Saturday, July 14, 2012

One Shade of Grey

  Just wanted to mention a little milestone. I found some grey plastic!  It might seem trivial, but it has been a major challenge getting any suppliers to even talk to me. Once they find out I am just some slacker in a barn they stop returning my e-mails. Some places have HUGE minimum orders in the range of 18 tons or so.
   But, I did find this one place that sold me some black pellets. They seem to get remnants from other places on an irregular basis and sell them quite reasonable.  One of those "We cheat them and pass the savings on to you!" type of places.   The only thing they ever had was black. Until now. They actually got in a supply of neutral and a few colors to add. One of the colors is light grey. I am quite pleased because grey seems to be the acceptable standard for stuff and someday my stuff will be grey also.  Things are looking up for sure.

  I also made some special request bases and put them on e-bay. No room in the store till I sell out of something and I think these bases are very obscure sizes for sure.


 These are 20mm rounds. Could be useful for a number of skirmish games. If you want penny sized bases but want plastic with a lip, these will do.

  Also, these pill shaped bases;


  These are 20mm by 50mm cavalry bases. They were ordered for some Nappies and would work good for smaller sized 25mm figs.

  These are on e-bay, and if you are paying attention you are aware that e-bay stuff is a bit higher to make up for the 15% I got to pay them.  If you want these new bases just send me an e-mail with your address and I will shoot you a pay-pal invoice at $4 per pack instead of $4.50 from e-bay.
  I am not expecting a huge demand for these sizes, but you never know.

  And finally the promised review of the Solidoodle 3 D printer. You may have read about it, just a quick google search will reveal countless press releases and articles.

  Here are the pros;
  It takes up very little space, I have not had to modify my work area at all.
  It uses no power or material.
  It makes no noise whatsoever.

  It does have one huge con;  it does not exist.

  I should not try and tell anyone how to run a business because I ain't exactly Einstein when it comes to that topic. BUT, perhaps they could have hired one less marketing guy and actually hired someone to make the stupid thing.  What good does a TON of internet exposure do you when you have no product to deliver?  It took a few e-mails but I got a refund and will look elsewhere for my 3d printing needs. I have to give the Solidoodle a thumbs down.

  I think the phrase is.  " All sizzle, no steak."




  I think I do not say this often enough, but thank you  to all the fine people I have met and who have supported this crazy little ride.

  Have a nice day. 

5 comments:

  1. I'm pleased as punch with the 20mm rounds... guess I'll have to replace my big guy 3/4" washer bases.

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  2. Hi Ken, please send me an email about the 20mm round. How many come in a pack? I love them, and do see a need for 15mm SciFi single based games.

    noelvh at theorky dot net

    Thanks
    Noel

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  3. Great news on the grey plastic, I know how annoying it can be to get accounts with vendors when you're a small business. I've been going through simular issues with white metal for casting,

    I've started focusing on 15mm/Nscale gaming of late so I'll be picking up some of the 20mm bases as those are perfect for what I'd need and I've loved you hex, 40mm & 60mm bases.

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  4. I know I'm weird, but I'd kinda prefer 15mm bases for 15mm models. I'm not into the scale enough to make it worth your while though. :)

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  5. According to their website they are on the second version of it and it is for sale for 500 bucks.

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