Eureka Miniatures UK Launched on 5th September 2019, Eureka Miniatures UK are delighted to be the new agent for Eureka Miniatures and AB Figures in the UK & Europe.

Foundry Miniatures Ltd manufacture the world's largest range of 28mm metal miniatures for gamers, collectors, modellers and painters.

Clifford Ansell was looking for an interesting retirement job that would keep him busy. Cliff had spent much of his life working in the mining industry (apart from a few years away with the Royal Navy in the 1940s) he ended up a mining engineer and an expert on mine safety, ventilation and dust suppression. In the 60s Cliff moved on to a second career as a maths teacher: he taught maths at Bishop Dunn Comprehensive in Nottingham.

Cliff's son was, and is, my father: Bryan Ansell who had made toy soldiers with Skytrex, Tabletop, Asgard and Citadel/Games Workshop. He ended up owning GW and was responsible for games like Warhammer Fantasy Battle, 40K, Space Hulk etc.

When Cliff announced that he was going to take early retirement, Bryan suggested that Cliff might like to have a go at manufacturing toy soldiers himself.

Cliff was already experienced in dealing with both stubborn Lancashire miners and wilful, disorganised children: so it was clear that the strange mindset of the confused denizens of the toy soldier industry would be absolutely no problem for Cliff to handle.

As it happened: this was the time when Citadel was starting to change from metal based models to their new "slotta bases", and also ceasing to make historical models. Bryan was able to set Foundry up with a number of discontinued ranges - Barons Wars and Wars of the Roses Medievals, Samurai and the Vikings, Normans and Saxons, Woodland Indians, Huns and Elizabethans initially (these had all previously served as Human forces in Warhammer Fantasy Battle for some years). Further hundreds of other Citadel models followed. We still make those models at Foundry today, though we cannot manage to have them all in stock at the same time.

Michael and Alan Perry sculpted almost all these models and were keen to continue sculpting historical models for their own painting and wargaming purposes, so they continued to sculpt new Foundry ranges for Cliff for quite some years. Alistair Morrison and Dave Andrews both contributed ranges too.

So, Foundry was up and running very quickly indeed. Cliff first had premises in Sherwood, then moved to a larger unit in New Basford. The upstairs in New Basford was taken by Alistair and Trish Morrison: who sculpted the Marauder range for Games Workshop up there.

For a long period, Foundry was making many master moulds and production moulds for Games Workshop whenever they found themselves with more moulds than they could handle. Over the years many ex Games Workshop staff worked for Foundry; most notably John "Bones" Ellard, "Ep" Epworth, Andy Pattinson, Kevin Adams, Colin Dixon and Shane Hoyle.

In 1991 my father left Games Workshop and went off to Guernsey for a decade or so. In Guernsey he had three children, restored four old houses (he does that wherever he goes: not the children, just the houses) started Guernsey Foundry and made Seven Years War, Old West, Pirates and Darkest Africa models these were mostly sculpted by Mark Copplestone. When he came back to England in 2000 he brought his ranges and a couple of the Guernsey staff with him, started restoring a house near Newark and took over running Foundry from Cliff. He produced more Seven Years War, Darkest Africa and loads more Old West, then Street Violence, Vikings, Gladiators, various Romans, 16th century Swashbucklers, huge ranges of Greeks and Macedonians, Fantasy and various odds and ends.

In 2005 my father left Foundry and went back to gardening and restoring houses.

We only re-entered the world of toy soldiers because my cousin Neil Littlewood went to work at Foundry for a while, and it became apparent that there were serious problems that needed sorting out. In the end we stepped in, and the Ansell family are running the factory again.

We have moved Foundry into the huge old Carriage Court alongside our house in East Stoke.

Cheers

Marcus

Outpost Wargame Services are purveyors of Quality goods for Wargamers at affordable prices.

PartnersMarilyn (long suffering wife of Jeff) the buxom lady you usually see at shows, who runs the casting operation, takes your orders and tries to keep you happy, prints and binds the books and tells us all off (usually me!).

Jeff (the worrier) the guy you usually see at the shows, publishes the books, does the admin, did this site and doesn't have enough time to do all the other things he wants to do!

The Designers

Pete Foggin (the hippy) also an associate, designed all our 15mm figures, ships and the new 25mm Ancients, occasionally helps at the shows

Peter Rogerson (the Scottish Manxman) full time sculptor, designed our new Mexican revolution range and Border Reiver ranges, will do a whole lot more (when we can afford them!), has his own 'toy soldier' ranges. He comes highly recommended and is very reliable - can be contacted on 01624-816667 (Isle of Man)

Martin Baker full-time sculptor did our Highwaymen a long time ago(or so it seems!) currently working on our new range of 28mm Aztecs my, how his skills have developed!

The Authors

Tom Nutt (ex-serviceman, ex-bodyguard and now avid wargamer) Wrote our French & Indian Wars book and the three volumes for the Franco-Prussian, and has completed three others which we will eventually get published (honest!).

Dan Mersey (sometime Archeologist, another wargamer - when he gets the chance) Wrote Glutter of Ravens(our 'best seller') and the Medieval Burmese books, must have done him some good too he is now an editor for Brassey's Books!

Daniel Merseys  Author of: Arthur: King of the Britons (Summersdale, 2004): From Celtic Hero to Cinema Icon Legendary Warriors (Chrysalis, 2002): Arthur, Beowulf, William Wallace, and more Glutter of Ravens (Outpost, 1998): Warfare in the Age of Arthur AD 400-700

The Customers

Yes, that's you! Our philosophy has been to try and produce the ranges that the 'big boys' ignore but that the wargamers would actually like to see. We have a couple of local wargame clubs which help us choose them, but we value all customer information. If you would like to see specific ranges produced - contact us! We cannot promise to produce everything - after all, we have to believe we will see a return on the investment. But if enough people ask (don't forget it can take up to six months to create even a relatively small range by the time it has been thoroughly researched)

We can offer 'club or group' funded ranges, where a range could be sponsored by a wargame club or group - the costs and arrangements would depend on the size of the range, but the idea would be to split the cost of producing the range and the figures would be produced freely for the sponsors (to the value of the original amount sponsored - at a discount). Contact us if you are interested.