazines such as MWAN Magazine, the Courier, Wargames Illustrated (UK) and Miniature Wargames (UK). You can support conventions that offer historical miniature gaming. You can place banner ads at websites devoted to historical miniature gaming (one of the best is www.theminiaturespage.com). The point is to create recognition of your store within the historical miniature gaming community. PART VI: CONCLUSION Selling historical miniatures is not the right move for every retailer but it can be a rewarding and profitable enterprise for those who decide to embark on the endeavor. You can broaden your store appeal for a wider range of customers, both on the local scene and through the internet, by carrying historical miniatures. It can be a daunting project but with the jumpstart we've given you here and the willingness to experiment, you have a good chance at a profitable success. APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY OF TERMS ACW: Refers to the military time period covering the American Civil War. Age of Sail: Refers to the naval military time period covered by the use of Galleys and sailed warships. Air Gaming: Refers to playing games with aircraft models. Ground and naval units are usually not involved. Ancients: Refers to the military time period from the Egyptians through the early Dark Ages. Armor: Can refer to body armor worn throughout the ages, but may also refer to tanks and other fighting vehicles. Armor gaming refers to WWII or Modern land warfare gaming. AWI Refers to the military time period covering the American War of Independence; also known as the American Revolution. Base/Basing: The stands on which figures are grouped into units. Each rule set will generally describe the amount of frontage and depth that each unit may have. Generally, the size of the base varies according to scale and to the requirements of particular rules sets. CSA: Refers to the Confederate States of America or the "South" during the American Civil War. Cleaning: Refers to the removal of excess metal left behind in the manufacturing process. It makes the figure ready for painting. Compatibility: A term used by historical miniatures players to describe whether one manufacturer's figures will mix well with another's. For example: are True North's 15mm WWII Poles compatible with Quality Cast's 15mm WWII Germans? ECW: Refers to the military time period covering the English Civil War. FIW: French and Indian War in North America (also known as the Seven Years War). Grognard: A person very well versed in one or several segments of military history. As with any expert, this person may be overly critical of products that you may carry. Ground Scale: The scale of the terrain compared to the scale of the unit. Example: One inch equals one mile. Historicon: The largest historical miniatures event in the US. It is held every year in July in Lancaster, PA. In 2003, it happened to be the same weekend as GenCon 2003. In 2004, it is before GenCon 2004. HMGS: It stands for the Historical Miniature Gaming Society. It has local chapters covering all of North America. Each chapter runs at least one convention. These conventions may be a good advertising or retailing opportunity. www.hmgs.org. There is no national HMGS organization, although HMGS East (the owners of Historicon) serve in this role. Medievals: Refers to the military time period ranging from late Dark Ages through the High Middle Ages just before Renaissance. Approximately AD 1066 through the 16th century. Modern: Refers to the military time period from the Korean War up through the current period. Napoleonics: Refers to the military time period from 1798 to 1815 when Napoleon was active in Europe and abroad. Also known as the Napoleonic Wars. Naval Gaming: Refers to playing games with ship models. Ground units are usually not involved, although air units may be. Period: Refers to the time frame in which the rules set/figures are situated. Often refers to how technology and military strategy are grouped together. Example: Age of Musket refers to the Seven Years and the Marlburlian Age and AWI are grouped together yet will be differentiated by tactical differences. Priming: Refers to adding primer paint (usually a spray paint specifically designed to be an undercoat) to a figure, so that subsequent paint will stick better to the figure. Scale: Refers to the height of the figure or the actual ratio of the figure. Example: 6mm, 1/285th and 1/300th are all approximately the same size as is 20mm and 1/76th. Often 15mm is considered to be 1/100th scale. Very often, but not always, tanks, planes and ships will be described in terms of their ratio scale. Skirmish Gaming: Refers to games that do not use formed units, but rather use individual figures and vehicles. Many skirmish games use larger scaled figures (like 20mm or 28mm). Stand: Synonym for base. SYW: Refers to the military time period covering the Seven Years War, also know as the French and Indian War in North America. Time Scale: Refers to the ratio of game play turns to real time taken in a battle. Example: One turn equals four hours. Unit Scale: Each stand can represent everything from a single figure to battalions depending on specifications within rules sets. USA: United States Army, usually referring to the "North" in the American Civil War. WWI: Refers to the military time period covering World War I. WWII: Refers to the military time period covering World War II. APPENDIX B: HISTORICAL MINIATURE VENDORS 19th Century Miniatures / Old Glory 15s Steve Jamieson 300 Watson Street Coopersville, MI 49404 616.837.7045 (business) 616.837.8568 (fax) www.oldglory 15s.com Imports or manufactures 19th Century, Battle Honors, Old Glory 15mm (not including WWII), Black Raven Foundry, Quality Castings, Gripping Beast, Rank and File Brookhurst Hobbies Larry Huber 12188 Brookhurst Street Garden Grove, CA 92840-2817 714.636.3580 (business) 714.636.9150 (fax) www.brookhursthobbies.com Distributes a wide range of rules and miniatures. Game Figures Incorporated/Minifigs USA Tom Dye 538 Olathe Street Unit E Aurora, CO 80011 303.361.6465 (business) 303.361.6474 (fax) Distributes Rules sets and manufactures Minifigs, Dungeon Dwellers, Armies in Miniature. 10mm, 12mm, 15mm, and 25mm figure lines. GHQ Jim Moffat 28100 Woodside Road Shorewood, MN 55331 612.374.2693 (business) 952.470.4428 (fax) Manufacturers WWII, Modern, Napoleonic and ACW miniature lines in 6mm (1/285th)  Military Miniatures USA John Kennedy 8554 122nd Ave NE #108 Kirkland, WA 98033 425.398.0113 (business) 425.398.0118 (fax) Distributes Flames of War, Black Tree Design, Artizan, Renegade, Crusader, Crusader 29, and Assault Group. Musket Miniatures Jim and Jeff McCarron PO Box 1976 Broomfield, CO 80038 303.439.9336 (business) Distributes and manufactures rules sets, 6mm, 10mm, and 15mm terrain for Awl, ACW and WWII. 15mm figures for AWI and ACW. Old Glory Miniatures Russ Dunaway Box 20, Route 981 Calumet, PA 15621 724.423.3580 (business) 724.423.6898 Distributes West Wind Productions. Manufactures nearly every historical period in 25mm. Napoleonic, ACW and Marlburlian in 10mm. On Military Matters Dennis Shorthouse 55 Taylar Terrace Hopewell, NJ 08525 609.466.2329 (business) 609.466.4174 Distributes wargames rules, military history books, and magazines such as Wargames Illustrated, Miniature Wargames, MWAN Magazine and the Courier. R&K Productions, Publishing and Distribution Ron Souza 31316 Via Colinas Westlake Village, CA 91362 818.991.9044 (business) 818.991.9585 (fax) Distributes Vallejo paints, some military history books and magazines, and large scale military figures. Regal Distributors Darryl Sheldon 5944 Odana Road Madison, Wi 53179 866.776.6739 (business) 608.248.4402 (fax) Distributes Figurehead 1:6000 ships, Perrin Miniatures in 10mm for WWII, ACW, Franco-Prussian, and Colonial Zulu wars. Imports Heroics & Ros/Nav War for 1/300th in all periods. RZM Imports Bob PO Box 995 Southbury, CT 06488 203.264.0774 (business) 203.264.4967 (fax) Distributes military history books. True North Miniatures Don Perrin PO Box 241 Williams Bay, WI 53191 262.245.1608 (business) 262.364.2721 (fax) Manufacturers 15mm WWII figures and equipment suitable for Flames of War. Is owned by Legio X, Inc, which publishes MWAN Magazine. Wargame Accessories Jeff Lista 7566 20th Street North St. Petersburg, FL 33702 813.522.6203 (business) 727.522.6203 (fax) Manufactures metallic bases for figures. Wargames Box 287, Route 40 East Triadelphia, WV 26059-0278 304.547.0000 (business) 304.845.7215 (fax) Distributes Essex, Dixon, Quick Reaction Force (QRF), and Hovels. Imports numerous rules and publications. There are many more. A good source for companies is the Miniatures Page (www.theminiaturespage.com), under the Manufacturer's Directory. Back to MWAN # 130 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com