It's eight years since Garrison closed shop. At the time, if I wanted to know what mould a figure was on I could do it it easily because the systems were online. I never used paper mould lists. Of course, the website went with the closure. So what else did I have?
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First thing I did was download and print the database. This tells me everything that might be on particular moulds. It isn't always accurate. Trouble is, only way to search this database is by go through it it page by page... We're talking about (Actually this is a guess) over 600 moulds and about 2,000 figures. I've added over 120 moulds myself.
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And it is quite a long document... from comparison with a ream of paper, probably a couple of hundred pages long.
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Happily, there is a low tech searchable database available... though looking a bit the worse for wear!
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This has been gradually modified/updated/revised over the years. For example, I've added the actual code descriptions by gluing in bits of pages from the paper catalogue. Originally, it's just a code with the mould numbers to the side.
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I can't say I've really helped - this was me going through moulds to identify where the old 20mm Napoleonic figures were!
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So I'm making a start doing some newer mould lists. For the Admins figures - they weren't in the original blue book at all, it's only recently that I've started documenting them a bit better! So far I've got versions of all the Admins ranges plus the Garrison S&S Range.
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This is an example of an Admins page. Thing to note is the small number of moulds any particular figure is on - plus some where I can't find which mould they are on! As an aid to identifying figures I've printed off pages from Lost Minis Wiki and added them at the end. Many of the pictures there were originally from the Garrison website but there are major gaps!
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Compare this with the S&S Range - and I still haven't gotten round to adding the figures on moulds I've had made. Some of the moulds are the bigger 12" moulds that I can't use on my Tiranti. I've added quite a moulds myself to make casting the S&S Range easier, by comparison the Admins Range has been sadly neglected - though as Admins figures were basically bought as one-offs and S&S figures as units it was always more important for the S&S Range to be better organised.
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Will I eventually get round to upgrading the mould lists for all the ranges? Doubtful - in reality it would just take too long. But at least I can say I've made a start.
It's all about prioritising, Rob. That would be the what happened to all the 20mm Napoleonics of course!
ReplyDeleteCertainly. The '20mm' Napoleonic ranges were 2 generations before 'latest' 25mm ranges, most of the moulds having gone before Amazon did the mould list - so what was left was misidentified or simply ignored! Some of the moulds with 20mm Napoleonic figures on were identified as being Polish. Adding to that, the Boxers I've been doung recently were coded as the VT range and described as Vietnamese. Re the boxers, there may be an artillery piece on one of the 12" moulds... not planning on checking that out though.
DeleteThat takes me back Rob! At Citadel the current production moulds were fairly easy to find - we always had one mould per figure code - but with master moulds anything could be anywhere and you really had to keep records - which were all hand written to start with. Mostly - the people that needed to know relied on memory. That certainly wouldn't work today! Still, there's enough there to keep you entertained for a while I think :)
ReplyDeleteComment by Paul Ashton of Amazon when he owned the Garrison Range: 'In actual fact the moulds were put together by a dyslxic schizophrenic with only 1, 2 or 3 figures the same in each mould ... and then labelled and indexed incorrectly. They are a nightmare to cast and cost us more to produce then our newer well-made moulds of our own miniatures but we do it as we don't want to see the ranges die. Remaking the moulds is not an option.' http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=31784 - I've had over 120 moulds made!
DeleteThe words 'labour of love' spring to mind!
DeleteI admit a lot of the moulds relate to the 20mm Ancients that I like...
DeleteWould it not be better to list them on a spreadsheet on a PC? Search function would certainly ease any checks in the future
ReplyDeleteIt is - I'm doing them on Excel - but a hard copy in front of you is a lot easier when you're going through a casting list. The original Garrison database the printed casting file is on was downloaded from a searchable database no longer available since I closed Garrison.
DeleteCan't beat a card index system, as we used to say to young thrusters when power in the HQ went! A couple of years ago I helped with SHQ molds, I can understand your pain!
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, it should have been done 10 years ago. But then again, there's a lot of unpainted figures lying around I could say that about!
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