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

Old Glory Miniatures UK you will find an extensive collection of Wargames figures and miniatures in a variety of scales and sizes from 1/600th Naval to 40mm Collectors figurines.

Old Glory UK started trading in 1992 so that means we’ve been around for a good few years-selling quality models for wargamers and collectors at reasonable prices. During that time we have run up and down the gamut of history a couple of times and continue to import from Old Glory USA- our original parent company some of the finest wargames ranges available. We now also produce a growing range of items here in the UK including Fireforce Miniatures and Lil’flyin’ Fokker's aircraft models- both of these ranges are still growing. Today we have approaching 5000 individual products on our website in scales from 1/600th Naval through 10mm. 15mm, 25/28mm and 40mm all for prices that won’t break the bank. Our miniatures are mostly metal with some resin vehicles , ships and aircraft and our ranges are truly comprehensive , covering most historical periods from Egypt of the Pharaohs to modern conflicts. Our products are compatible with most historically based gaming systems but are not really specifically tied to any specific games system- so the choice is yours.

Currently our ranges include - 10mm Over 600 packs. Biblical, Macedonian and Punic Wars The Roman Empire and her Enemies, Dark Ages, High Medieval, ECW Marlburian AWI ,Napoleonic. ACW and Zulu War. 15mm Command Decision WW2 and True North WW2.All the major combatants plus many of the smaller countries are represented in a huge range of over 500 items. Tanks Infantry Trucks Guns etc etc. Also Li’l’Flyin’Fokkers aircraft models, 50 WW2 Aircraft kits to the same 1/100th scale as the ground forces.

15mm Post WW2 & Modern We have vehicles and figures suitable for many Modern Conflicts including Vietnam, Arab –Israeli, Gulf War as well as the many Insurgencies and Guerrilla Wars around the Globe since 1945.

15mm Blue Moon A still growing range of larger 15mm models Ranges include Ancient Rome , Marlburian. Great Northern War Seven Years War FIW, AWI ,ACW Old West and Plains Wars . A large and growing Napoleonic range and most recently 19th century British Colonial wars and WW1 “Semi-historical” ranges include Deep Dark African Pirates, Gangsters and the 3 Musketeers.

Old Glory 25/28mm- A large range covering Ancient Egypt to WW1- examples include Carthage , Macedonia. Rome and her enemies. The Age of Arthur, The Pike and Shot era, the English Civil Wars the 18th century , from Marlborough to the AWI Over 400 packs of Napoleonic alone- including Napoleon on a Camel!.

An American Civil war range of over 100 packs and a substantial Colonial range for many of the Colonial wars of the 19th and early 20th centuries. We also own the “Brooks Miniatures” range of 28mm Modern miniatures.

Also available from OGUK is the fine range by Sash and Saber covering the ACW in 28mm and also in 40mm together with other 40mm ranges for such diverse periods as FIW, Dark ages and ECW to name just a few.

We also carry the fine range of 28mm and 40mm Figures by Drabant of Moscow.

Additions to our ranges appear regularly.

Altogether something approaching 5000 different items on the OGUK website.

Roughly a quarter of a million figures in stock at any one time.

Please tour the site and see the vast range of products for wargamers that we have.

Andy Copestake - Old Glory UK