Welcome back one and all. After a considerable period of time without proper access to the site I am happy to say I am now able to update once again. Much has happened since my last Home Page update and I will endeavour to bring you, the reader, up to date. The first thing to announce is a change of server. The old server will remain nameless. I have moved to a new server who hopefully will serve SPS better than the old. I intend to update this page on a much more regular basis to keep you all aware what we are doing in sunny Thailand.

We continue to produce orders as quickly as possible and hope that with refinements in our working practices we can achieve better and more reliable delivery times. The sad news is that there will have to be a price rise which will be effective on all new orders received from 1^st September 2011. Our old prices have been steady since June 2008; unfortunately inflation has not been so obliging.

 

We are happy to announce that our work with Jacob Kovel of Silver Eagle Wargame Supplies continues apace. Jacob has developed a strong working relationship with us and is now stocking a growing range of exciting skirmish groups such as Pirates, Three Musketeers, the Boxer Rebellion and the Foreign Legation siege of 1900. We have been working on new areas of interest and will be expanding the skirmish groups shortly to include World War II and modern wars such as the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Watch this space for news on developments.

Jacob will be attending various shows where you will be able to speak to him directly about his new projects and your painting orders.

Our real news is that following the success of the efforts of Jacob Kovel we have expanded our agent base.

We are happy to welcome Rick O’Brien as our latest agent. Rick started with us in November 2009 with an appearance at Fall In. He sold all, but two battalions he had in stock that day. Since then Rick has been steadily growing and has become familiar to a small band of dedicated games/collectors who have been buying from Rick.

Rick will be more familiar to many of you in the USA as ‘the Flag Dude.’ Rick is based down in Alabama, but attends all the northern based shows. Rick is taking painting orders and, with Jacob Kovel, will be your point of customer reference when sending orders to SPS. In other words gentlemen you will have an American to speak to when placing and taking delivery of your orders. Rick is also stocking a limited number of painted battalions covering the American Civil War, The American War of Independence and the Napoleonic Wars. He is offering two of his fantastic flags with each battalion you buy so check out the stock he holds. If he has not got in stock what you want then talk to him about painting orders. He can have your commission back to you within three months. We have good relations with many figure companies in the United Kingdom and the USA and so we will be able to source most figures for you. Check out Rick’s stock and talk to him at the shows as he looks forward to speaking to customers.

Sadly, we lost our manager, Walter Hufschmidt. He left us in July 2010 for pastures new, I wish him well in his future career. However, the painting shop in Thailand continues to paint under the new control of our supervisor Tum and her assistant Boi. Between them they have proved to be a formidable team and have increased production considerably. They are building on the great work Walter performed in improving and maintaining very high standards of quality. We look forward to working with them for many years to come.

The last year has seen a considerable number of orders completed. We have a wealth of photos in our folders. I will be contacting customers to ask permission that we use such photos of commissions for the website. I will, where appropriate, ask permission to put the customer’s name and the State they live in with the photo.

For our UK and European customers your point of reference will continue to be John Sharples through Big Battalions based in Stockport, United Kingdom. Please see our Big Battalions website. John is keen to emphasise this; we will not be taking orders directly from UK or European customers through the SPS website.

Well, I have said enough for one new Home Page. Please go to our News Page where I will give more details of developments within SPS and what we are hoping to achieve in the year ahead.

Graham Campbell
Managing Director