Introducing - 'MATES RATES' my new promotion, coming soon

2020 has been a nightmare of a year for a lot of us, and surviving this year as a self-employed person has been an interesting endeavour to say the least..

However.. thanks to you good folks who have bought items from my store, or from me directly, and all those who have commissioned models for painting or scenery/terrain, I have managed to get through without closing shop.

For that support I am forever grateful, and I'd like to start giving a little something back in return.

So... welcome to my new promotion - MATES RATES!

For those who are unfamiliar with the term, 'Mates Rates' here in the UK means to give a substantial discount on prices because the buyer is a close friend or family member.

My promo will aim to give you the best price possible on an item as the price will be extremely close to the trade price I buy the item for!

Now.. such a deal has to come with a few caveats...

1. You must first earn 'BUDDY POINTS'. These points are easy and free to earn, and the main way to get them will be to either make a normal full price purchase from me, or commission painting/scenery/terrain.

You will earn 1pt for every full £10 you spend. Only normal full price items will count. No Buddy Points will be earned on items already discounted, or items you haggle the price down on (this includes eBay offers.)

2. The price doesn't include postage. Sorry.. you'll still have to pay postage as normal.

3. You may have to wait a week or two for the items. As the price will be very close to trade price, I would have to order the items in specifically as I don't tend to hold much stock. I usually put an order in with most of my suppliers every couple of weeks or so.


How to earn Buddy Points

Every time you make a full price purchase from me, either directly, or though my eBay store, you will earn 1 Buddy Point for every £10.
Every painting commission and every scenery/terrain commission will also earn on the same ratio - 1pt for every £10.

For instance, if you purchased a Perry Miniatures Foot Knights box set at the rrp of £20, you would earn 2 Buddy Points.
If you commissioned painting worth £120, you would earn 12 Buddy Points.

How to spend Buddy Points

I am in the middle of putting together a new price list, and on this list, all the items I stock as new will have both a regular price and a 'Mates Rates' price.

You will be able to cash-in Buddy Points you have earned to make a purchase at the Mates Rates price.

For example, the Perry Miniatures Foot Knights box will have two prices which look like this

Perry Miniatures: Foot Knights, £20
Perry Miniatures: Foot Knights, MATES RATES £14

You will have needed to earn 14 Buddy Points - and cash them all in - before you could purchase the Foot Knights for £14.


Hopefully that's not too complex!

It will take me a little while before it goes live, so please check back soon!

The BIG Selling-up SALE - Part 2

 Howdy folks,

Well.. its been a week since I first announced my intention to sell-up. Thank you for the interest so far.

It's been a week, because honestly, I started.. and I continued.. and continued.. and gave up about 95% of the way through! As I write this at my desk I have just noticed that under the desk there is a Conquest of Gaul box set (£70 rrp), a Terminator Box set (and I know I have missed at least two other Terminator sets behind me, under a different table...), among a few other boxes.

In short, I have so much stock to pass on that I have given up cataloguing it all when the RRP passed the £12,000 mark!!

And that number didn't include all the odds and sodds miniatures. For instance, if I opened a box and the models were not in a jiffy bag, but rolling around loose, I just ignored them and counted the models in the bags instead.

So... we are at £12,000 retail.

Here is how I worked stuff out.

If the models/packs had an obvious rrp, that was the total counted. This was easy to check on the manufacturers website and comes on all my invoices from the suppliers I use.

2nd hand stuff was a bit more of an ordeal.
For much of that I had my own eBay store to fall back on, and where I didn't get around to selling the price was found using the average of the recent sales on eBay. ONLY counting UK sales, and only completed sales (no listing prices).

I cant seem to figure out how to set the spreadsheet to 'share' or download it to hand out, so I have used 'screenshot' and included it all below.

If you are serious in buying please do contact me to discuss offers.

Please Note - this would be impossible to post. We are talking stock for a small shop here. You will need a large car or a van to collect all this.

FOR SALE - All my stock!!

 

Hi folks,

In short.. I am looking to sell-up all my eBay stock, my trade show stock, and all my models, books, boxsets, painted figures, complete armies, games, loose minis, everything!

There are two main reasons why...

1. Business is booming! Honestly since lockdown online sales have been heaving! My sales have been close to 2k a month, which sounds great (and it is - thankyou everyone who has purchased from me!), but for me the sales were meant to be an additional income alongside my painting work.  Handling such an increase in sales is taking too much of my time and really eating into my painting.

Its clear my eBay store and additional private sales are close to becoming a full time job, and I don't have the time. I really want to return to focussing on my painting work and getting my commissions completed in a timely manner.


2. I live in a 2-bed terrace and with boxes of stock all over the place it is becoming difficult to move around!

These last two winters I have suffered from health issues, due in no small part to my being unable to keep on top of cleaning and maintaining my home. Before the weather turns again this year I need to make a concerted effort to clear up and clear out, and that means getting rid of a lot of boxes of minis!


What's up for sale?

Sadly my inventory skills have been lacking a lot and a good majority of what I buy in just goes straight to the 'will sort out later' pile. A very rough idea of size would be around the £2000 mark. That is to say, I don't have the amount of stock you would find in a bricks and mortar store, but I have way more than would fit on a 'bring and buy' table. You can see a good idea of what I have on my eBay store. That however doesn't include the hundreds of loose minis and armies I have.

While I compile a real list of what is included, please take this post as an announcement and intention of sale. If you are interested please message me or keep checking here and my Facebook page.


The Romantic Notion

As you can see from this very page (if you check out my 'About MiC' page), I started with my own shop in my early 20's. I built that business up from almost nothing and appreciated every customer and every piece of help and advice I got. To return the karma, if you are in a similar boat as I was back then (a young'un looking to start out), or you are looking to start a business,  I will give you a better price AND include a lot of my postage and packing materials, give you my contact/supplier details, and any advice or assistance you may need selling online/eBay.


The Non-Romantic Sale

If you are a dealer, or just looking to make some money you probably wont need my help or contacts. I'll still give you a good price, but please no low-ball offers. I've been selling since the late 90's and had this store for the last 3 years. I want rid of it all, but I'm not about to take £400 for what I can put on eBay and get 5 times that.


Warts and All

Please be aware..
This is warts and all sale.. you will be getting loads of good stuff and all my boxes of random 50p plastic elves.
You will need a vehicle to move all this. Postage would be nigh impossible due to the amount!

MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW!

 Marching In Colour - EZ Painting Starter Pack: Dark Ages

Hi, thanks for taking the time to check out this pack I have put together aimed at getting started with painting Dark Age miniatures. This is what I would consider a good foundation to begin with.
It consists of a selection of colours which I have used a great deal in my work, as well as the brushes you need, and the glue to start assembling your plastic miniatures.

This guide is a step-by-step list of instructions. I use only the items in the pack and I give advice on a couple of basic techniques - dry-brushing, and ink work.

Lets begin by having a look what is in the pack -

 

In the pack you get 13 Vallejo paints, which includes 1x Black and 1x White (for undercoating and mixing colours), 1x Brown Ink (for the wash), and 1x Varnish for finishing and protecting your models. The other colours we will discuss as we go along.

You also get a pack of 4 brushes. This is one of my favourite little sets. It contains 4 very useful sizes, is very economical on cost and durable enough to make them value for money.

You also get 1x Humbrol Poly Cement. This is my personal 'go-to' brand for quality and is excellent glue for assembling plastic miniatures.

WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED - The Celts! These are volunteers solely for demonstrating the paint pack. Though I do stock multiple plastic sets with miniatures starting from as little as 50p each!

You can also add to the pack with additional Vallejo paints for £2.55 each.


Lets start the tutorial with having a look at the Poly Cement.

 Poly Cement actually burns/melts the plastic very slightly to produce a very secure fix. Coat both edges of the model, leave it a few seconds, then push together tightly.
Once it grips it will set tight within a few minutes.

Once the models are set, use the Size4 Brush, and undercoat the models in either Black or White. For this tutorial we are going with Black.

Any models which have a lot of armour are best dry-brushed with the Oily Steel paint, using the large brush, now before we start with the real painting.

Once you have dry-brushed the Oily Steel, the next phase is to start the painting. As all the models have some level of flesh, we will start with the Flat Flesh. If your models are mainly hands and faces, use the Size 1 brush, if its a lot of flesh (like the bare chested Celts in our example), the Size4 brush may be best.

Once all the flesh is painted (you may need two coats as we are using a black undercoat), its time to move on to the clothing. You'll notice in the photo below that two paints - Flat Earth, and Leather Brown - are set slightly aside. Use the Flat Earth for wooden weapons and some hair, and use the Leather, for well... leather. Size 1 or 4 Brush depending on how large the are is. The bigger the brush, the larger area it paints in one stroke, the faster you will complete.

When it come to belts and small detail, use the 00 sized brush.

By this point we should have something like the models below. There are 3 basic cloth colours in this set, but we also have a White and a Black. By mixing paint we can get lighter and darker shades.

When mixing paint, use the Size 4 brush. Its big enough for the process, but not so large it swallows all the paint. To mix, try using a small dab of water and always start with a little amount of white paint and add more as you wish. This allows you to better control the degree of shade.

Bonus Tip: If you have any white left on your palette, don't clean the brush you are using to mix, dip another little bit of water and run the brush through the white. You'll get an even lighter shade for further highlighting.

The Refractive Green when painted as a base colour and when you add a bit of white to the mix.

 As you can see you can get very different colours.

Once the basic work has been done, it is now time for the master action - the Ink work!

This Brown Ink is very versatile and very effective. Do not use it straight from the bottle - mix it with water first. A good mix to start with is 50/50 ink to water. More Ink will give a darker wash, less ink will give a very light wash. Avoid using too much water though, and ensure you have fully agitated the ink first!

The results of a 50/50 water-ink wash.

You can now add details to the fabric, paint the weapons and armour with the Oily Steel, and do any jewellery in Gold

Use the 00 brush for fine detail. When painting metal jewellery it helps to re-paint them black first.

This set contains the basics you need for painting Dark Age models, and it also includes a bottle of Matt Varnish for sealing and protecting your models. Apply liberally with the Size8 brush.

The finished Celt volunteers using the sequence above and the paints and brushes for this set.
I cheated a little by adding flock to the bases. I also sell flocks and grasses and have a large variety in stock. Please contact me or see my eBay store.

Thanks for reading. I hope you found this tutorial helpful. Any feedback is always appreciated.

Health Update

Hi folks,

Just a quick post here rather than spam everyone's inbox again!

A week or so back, for the best part of a month I was suffering from near constant migraines. At the worst I would lose the best part of a day and be unable to do anything productive, and for the rest of the time it was near solid 24/7 headaches of varying degrees.

Two Doctors and one Opticians visit later and I think (with the help of some solid medication) I am on top of the triggers and have been rather successful at avoiding them and keeping the migraines at bay. I would say I'm about 90% fit. I've got a blood test lined up to rule out anything really serious, and hopefully that will go smoothly and I can start getting things back on track with the business.

One of the triggers is unfortunately PC monitors so I cant spend long looking at a screen now. This means I am well behind with admin and emails. I'll be prioritising them though, so I will get back to people asap.

As Marching In Colour is my full-time job and only source of income, the coffers have taken a massive hit this last month with almost no money coming in. Financial matters aside, my biggest source of worry has been letting people down. Some folks have been waiting a time on models now and I can only apologise.

The good news is though, now I know its not painting causing my headaches I can start getting the hours back in and peoples models sorted again in good time.

It's been a tough month I will confess. At times I worried that I might have a serious illness, and at times I thought I may have to close shop and pack in the business. I've done nothing but paint for about 3 years full time now, the idea of looking for a real job was almost as scary as thinking I was dying!

Thanks for bearing with me.
Chris

Hospital - eek!

Howdy all,

Just a quick post to keep everybody up to date.

I had a chest-infection which I thought I could soldier through. Unfortunately that turned out to be the wrong decision, I got worse, and ended up with a trip to the hospital!

Long story short, I have been given a double-whammy of steroids and antibiotics and seem to be responding well.

Priority at the moment will be sending out the backlog of Ebay (to avoid negative feedbacks!), then back on to the painting. I estimate I've maybe lost 1-2 weeks of decent painting so will be putting back estimated completion dates soon.

I'll email all those effected asap, this is just a general post to let everybody know the situation.

Thanks for your understanding.

Chris

Lower Scale (6mm to 15mm) Napoleonic Commissions

Howdy folks,

This post is just to let everyone know I will not be taking any NEW Commissions for small scale Napoleonic work until well after the New Year (probably around Feb/March 2019).

This is due to having two major bookings for a lot of work that have completely filled the schedule.

'No New Commissions' only means anybody enquiring from the time I make this post.

If you have already sent me models, your place in the queue is safe.
If we have already discussed sending models, and I have given you a slot, even if its just pencilled-in/speculative, then your place in the queue is also safe.

No new commissions only effects,

anybody enquiring  from now (December 15th)
small scale - that is 6mm, 10mm, 15mm AND Napoleonic

It DOES NOT effect
Larger scales - I am still taking commissions for 20/28/54mm Napoleonics
Smaller scale NONE Napoleonics - I am still taking commissions for 6/10/15 Ancients, DarkAge, Medieval, Fantasy/Sci-fi and so on.


Sorry for any inconvenience guys.

The good news though, is that we are going to see a LOT of gorgeous Napoleonic photos popping up over on my Facebook page, and I mean gorgeous, because not only are these two commissions very large, they are also for PREMIUM QUALITY painting!

For regular updates please check out my Facebook page here -
https://www.facebook.com/MarchingInColour/

thanks
Chris