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Hoping for some help here from the historical crowd given that my Google-fu is lacking and the usual miniature producers I go to don't do specifically what I am looking for yet and that is:

I am looking for 28mm Modern French Foreign Legion and Bundeswehr miniatures for use in Skirmish Sangin games.

The only producer I have hitherto found for these particular models are Eureka (and their UK distributor, Fighting 15s). However, it would appear that the UK stockist doesn't actually hold much stock at all, and to be quite frank, I can't be arsed waiting 6 to 8 weeks for them to ship over (assuming I don;t get zapped with custom and Royal Mail handling charges which seems to happen every time I order from outside the EU). Are there any other stockists of such miniatures, preferably UK based? My usual go-to manufacturer is Empress miniatures but they sadly don't do FFL or German army as of yet.

Any ideas where to go? The French Foreign Legion are my immediate priority; want to make a 2eme REP fire team or two.

Why not order direct from Eureka.

I do it all the time, usually 10 days from Oz to Ireland for airmail, though my last order was only 7 days.

Big P wrote:
Why not order direct from Eureka.

I do it all the time, usually 10 days from Oz to Ireland for airmail, though my last order was only 7 days.

Well, that's assuming UK customs don't get their hands on them. Case in point, I ordered some 28mm New Zealand army minis from a Kiwi company for my birthday. They cost £25 for 16. The parcel got stopped by customs, who charged £4 and then the Royal Mail slap on an £8 flat fee 'handling charge' for a total of just over £12 worth of charges in addition to what I paid. This has happened on the last three occasions that I have had stuff delivered from outside the EU - just isn't worth taking the chance.

These charges are levied if the VAT isn't paid - I am assuming if you buy direct from Eureka, they don't pay the UK taxman his pound of flesh?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just to elucidate, from the Fighting 15s website (they are the UK stockist for Eureka miniatures):

Remember that Eureka's website prices exclude tax; Fighting 15s' website prices include tax at 20% as required by EU law. Ex-tax prices are similar: on 30 January 2012, Eureka's prices for 15mm Eureka, 15mm AB and 28mm Eureka foot figures were 54p, 62p and £2.00, as against Fighting 15s' ex-tax prices of 54p, 63p and £2.08 respectively after rounding. Fighting 15s' prices will inevitably be slightly higher because they incorporate international shipping costs.

Which seems to suggest a parcel ordered directly from Eureka will attract the usual Customs and Royal Mail charges if stopped by them (and going by my luck, it almost certainly will be). The irritating thing is that Fighting 15s say it takes them ages to get stock from Eureka:

These items are available only to special order and delivery may take eight or more weeks

The problem is, pretty much all of the Modern range says that they are out of stock (at least, all the stock I want). So it's either order from Eureka and then pay an extra 25% or more when the package gets stopped by customs, or order from Fighting 15s and wait 2 months for delivery (by which time I would have almost certainly forgotten about it - I mean, I want to play the game now, not some undetermined time in the future.)

Not particularly enamoured of either options really, hence why I was hoping there would be alternative manufacturers of 28mm Modern French Foreign Legion - it seems not, however!

The problem with the customs charges is that if they decide to impose the import duty they also charge for the postage, which is usually fairly high given the stuff came from outside Europe, and the £8 minimum fee (I have seen higher) for handling can end up making a £18 bunch of stuff cost double.

Back on topic, it looks to me as if the Eureka range may be the only ultra-modern FFL figures around.

However it would be worth looking on The Miniatures Page too as they will know if anyone does.

Filbert, just out of interest, do you get your stuff delivered to a business address?

I regularly order stuff from abroad (a lot from asia especially) and found that when I got parcels delivered to work there was a much higher likelihood that they would get additional charges slapped on them. Not all, but many (even much smaller packages). I've since found a willing neighbour and don't think I've been charged extra since.

 Pacific wrote:
Filbert, just out of interest, do you get your stuff delivered to a business address?

I regularly order stuff from abroad (a lot from asia especially) and found that when I got parcels delivered to work there was a much higher likelihood that they would get additional charges slapped on them. Not all, but many (even much smaller packages). I've since found a willing neighbour and don't think I've been charged extra since.

No, it all goes to my home address. I can only assume that since Customs have stopped one or two parcels to my house in the past, they now stop every overseas parcel to my address as a matter of course. Either that or I am just unlucky.

On the plus side, I emailed Fighting 15s and they say 'stock is low but we are getting an order in next week' so I am taking that to mean the order process should be fairly quick with them.

I believe that Customs have been told to try and tax things more, and the Royal Mail have a big incentive to help because they can levy such a fee on each parcel.

filbert, have you gotten in any games of skirmish sangin yet?

 Manchu wrote:
filbert, have you gotten in any games of skirmish sangin yet?

Not yet, been digesting the rules and using the colour printer at work to furnish my self with the various lookup charts and tokens

I hope to get a game in and post a bat rep up here at some point over this weekend coming.

From my initial read through of the rules, I am keenly anticipating this - looks like a lot of fun.

I bought a copy and am thinking of using it for 15mm Colonial Marines v. Xenomorphs.

 Manchu wrote:
I bought a copy and am thinking of using it for 15mm Colonial Marines v. Xenomorphs.

It strikes me as a very flexible ruleset, certainly that's the impression that I get anyway. I have read other bat-reps that use different scales and again, it apparently works well when scaled to other sizes.

My French Foreign Legion arrived yesterday so very happy all round with Fighting 15's - will use them again soon (probably for some Afghan National Police I have my eye on).

Hope to get a game in and a bat rep soon before I travel to Adepticon after this weekend. I have the table set up and spent a productive hour at work with the office printer, printing off and cutting out some tokens. I am ready to go I think. Some pics before it all starts (had to attach them as the gallery is playing up for me at the moment). Ready to play the first scenario in the book - a UK Paratrooper patrol is caught between two advancing Taliban squads and need to make a fighting withdrawl.

Cannot wait to read your batrep!

That's a great general table layout. I think I might need to get into regular terrain making rather than just doing it as special projects.

Making terrain is great fun because you can use all sorts of clever ideas to recycle things.

You don't have to be a great modeller and painter to make things that look better than 80% of what other people have.