Showing posts with label tmterrain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tmterrain. Show all posts

Friday, 19 August 2011

TMTerrain future

Sorry I haven't posted much over the last week or so. I had great plans for when I got back from my holidays but, unfortunately some bad news has got in the way and I have been sorting it out.

The news was to do with our dealership arrangement with John Jenkins 60mm toy soldier range. It has a big effect on us at TMTerrain but really only effects our toy soldier customers so all you wargamers out there, please bear with me.
This is a release we have sent to Treefrog (a toy soldier forum):
Some of you may have heard that TMTerrain has lost the JJD dealership so we can no buy his figures from John. Mark and I were very disappointed when John told us and it dramatically effects our business. John's ranges made up around half of our toy soldier sales and his monthly release schedule helped a great deal with cash flow. Now that this has gone and the fact that the terrain side of the business is going from strength to strength, we have decided to stop selling toy soldiers altogether.
We have arranged for the new JJD dealer to buy all our John Jenkins stock from us so from Monday evening we will be stopping the sale of John’s figures altogether.
We also have stocks of First Legion, Collectors Showcase and W Britain's. We plan to sell these off at 20% discount from today. Our web site still has the full prices listed but we will sort that out over the next couple of days. If you do want anything then ring us so we can sort it out over the phone. When the prices are done on the web site then you can buy using our online store as normal.
The web site lists what we have in stock. Items will disappear off the site as we sell them and that will be it so if you want a deal on First Legion, Collectors or Britain's get in touch with us quickly.
We expect to sell off the last of our stock at the Birmingham and London shows before Christmas so you will also be able to see us there.
Finally, although TMTerrain will no longer be selling toy soldiers once we have sold off our stock, this does not affect the terrain building. Mark and I set up the company about 10 years ago to make terrain so we will have really just done a full circle but we now have all that experience under our belt and the dioramas we are making just get better and better. We plan to be around for many years to come.
May we take this opportunity to thank all our customers over the last 4 years. It has been great fun selling toy soldiers to you. We hope we did a good job for you.  Hopefully we will continue to see you and talk to you when you want a diorama.


So, as you can see things have dramatically changed at TMTerrain. The good news is that I can now concentrate even more on the terrain and have more time to post pictures and articles etc on the blog.
The situation is just about under control now but I will probably be free to start posting again in September.


Saturday, 28 May 2011

TMTerrain- a history!



Time for a bit of self indulgence so please bear with me!
I was talking to a customer this week who asked me how many jobs I had done and it got me thinking.
Mark and I (Mark Thornley and David Marshall- that is where the TM comes from) started TMterrain on the 15th April 2002- that was when the first job was booked in. Yesterday I booked in my 682nd job!
We started off as a part time business for 18 months and then from September 2003 we have been full time. I can't believe it has been that long- I have never been in a job that long before.I am amazed we have done that many jobs.  They of course vary from painting just a couple of figures right up to massive town layouts
part of 8'x6' layout of York during the English Civil War
28mm Walled town
28mm Victorian London

54mm Normandy church-  so big I couldn't get it all in the picture!
Hopefully over that time we have built up a reputation for high quality bespoke terrain making for the wargamer and toy soldier collector. I guess if we can be doing it for so long we must be doing something right.

The company started off just in the wargaming market with plans to explore the railway hobby and the really grand aim of getting into TV and movies! Well, we have never made it into the railway hobby but we did make the TV with a layout for an episode of Lewis. If I work out how to do it I will have to try and put a clip of it on the blog one day.
Although we haven't got into railways, we have developed our presence in the 54mmtoy soldier collecting hobby. We started to sell John Jenkins Samurai buildings about 4 years ago and over a period of about 8 months John persuaded us to start stocking his new line of 54mm French Indian figures. We gave it a go and went to our first London Toy soldier show in March 2007 (or 8) and have never looked back. We now import and sell figures from John Jenkins, First Legion and Collectors Showcase to collectors all over the UK.
First Legion 95th Rifles- a future release
John Jenkins limber

Collectors Showcase SDKFZ7





I also do a large proportion of my model making in this scale. The types of jobs vary from small 6" square diorama bases up to massive buildings that need a van to ship!
54mm ruined building dio

54mm Hotel Hartenstein- 4' wide and 2' tall!

Although the company is nearly 10 years old, Mark and I have been in the wargaming hobby for years going round various shows with display and participation games. My particular highlight was an Indian Mutiny participation game that we put on years ago. I think we got photos into wargames illustrated with it but I have no idea which one- it must be nearly 20 years ago (gulp!).
We have been missing from wargaming shows over the last couple of years but I hope to start bringing games to a few shows every year so we can have a good time and to promote what we do. We were at Salute this year with the amazing looking English Civil War game

English Civil War game
We will be at Partizan on Sunday with it so come along and have a chat.
The London Toy soldier show sees us with a stand 30feet long now and we fill it with toy soldiers all on terrain boards and dioramas- it looks spectacular.
Anyway, that is a brief history of us. I hope it wasn't to self indugent. Hopefully, we can be around for another 10 years at least- as long as my eyes hold up!
John Jenkins Sudan layout


54mm normandy layout















Saturday, 21 May 2011

Welcome to Terrain and Toy Soldiers

Welcome to my new blog- Terrain and Toy Soldiers. As the title suggests it will be mainly covering terrain and toy soldiers!
As I am one half of TMTerrain, the toy soldier bit will concentrate on John Jenkins, First Legion and Collectors Showcase. The terrain bit will be coverage of the projects I have been commissioned to make along with 'how to' pieces explaining some of the techniques I use in those models and dioramas.
I may also cover other stuff that gets me going in these wonderful wargaming and toy soldier hobbies of ours.
Hopefully there will be loads of photos of all sorts for example:
ECW layout as seen at Salute 2011