Magister Militum closing up shop

[Mike]

David of TWC let me know that Magister Militum are closing up shop:

LINK

[Andrew Beasley]

Sad news.

Edited 16:41 article link removed – see updated info below.

A thank you from me for the great service and I hope things go well for Ian, Alie and Adam.

Good luck to Richard and Zoe – public service can be great and frustrating.

[Mike]

Not sure an article about his political career explains why MM is closing?
What have I missed?

 

 

[Guy Farrish]

He became leader of the council shortly after that article and he and his wife (who is also a councillor) have taken on a lot of commitments.  He is also chair of Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Partnership.

They had already cut show visits to one or two (Salute) a year and presumably felt this was the right time to sell the business.

[Mike]

Guy Farrish wrote:

He became leader of the council shortly after that article and he and his wife (who is also a councillor) have taken on a lot of commitments. He is also chair of Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Partnership. They had already cut show visits to one or two (Salute) a year and presumably felt this was the right time to sell the business.

Fair enough, just knee jerk reaction to politics, sorry.
Though that is all mentioned in the original newsletter link.

Sorry Andrew.

[Guy Farrish]

Mike wrote:

Fair enough, just knee jerk reaction to politics, sorry. Though that is all mentioned in the original newsletter link. Sorry Andrew.

Share the concern re politics but just to be awkward He hadn’t been made leader in the article and his Care Partnership Chair wasn’t mentioned.  High grade intel here!

[Not Connard Sage]

I hope my back order arrives before they bugger off into the twilight…

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

[Andrew Beasley]

Guy Farrish wrote:

Mike wrote:

Fair enough, just knee jerk reaction to politics, sorry. Though that is all mentioned in the original newsletter link. Sorry Andrew.

Share the concern re politics but just to be awkward He hadn’t been made leader in the article and his Care Partnership Chair wasn’t mentioned. High grade intel here!

That was the best I could find at the time 🙂

Should research better!!! 🙁 Removed.

[Steve Johnson]

With my inside knowledge of many of the challenges faced in the health and social care sector, covering a large ICP means you are going to sod all time for anything else, with evening meetings too. I wonder if I might bump into him at some point at one of these…

[Guy Farrish]

@NCS

You could always buy the company.

[Not Connard Sage]

Who do you think I am, Victor Kiam? 🙂

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

[Guy Farrish]

I loved that advert when I was young.

[Mike Headden]

Top up order for Oddzial Osmy 3mm Samurai & Ashigaru made just in case supply is disrupted or worse still ended.

There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

[Guy Farrish]

Somebody else used to sell Oddzial Osmy in the UK years ago – I presume they are long gone?

[Mike]

Ian at Fighting 15s IIRC

[Guy Farrish]

Maybe, but this was A.N. Other I don’t remember the name of. I think they only sold the moderns and WWII.

[Not Connard Sage]

Guy Farrish wrote:

I loved that advert when I was young.

 

Define ‘young’. Apparently he bought the company in 1979 (Wiki).

🙂

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

[Guy Farrish]

Damn!

It felt like the same era as ‘You’ll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent!’ and ‘With Harris on the handle the bristles won’t fall out!’

I can take it I’m wrong.  (Lie) but I am worried about the fact I still want to argue about the facts.

And definitely not ‘young’ in ’79.

[Guy Farrish]

I wonder if the business will sell as a whole entity?

MM has always seemed bit of an eclectic mix of scales, genres and brands that don’t quite connect.

I am tempted to stock up on the old Chariot Miniatures 10mm ACW they sell alongside the GHQ ones. I have a lot of the Chariot ACW I bought at a show many years ago before MM got them (or maybe not if my Remington ad memory is in play) and I can’t see anyone else buying and producing them.

Hmmm. Decisions.

[Not Connard Sage]

🤣

I remember the Pepsodent ad as a kid.

We’re probably a similar vintage

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

[Not Connard Sage]

Guy Farrish wrote:

I wonder if the business will sell as a whole entity? MM has always seemed bit of an eclectic mix of scales, genres and brands that don’t quite connect. I am tempted to stock up on the old Chariot Miniatures 10mm ACW they sell alongside the GHQ ones. I have a lot of the Chariot ACW I bought at a show many years ago before MM got them (or maybe not if my Remington ad memory is in play) and I can’t see anyone else buying and producing them. Hmmm. Decisions.

Wasn’t Magister Militum the 25mm branch of Chariot Miniatures in the 90s? I know Chariot sold out around the end of that decade and the new owners traded as MM.

I liked the Chariot 15s, they weren’t dumpy dwarfs like (it would be rude to point the finger) most of their contemporaries.

I might get around to painting the Chariot Burmese I bought at Alumwell about 30 years ago eventually…

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

[Guy Farrish]

Pretty sure we are.

Einstein died and four months later there I was.

[Edit – Flipping heck! I might well have bought the ACW at Alumwell. Something odd going on here).

 

[Not Connard Sage]

Guy Farrish wrote:

Pretty sure we are. Einstein died and four months later there I was. [Edit – Flipping heck! I might well have bought the ACW at Alumwell. Something odd going on here).

The world had to wait six months after Albert clocked out before the appearance of my mighty intellect.

The world may have been short-changed. 🙂

( Alumwell. Spooky)

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

[wardog]

apart from picoarmor  in the u.s. where do we now get our Oddzial Osmy models on this side of the pond?

[Konstantinos Travlos]

A sad piece of news.

[Mike Headden]

wardog wrote:

apart from picoarmor in the u.s. where do we now get our Oddzial Osmy models on this side of the pond?

Poland?

Though, to be fair, with the order just put in I have enough 3mm Oddzial Osmy stuff to keep me painting for several lifetimes!

 

There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

[wardog]

mike headden

you say poland

does oddzial ozmy deal with consumers ,though he was only dealing with retailers

doe you have a link for his website that we can buy models from

[Mike Headden]

wardog wrote:

doe you have a link for his website that we can buy models from

No, but either someone will take over distribution as MM did from Fighting 15’s or Marcin does direct ordering or O8 lose, at a rough guesstimate 50% or more of their sales.

I’m certainly not going to order stuff from picoarmor given postage/ tax/ import costs.

But as I say I have a stack of 3mm O8 stuff that will keep me painting for years ever at the rate I paint!

I imagine someone will want to take over distribution in Europe. Selfishly I hope it will be a UK distributor.

There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

[Andrew Beasley]

wardog wrote:

… doe you have a link for his website that we can buy models from

His contact mail is [email protected] if you want to try that.

[Ian Marsh]

Guy Farrish wrote:

Somebody else used to sell Oddzial Osmy in the UK years ago – I presume they are long gone?

As Mike says, I used to. I stopped after it became apparent that Magister Militum was going to make a serious thing of it and, with Richard and Zoe’s outfit being bigger, and with me not looking forward to the joys of importing from the EU after Brexit, and not trying to sell EU-made products back to the EU,  I simply decided to ditch  Oddzial Osmy (O8) and sell my stock to them.

Marcin at O8 is understandably keen to get more retailers, but the market in the UK is or was big enough to support only one. He was kind enough to let me know in advance that Richard was considering stocking the figures, and I was equally frank in letting him know that I would probably have to stop if that were the case. A number of others have tried and failed to compete in the UK with the range – at the time I had Eureka and AB to support me, so I simply was able to outlast them.

O8’s range has grown so much – and it was large when I stopped – that it would be quite a financial burden for someone new to take it on. That doesn’t mean someone won’t, and reduced price stock from Magister Militum would certainly make it possible. I’m on a long-term retirement plan with Fighting 15s and Gladiator Miniatures, aiming at stopping in 2030 (that’s a heads-up for everyone), so it certainly won’t be me.

Ian

Ian
Fighting 15s
www.fighting15s.com

[Mike Headden]

Ian Marsh wrote:

O8’s range has grown so much – and it was large when I stopped – that it would be quite a financial burden for someone new to take it on.

So the O8 stuff is simultaneously large and tiny …. Schrödinger’s Miniatures Range? 🙂

I can see that something so niche yet so extensive might be difficult to manage. Especially in these days, with expectations of next day delivery.

I fear bank balance, life expectancy and glacial painting speed are a bigger threats than unavailability to my desire to stage Borodino in 3mm scale!

There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

[Rod Robertson]

I better get off my duff and order eight more Assyrian round-bodied chariots to finish my Early-Middle Assyrian army, two New Kingdom Egyptian chariots as replacements and four Assyrian heavy chariots for my Babylonian Empire army. Also twenty-four Elamite javelin and shield men and twenty-four Elamite archers to finish my dismounted kallipani Bw(I) for the Neo-Elamite army. I hope I have enough Sea Peoples and Mycenaeans to finish those armies too.

Hopefully Chariot Miniatures will be picked up by some firm and continue operation as, like NCS, I too have a Burmese elephant army which one day I will find the courage to paint. I am probably short of infantry for that force.

It depresses me when long-standing and very good hobby business shut their doors because I really don’t like change in the hobby. Stick in the mud, I know! However, that’s life, so what is an acolyte of stasis supposed to do?

I wish all those at Magister Militum the best for the next phase of their lives and their excellent business will be remembered fondly for years to come.

Cheers and good gaming.

Rod Robertson.

[Andrew Beasley]

Sale reposted on Facebook and Mailchimp newsletter – I wonder if any ranges have a home yet?

I hope it’s due to people being too busy with a flood of Christmas orders rather than lack of interest…

[Andrew Beasley]

There is an update in the sidebar of the site I noticed today:

3mm range is now over the water with Microworld Games (Facebook link) – no idea if the Osmy range are going to be picked up in the U.K. by anyone though

6mm going to be with H&R soon (Mailchimp link).

No news on the 10, 15 or 28s though.

 

[Tony S]

Appreciate the update Andrew.  I was just looking for some Napoleonic figures yesterday, and lamenting the absence of Magister Militum.  Fingers crossed the 15s get bought by someone!

[Author]

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