Things have been very busy since I returned from Australia 5 weeks ago, but I'm hoping regular blogging will resume. Before my recent holiday, it had been over 15 years ago that I was last in Melbourne. A highlight was visiting Eureka Miniatures (which I blogged about here) and meeting Nic and his team. Well, I couldn't go to Melbourne again without saying hello again (and also meeting up with local wargaming chums John Baxter and Mark Spackman). Mark picked me up from the local Melbourne suburb station and Nic then showed us around his new premises. Nic doesn't have a shop anymore, which he had in 2011, rather an office and factory space where everything happens. The photos show the various parts of the operation and seeing all the moulds and casting equipment shows how much effort goes into making model soldiers.
All the Eureka Miniatures I have painted, largely for the AWI, can be found on this label. Highlights include the cavalry range with separate hats, the "ragged" Continental infantry and the various mounted command figures from other ranges that I have used as Hessian generals. Non-AWI stuff I have painted includes a lovely set of Maori warriors (pics coming soon). One major range in the Eureka catalogue is the French Revolutionary Wars. I have already used figures from that range as AWI French, and my purchase on this trip was largely confined to more figures from the French range that I intend to use for my "Napoleon in Egypt" project. These are command/officer types which I use for command stands. I also bought the mdf Maori waka, or war canoe, which is going to be fun to paint and build. I don't know how much my haul cost, because Mark Spackman gave Nic a box of metal shavings he'd collected over the years and asked if that covered the cost of my figures; to which Nic agreed! So many thanks to both Mark and Nic for allowing me to scam these figures for free! [I had a bit of a drama at Hong Kong airport, when the guy at security threatened to confiscate them, saying "no metal allowed" - but I showed him that the bayonets were not going to harm anyone, and he waived them through. So note to others: if you acquire figures abroad, stick them in your hold luggage just to be safe.] Mark also presented me with a beautifully painted Perry AWI Indian as a present (see pic below). Mark is a superb painter, pretty much exclusively of 25mm (like me) and you can see more of his work on the Perry Miniatures website.
It was interesting discussing the hobby with Nic. He confirmed what other UK-based companies have been saying recently about the challenges of running a model soldier business today. It's not just the price of metal, but energy costs, customers perhaps not spending as much as they used to, the rise of 3D-printing and various other factors. As the photos show, a company like Eureka needs substantial "office space", and keeping the company going is clearly a huge amount of work to fall on Nic's shoulders. Anyway, let's how Nic keeps the plates spinning for a good while yet, as the Eureka catalogue is full of goodies and I'm sure there are more in the pipeline. Mark and I then had and excellent lunch in the "little Athens" quarter of Melbourne and in the late afternoon/evening John Baxter took me on a tour of central Melbourne's wine bars before our respective spouses joined us for a terrific Asian dinner. I love Melbourne - it's huge, and the outskirts are rapidly filling up with new housing; but it's such a vibrant, buzzing place.
I'll be posting some more photos from my trip as we saw a lot of historical and military stuff. In the meantime, here are some shots of Eureka's premises.
