After 17 years spent producing Military Miniatures in various forms, including 6 years at the helm of Imperial Miniatures, Mike Lewis has decided to retire and sell on the business. The new owners will be the Spencer family (Antony, Anita and Laura) who will be relocating the business to its new base in Cheshire at the beginning of October.

It will take some time to arrange the sale and handover of the business and to move everything to the new unit in Cheshire and while that is being sorted, this website will be open for browsing but you will be unable to order anything. Normal service will resume on October 1st.

Mike Lewis will finish off all outstanding casting orders in the next couple of weeks and painted orders will be completed in October.

I have finally managed to get around to sorting out a whole load of new releases for Dorset Soldiers. They have been added to the downloadable lists and will be added to the website as soon as I get a chance.

The releases are:

A151 Crescent Nurse kneeling
A152 WW2 nurse kneeling (based on A151)
A153 Standing Guardsman in tunic NA
A154 Standing Guardsman in Greatcoat NA
A155a Stretcher Bearer, B (see H242 for stretcher)
A155b Wounded Man, helmet, hands behind head, B
A155c Standing Nurse, Long Dress, B
A155d Standing Nurse, short Dress WW1, B
A155e Medical Officer standing B
A155f Wounded man B
C162 Running Zouave B
E60 Indian Damosh (Madagascar) NA
F195 Canoe
F196 Indian paddler
F197 Mountie Paddler
F198 German Colonial Trooper marching, slope arms
H283 T&B Pump and base
H284 Lone Star Crew x 3
K408 Arab Horse Legs
K409 Camel Legs
L240 Goldilocks and the Three Bears
L241 Arab Boy
L242 Kneeling Boy Scout with pole
L243 Window Cleaner
L244 Window Cleaner Cart (see H231 and H200 for ladder and bucket)

I am slightly behind where I would to be on processing orders due to the sheer volume of large and complicated orders that came in during January and February. I am nearly finished with three larger AQM orders that required a number of new moulds but still have a few 60-120+ band casting orders to finish (which also require new moulds) which will take some time. This has also had an impact on replying to complex enquiries that require time to work out the figures required and whether I have the moulds to produce them – I am concentrating on finishing paid orders before anything else. I hope to get back to a more regular schedule by April.

I have been ill for a lot of the last week so am slightly behind on orders but hope to catch up on some this week and clear some outstanding painting and casting orders. Unfortunately, things are taking longer to do while I am not well.

I will be closing for Christmas on the 18th December and reopening on January 4th 2021. You can still order over this period through the website but no orders will be processed until the start of January and I won’t be taking phone orders or responding to email.

Please place any orders you want before Christmas by 11th December and I will try and complete all orders up to 11th December by the time I close on the 18th.

Any painted orders placed in December will be worked on in January unless they are for stock items.

Please note that I am very busy at the moment and trying to finish writing up my accounts so orders may take a little longer than usual.

I have a couple of orders waiting on a new mould (where the insert for the original mould has been lost and so the figure is uncastable) but hope to get that mould made at the beginning of next week.

All painting slots for November completion are full so any new ones will move into December.

Also, please note that at the moment response to enquiries is slow as I am trying to clear paid for orders ahead of potential orders.

The website will eventually be updated with the rest of the painted sets and (hopefully) the start of photographing castings but that is not likely to happen until the end of the year.

Thanks for your patience.

I am receiving a larger number of orders for painted sets that previously and they are taking longer to complete due to various other work (the Coat D’arms paint side of the business is still extremely busy)

I have added a page detailing the current schedule for when I expect to complete the current painting orders and their current status. Hopefully this will be helpful.

The page is here:

https://imperialminiatures.co.uk/painting-schedule/

The Midlands Toy Soldier show which was scheduled for the end of Setptember is no longer happening as with most events. Patrick Campbell has decided to run it as a virtual show online on Sunday 27th September from 9am to 5pm.

I will be supporting the show with a special category section in the shop (Virtual Toy Soldier Show) which will feature a number of painted sets such as bands and individual figures at 10-20% discount for the day.

I have started to add some bands to the category and will be adding other sets over the next two weeks.

Unfortunately, due to a change in circumstances, I am not going to be around over that weekend so you will only be able to order online using paypal or credit card. Any sets ordered will be sent out the week beginning October 5th when I get back from Holiday.

You can find out more details on the Virtual Toy Soldier Faire here:

https://www.toysoldierfair.com/

Welcome to the new website which now includes the Dorset Model Soldiers ranges in our online shop. This means you can order them directly for the first time rather than having to fill in an order form.

All the ranges are now listed in a table format which you can filter by category and by TAG, enabling you to look for all the heads or arms, for instance, in a range or across multiple ranges. I will be adding more tags in the future to let you narrow searches down to specific nationalities or figure types.

You can, of course, still order by Phone, email or via post if you prefer.

I have not managed to get all the painted sets for Dorset added to the website and these will be added over the next few weeks, along with some more of the Imperial Miniatures AQM sets that I have photographs for.

I hope to add photographs for the Dorset ranges as I cast and produce figures (providing I manage to find the time between processing orders!).

I have decided to close the Imperial Miniatures and Dorset Model Soldiers websites to new orders for August 2020.  This is to give me chance to catch up on some things and to finally get Dorset properly sorted which has proved impossible while continuing to process orders.

I am planning to:

• Sort all Dorset stock into new storage
• Finish recreating missing documentation which will let me file away stock efficiently
• Re-sort the painted samples which are in a random order
• Hopefully work out some of the missing moulds and codes that I haven’t been able to cast
• Work on a new website for Dorset and Imperial

And hopefully get away for a week or so on holiday!

The plan is to reopen in September with a new website.

If you place orders (especially for painted items) towards the end of July they are likely to be completed during September.

While I will endeavour to complete orders placed between now and August 1^st some will be delayed until I reopen.