https://www.calpeminiatures.co.uk/ Calpe Miniatures RSS News Feed The agreement to pass production rights on to another manufacturer has been signed. As from mid to late March, Gripping Beast will take over production for Calpe Miniatures. https://www.calpeminiatures.co.uk/New_producer--post--41.html 41 2025-02-06 16:10:44 0 On Friday, 7th February, at close of business I will stop taking orders. Tomorrow I am signing the document which will pass the production rights under license to another producer. They plan to collect the moulds and other items necessary for production in early March and to restart production soon after this in mid to late March. I will let you know who they are once things have been formalised.  Since I put up the notice of my retirement from production on the website, I have received a multitude of good will messages wishing me the best for the future and thanking me for the figures I have produced. I am sincerely greatful for these heartwarming messages and in turn would like to thank you all for the support you have given me over the last 28 years. I have probably enjoyed making the figures as much as you have enjoyed receiving and painting them.  A minor downside of these messages is that they have all been accompanied by orders. I have a mountain of orders to clear before the moulds are taken away. The orders  have continued coming in as fast as I send them off in the post. It will take me at least a couple weeks to catch up with what has already come in and I have to call a halt at some point before it is too late. Once I have cleared my order backlog, I then have to prepare everything for the move to the other production base. This all has to be completed before early March. With the future availability of the figures now assured there is no longer an urgent need to send in your order.  Thank you all once again and rest assured that any orders received by close of business on Friday will be dealt with.  Peter https://www.calpeminiatures.co.uk/Friday_7th--post--40.html 40 2025-02-06 00:48:44 0 After almost 30 years of designing and producing metal figures, I have decided that it is time to halt production. My plan is to pass figure production onto someone else or, if that fails, to sell the business. I am currently in talks with another manufacturer who may want to continue production of the metal figures. I will carry on producing figures until such time as I come to an agreement with another manufacturer or sell the business. I will keep you all posted, but would recommend that you send in your orders if there are any figures you require to complete your collections. In the long term, my plans are to continue designing figures and to offer them to whoever takes over the business. It will be up to them to make the moulds required for producing metal figures. As I get older, It is the long hours of mould making, casting and packing that I need to stop. Irrespective of whether I reach agreement with someone else for continued production of metal figures, I plan to start selling digital figure files for customers to print at home. I have been designing digital figures for some time and see this as a way to circumvent, not only the production side of figure making (since customers would be printing the figures themselves) but also the increasing metal, rubber and postage charges.  Thank you all for your support over the last 30 years ,Peter https://www.calpeminiatures.co.uk/Retirement--post--39.html 39 2025-01-18 19:59:12 0 I continue to monitor the Royal Mail website for a notification of the restoration of international postal services from their Royal Mail counters. This has not yet recommenced. Today's (6th Feb.) update on their website still advised customers not to take parcels to Post office counters. I have tried using some of their alternative services, such as online booking in of parcels but have found that their system is not set up to handle the multitude of small parcels that I send each month. As a simple example - their label sizes are larger than several of my smaller postal boxes. There is literally not enough surface area on the parcel to stick the postage label and accompanying "manifest." I spent several hours this morning trying to find a way round this and failed dismally. The main problem I have is that all my intentional post has been prepared for my usual method of postage through Royal Mail counters and all labels, customs declarations and general spacing of labels on the parcel would have to be changed for an alternative method of postage. I am now looking for possible options to Royal Mail for new International orders but have so far found no suitable alternative. The halt to international postal services has now been going on for three weeks. I can only repeat what I said in my last email that all my international orders are packed and ready for postage. As soon as Royal Mail resumes their counter service, I will post all international parcels.Peter https://www.calpeminiatures.co.uk/Update_to_Royal_Mail_international_post_disruption--post--38.html 38 2023-02-06 10:53:22 0 The start of 2023 has so far been trying. I started the New Year with the hind end of a dose of Covid which was quickly followed by a very nasty sinus infection which proved to be much more unpleasant than the Covid itself. I am still recovering from the second infection but managed during the last week to catch up with a backlog of orders which built up during my illness. I tried posting these orders this morning and was informed by the PO staff that they were accepting no international parcels due to the Royal Mail website having been hacked. I believe that the problem is one of ransom ware and that the Royal Mail will have to find a workaround or pay the ransom to have its system unlocked. The problem has been ongong for some days now and there is no immediate end in sight, only international letters are being accepted. All international orders have been packed. Where the parecel weighs more than 2 kilos I have used a courier service to send the parcel. Unfortuantely, parcels under 2 kilos cannot be sent with a courier as their prices for small packages are over twice the price of the Royal Mail rates. I simply cannot absorb these increased rates. I am monitoring the situation and will post the internationl parcels with the Royal Mail as soon as they find a solution to thier problems and start taking international parcels once again. https://www.calpeminiatures.co.uk/Royal_Mail_international_parcel_service_disruption--post--37.html 37 2023-01-20 17:02:17 0 Over the past year we have had extensive building works going on in our house. Since I run the business from the property, the last year has been particularly difficult. The works have now reached the point where water and power will have to be cut to many parts of the house for rewiring and new plumbing. By the time these works are completed, we will be into the run up to Christmas. I have kept the business going for the last 8 months by working out of the smallest bedroom in the house, our old nursery bedroom, but with computers, pen display screens and a 3D printer about the size of a small fridge clogging up the usable space, this last stage of the build has become one step too far. I need to shut down until the 5th of January as it is becoming imposible to cast and to do the paperwork for the orders coming in without a reliable power supply. In terms of progress on the 3D design process, I think that I can say now that most of the problems have been ironed out and that I will be in a position to start releasing new figures early in the New Year. The first releases will be resculpted Prussian line infantry, including fusiliers and grenadiers not available in the old ranges. These releases of Prussian line infantry were not what I originally planned but after extensive tests in preparing figures for printing, examing the test prints and then modifying the files, it just happens that these are the figures that have reached the completion stage first. I have a lot of other figures and horses sculpted but they need a few tweaks before they are ready for printing and moulding.  Any orders sent in by the 5th December 2020 will be sent out before Christmas. Please do not send your orders in during the closure period as I then return to work on the 5th January 2023 and am overwhelmed by a backlog of orders. https://www.calpeminiatures.co.uk/December_Closure_from_5th_December_2022_to_5th_January_2023--post--36.html 36 2022-12-01 15:22:26 0