Dear Garrison,
I am looking forward to seeing your photos, once you have them ready.

I enjoy seeing all forms (and scales) and particularly appreciate improvisation and creativity.

Baratheon, your camels look superb!

Regards James

Thanks Garrison, I used model ships rigging sourced from a Chinese vendor on ebay - it looks rather like rope at 1/32 scale.

Thanks James, a tip of the hat to you Sir - your figure painting, in particular, the camo pattern is excellent work.

It's so great to see you posting GarrisonClay, and all of our fellow toy soldier friends.

I have been sorting my WW2 soldiers, then my 30YW, 7YW and Osman units, and also I (almost) completed my Spanish Succession War collection.

This week I am getting some more Strelets' Republican Romans. A strategic purchase, that has to occur before Linear A releases their Republican Roman sets and the more affordable Strelets sets will be all sold out. I am grateful to finally have a better use for those Romans, now that we have Pyrrhus' soldiers by Linear A to fight them. Such a battle should look hot on the gaming table. Elephants, a big Macedon Phalanx, flanked by some Greek, Samnite and Celtic mercenaries against a much bigger Roman army. That will be my late Summer/Fall project.

On a different note, Strelets have been silent since May 5 and the Strelets website no longer works for me. Not wishing to start rumors, but personally I am starting to wonder if perhaps Strelets may have enlisted somewhere. If you have, I hope that you will be unharmed, that you will win and that you will help to bring Peace, Freedom, Fairness and Happiness to all people touched by your actions and this senseless war, so wounds can heal and loved ones can be reunited.

Website homepage not working for me either. Hopefully its nothing to worry about.

The site has vanished from my searches and can only be found on my viewing history, sadly. The site has not been updated since the war started, I and I expect many others have submitted photo`s of figures that have not been put up ,again since the war started. Mr Strelets is UK based , so who ever used to update is probably in Ukraine and very busy defending his home or worse heaven forbid. It would be interesting to know the economic effect both in sales of 1/72 figures and associated products ie paints etc , because my own spend is much reduced, although 3d printed stuff has filled some of that void. I can`t help but think that we are on a downward spiral in the hobby
( traditional 1/72 plastic toy soldiers ) , the 90s/00`s may have been the peak. We are getting older, and things are changing, we must wait and see.

Agreed Alan, it is quite possible that the site admin is indeed involved in the war in some way, what with as you say, the site practically unchanged from the start of the war.
I also hope that nothing worse has happened to those who are involved in the company. Already lost a highly talented sculptor who's art will be greatly missed in the hobby, although the loss of the man himself, is far more a tragedy, especially for his family & friends.

Strelets pretty much have been carrying the hobby in 1/72 scale for a good while now in my opinion. To lose this prolific company would be a disaster for the hobby.
When I directly e-mailed Strelets not too long ago, the reply was that the intent is still very much there to produce more sets, but of course, everything is subject to how the people, places & logistics are affected by the ongoing war. Staff/sculptor availability, safe working enviroments, ability to manufacture, store & transport etc will all be in a state of upheaval. I doubt very much this will change anytime soon, I believe this war will be a lengthy one.

I too have been delving into the world of 3D printed figures while there is a lull in traditional plastic figure sets. While it does work out more expensive per figure, its not too different from metals, but the detail is far superior. I have managed to get figures for Napoleonic British & French heavy cavalry, artillery, including some really good rocket troop figures & even Hannoverian infantry. I have even managed to get a "Sharpe" figure done in 1/72 scale!! He has taken up a posting with the 44th "East Essex" regt (yeah I know its meant to be the "South Essex" lol!). There were some actual 95th rifle officers acting as ADCs for some of the divisional & brigade commanders at Waterloo, so he doesn't look out of place among some redcoats, and it seemed only fitting that he joined the actual Essex regiment that participated!

So 3D print certainly has its place in the hobby & I think eventually it will be what carries the flag for 1/72 scale in the future too. Having the same designs being able to be produced to various scales is a massive advantage.
But I still really hope Strelets is also part of that same future.

Hello,

Because of the conditions in the Ukraine, it is probably very difficult for Strelets to survive.

The country continues to be massively attacked by the Russians and entire cities, roads and railway lines lie in ruins.
Hundreds of thousands of men have been drafted into military service and are lacking as workers. Industrial production is increasingly focused on armaments.

I also really hope that the shutdown of the main site is not a bad omen.

Should the forum page also be switched off, then I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to the Strelets team. All the amazing figures you designed and produced made you a legend in our hobby.

I would like to thank all members of the forum for the great discussions and experiences that we were able to exchange here.

But if the forum should also be shut down, we will lose our point of contact.

So I would like to say thank you to you as well.
It would be a shame if it ended here.

I had a lot of fun with this forum and its members.

GERD

I really hope this long silence and website going down aren't the signs of the end. However, the fact they've managed to carry on over the past 18 months is incredible and could be seen as a bonus. I'll wait and see and hope for good news.

Anyone who wishes to be part of a friendly community with like minded members from around the world should consider joining Bennos. There are plenty of members who choose not to post their own works, but enjoy commenting on others and joining in with discussions.

Yes, I too would like to know if the loss of the website connection is just a short glitch or the portends of a more serious situation with Strelets. But curiously - and a little more than just plain disturbing - no direct communication has been made from them since May despite entreaties from us folks on this forum. Strelets has always been an enigma to me, especially in their communication with its customers. (That’s just my opinion mind you. They must have their reasons.)
If this Forum goes away too, an alternate vehicle for the passage of information is The Miniatures Page (TMP) Discussion Group section. They have a section within the General Topics area on ‘Plastic Figures’.
As Spock said in one of the Star Trek episodes: “Two possibilities Captain. They are unwilling to communicate, or they are unable to communicate.”
I’m sincerely hoping this is just a temporary glitch with the Strelets website and they will be ready, willing, and able to operate and communicate fully and safely in time.
Toby Barrett

Toby,

After reading that chilling advice from Mr. Spock we have no choice but to go to Yellow Alert and raise our shields. Maybe Mr. HARON's listening posts might be able to confirm if all is well in the Strelets system?

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of Strelets figures to post but I do have some of Anton Derbilov's fantastic Musketeer figures.
The Red Box figures, and the Ultima Ratio ones, inspired me to make a scenery to represent 17thC Paris as a background to the games.

Sorry if you have seen these before on other forum.



Painted up as Gerard Depardieu in "Cyrano de Bergerac"


Cyrano with some of the Gascon Cadets


One of the cadets(left), Captain Alatriste(right) and in between some conversions using cloaks as improvised weapons - and yes the fencing manuals taught them how to do this.


These two chaps are based on a friend through re-enacting (on the left) and a friend of his (on the right).


Very quickly some pictures of the scenery.

Dear Steve,

Really great work and pictures. You describe Gerard Depardieu from a movie about Paris. Gerard is one of my favorite actors. As a comedian, he's tops. If you ever get free time away from work and reenacting, see the movie "Green Card." You'll love it.

Thank you for posting your pictures. Amazing set up! I'm still waiting for some accessories to arrive before I ask my wife's help making some pics. I'm so slow and making a liar out of myself, but I will hopefully this week, get it together.

So, again, thank you for posting the pictures and helping keep this forum lively! - GC

So beautiful. Nice work Steve!!! How did you learn that these figures were sculpted by Anton Derbilov? I adore and admire his work, and would love to see a registry of his masterpieces.

Top stuff Steve!

Are the houses scratch built?

Regards, James

A communication from the PSR editor states he does not have any info/intel from his sources why the Strelets website is down.

Good detective work Toby! I tried to reach a telephone number that may have belonged to the owners of Strelets at some point in time, but could not reach anybody.

Is there someone here on this forum who lives in the greater London area and would volunteer to stop by Strelets headquarters in person, ring the door bell, and find out what the future holds for us, if anything?

I think if Strelets is indeed gone, then my toy soldier purchasing will be dramatically reduced. My wife will be happy, and I can finally focus on thoroughly organizing my entire collection.

I also looked into 3D printed figures, as they are pretty to look at, but I find them to be too frail and too expensive to build entire armies with them. Saying that, I bought a few and I'm glad I did.

This forum is worth keeping alive, in my opinion, as it serves a unique function for our global community, as a gathering place of likeminded people who share a common interest. Perhaps PSR, as the long term webmaster for Strelets, could adopt this homeless, orphaned forum, whose celebrated hero/sculptor and parent company/website fell victim to a vicious, cruel war???

I am not a big tech person so am not sure, but don't people have to pay/rent webspace for putting up a website? If so, its quite possible that with all thats going on, renewal has simply slipped and so the website is down. With so much to deal with during this war, I doubt it was high on the list of priorities. It hasn't been updated in ages anyway. Its this forum where we hear of news either from the frontline or regarding new/planned sets. So I would be much more concerned if the forum disappeared.

Also I think I heard that there has been some evacuations in the area surrounding Kharkiv due to more intense Russian shelling? So that could be a contributing reason too. Can't be easy having to leave what & who you know behind, all what you have built for yourself, leaving your "roots" so to speak.

Basically the war is to blame one way or another. We just have to sit tight, wait & see. Strelets would post on here anything important.

I continue to wish all those in Ukraine the very best. Team Strelets, their loved ones & those on the frontlines. I hope for your survival & of course victory.

I've finally managed to find the forum. I usually enter from the website and wasn't too concerned when I first was unable to get on the site. After a week...

Glad to see the forum is still active, but concerned about our friend(s) in Ukraine.

Everything you guys say I feel also. I'm at a total loss as to why this pointless tragedy even began. Sadly, history shows us what happens when nations get sucked into conflicts like this one by one.

So for my part. I keep buying extras of my favorite figures from Ukrainian Sellers. When the orders arrive here in the U.S., I can see my money is going into supporting all of our good hobby friends and that gives them the power to choose investing in their needs.

As a side note, one of the main reasons I will also like this Strelets Forum is the fact it's still open to anyone and we don't have to register and choose user names and passwords. Openess and trust is key for me.

I'm so glad Strelets still supports this Forum so we can all still come together. I'm afraid I'm a bit of a junkie for the 1/72 Toy Soldier fix. I Just gotta have it! Airfix got me hooked in the 1960's and the Strelets Team keeps me hooked these days. For better or worse, thank you Strelets Team!

VIP to Ukraine!