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

Gramodels are suppliers of quality resin kits in a range of scales.

Military Vehicles

Airplanes/Gliders

Buildings

Railway Wagons

Narrow Gauge Railway

4mm/7mm/16mm Narrow Gauge

1/32th Scale/Gauge 1

1/43th Scale/7mm/0 Gauge

1/76th Scale/4mm/00 Gauge

1/100th Scale/3mm/TT Gauge

1/150th Scale/2mm/N Gauge

Irregular Miniatures makes 2mm, 6mm, 10mm, 15mm 20mm, 28mm 30mm, 42mm 54mm and 75mm historical, fantasy and science fiction.

All figures cast in white metal.

2mm & 6mm figures in ready based strips.10mm-75mm figures priced & sold individually.

Irregular Miniatures figures sold separately, and there is no minimum order you only have to spend a pound or two to see what our models are like. For this reason we don't send out free samples.

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Matador Models was founded in 1997, and first traded at Trucks & Tracks that year. Since then our ranges of kits in resin and white metal have continued to grow rapidly. At the company’s heart are its KC ranges. These are conversions and improvements on 1/76th plastic kits. From there we have branched out into complete kits, and the range reflects the interests of our small group of master builders: if we like it and it is not on the market, we build it! We have also bought and therefore kept on the market kits from other manufacturers, notably most of the 4Mil and the complete Airfield Accessories ranges, from 1/144th to 1/35th, though the largest scale, being too far away from our own interests, we have now passed it on to Scalelink. More recent acquisitions have been masters from the Trux and BW ranges.

While extending these ranges, we have added more: AA76 in our favourite 1/76th scale and AAC, a range of conversions on airfield vehicles in 1/76th and 1/72nd. Following a growth of interest in the First World War, we have extended and reorganised our early ranges. We have also widened our interests, both by stocking plastic kits which complement our ranges and by starting a fantasy range for role play and wargamers.

If Matador tries for a “house style” it is that its kits should be a pleasure to build, and we aim to keep them in the middle range of complexity. While it is always best to refer to photographs and other references when building a kit, we try to make our models capable of standing alone: of being built and painted accurately by someone who does not have several books on the subject. If you are a beginner with only a few plastic kits behind you, or coming back into the hobby, why not take on one of the less demanding projects - try a conversion kit.

There are many sturdy plastic kits on the market which, with a conversion kit and a little effort, can be turned into eye catching and rare vehicles and enhance a collection. In the Tank Museum you can find research articles for beginners and experienced alike.

Matador is and will remain a small company, not least because for us, as for our customers, this is a hobby. Note that because of the way we subcontract the manufacture our models, while the larger parts are nearly always in resin, some details are produced both in metal and resin. Some examples of kits marked “metal/resin” may therefore appear entirely in resin or metal. The decisions are made for reasons of production, and do not in any way affect the quality of the model you receive. We hope you enjoy our kits.